Sari Miettinen, Project specialist, FFRC, University of Turku

Constructing Social Futures -conference, Turku, 13th June 2019

Developing gender and cultural sensitive career guidance within futures studies

Or: inclusive guidance approach?

• 10 years of development work and research on educational choices, career guidance and counselling and futures orientation within differentprojects at FFRC

• Development of Futures guidancemethods and tools

• Training of guidance personnel and teachers at different educationallevels

Background

• Usage of futures studies methods to findand imagine alternative futures

• Shifting the focus from the nexteducational choice to the more systemicthinking of possible/preferable futures

• Promoting ethics and values behind ouractions and decisions

• Creating personal, local and globalsustainable futures – together

• Promoting futures awareness and agency

www.futuresguidance.fi

The key elements of futures guidance?

• The project focuses on producing easily approached and practical educational materials for gender and cultural sensitive career guidance.

• Continuation to the development of futures guidance• The results of the development work will be disseminated in

educational institutions and in guidance services nationally.• Joint project with Oulu, Hämeenlinna and Jyväskylä

Universities of applied science and research of education society & Finnish youth research society. FFRC coordinating, main funding from European Social Fund.

New project: Potential – promoting gender and cultural sensitive career guidance 04/2019–12/2021

The official question

• Segregation: division of the labour market and educational choices into men’s and women’s jobs and professions and educational fields

• Horizontal: Men and women work on different fields of professions

• Vertical: Career progression of women and men differs (on the same the field of profession)

• Gender-based segregation in working life and education is particularly strong in Finland in international comparison. (EIGE, Gender equality index 2017)

Segregation ”problem” in Finland

SegregationPopulation with educational qualifications from vocationalinstitutions, universities of applied sciences and universities by field of education, 2017, %

• Personal level: the whole potential of a person does not getinto use when choices get restricted by gender (or otherdifferencies)

• Social level: the segregated labour market is less flexible and the use and the recruitment of skills is not efficient.

• The dismantling of segregation is expected to contribute to better employment for men and women, the elimination of gender-based discrimination, and advancements in pay equity.

The problem?

• Several national projects, research etc. on segregation (National institute of health and welfare, academic institutions) since 70s.

• The government of Finland acknowledges the problem of segregation

• The Council for Gender Equality (TANE) has recommended already in the 1975 that teachers education should include trainingabout equality and segregation issues – has still not beenimplemented!

The segregation level has stayed almost the same since 1970s

Work already done

Segregation of education in 1970 and 2010 by field of education

Men Women

Health and welfare

Engineering, manufacturing and construction

Education

Source: Statistics Finland, Educational structure of population

The real question

• Not giving the right answers but suggesting alternatives• Concentrating on helping the customer to find the solution in

collaboration & holistic approach• Treating everyone equally, as they are• People are ”free” to do their decisions (?)

Do we really treat people equally within guidance? Is our approachreally holistic? How aware are we (or the customers/students) of the norms that

affects our ways of thinking and doing? Do we really offer alternative paths and if, based on whose beliefs or

values and for whom?

Career guidance framework

The iceberg model of identity

Source: Brook Graham Diversity and Inclusion consulting Company http://www.brookgraham.com/

What do we see, recognizeand know when we meetpeople?

• The equality delusion: I am free to choose what ever I want and I just happen to choose according to what is typical to my gender.

• There is no such thing as free choices: our choices depend on what is available for us, what we are aware of and what is ourcontext of making the choices.

• We all have assumptions, prejudices, norms that affects us. If weare not aware of them, they will have an affect on our thinking and doing. This should be made visible.

• We should not concentrate on just gender but inclusion of everyone (intersectional approach)

Argument

• The ‘Promoting gender equality and mitigating segregation in education and working life’ (SEGLI) project 2016-2019 Young people make choices based on what is familiar to them (views of parents, friends, media)What kind of images are available? How do we speak about different professions and

gender?SELGI produced recommendations and instructions for how gender and segregation

issues could be addressed in schools https://www.kaikkienduuni.fi/english

• Purkutalkoot (”demolish party”): research and policy brief on vocational educationalchoices of young people (Government’s analysis, assessment and research activities, 2018)More information and support is neededMore diverse hobby opportunitiesRegional trade and industries domains should do their strategic work with region’s

vocational schoolshttps://tietokayttoon.fi/julkaisu?pubid=26202

Recent segregation projects in Finland

• Plenty of research is done on what causes the segregation• We know what should be done, but do not know how to make the

change happen• We do not need more instructions but doing!

Systemic change in thinking is needed. How to do it?We should not concentrate on gender alone but instead on intersectional differences and how people get treated due to thosedifferences = intersectional/inclusive approach?We need tools for how to understand the norms that we have

internalized and how it guides our actions.

Suggestions

Conclusions

How to impact on attitudes, assumptions and stereotypes wehave on gender (or other differences) and educational and career choices?

• Focus on norms: how to make them visible and become aware of maintaining and reproducing them?

• Focus on adults around the young people as proactive actors whocan change the game

• Focus on positive examples, role models and use of language(verbal and non-verbal)

• Focus on making the information personally understandable and meaningful

• Ask: why? And again why?

What should be done

• Engourage people to find their strenghts and what they areinterested in regardless to their gender/other characteristics

• The knowledge on how to create images of alternative futures, including breaking the stereotypical career choices and paths = envisioning new ways to think and act (ethics!)

• Promote awareness on what affects our ”individual” decisionmaking (context, ethics, personal and society’s values etc. = personal enviromental scanning?)

• Systems thinking, experimenting and learning from each others• Promote pro-active agency

What futures guidance and studies couldoffer?

How to encourge peopleto see the box and step outside of it?

• EIGE, Gender equality index 2017. https://eige.europa.eu/gender-equality-index

• Futures Guidance. www.futuresguidance.fi

• Hynninen, Pirkko & Juutilainen, Päivi-Katriina (2007) SEITSEMÄN ASIAA OHJAUKSEN SUUNNITTELUSTA JA TASA-ARVOSTA. Sukupuolisensitiivinen ohjaus tasa-arvon edistäjänä koulutuksessa -hanke 2002–2006. Kasvatustieteiden tiedekunnan Opetusmonisteita. Joensuun yliopisto.

• Murto, Virve et al. / OTUS (2018) Toisen asteen ammatillisten koulutusvalintojen sukupuolittuminen ja nuorten epätyypilliset valinnat. Valtioneuvoston kanslia. Valtioneuvoston selvitys- ja tutkimustoiminnan artikkelisarja 18/2018. (Government’s analysis, assessment and research activities)https://tietokayttoon.fi/julkaisu?pubid=26202

• Promoting gender equality and mitigating segregation in education and working life’ (SEGLI) -project. https://www.kaikkienduuni.fi/english

• Statistics Finland (2018) Gender Equality in Finland 2018. http://www.stat.fi/tup/tasaarvo/index_en.html• The iceberg model. Brook Graham Diversity and Inclusion consulting Company

http://www.brookgraham.com/

References

Thank you!

Sari MiettinenProject SpecialistFinland Futures Research CentreUniversity of Turkusari.miettinen@utu.fi+358 50 367 8392

www.futuresguidance.fihttps://www.facebook.com/futurecamp.fi

www.utu.fi/ffrc