The Development of Craft Education in Finnish Schools

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to examine the major changes Finnish school craft has undergone and explain these changes by using societal, pedagogical and subject-driven determinants. The main sources of this research include committee reports and national curricula. Research data was classified into five periods: craft for home well-being (1866–1911), craft for civic society (1912–1945), craft for independent hard-working citizens (1946–1969), toward equality craft (1970–1993), and unlimited craft (1994–2014). The analysis show that school craft has steadily followed students’, society’s and the subject’s different needs during these periods.