University of Helsinki
It has been an exceptional year for everyone, again. FuturEd –project wants to thank everyone, and especially our great colleagues all around the world! Here are some highlights to share:
Publication news
The yearbook of Education Sociology in Finland is out soon! In the yearbook “Koulutuksen politiikat”, edited by Janne Varjo, Jaakko Kauko and Heikki Silvennoinen, you can find two brilliant articles by our FuturEd-members! First is an article by Katariina Mertanen, Katariina Tiainen, Elina Ikävalko, Tuuli Kurki, Anniina Leiviskä, and Kristiina Brunila exploring the global and local youth policy discourses, and how young people’s participation and citizenship are constructed. The second is an article by Janne Säntti, Petteri Hansen and Antti Saari exploring the future imaginary in Finnish education policies. More information about the book can be found here: https://webshop.jyu.fi/tuote/koulutuksen-politiikat-kasvatussosiologian-vuosikirja-3/
Petteri Hansen and colleagues published an article titled “Managing expectations by projecting the future school: Observing the Nordic future school reports via temporal topologies” in the European Education Research Journal. The abstract and full-text can be found here: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1474904121995695
Events and public speeches
Professor Kristiina Brunila has been presenting research results in multiple arenas and public events. To mention a few, she was invited as a panellist to the Centre for Research on Lifelong Learning and Education CELE’s discussion about the latest UNESCO’s Futures of Education -report. The presentations from professor Brunila and other esteemed panellists are here: https://www.utu.fi/en/university/faculty-of-education/department-of-education/CELE.
Also, she gave a presentation at a two-day conference arranged by the National Board of Education about the future trajectories of education, and how the FuturEd -projects research results might affect questions of equality and social justice.
Our brilliant university lecturer Satu Valkonen gave an interview to “Lastentarha” -magazine about her research on the marketisation and privatisation of early childhood education and care in Finland. She has also participated actively in public discussions on the issues concerning Finnish early childhood education in multiple op-eds in the biggest magazines in Finland. One of the latest op-ed’s can be read here: https://www.hs.fi/paivanlehti/08122021/art-2000008445870.html
The lecture series “Future Education and the Emergence of precision education governance” is coming to end. In this lecture series, we had four great presentations from Malin Ideland (Malmö University), Deborah Youdell (University of Birmingham, UK), Gita Stainer-Khamsi (Columbia University, New York), and Sam Sellar (Manchester Metropolitan University, UK)
The last lecture on Friday, December 10th was a panel discussion with our FuturEd-research project’s four brilliant scholars: Dr Helena Hinke Dobrochinski Candido, Dr Katariina Mertanen and Dr Petteri Hansen from our Faculty and Dr Antti Saari from the Uni of Tampere – all focusing on future trajectories of education in the Finnish context. At the panel discussion, we had a chance to learn about the future changes in education in the Finnish context, and discuss who gets to imagine education and for who. You can read about the panellists on our website: https://blogs.helsinki.fi/futureducation/closing-panel/.
FERA Conference on Education had a strong FuturEd -presence! Our FuturEd-project arranged as symposium titled “Future trajectories of changing education governance”, where speakers Kristiina Brunila, Katariina Mertanen, Helena Dobrochinski-Candido, Satu Valkonen and Saara Vainio presented their latest research results about future trajectories of early childhood education, Finnish education export, EU youth policies and global trajectories of youth education. Also, Katariina Mertanen presented her latest research in a paper session, where she discussed her paper “Fragile utopias and dystopias? Governing the Future(s) in the OECD Youth Education Policies”
Funding news:
Saara Vainio received four-year funding from the Faculty of Educational Sciences Doctoral School on School, Society, Education and Culture (SEDUCE) for her PhD research concerning future trajectories of education and changing education governance towards neo-behaviorism. Congratulation Saara! This is great news for all in our projects and especially to supervisors Kristiina Brunila, Katariina Mertanen and Antti Saari. Also, PhD-researcher Anni Hirsaho got into the SEDUCE -doctoral programme for her research about psychologization of secondary education in Finland.
On the behalf of the FuturEd project, we wish you Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year 2022!