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FROM OPEN UNIVERSITY TO UNIVERSITY DEGREESTUDENT – A NARRATIVE STUDY OF FINNISH OPEN

UNIVERSITY STUDENTS WHO HAVE GAINEDADMISSION TO UNIVERSITY THROUGH OPEN

UNIVERSITY

Sirpa Purtilo-Nieminen, University of Lapland, Finland.

39th EUCEN Conference27-29 May 2010

Rovaniemi, Finland

Sirpa.Purtilo-Nieminen@ulapland.fi

Doctoral thesis

• Purtilo-Nieminen, Sirpa (2009). TIEYLIOPISTOON Narratiivinen tutkimusavoimen yliopiston väylän kautta tutkinto-opiskelijoiksi hakeutuneista. ActaUniversitatis Lapponiensis 166

• Purtilo-Nieminen, Sirpa (2009). AROAD TO UNIVERSITY A NarrativeStudy of University Students who havegained admission to university throughOpen University and on the basis of theirstudies in Open University. ActaUniversitatis Lapponiensis 166

Research questions

• What kind of meanings the Open University gatewaystudents give to their studying?

• What kind of experiences do they have of studying inOpen University?

• How do these students experience the transition todegree student?

• Who is a typical student taking this Open Universitygateway?

Presentation outline

• Open University system in Finland• Open University Students in Finland• From Open University to University Degree Student• Research method: Narrative research• Data Collection and analysis• Research findings• Conclusions

Open University System in Finland

• The aim of the Open University is to promoteeducational and regional equality

• Universities have a social task to distribute theknowledge produced in universities to the society

Open University System in Finland

Basic principles:• Openness: Open University is open to all, regardless of

age and educational background

• Equivalence: the quality and standard of teaching inOpen University are equivalent to the teaching at theuniversity

• Equality: the Open University promotes education andregional equality

Open University System in Finland• Open University is not an autonomous university as

such, but rather a system of study.

• Almost all Finnish universities organize Open Universityeducation.

• Open University courses are arranged in cooperationwith the university departments and faculties.

Open University System in Finland• Open University education is organized not only at Open

Universities, but also in cooperation with othereducational institutions around the country.

• The most important partners are adult education centres,folk high schools and summer universities.

• This cooperative network is characteristic of the OpenUniversity education system in Finland.

• Such a cooperative network means that each OpenUniversity can offer courses in various localities inFinland.

Open University System in Finland

• Studying at the Open University in Finland is notconsidered as full-time studying

• The Open University does not grant degrees; however,courses are part of university degree programmes andmay therefore be incorporated into a university degreeif the student applies and is admitted to universitystudies later.

• Every year over 70,000 people studies at Finnish OpenUniversities.

Open University Students in Finland(Rinne, R., Jauhiainen, A., Tuomisto, H., Alho-Malmelin, M., Halttunen,N. & Lehtonen, K. 2003)

• “Typical” student at the open university is female, age 25-30, unmarried, childless, working in a service occupationwith rather low income, a secondary school graduate andliving in a town in the south of Finland.

• Four types of students: (1) career orientated, (2)graduate orientated, (3) seekers of change, and (4)studying as a way of living (students).

From Open University toUniversity Degree Student

• Students cannot complete university degrees at openuniversities, but all open university courses can berecognized as a parts of university degrees.

• Students can take an entrance examination or

• They can apply via Open University gateway or track

The admission requires successfully completed studiesat the Open University.

From Open University toUniversity Degree Student

• The Open University gateway is mainly adult’sroute to the university; students taking this pathare on older than the average Open Universitystudents.

• This route is still rather narrow

RESEARCH METHODNarrative research

• Focuses on the experiences of individuals

• Concerned with the chronology of the individual’sexperiences

• Focuses on the construction of life stories based on datacollected via interviews

• Incorporates context and place in the story

• Is often collaborative (researcher & narrators construct thenarrative together)

RESEARCH METHODNarrative research

• Main idea of narrative research is that anindividual is seen, according to the socialconstructionism, as an expressive social andcultural being who constructs his conception ofthe world in interaction with other people.

RESEARCH METHODNarrative research

“Humans are storytelling organisms who,individually and socially, lead storied lives”(Connelly & Clandinin 1990, p. 2).

DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS

Narrative interview

• The aim is for participants to tell stories abouttheir experiences and lives

• Open questions usually elicit narratives: theopen-ended prompt “tell me about…”

DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS

Narrative interview• I interviewed 17 students. The interviewees

were between 29 and 61 years of age, 16women and one man.

• Some students told me their story fluently full ofdetails and it seemed that the story they told mewas already constructed, just waiting to be told.Whereas some students were clearly expectingmore questions and the narrative was jointlyconstructed.

DATA COLLECTION ANDANALYSIS

Analysis of narratives and narrative analysis:

• When analyzing the data both was used: analysisof narratives and narrative analysis (Polkinghorne1995, 6-8).

DATA COLLECTION ANDANALYSISAnalysis of narratives and narrative analysis:

• Analysis of narratives is based on paradigmaticmode of thought and narrative analysis rather onthe narrative mode of thought. In the analysis ofnarratives a thematic categorisation of thenarratives was made.

• In narrative analysis the main point of focus wasthe production of a new narrative on the basis ofthe narratives of the material.

RESEARCH FINDINGS

What kind of meanings the students gave totheir studying?

• The results of this study showed that theinterviewees felt that their studying had acomprehensive importance in their lives. Studyinghad professional and personal as well assocializing and equalizing importance.

RESEARCH FINDINGS

What kind of experiences do they have ofstudying in Open University?

• The interviewees felt that their studying in OpenUniversity had been mostly positive.

How do students experience the transition todegree student?

• The students told me that the transition fromOpen University to degree student wasuncomplicated.

• Instead they felt that socializing to academiccommunity and finding out its practices was morechallenging.

RESEARCH FINDINGS

Who is a typical student taking Open Universitygateway?

• The study paths of these gateway students arevarious. As a result of a narrative analysis threetypical narratives was constructed:

• A story of a young degree achieving student,• A hectic story of a student who studies in parallel

with her family and work, and• A narrative which was about an elder student

who is making her young age dream come true.

RESEARCH FINDINGS

RESEARCH FINDINGS

• The adult students compare their narrativeswith cultural master narratives about the idealstudents: one is the self-directed adult studentand the other is the younger university degreestudent.

CONCLUSIONS

• There are various kinds of students in modernuniversities. It is important to listen to manydifferent stories, because stories told bymarginal actors may serve an emancipatoryfunction for future students.

CONCLUSIONS

• By giving the voice to these Open Universityroute students we can reach more dimensionaland more critical understanding on learning inuniversity setting. The analysis of narrativesindicates that the studying gets differentmeanings in relation to one’s life.

CONCLUSIONS

• One of the challenges of university education isto develop ways of guidance for students whohave already studied a major part of theirdegree in Open University.

• Open universities in Finland should developfurther more the guidance process for thosestudents who are degree-orientated at the verybeginning of their study path.

Main References• www.avoinyliopisto.fi• Connelly, M.F. & Clandinin, J.D. (1996). Narrative inquiry. In: J.P.

Keeves (ed.) Educational research, methodology andmeasurement: An international handbook. 2nd edition.Cambridge: Pergamon, 81–86.

• Heikkinen, H. L. T. (2002). Telling Stories in Teacher Education.A Narrative-biographical View of Portfolio Work. In: RaunoHuttunen, Hannu L. T. Heikkinen & Leena Syrjälä (eds.) NarrativeResearch. Voices of Teachers and Philosophers. Jyväskylä:Sophi, 123–141.

• Polkinghorne, D.E. (1995) Narrative configuration in qualitativeanalysis. In: J. A. Hatch & R.Wisniewski (Eds) Life history andnarrative. London:Falmer Press, 5–24.

• Riessman, C.(2008) Narrative methods for the human sciences.Los Angeles: Sage Publications.

• Rinne, R., Jauhiainen, A., Tuomisto, H., Alho-Malmelin, M.,Halttunen, N. & Lehtonen, K. (2003) Avoimen yliopistonopiskelija. Kokovartalokuvasta eriytyneisiin muotokuviin. Turunyliopiston kasvatustieteiden tiedekunnan julkaisuja. A: 200.

• Thank you!