From the Finnish Experience to the Chinese Path: Review and Reflections on Chinese Research on Finnish Education

Oct 15, 2026

Purpose: Analyze Chinese research on Finnish education reform by critically reviewing published studies on Finland’s education experience, and discuss how this experience can guide China’s educational reform. Methods: Review and analyze research on Finnish education in CNKI from 2000 to 2017. Findings: Prior studies in China are broad yet often shallow; key gaps include limited exploration of reform success and insufficient attention to social-cultural perspectives and foundational core concepts. Value: Identifies research gaps and proposes future directions.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages17

Reading Time43 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Purpose

Design/Approach/Methods

Findings

Originality/Value

Keywords

Trends in Chinese Research on Finnish Education

Research sample and data selection (CNKI, 2000–2017)

Growth in publication numbers

Influence by journal outlets

From the Finnish Experience to the Chinese Path: Review and Reflections on Chinese Research on Finnish Education Yuzhuo Cai Tampere University Bing Zuo Lingnan Normal University ECNU Review of Education 2019, Vol. 2(2) 217–233 ª The Author(s) 2019 Article reuse guidelines: [sagepub.com/journals-permissions](sagepub.com/journals-permissions)[ ](sagepub.com/journals-permissions)[DOI: 10.1177/2096531119852251](DOI: 10.1177/2096531119852251)[ ](DOI: 10.1177/2096531119852251)[journals.sagepub.com/home/roe](journals.sagepub.com/home/roe) Abstract Purpose: The purpose of this article is (1) to provide a critical analysis of the Finnish experience of education reforms based on published Chinese research on Finnish education and (2) to discuss how such experience can serve as a model as China embarks on its own path toward educational reform. Design/Approach/Methods: This article is based on an analysis of the research on Finnish education contained in the Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure database from 2000 to 2017. Findings: The analysis shows that although the various aspects of Finnish education have been extensively studied in China, the content of prior studies has generally been similar and isinsufficiently in depth. In particular, current research (1) lacks effective exploration of the successful experience of Finnish education reform and (2) devotes insufficient attention to the social culture perspective and core concepts that serve as the basis of education in Finland. Originality/Value: This article extends the authors’ recent review of Chinese research on Finnish education and places special emphasis on the discussions regarding how China can learn Corresponding author: Yuzhuo Cai, Faculty of Management and Business, Tampere University, 33014 Tampere, Finland. Email: [yuzhuo.cai@tuni.fi](yuzhuo.cai@tuni.fi) Creative Commons Non Commercial CC BY-NC: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License ([http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/](http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/)) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages ([https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage](https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage)). from Finland’s experience with educational reform. It also identifies gaps in the current research in the field and calls for a change in the future research agenda from examining the successful elements of Finnish education to focusing on how the experience of Finnish education is relevant to reforms in China. Keywords Comparison of education in China and Finland, education reform, Finnish education Date received: 26 December 2018; accepted: 26 April 2019 Since Finland’s outstanding performance on the OECD PISA test in 2000, there has been an upsurge in interest in Finnish education among Chinese scholars. This article uses articles published on Finnish education since 2000 and available in Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI; the most authoritative Chinese-language database) as a research sample and analyzes the current situation of Chinese research on Finnish education, focusing on how Chinese educational research scholars interpret the experience of Finnish education. Based on such analysis, this article provides new perspectives for the future and makes suggestions on how China can effectively learn from the Finnish experience in order to forge its own path for education reform. An overview of the research by Chinese scholars on Finnish education The following overview of Chinese scholars ’ research on Finnish education is based on a recent study by the authors (Zuo & Cai, 2018a) . In our study, published in December 2018, we reviewed and analyzed academic articles on Finnish education available in CNKI for the p

FAQs

What is the article’s main purpose?

To critically analyze China’s research on Finnish education reform based on published studies, and to discuss how Finland’s experience can serve as a model for China’s educational reform.

How does the article conduct its research?

It analyzes studies on Finnish education retrieved from CNKI for the period 2000 to 2017.

What key gaps does the article find in existing Chinese research?

The studies tend to be similar in content and insufficiently in depth, with particular lack of effective exploration of successful aspects of Finnish reform and limited focus on social-cultural perspectives and core concepts.

Oct 15, 2026

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