Pupil selection to emphasised teaching in comprehensive schools in urban Finland: selection criteria and the norm of the ideal pupil

In this article we research how pupil selection inside formally non-selective comprehensive schooling in Finland is governed and analyse the admission criteria cities (n=12) and schools use to select pupils for emphasised teaching. We analyse how the pupil selection criteria texts present content that requires different forms of capital (Bourdieu) to enrol to emphasised teaching. Use of the admission criteria was vast and varied nationally. It did not just evaluate pupil’s aptitudes in a certain emphasised discipline as legislation lines but applied much more versatile criteria. We argue that pupil selection texts create the norm of the ideal pupil preferred by emphasised teaching. Municipalities and schools are the key actors creating routes to social distinction inside comprehensive schooling.