University of Helsinki
February greetings from the FuturEd-project. The beginning of the year is always busy with both research and teaching. Our FuturEd-project members are all active parts of the academic community, and it is no surprise that we have had some fascinating announcements to make.
Publication news
We are glad to let you know that a research paper by university lecturer Janne Säntti and colleagues about future rhetorics in Finnish education policy discussions was published recently. In the article titled “Future jamming: Rhetoric of new knowledge in Finnish educational policy texts”, they conclude that the future in Finnish education in policy texts is framed through fear of missing out on future development and through ties between education and labour markets. The article is published in the highly esteemed Policy Futures in Education -journal and can be found here: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1478210320985705.
Another exciting publication coming soon examines the privatization and marketization of early childhood education in Finland. This groundbreaking article by university lecturers Satu Valkonen, Jaana Pesonen and professor Kristiina Brunila discuss the emerging markets for private actors in Finnish early childhood education. Paper is accepted for publication in Kasvatus -journal.
In addition to these excellent pieces of work, a new book about therapeutic power in Finland is coming out soon. The book “Terapeuttinen valta: Onnellisuuden ja hyvinvoinnin jännitteitä 2000-luvulla [Therapeutic Power: Tensions of Happiness and Wellbeing in 21st Century] will be published by Vastapaino later this year. Edited by professor Kristiina Brunila, Esko Harni, Antti Saari and Hanna Ylöstalo, this book brings together the latest research about therapeutic power in the Finnish society, institutions and in personal life. It is the first edited collection discussing the topic in Finnish context.
Last but not least, Dr Petteri Hansen, together with his colleagues from Denmark and Norway, published a comparative research article about future expectations for schools and education. In the paper titled “Managing expectations by projecting the future school: Observing the Nordic future school reports via temporal topologies”, the authors conclude that seemingly similar Nordic contexts produce somewhat different future projections. The article is published in European Educational Research Journal and can be found here: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1474904121995695.
Event news
We are very proud to announce that we will host a public and open access seminar in the first week of June! Our planning team is currently setting the date and time and inviting interesting speakers to join us. Mark your calendars; more information coming soon!
Some of our members participated and gave presentations in Interrupting Youth Support Systems in the Ethos of Vulnerability (CoSupport) projects (funded by Academy of Finland and led by prof Kristiina Brunila) final seminar: Youth and Mental Health from other Perspectives (Nuoret, mieli ja terveys toisin nähtynä). The full programme for the seminar is here: https://blogs.helsinki.fi/cosupport/2020/12/11/nuoret-mieli-ja-terveys-toisin-nahtyna/.
Next month you can find many of our researchers giving presentations at the Annual conference of Westermark Society. The conference will be arranged online Mach 11-12th. For example, our postdoc researcher Katariina Mertanen will discuss her postdoc research under the title: Drawing the Line(s). Mapping the Trajectories of Precision Education Governance in Youth Education. Also, our PhD researcher Saara Vainio will give a presentation about her doctoral thesis related to precision education governance and psychologisation of youth education.
Other news
Our questionnaire about research ethics and integrity in studying marketization and privatization of education is almost ready, and after short piloting, we will start disseminating the questionnaire in our research networks. We are very excited about the interesting and important new data we hope this questionnaire will provide us. Our postdoc researcher Helena Hinke Dobrochinski Candido, has done incredible work leading this project forwards!