This article analyses teacher training in Finland from the teacher candidate's perspective. The focus is on two key concepts, the Teacher as a Researcher and the Personal Practical Theory, which characterise the agenda of Finnish teacher education. Cluster analysis divided the respondents into five groups, and each cluster had a short textual description. Qualitative data were included in the summary. According to our analysis, the main concepts of the Teacher as a Researcher and the Personal Practice Theory are unclear to teacher candidates and are appreciated differently. Subject teacher candidates in particular, who come from other academic cultures, might consider these concepts educational jargon that have no substance. We also argue that teacher students are not always able to connect the theoretical parts of their studies with practice. These results challenge the claim that Finnish teacher education has resolved the demanding relationship between theory and practice.

This article examines the relations between human children and other than human animals in a multispecies ethnographic study conducted in an unofficial educational zoo established in a greenhouse in a lower secondary school. The specific focus is on the practices in which the students become responsible carers of animals. The analysis employs the theory of care (de la Bellacasa) and a storytelling approach (Haraway) to develop the concept of multispecies childhood and to offer ways to account for the complexities of lives shared across species.

Finnish youth are found to be, despite their broad knowledge, uninterested in politics and in societal participation. As a remedy, international studies suggest enabling democratic experiences in schools. This article discusses an action research project aimed at developing deliberation-based democratic practice in an elementary classroom. Results suggest that the formal deliberative-democratic practice opens up a way for pupils to productively express themselves, challenge the prevailing structures, make sense of social reality and, thus, practise skills and motivations needed in democratic citizenship. However, the teacher is argued to be in constant struggle between deliberative-democratic stance and control orientation. This tension exists in the teacher's actions and thinking and in his reflections about the contrast between the classroom practice and the overall school ethos. Therefore, this article suggests using the understanding of this tension in scrutinizing projects aiming at pupil participation and involvement.

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