Doctoral Researchers A-M

Doctoral researchers and research assistants of the LECI Expert Group
Jenny Byman

Doctoral Researcher

Research theme

Young children and environmental education, multiliteracy, digital literacy, emotions, aesthetic dimensions of learning, equal learning opportunities, teacher’s perspective.

Current projects

Digital mediation of children’s interactions with the more-than-human world (ARC)

Learning by Making: The educational potential of school-based makerspaces for young learners’ digital competencies (iMake)

PLC - Playful learning center

Contact information

Email: jenny.byman@helsinki.fi

Leonardo Cedillo

Doctoral Researcher

Research themes

Learning gratitude in school environment. My doctoral thesis aims to exploring gratitude’s meaning and the ways it is promoted by teachers in first grade students in Finland. This is realized through the following research questions: what is the meaning of gratitude in school setting in Finland? What are the different psychological components of gratitude in school environment? What are the educational methods used by teachers to assist students understanding gratitude?

Contact information:

E-mail: leonardo.cedilloberber@helsinki.fi

Terhi Esko

Doctoral Researcher

Research themes

science-society interaction, societal impact of academic research, science, technology and innovation policy, public debate on science policy issues, science and technology studies

Find out more:

The University of Helsinki Research Portal

LinkedIn  

ResearchGate

Contact information 

E-mail: terhi.esko@helsinki.fi

Merja Hautakangas

Doctoral Researcher

Research themes

Socio-cultural theory; Muksuoppi/Kids’ Skills; Strength-based learning; Positive psychology; Early childhood education and Pre-school education; ethnography and intervention; mixed methods case study

The aim of my thesis is to find out how Muksuoppi (Kids’ Skills) relates to the development of children’s self-regulation skills in the context of daycare.

See poster presentation: The development of a child's self-regulation skills in Kids'Skills-intervention

Find out more:

University of Helsinki research portal

Twitter 

LinkedIn

Contact information

E-mail: merja.hautakangas@helsinki.fi

Nasibeh Hedayati

Doctoral Researcher 

Research themes:  Morality in Iranian schools. This study investigates Iranian students’ life purposes and purpose profiles. Further moral dilemmas in Iranian schools from teachers’ and students’ point of view are studied using both qualitative and quantitative research methods.  

Current projects

Find out more:

LinkedIn

Contact information

E-mail: nasibeh.hedayati@helsinki.fi

 

Sakari Hyrkkö

Doctoral Researcher

Research themes

Cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT) and its applications, especially the Change Laboratory method. I study the emergence and modelling of shared leadership in an elementary school’s teacher community. My thesis explores the collective and interpersonal structures of organizational activity, such as collective creativity, transformative agency and distributed leadership.

Find out more:

University of Helsinki Research Portal 

ResearchGate 

Contact information

E-mail: sakari.hyrkko@helsinki.fi

Selma Koyuncu

Doctoral Researcher

Research themes 

Early Years of Foreign/Second Language Education; Sociocultural theory; Participatory pedagogies; Learner Autonomy. My doctoral thesis aims to explore the second language education in early childhood years. Specifically, I search for the teacher-child interaction, teachers’ scaffolding children’s attempts in second language learning process and teaching practices in early second language education.

Find out more:

 

LinkedIn

ResearchGate

Contact information

E-mail: selma.koyuncu@helsinki.fi

Emma Kurenlahti

Doctoral Researcher

Research themes

Construction of evil in the context of education during the age of sustainability crises. In my doctoral thesis, I approach evil as a socially constructed phenomenon which is defined, resisted and transformed in the context of education. From the perspective of holistic sustainability, I interpret especially how definitions of evil are contested in interactions between multiple moral systems contributing to the moral sustainability of education.

Current projects

Find out more:

University of Helsinki Research portal

ResearchGate

Contact information

E-mail: emma.kurenlahti@helsinki.fi

Tuulikki Kurtelius

Doctoral Researcher

Research themes

Experiences of children's loneliness in primary and secondary school. The aim of this study is to improve understanding of children's loneliness and to make visible children's own voice and expressions of loneliness by analyzing their writings, pictures, Playback Theatre performances and interviews. Research questions: How the children perceive loneliness? Are there differences between how boys and girls and different age groups experience loneliness? How the lonely ones position themselves in relation to peers? What are the interventions methods used by teachers to prevent children's loneliness?

See Tuulikki Kurtelius' poster presentation here:

Children's Experiences of Loneliness in Cognitive, Emotional and Social Dimensions

Contact information

E-mail: tuulikki.kurtelius@helsinki.fi

Anne-Mari Kuusimäki

Doctoral Researcher

Research themes

The aim of her thesis is to build a positive interaction model between teachers and parents based on positive psychology and character strengths- teaching. The main focus is in improving all positive communication between teachers and parents and the tool highlighted in this study is the daily used digital platform.

Contact information

E-mail: anne-mari.kuusimaki@helsinki.fi

Päivikki Lahtinen

Doctoral Researcher

Research themes

Cultural-historical activity theory; collaboration between service providers and their clients; improving collaborative working between correctional and mental health services, ethnography and interventions.

Current projects

CO-LAB project: Improving collaborative working between correctional and mental health services (EU HORIZON 2020, MSCA-RISE, 2016-2020)

Recent projects

  • Concept Formation and Volition in Collaborative Work -project funded by Academy of Finland
  • Implementation Conditions of Integration Innovations in Health Care: Organizational Volition and the Voice of the Client funded by TEKES (Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation) 

Contact information

E-mail: paivikki.lahtinen@helsinki.fi

Sharon Laine

Project Researcher

Research themes

  • General and Adult Education
  • Civil engagement 
  • Competences 
  • Involvement and motivation 
  • Social media 
  • Collaboration and innovation 
  • Communication platforms 
  • Innovative education tools 

Contact information

sharon.laine@helsinki.fi

Silja Lamminmäki-Vartia

Doctoral Researcher, Master of Theology; Bachelor of Education (ECE teacher)

Research themes

Worldview education in Early Childhood Education. Teachers professionalism and its`s development in the current matter. Worldview and cultural diversity. My study examines the topical question of implementation of worldview education in Finnish Early Childhood Education and Care. The goal is to produce new knowledge on theoretical conceptualization for worldview education and pedagogical models of implementing WE in the ECEC. The study aims to identify the crucial cornerstones to make WE possible in diverse ECEC contexts; What are the elements required in the implementation of curriculum-based worldview education as a part of the childrens`s holistic growth and development? Methodologically the study anchors on Action Research tradition. The study will follow a group of BA students and local ECE teachers who construct the data as a part of the research process which takes place in the ongoing project called Creating Spaces for Diversity of Worldviews. In addition the study aims to investigate teachers' competences and follow their developing ability to verbalize and implement WE during the research process.

Current projects

Creating Spaces for Diversity of Worldviews in Early Childhood Education

Find out more:

University of Helsinki Research Portal

ResearchGate

Contact information

E-mail: silja.lamminmaki-vartia@helsinki.fi

Tel: +358 50 4751886

Monica Lemos

Doctoral Researcher

Reseach themes 

cultural-historical activity theory; theory  of expansive learning; methodology of formative interventions, agency, critical collaboration, education beyond school walls, educational management, social media, productive social movements.

Recent projects

  • Concept Formation and Volition in Collaborative Work-project. Funded by the Academy of Finland.

Find out more:

University of Helsinki Research Portal 

Academia 

ResearchGate 

LinkedIn

    Contact information

    Email: monica.lemos@helsinki.fi

    Skype: monicaflemos

    Tel: +31626865889

    Jasmiina Leskinen

    Doctoral Researcher, MA (Educ.)

    Research themes

    My research interests include social interaction and learning, playful learning, maker education, and socio-cultural theory. My current research focuses on primary school students' emergent leadership and social processes of leadership distribution within a primary school's makerspace. I also teach in the bachelor and master programmes at the Faculty of Educational Sciences, in the University of Helsinki. I am currently the JURE coordinator of EARLI SIG 10 - Social Interaction in Learning and Instruction.

    Current projects

    Learning by Making: The educational potential of school-based makerspaces for young learners’ digital competencies (iMake)

    PLC -  The Playful Learning Center

    DigiChild

    Links

    University of Helsinki Research Portal 

    ResearchGate

    Contact information

    E-mail: jasmiina.leskinen@helsinki.fi

    Mika Letonsaari

    Doctoral Researcher, M.Sc. (Tech.)

    Research themes 

    Storytelling in education, especially the possibilities of non-linear stories; computational thinking; computer science education, especially programming skills; games and gamification.

    See poster presentation: Nonlinear storytelling in education

    Current projects

    Recent projects

    Digiosaajaksi työelämään

    Find out more:

    University of Helsinki Research Portal

      Contact information

      Email: mika.letonsaari@helsinki.fi

      Hongda Lin

      Doctoral Researcher, MA (Educ.)

      Research themes 

      Policy instruments; policy planning; school development; institutional learning; Cultural-historical activity theory

      Current projects

      Exploring accumulation of professional capital of teachers' community of practices: An approach of actor-network theory (08.2016-07.2017, Ministry of Science and Technology, R.O.C.)

      Find Out More

      University of Helsinki Research Portal 

      Contact information

      Email: hongda.lin@helsinki.fi

      Virpi Lund

      Doctoral Researcher, M.Ed. in Adult Education

      Research themes

      Cultural-historical activity theory, agency, expansive learning, community and urban development, citizen participation.

      Current projects

      Empowering People towards Socially Inclusive Society (2022-24) funded by Ministry of Education and Culture 

      Recent projects

      Find out more:

      University of Helsinki Research Portal

      ResearchGate 

      Twitter 

        Contact information

        Email: virpi.lund@helsinki.fi

        Niina Manninen

        Doctoral Researcher

        Research themes

        Social services students’ life purposes – a case study from Finland.This exploratory mixed methods case study aims to find out what kind of self- and other-focused life purposes Finnish social services students identify themselves with and how service during their studies affects their life purposes and helps them to develop their professional interactional competence.

        Contact information

        Email: niina.manninen@helsinki.fi

        Tarja Mäki

        Doctoral Researcher, MA (Adult Education), M. Sc. (Technology)

        Research themes

        my current interests are on implementing of new technology (e.g. building information modelling) and collaborative working methods (e.g. Lean construction, knotworking) in construction industry. I use activity-theoretically oriented ethnographic and interventionist methodologies and methods in my research.

        Current projects

        Recent projects

        Learning from projects: Managing, organizing and coordinating of building information modeling in building projects (2015-2016)

        Find out more:

        University of Helsinki Research Portal    

        ResearchGate

        Contact information

        E-mail: tarja.maki@mittaviiva.fi