In our team we have more than 20 researchers – here we introduce each one of them.
Researchers
Solveig Cornér
University Instructor
Research themes
I am conducting research in the fields of sociology and university pedagogy. The focus of my dissertation is the importance of supervision and social support for doctoral students within the academic learning environment and researcher communities. My special interest lies within international comparison. My research interests also include the conception of the Nordic countries as a model and an identity.
Current projects
- Nordic Centre of Excellence (NCoE) Justice through Education in the Nordic countries (JustEd)
The aim for the research project is to investigate young peoples’ views on their Nordic identity. The Nordic project is carried out by using photography and photo-elicitation interviews as research methods. - Research project ”From PhD. Student to Academic expert”
The primary areas of interest are early career researchers’ learning, well-being, supervision and researcher communities.
Links
Researcher's profile in Tuhat
LinkedIn profile
Contact information
Tuuli From
PhD student
Research Themes
My ethnographic dissertation focuses on the manifestation of language policy in the physical and social spaces of schools in Finland and Sweden. My research interests cover sociology of language and critical language policy studies, ethnography, visual methods, and theorisation of space in social sciences and human geography.
Current projects
Nordic Centre of Excellence (NCoE) Justice through Education in the Nordic countries (JustEd)
Links
Contact information
Ann-Christin Furu
University lecturer
Research Themes
My primary research areas are within the domains of sustainability education and relational pedagogy in early childhood education and care (ECEC). In my current research I explore how sustainability is understood and implemented in educational contexts, and how relational professionalism is developed and supported among educators.
Current projects
- SUSTE - Sustainable Stories in Early Childhood Education and Care (together with university lecturer Lili-Ann Wolff)
- Relational Professionalism in Teachers (PRP)
- Communication and Relation in Arts and Aesthetics (KORESKA)
Links
Contact Information
Cecilia Heilala
University lecturer
Research themes
My research interests include emotional work and work engagement among early childhood educators. I have also studied the long-term effects of evacuating Finnish children to Sweden for temporary foster care during WW II. The objective in this study was to analyze the effects of the evacuation on later-life outcomes such as educational attainment, social status, psychosocial wellbeing, mental health problems and substance abuse.
Current projects
- The Child in the Eye of the Storm – War Child then (1939–1945) and now.
- Enjoy your work! Towards a cohesive teamwork 2018–2030. An R & D project developing work guidance within the sector of early childhood education.
Links
Jenni Helakorpi
Doctoral student
Research themes
In my PhD-project, I study policies and practices that aim to promote the education of Roma and Travellers in Finland, Sweden, and Norway. The study draws on poststructural feminist theories and critical theories on race and whiteness. I have also worked with developing teacher education from a gender perspective as well as studied marginalisation and special education.
Current projects
- Nordic Centre of Excellence Justice through Education in the Nordic Countries
- Nordic research on gender in teacher education
Links
Gunilla Holm
Professor
Research themes
Diversity and social justice in education, ethnicity, race, gender, and social class issues in education, marginalisation and photography as a research method.
Current projects
- Nordic Centre of Excellence (NCoE) Justice through Education in the Nordic countries (JustEd)
- MINTED - Multilingual and Intercultural Education in Sweden and Finland.
- Study Smart
- PeCMaBe - Perceptions and constructions of marginalization and belonging in education: negotiating possibilities for actions and change between pupils and staff?
Links
Ida Hummelstedt
PhD student
Research themes
My PhD thesis investigates discourses on multiculturalism and multicultural education in Finnish teacher education, as well as practices of multicultural education in schools. The aim is to analyse how these discourses and practices of multicultural education in Finland relate to promotion of social justice. Other research interests are norm critical education and antiracism education.
Current projects
MINTED – Multilingual and Intercultural Education in Sweden and Finland
Links
Ina Juva
PhD student
Research themes
Construction of normality in schools and in education. My doctoral thesis concerns how normality is constructed in school and how it is connected to marginalization. I also consider themes of racialization and bullying as part of constructions of normality.
Current projects
Nordic Centre of Excellence (NCoE) Justice through Education in the Nordic countries (JustEd)
Links
Mirjam Kalland
Professor
Research themes
My current research interests are risk and protective factors for child development from a systemic perspective. I am also interested in how Early Childhood Educational settings support children’s development and learning in the context of diversity and social justice, including social class and children with special needs. Other themes: attachment theory and mentalizing, music & child development, sense of coherence, resilience.
Current projects
- Families First (PI). In a longitudinal research project with over 1000 parents we are studying how social support effects parenting and the development of the child, and how to break intergenerational transmission of adversity.
- Enjoy your work! Towards a cohesive teamwork 2018–2030. An R & D project developing work guidance within the sector of early childhood education.
- The Child in the Eye of the Storm – War Child then (1939–1945) and now.
Links
Researcher's Tuhat profile
Contact information
mirjam.kalland@helsinki.fi
Hannah Kaihovirta
University lecturer, aesthetic studies didactics
Research themes
My research interests are aesthetic approaches and contemporary art-led methods in education and multimodal literacy and rhizomatic aspects of art practices in educational settings. I am also interested in research-based development of digital learning spaces, cross curriculum teaching practices and teacher identity construction. Research methods of interest are visual ethnography, hermeneutics, critical approaches and artography.
Links
Sonja Kosunen
Assistant professor and Docent in sociology of education and urban studies
Research themes
My research interests include themes of educational choice, reproduction and distinction in the frame of urban education. I have recently studied school choice and urban segregation, politics of comprehensive education, and inequalities in access to higher education through international comparisons.
Current projects
Privatisation and Access to Higher Education (PAHE)
Links
Researcher's profile in Tuhat
Twitter: @SonjaKosunen
Monica Londen
University lecturer
Research Themes
My research interests include learning and teaching in Higher Education, First Year Experience, particularly study challenges, study motivation, self-regulated learning and self-efficacy in university students. Another research interest is students’ transition from upper secondary education to Higher Education.
Current projects
- Study Smart – Study skills and university preparation for upper secondary students. Funded by the Swedish Cultural Foundation of Finland.
- Study Motivation and Learning (with Jan-Erik Mansikka)
Links
The researcher's Tuhat profile
Contact information
Marina Lundkvist
University lecturer
Research themes
I am interested in questions concerning democracy, children’s participation, value education, social justice, children’s rights in Early Childhood Education and Early Childhood Educational settings as kindergartens and preschools. I am also interested in educational leadership in ECEC.
I have investigated what dimensions of different forms of democratic approaches are made visible in the meetings between young children aged 1–5 and educators. The purpose of the study (Dissertation (2016), titled: What is meant by being democratic? – Dimensions of democracy in the meeting between children and educators) was to examine the dimensions of democracy as it emerges in the meeting between young children and educators, more specifically on the basis of participation, equality, reciprocity and respect as direct learning objects. The study is written within an educational context but works at the intersection of other scientific disciplines such as philosophy and sociology.
Current projects
- Explorative inquiries: Analytical Tools for Reflecting on Oneself, Others and the World in Kindergarten.
- Research project together with docent Camilla Kronqvist (PI) and senior lecturer Birgit Schaffar-Kronqvist
- Enjoy your work! Towards a cohesive teamwork 2018–2030. An R & D project developing work guidance within the sector of early childhood education. Research project together with professor Nina Santavirta, post doc researcher Cecilia Heilala and senior lecturer Ann-Christin Furu.
Links
Erika Löfström
Professor
Research themes
Research ethics and integrity, teaching/learning research ethics/integrity, values education, supervision, academic writing, plagiarism, teacher education, teacher beliefs, teacher identity, teaching and learning in higher education.
Current projects
- Horizon 2020 funded project ENERI – European Network for Research Ethics and Research Integrity (2016–2019)
- Horizon 2020 funded project VIRT²UE – Virtue based ethics and Integrity of Research: Train the Trainer program for Upholding the principles of the European code of conduct (2018–2021)
- Erasmus + Strategic Partnership in Higher Education project “Researcher Identity Development” (2017–2020)
- LUMATIKKA
Links
Contact information
Jan-Erik Mansikka
University lecturer
Research themes
Broad and diverse research interests, with research articles in the fields of multicultural education, philosophy of education, early childhood education, art education and alternative educational movements, especially Waldorf education (which was the topic of my PhD dissertation). I am mainly teaching in the program of Early Childhood Education, with a growing research interest in this particular field.
Links
Pia Mikander
Senior university lecturer, history and social studies didactics
Research themes
I am interested in social science teaching and values in education. My PhD thesis concerns how Westerners and the concept of West are constructed in school textbooks in history, social studies, and geography. A current research interest is developing the concept of critical thinking in education as well as furthering its applied use in schools.
Links
Researcher's profile in Tuhat
Twitter: @piamikander
Contact information
Signe Møller
Postdoctoral researcher
Psychologist (Cand.psych), KANUK (specialised in Cognitive, Neuro, Developmental and cultural -psychology) PhD in developmental and pedagogical psychology.
Research themes
Early works on moral development, minority majority and exclusion (Møller & Tenenbaum 2011). As a psychologist I worked with young people on the edge of society.
My recent academic works are on the development of creative imagination and transgression and is placed within the fields of developmental and pedagogical psychology. Exploring what a pedagogy of daring would comprise e.g. at the Technical University I led a project on the digitalization of Problem-Oriented Project, exploring learning and integrity in this new setting and led an intervention on “Children's Reasoning about Peer Rejection based on Status” at Surrey University.
My research themes lies within the art of theorisation and theory generating research - ethnographic experimental research. Cultural-historical theory and cognitive domain theories on moral development and ethics. Technology and materiality. Creativity, learning and development. Minority- majority categorization and transgression. Change as interactants creative co-construction of culture. Observation to study development, e.g. using tablets, sociometric badges or interaction-based video observation. The quantification of observation such as in-footage coding.
Current projects
1. Changing conversations - A study on exploring children’s reasoning and perspective-taking to be referred to when studying booklets containing illustrative stories on peer rejection are digitalized and displayed on tablets.
2. How to foster awareness rather than biases? A wholeness perspective on the development of conventional beliefs. Designing an interactive app/computer game to support a playful attitude towards social conventions. Challenge young person’s beliefs about gender and ethnicity building on moral dilemmas involving emotion, based within an interview frame similar to studies on peer rejection and moral reasoning.
Links
Iida Pyy
PhD student
Research themes
My main research interests are the aims of education and social justice. My PhD thesis examines how the Human Capabilities Approach could contribute to students’ well-being in the context of basic education. I study philosopher Martha Nussbaum’s writings on the subject and conduct expert interviews with educators. My research interests also include cosmopolitanism, hermeneutics, human rights, intersectionality, and universalism vs. relativism debate.
Contact information
Nina Santavirta
University lecturer, docent
Research themes
I am the PI for a project investigating the long-term effects of evacuating Finnish children to Sweden for temporary foster care during WW II. We analyse the effects of early childhood social environment and upbringing (nurture effects) on later life outcomes such as educational attainment, risky behaviour, mental and physical health, and mortality, exploiting the intervention into children’s early life family environment and quasi-random assignment of foster families.
Current projects
- The Child in the Eye of the Storm – War Child then (1939–1945) and now.
- Enjoy your work! Towards a cohesive teamwork 2018–2030. An R & D project developing work guidance within the sector of early childhood education.
Links
Birgit Schaffar-Kronqvist
University lecturer
Research themes
My research concerns philosophical and ethical questions in education. I have written about the educational relationship, the role of higher and vocational education, the didactics of philosophy, and about methodological and basic conceptual questions in education. In my research, I have made use of and often return to the notion of Bildung, the Continental and Existential traditions of education, and Wittgenstein’s later philosophy. Currently, one of my main interests lies in the question of what it is to think, and whether or not thinking can be taught.
Current projects
- Explorative inquiries: Analytical Tools for Reflecting on Oneself, Others and the World in Kindergarten
- Research project together with docent Camilla Kronqvist (PI) and senior lecturer Marina Lundkvist
Links
Anna Slotte
University lecturer and Docent in Education
Research themes
My research concerns learning and language development in multilingual settings in school and everyday life of children and youth. Other interests include language across the curriculum, digital literacy practices and other text practices related both to mother tongue education (L1) and other subjects. Methodologically, I mostly do video ethnography and I often link my research to development projects in collaboration with schools or spare time activity providers.
Current projects
- DIDIA
- QUINT
- STELLA
- VIRKLA
- UPS–HIFK. Research and developmental project about multilingual language use and awareness in junior sport. PI.
- Textmöten?/Text Meetings? Language and writing on mobile phones in upper secondary schools. (Senior researcher)
- Natur & Språk /Two languages – one nature. Development – research project about strategies and models for multilingual spare time activities. PI
Links
Minna Törmänen
Adjunct Professor in Special Education
Research themes
My research interests lie in development and individual learning capabilities of children, youth and adults presenting both typical development and special needs. Aside from doing highly multidisciplinary research on learning I have studied different pedagogical methods including ideologies of inclusion in the projects listed below.
Current projects
- Children’s Development and Learning: Developmental Progression, Executive Functioning, and the Role of Learning Environments.
- Research-based interventions and children with typical development or learning disabilities: Background factors and comorbidity
- Multidisciplinary Special Music Education: Cognitive Processing in Developmental Disabilities & Inclusion, Equality and Interaction
Links
Researcher's profile in Tuhat
Researcher's profile on ResearchGate
Marjo Savijärvi
University lecturer, didactics of Finnish language
Research themes
Interactional linguistics, language learning in immersion, Finnish as a second language, child language learning, multimodal resources in interaction, understanding and understanding problems.
Current projects
- Art as work and a working tool
- Återkoppling i handledningssamtal i Sverige och i Finland
- Repair practices and understanding in interaction
- Grammatiken växer fram
Links
Kirsi Wallinheimo
University lecturer, foreign language didactics
Research themes
My pedagogical and research interests include the implementation of digital literacy in language teaching and learning, teacher reflection and teacher education in today’s increasingly linguistically and culturally diverse society.
Current projects
- Digitala verktyg för pedagogisk utveckling inom de svenska lärarutbildningarna vid Helsingfors universitet 2017– (UKM)
- Tidigareläggning av språkundervisning 2017– (UBS)
- Digital literacy for the teaching and learning of languages 2017 (ECML)
Links
Researcher's profile in Tuhat
Researcher's profile on ResearchGate
Researcher's profile on LinkedIn
Contact information
Lili-Ann Wolff
University lecturer, Docent (Associate Professor)
Research themes
Multidisciplinary education, sustainability education, environmental education, science education, outdoor education, nature aesthetics, philosophy of education (e.g. ethics of sustainability), Bildung, educational history of ideas, social innovations, sustainable leadership, teacher education, educational policy, and digital competence.
Current projects
- Nature and Sustainability as Educational Challenges (NaSEC)
- SUSTE - Sustainable Stories in Early Childhood Education and Care
- Luma Messengers – Research and Development project for integrative science education
- Nordic Centre of Excellence (NCoE) Justice through Education in the Nordic countries (JustEd)
Links
Researcher's profile on Tuhat
Researcher's profile on ResearchGate
Linkedin profile
Twitter: @natureansustain
SIRENE profile
Harriet Zilliacus
University lecturer
Research themes
My research focuses on diversity, identity, and minorities in education. My principal research interests include intercultural and multilingual education as well as questions on identity and inclusion in worldview education.
Current projects
- MINTED – Multilingual and intercultural education in Sweden and Finland
- Flerspråkighetspedagogik och interkulturell pedagogik i lärarutbildning och grundläggande utbildning i Sverige och Finland
- Nordic Centre of Excellence (NCoE) Justice through Education in the Nordic Countries (JustEd)