• Journal of the International Relations & Interdisciplinary Education
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.85-111
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• 2024

Since the release of the 2000 PISA results, Finland's education has consistently been regarded as a competitor or benchmark for South Korea's educational system. However, recent indicators of division, opposition, and discontent within our educational sphere suggest a considerable departure from Finland's ethos of happiness in education. Against this backdrop, this study aims to analyze the trends in Finnish education-related research appearing in Korean academic journals. Utilizing network text analysis, we examined 160 papers indexed in RISS with titles containing "Finland" and "education". Key findings are as follows. Firstly, research on Finnish education has been steadily increasing, albeit showing recent signs of decline. Secondly, the majority of research topics were micro-level, with literature review-based methodologies predominating. Thirdly, a minority of researchers accounted for one-third of the total research output. Fourthly, countries compared with Finland predominantly included neoliberal states such as Japan, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Singapore. Fifthly, research themes and subjects primarily focused on primary and secondary education, particularly in domains such as mathematics and science, influenced by PISA. Future research on Finnish education should transcend localized and fragmented areas of inquiry, undertaking comprehensive investigations into the processes and history of Finland's happiness-oriented education. Such endeavors are essential for deriving insights crucial for our learning. Particularly, consideration should be given to moving beyond literature-based methodologies, fostering international collaborative discussions facilitated online, and linking the Finnish education community with educators, parents, students, local councils, and governmental stakeholders to collectively discuss and research.