Transnational currents in Finnish medical education (c. 1800-1920), starting from a 1922 discourse

• Autores: Pieter Dhondt
• Localización: Paedagogica Historica: International journal of the history of education, ISSN 0030-9230, Vol. 48, Nº. 5, 2012, págs. 692-710
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • In Finnish historiography, received wisdom about increasing German influence in the universities throughout the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century prevails. However, along with the German neo-humanistic model, universities in Sweden and, particularly, Russia also played an important role in reforming the Finnish higher education system. Broadly speaking, medical education at the University of Helsinki followed general European developments, in which German universities indeed often took the lead. These developments included: (1) the increasing need to concentrate education for all the medical professions at the universities; (2) the gradual replacement of clinical education by research training; and (3) increasing specialisation. This article will show, however, firstly that in all these respects, Finnish scholars took inspiration from further afield than just Germany, and secondly, that characteristics which were taken from foreign models were always adapted to the needs of the indigenous society � creating a distinctive Finnish model of medical training. The Finnish example will make clear the extent to which a scientifically based practice such as medicine is far from universal, but rather is subject to local cultural influences, and how educational practices are bound up with the political and cultural relationships within a geographical region. The starting point for this analysis of the specificity of medical education at the University of Helsinki is a series of two essays published in 1922.