The aim of this paper is to explore the historical representations of adulthood, citizenship and the ideal social bonds of an individual and the society in the transforming moral orders of Finnish adult education. The research is based on a thematic reading of data, which consist of texts written during the past 150 years by theorists of adult education. In regard to the outcome of the analysis, it can be claimed that the definitions and relations, which define adult education / lifelong learning, adult individuals, citizenship and the society, are in perpetual motion transforming from spiritual determination to material determination and back. As a conclusion, we claim that adult education / lifelong learning is a morally regulated field of study, where morality is adapted to any social changes at any given time, marginalising social groups on moral grounds; from lack of spiritual aspirations to lack of employability skills and with a wrong attitude towards the ideals of neo-liberal economics in present-day society. The main result of our analysis is to address the importance of understanding the main logics of historical change in adult education.

Companion dogs are increasingly trained for sports using varying pedagogical ideas considering the human-dog interaction. We focused on the human-dog interaction by examining the characteristics constructed for dogs within the training methods, and on the definitions of ideal dogs as described by the caregivers. The data consisted of 85 thematic essays written by Finnish dog caregivers actively engaging in dog sports. Dog training was analyzed as a junction for the humanizing, animalizing, and instrumentalizing of dogs. Dog-centered and human-centered training categories were found. The first category depicts the dog and the human as equal partners enjoying the cooperation, and the second category constructs a hierarchical relationship between the human and the dog. While the dog-centered approach is prone to humanizing, the human-centered approach is inclined toward instrumentalization. The training approaches are interpreted as drawing boundaries: dogs are part of human society or of nature

The study analyses how the educational pathways of ninth graders are constructed by practices of adolescents and their parents in families with different educational statuses. The importance of contextualising the educational transition as it occurs in daily life and socially structured family cultures is emphasised. The research question is: How is the choice of educational route of ninth graders constructed by the practices of the adolescents and the parents in vocational and academic families? What does characterise different pathways and what kinds of distinctions, differences and contrasts of transition practices do exist between them? The interview sample consisted of 16 Finnish families. The interviews were carried out in three forms: a family discussion interview, a thematic interview of the adolescents, and a life-history interview of the parents. The results introduce the main characteristics and distinctions of transition practices of the vocational and academic families.