Finland recognition of Masters as a teaching qualification?

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Alchemeister
Posts: 16
Joined: Tue Sep 17, 2019 10:17 am

Finland recognition of Masters as a teaching qualification?

Post by Alchemeister »

This may be a long shot, but I read that in Finland the teachers have to have a masters to teach. I have my masters, which had a practicum element, but I don’t have a teaching qualification yet. I’m wondering, will Finland recognize it as a teaching qualification? Has anyone been through that process with them?
PsyGuy
Posts: 10789
Joined: Wed Oct 12, 2011 9:51 am
Location: Northern Europe

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Post by PsyGuy »

They will most likely recognize and accept it, but likely only in part. It depends what youre Masters is in, and what your subject and age/grade level are. Its harder if you are a secondary grade IT as the focus for the Masters degree is equally divided between the subject matter and edu meds/peds/asst, and in that case having a credential helps, but you did complete field experience. The issue is that Finland requires 1 year of field experience or an equivalent amount of professional experience. Very few foreign ITs in secondary have the equivalent of a Masters in their subject field and a Masters in edu. Even when they do, they are often missing some amount of coursework in either the subject matter or in edu.
For primary the Masters requirement is more nuanced, as there are specific courses required. At the very least you will likely be determined as being deficient in the subject of "the Finnish school". You may also have deficiency in neuro-science which many developmental psychology courses do not address the neuro-science of learning and development in great enough depth and detail to satisfy the Finnish requirement.
If your application is denied with these or other deficiencies you can resolve them one of three ways:
1) By serving an adoption period typically of one AY in a supervised and mentored DS/IS.
2) Pass an aptitude exam over the deficient material. These exams are offered by the handful of research Unis that provide edu training.
3) Complete supplemental coursework.

All of the above assumes you are competent in Finnish or Swedish (or Lapp). If you are not and you are essentially applying to teach English language or teach general studies (primary) or a specific subject discipline (secondary) in English you will likely have more deficiencies to complete. The requirements are even higher than those in CAN where category 7 and advanced level ITs have deficiencies they must remediate. It is very unlikely a US/UK/CAN/AUS Masters will be accepted without deficiency.
jschott
Posts: 40
Joined: Sun Nov 13, 2016 4:31 pm

Re: Finland recognition of Masters as a teaching qualification?

Post by jschott »

Alchemeister wrote:
> This may be a long shot, but I read that in Finland the teachers have to
> have a masters to teach. I have my masters, which had a practicum element,
> but I don’t have a teaching qualification yet. I’m wondering, will Finland
> recognize it as a teaching qualification? Has anyone been through that
> process with them?

My experience has been that Finland is a tough nut to crack, even with a teaching credential/certificate, in part because of the high standards to which teachers are held, in part because the country is small, and in part because there's really very little that a teacher from abroad can offer the educational system there that its home-grown talent cannot. "Native English speaker" is certainly not the commodity there that it is in, say, many Asian countries. (Might even be a disadvantage, as they are certainly aware that most educational systems are rated lower than their own.)

All you can do is try, though. Report back, please, with what happened. I loved Finland, but the winters can be trying! :)
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