Abstract:
So far, there have been only few studies focusing on the school autonomy, leadership and students’ learning results in the Finnish context. However, it has been argued that one of the factors behind the success of the Finnish school system has been a sustainable leadership, which, in turn, has helped in making reforms in schooling. Few studies have pondered that the success of Finnish school system is due to the well-working management/leadership and the good quality of school principals. The reason for studies lacking the connection between the leadership and the learning results is due to the fact that the Finnish schooling system is not publicly evaluated, as compared to many other countries, and the relatively new situation in principals’ profession with more autonomy in their hands. Municipalities have the information on learning results, but it has not been used by the external researchers, such as university scholars, for further analysis. Evaluation culture in this respect is very different in Finland as compared to several other countries. However, there are studies, such as Lahtero (2011) and Kunnari (2008) on Finnish schooling indicating learning environments at schools can be connected to better learning results. Unfortunately, these studies do not utilize empirical data on the issue, but they accept the international studies’ (such as Barth 2007, Sergiovanni 2006) view of thinking on the important role of the school leadership in learning. This paper summarizes the previous research done in the field in Finland.