Category: Yleinen

Saturday the 8^th of November was a day full of feminism. FemF2014 was the second Feminist Forum organized in Helsinki. The Swedish Adult Education Centre Arbis was buzzing with inspiring feminist vibes.

Also at AGORA’s event, every seat was taken and the atmosphere was warm and conversational. Researchers connected to AGORA in different ways came to talk about their research. After the presentations there was an inspiring discussion between the audience and the speakers.

First Kristiina Brunila talked about working at the University and in the ethos of knowledge capitalism, about research center AGORA and her own research. From the left: Kristiina Brunila, Katariina Mertanen, Jenni Helakorpi and Katariina Hakala.

Katariina Hakala  talked about the inclusive research method she has developed. She also focused on help or helping and invited everyone to reflect disability from our own, first hand experience.

Katariina Mertanen talked about her research that has to do with social exclusion. She emphasized the productive nature of language. Here is a link to Katariina’s presentation (in Finnish).

Last presentation was by Jenni Helakorpi, who’s research is to do with the school system and the meanings given to Roma-ness in that context. She draws from feminist and postcolonial studies in her research.

Warm thank you to the volunteers who organized FemF2014, everyone who organized events and most of all thank you all the participants! It was truly a one of a kind feminist event!

 

Elizabeth Adams St. Pierre, who is Professor in the Educational Theory and Practice Department and Affiliated Professor of both the Qualitative Research Program and the Women’s Studies Institute at the University of Georgia (USA), will be visiting AGORA in November. Her areas of expertise are poststructural and postmodern theories, post qualitative inquiry and new empiricisms/new materialisms.

During her visit, Professor Adams St. Pierre will be giving a lecture titled “Practices for the ‘New’ in the New Post Qualitative Inquiry” on the 18^th of November from 10 to 12 am. The lecture is open for everyone interested and does not require registration in advance. AGORA organizes the lecture with the Doctoral Program of School, Education, Society and Culture (SEDUCE). The lecture is part of a doctoral course Encountering Post-Qualitative Inquiry that has started today the 13^th of October and lasts until the day of the lecture the 18^th of November.

Viime perjantaina eli 19.9. sukupuolentutkimuksen verkosto Hilman feministisen yliopistopedagogiikan kurssilla opiskelevat tutkijat tulivat tutustumaan AGORAan. Kohtaaminen järjestettiin Minerva-torilla. Tilaisuus oli kaikille avoin ja paikalle saapuikin feministisen pedagogiikan opiskelijoiden lisäksi hyvä joukko muita asiasta kiinnostuneita.

Puheenvuoroja pitivät AGORAssa toimivat tutkijat Kristiina Brunila, Sirpa Lappalainen, Hanna Guttorm, Ina Juva sekä Anna-Leena Riitaoja. Lisäksi Aino-Maija Hiltunen Hilma-verkostosta puhui FemPeda-kurssien historiasta. Puheenvuorojen jälkeen käydyssä keskustelussa korostettiin halukkuutta yhteistyöhön jatkossakin.

Kasvatustieteissä tehtävä tutkimus herätti mielenkiintoa FemPeda-kurssilaisissa. Erityisen paljon keskustelua heräsi kirjoittamisesta ja arvioinnista. Puolestaan Hilma-verkostossa järjestettävä feministisen yliopistopedagogiikan opetus kiinnosti niitä, joille verkoston toiminta ei ollut ennestään tuttua. Keskustelua käytiin myös yliopistopedagogiikan opetuksen eroista ja yhtäläisyyksistä Hilma-verkostossa ja käyttäytymistieteiden laitoksella. Yliopistopedagogiikan opetusta käyttäytymistieteiden laitoksella kommentoi yleisön joukossa ollut professori Sari Lindblom-Ylänne.

Tietoa Hilma-verkostosta löytyy täältä ja Hilma-verkoston FemPeda-kursseista voi lukea lisää täältä.

TROUBLING SPECIAL
An ethnographic study on practices of special education and formation of special in the everyday life of lower secondary school

The study focuses on the formation of the conceptions of special in the everyday life of school, especially in the practices of special education and student welfare services. It analyses definitions of special and normal/ordinary in the discursive practices of everyday life. The relationship between normal and deviant is approached as a formation constantly re-built, re-defined and re-conceptualized in the everyday practices of the school. The study is positioned in the fields of sociology of education, cultural studies, gender studies, youth studies and disability studies. Theoretically it draws from feminist poststructuralist theories. Key analytical concepts of the study are subject position, subjectivity and subjectification.

Methodologically the study is ethnographic. A year-long fieldwork took place in one lower secondary school, following the everyday schooling of 9th graders in special education. Data consists mainly of field notes and interviews.

The report is divided into four thematically separate analytical chapters. These focus on (1) school space and spatial practices, (2) definitions of ordinary and special made in the discussions of members of the multidisciplinary student welfare team, (3) discursive practices of the special education teachers and in special education classes, and (4) hierarchies constructed in the student culture, and how students positioned as  special  negotiate their position and meaning in relation to these hierarchies.

Main results of the study are drawn from these four themes, and how these different dimensions intertwine in the process of defining what and who is special in the school. Special and ordinary were found as very clearly demarcated and fixed in the everyday life of school, and the difference between these positions is both wide and steep. The negative images and stigma connected to special education still dominates everyday sense-making, even if the school culture has also become more sensitive to stigmatization and works to challenge and deconstruct it. The division between special and ordinary is steepest in the student culture. Student culture is very sensitive to the dividing practices and divisions made by the school institution. The special that is formed and reformed in everyday practices and repetitions of the school culture appears as a fixed position with no alternative, defined by cemented cultural meanings. The study suggests that in order to change the division between normal and special and challenge the meanings connected to special, schools needs to look for new ways of explicitly discuss and work on these meanings and the practices producing them.

In Finnish

Reetta Mietolan väitöskirja Hankala erityisyys: Etnografinen tutkimus erityisopetuksen käytännöistä ja erityisyyden muotoutumisesta yläkoulun arjessa tarkastettiin Helsingin yliopistossa 16.8.2014. Tutkimus osoittaa, että erityisyyteen liittyvät negatiiviset merkitykset ovat yhä olemassa koulun arjessa ja erityinen rakentuu suhteessa tavalliseen tai normaaliin selvärajaisesti. Tutkimuksen johtopäätöksenä Mietola esittää, että muutoksen aikaansaamiseksi merkityksistä ja niitä tuottavista käytännöistä tulisi keskustella ja näitä työstää.

Väitöskirja on julkaistu E-thesiksessä.

Fellow researcher Karen Pashby from the University of Oulu will be giving a lecture next Tuesday 9.9.2014, 12 o’clock at lecture room 229.

Critical Global Citizenship and Ethical Internationalization in Higher Education

For Whom, By Whom? A strategic mapping of internationalization in higher education strategies
When you think of international students, who do you think of? Who needs global citizenship education and why? What does it mean to be international and is it the same thing as being a global citizen? In the current era of both pushes for global citizenship education (e.g. by the UN in its post-2015 sustainable development goals agenda) and an imperative to internationalize higher education, what theoretical frameworks can we use to recognize possibilities and foreclosures in our good intentions to include others in a global or local community? How can we find strategic ways of highlighting an ethical and complex approach?

This presentation uses a variety of media text and shares scholarly research to illustrate the main factors in the growing momentum towards a critical approach to global citizenship education in theory and practice. It identifies and analyses the central critical impulses in moves towards critical global citizenship education in NGO work and school curriculum. It then connects this movement to the growing rush for internationalization in higher education by using a strategic mapping exercise to identify foreclosures and possibilities in how university documents position the role of international students in their internationalization strategies.

Karen Pashby received her PhD from University of Toronto in a combined program, Philosophy of Education and Comparative, International, and Development Education. Her dissertation, Related and Conflated: A Theoretical and Discursive Framing of Multiculturalism and Global Citizenship Education in the Canadian Context, combined theoretical and empirical work to map out overlapping and contradicting impulses in theory, research literature, policy, and lesson plans.

The last session of the Bringing Critical Thinking Into Life in the Academia workshop was held at beautiful Suomenlinna on May 16th. The grande finale of the workshop was all about the presentations of the participants. We also had the honor to have Professor Paul Ilsley talking about critical pedagogy and examining the roles of visions and actions and discussing the group work.

Prof. Paul Ilsley and some of the participants of the workshop

Later on there will be writings by the participants and the organizing committee in the Wall section based on group work, lectures and discussions of the workshop.

Thank you all the participants, all the guest lecturers and the organization committee for a wonderful year full of discussions, critical debates and ideas about critical thinking!

A group presenting their dialogue about 'wellbeing'

Different perspectives for critical thinking and taking political and academic action will also be discussed in the AGORAs future events. .

More information on the workshop in the Teaching section.

We had the pleasure to have Professor Kathryn Ecclestone from University of Sheffield visiting JustEd in April 2014. Professor Ecclestone gave an open lecture at the Institute of Behavioral Sciences on April 10th and a speech at the AGORA opening next day on the emotional and therapeutic turn in education.

The lecture materials are now available in the PDF-file below.

Kathryn Ecclestone’s lecture in April 2014.

AGORA-tutkimuskeskuksen avajaisten osana järjestettiin keskustelutilaisuus teemalla akateeminen aktivismi.

Keskustelun puheenjohtajina toimivat tutkijat Tuure Tammi ja Ina Juva ja keskustelijoina tutkijat Sanna Ryynänen, Juha Suoranta, Milja Saari, Syksy Räsänen ja opiskelija Mimmi Piikkilä.

Keskustelu on nyt katsottavissa:

Video: Mikael Kivelä

Aihe on herättänyt runsaasti kiinnostusta ja sen parissa käytyä keskustelua jatketaan syksyllä 2014.

Kasvatustieteilijä Hanna Guttormin väitöskirja Sommitelmia ja kiepsahduksia: Nomadisia kirjoituksia tutkimuksen tulemisesta (ja käsityön sukupuolisopimuksesta) tarkastettiin Helsingin yliopistossa 25.4.2014. Guttorm haastaa jälkistruktualistiseen teoriaan nojaavassa autoetnografisessa väitöskirjassaan monia perinteisen tieteellisen kirjoittamisen tapoja. Hän käyttää esimerkiksi runoja ja proosallista tekstiä tapoina tuoda esiin tutkimusprosessin sisältämiä monenlaisia polkuja.

Väittelijä Hanna Guttorm, kustos Elina Lahelma (HY) ja vastaväittelijä professori Juha Varto (Aalto-yliopisto).

Väitöskirja on luettavissa E-thesiksessä.

Hanna Guttormin artikkeleita löytyy myös AGORAn nettisivujen Publications-osiosta.