(this is an article that I (Risto) wrote for a Finnish physical education journal)
As I was studying for my doctorate degree at Columbia University I considered conducting my thesis on a cross-cultural study between the Finnish and American physical education systems. In the USA the Finnish education system stands as a model of what to do and how to do it, but critics claim it is impossible to adapt due to the diversity of the many states, and the different environments. Many of these arguments are debunked in a great book titled Finnish Lessons by Pasi Sahlberg. As Finland continues to score high in PISA scores the attention on the Finnish system continues to grow. My idea for the doctoral dissertation was to see if this magical Finnish education system works the same way in physical education, as there are no real cross-cultural studies on that as PISA doesn’t test physical education skills, knowledge etc. My advisor and I decided that the line of inquiry would be too narrow so I never pursued it as a topic of study yet it stayed clear on my mind ever since.
I am now an Assistant Professor at George Mason University teaching health and physical education to future teachers. My professional goal since obtaining my doctorate degree was to travel to Finland, not just to see my parents and family as I do each summer, but to travel as an academic to examine the schools, teaching, and the teacher education system. This goal became a reality in November of 2019 when I got to travel to the University of Jyväskylä. I learned a lot being in Finland with an objective lens. I learned a lot about the Finnish physical education system and through that I reflected a lot on the status of teacher education in the USA.
Our university is close to Washington D.C., there is a metro station that will take you from Mason to the nation’s capital. The university is large, diverse, and dynamic. With a student population nearing 37,000, offering over 211 programs of study at bachelors, masters, and doctoral level, and over 1,500 full-time faculty, we are the largest and most diverse research-intensive university in Virginia. Compared to the Finnish system which would send you, in most instances, to Jyväskylä if you wanted to become a PE teacher, George Mason is one of 21 programs in Virginia that offers a track to become a PE teacher. Virginia is one of 49 states plus D.C. that offer programs to become PE teachers (Nevada doesn’t have a program). Realistically, it is hard to even know who has programs of study. This is information that is not collected and published to the public. One of the issues is that USA is set up so that individual states (e.g. California, Virginia, Texas) control education. USA doesn’t have a national curriculum to follow nor does it have a state by state curriculum. Many plans of study are made at the local level so where I live in Arlington, VA Arlington County may teach different things and have different learning objectives than Fairfax (a 15min drive away). Keeping track of universities offering programs is not easy and is left to independent researchers to track and publish. At Mason, we have started to track this and so far, have identified 430 physical education teacher education programs in the USA that lead to licensure.
The numbers of graduates and applicants varies drastically from one University to the next. For example, in Virginia, Eastern Mennonite University will graduate 1 teacher each year. Mason graduates between 14-20 licensed teachers per year. At Cal State Fullerton where I previously taught the range is between 14-23 graduates per year. Mason used to be the largest program in the state of Virginia with 120 current students. In the last decade that number has been cut in half. This is true for the majority of teacher education programs in the USA. In the 1970’s teacher preparation programs had approximately 200,000 students enrolled, in 2019 that number is now 100,000. During that time the population has increased by 130 million! Most of my colleagues have drastically reduced numbers of qualified applicants. The public support has also dropped. In the USA 54% of parents do not want their child pursuing a public education teaching degree. Furthermore, 44% of teachers leave the profession within the first 5 years. So not only does the USA have an issue recruiting teachers, it has a problem retaining them. In Virginia alone, to start the 2017-2018 school year, there were 1,000 unfilled positions.
Things that keep young adults from pursuing the field of teaching are vast. Many cite lack of support once they get into the profession for reasons they leave. But the biggest struggle in recruitment is battling the rumor mill around teaching. Most potential applicants understand teaching to be an underpaid profession with little possibility of landing a job. Many of these rumors spread from parents, and family members who remember a time when getting a teaching job was indeed difficult. Times have changed in the USA. We are facing the biggest teacher shortage in at least the last four decades. Average teacher salary in our local school districts are comparable to other jobs. A new teacher without a Masters Degree starts at $45,000/year. Once they obtain a Masters Degree their pay increases $5,000/year. Teachers with 20+ years of experience can make upwards of $90,000/year in salary. True, these compensation packages do not align with other states in the USA like Arizona where the average teacher starting salary is $36,299. States like Arizona have seen large teacher strikes that demand a 20% increase in salaries. The other reason we have seen in PE, mostly through conversations at national meetings with my colleagues at various universities, is that PE just isn’t a sexy topic of study. If someone is interested in sports they lean toward majors in exercise science and kinesiology that rank among the fastest growing majors in the USA. The numbers are growing fast yet there is little tracking on if these graduates are getting jobs in the field and staying. Yet, as kinesiology programs increase student enrollment, physical education programs continues its decline.
Every one of our graduates get jobs when they graduate. For the most part, they leave Mason understanding curriculum models, assessment, a basic level of action research methodology, and are exposed to a diverse mindset in education. Mason graduates have plenty of field experience and rigorous student teaching experiences. I am very proud of the graduates from Mason, and I think the program as a whole develops quality educators. This is not the reality across the USA. There are alternative paths to licensure and on-line universities that produce graduates that compete for similar jobs. These alternative paths to licensure lead to teachers who more often leave the profession early and are less experienced and less skilled as educators. For example, it is entirely possible that a person with a degree in history and a license to teach history take a national level content exam for physical education knowledge and the very next year they can teach physical education with no previous experience. Selling quality programs to students is important but states are overwhelmingly dropping the requirements to become teachers to get classrooms filled with teachers. It is yet to be seen how this will affect teaching quality and student achievement.
In conclusion, there is a vast difference in the climate of teaching and teacher education between Finland and the USA. There is an endless list of content the USA can adapt from Finland to improve teacher candidates. Equally, within quality programs in the USA there is a lot that Finland can learn from researchers and teachers in the USA. These include but are not limited to the push for diversity and social justice in classrooms, development and testing of curriculum models in PE, and the utilization of social media and technology into the classrooms and professional development of teachers.