University of Helsinki
Happy new year 2021 from our FuturEd research project! The year 2020 was unexpected and surprising, and our project has continued despite all tumultuous circumstances.
December was incredibly productive and busy for all of us – we held FuturEd seminar about research ethics in research about the marketisation of education with our colleagues from the Education Inc. -research project from the University of Malmö. Many of us also participated in two major Finnish conferences, FERA Conference on Education and the Symposium of Higher Education. We had many opportunities to present our research results, and here are a few highlights:
Research updates:
In our FuturEd seminar on ethics in the marketisation of education research, we had two engaging presentations. Professor Malin Ideland and Dr Anna Jobér from the University of Malmö talked about the cooperation with EdTech -companies and doing critical ethnographic research about the marketisation of education. University lecturer, Dr Satu Valkonen also gave a presentation about experiences in researching the privatisation of early childhood education in Finland.
Our project leader, professor Kristiina Brunila, participated in both of previously mentioned conferences. She acted as a discussant in a roundtable discussing whether education policy in Finland is turning into ‘pop-up’ politics in the Symposium of Higher Education. In the FERA Conference, she also reflected the role of teacher and researcher amid economic incentives permeating academia as a part of a symposium about sustainable education and curriculum research.
Antti Saari, our colleague and assistant professor from the University of Tampere, discussed the role of freedom in education and schooling in the same symposium. He also participated, as did professor Brunila and PhD researcher Saara Vainio, and professor Janne Säntti, all from the University of Helsinki to the pre-seminar about the decontextualisation of education.
Last but not least, I will mention the presentation university lecturers Jaana Pesonen, and Satu Valkonen gave about the governance in early childhood education. Dr Pesonen also discussed her research about children’s literature in a TV interview by National Broadcasting Company YLE: https://areena.yle.fi/1-50700592
Other news:
Our webpages will be updated soon! We have exiting publication (and other) news coming up, and all the information will be updated. We will also start to publish these monthly newsletters with reports about our research, publication, funding, cooperation etc.
We are planning to collect data about the ethical issues, and dilemmas researchers have been facing when researching privatisation and marketisation of education together with our colleagues at the University of Malmö. More information coming soon!
Professor Brunila published a text about the issues and problems regarding tenure track -systems in Finnish universities. The text can be found here: https://blogi.professoriliitto.fi/
Antti Saari’s new book “Kasvatusteoria antiikista nykypäivään” has been published. More information: https://www.gaudeamus.fi/kasvatusteoriaantiikistanykypaivaan/
Katariina Mertanen defended her PhD about youth policies and youth policy implementations in November. Her opponent was professor Deborah Youdell from the University of Birmingham. PhD summary is published here: https://helda.helsinki.fi/handle/10138/320548 Katariina will continue her research as a post-doc researcher in FuturEd.