Exploring Design Strategies for National Curriculum Guidelines to Develop Local Curriculum: A Case Study of Finland

[Purpose] The purpose of this study was to analyze the case of Finland’s 2014 National Core Curriculum in order to draw implications for the design of guidelines for the development of local curriculum within the national curriculum framework. [Methods] The Finnish 2014 national curriculum Document(Basic Education), related materials from the Finnish National Board of Education, and the Helsinki curriculum Document(Basic Education) as an example of a local curriculum were analyzed in this study. This study examined the local participation in the national curriculum reform process, the characteristics of the guidelines for local curriculum presented in the national curriculum documents, and how these guidelines have guided local curriculum. [Results] This study revealed the following. First, the revision of the Finnish national curriculum sought to ensure local participation in the process, both internally and externally. Second, the Finnish 2014 national curriculum foregrounded the significance of local curriculum, with each chapter of the document detailing issues to be decided locally. Third, in the case of the Helsinki curriculum, the guidelines for local curriculum set out in the Finnish 2014 national curriculum functioned to help local actors articulate local perspectives to complement the content of the national curriculum. [Conclusion] Based on the results, the study discussed the need to strengthen the procedural participation of the local actors in the next national curriculum revision process, the need to include specific detailed statements in the national curriculum to support the development of the local curriculum, and the need to rethink the way local curriculum documents are organized.