Teachers’ perspectives on fostering and its relation to ethics education in Finland: a qualitative study

In Finland, teachers have historically held a high degree of trust and respect, where they have been thought of not only as teachers but educators in a broader sense. This is reflected by the national curriculum dictating that teachers should not only teach, but see to their students’ social development. Interested in how this second task relates to ethics education, this study interviewed teachers in Finland how they reasoned about this second role, how it related to morality, and what supports and deters it. The teachers saw this role as central and deeply moral, where relationships, empathy and scaffolding the student in self-reflection were of great importance. Sound cooperation between home and school, school and municipality, and between school staff were seen as clear supporting factors — whereas the inverse of these were seen as clear detriments. As a whole, the study acts as an entryway for deeper investigation of ethics education in Finland.