Katariina Holma, Principal investigator
katariina.holma@helsinki.fi
Tel: +358 40 5697040
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The project leader, Katariina Holma, is a Docent in Educational Sciences at the University of Helsinki, Finland, and Senior Researcher in Philosophy of Education at the University of Eastern Finland. Her research interests include the intersections of epistemology and education, the pragmatist philosophy of education, and research methodology of theoretical educational research. In this project, Holma analyzes the philosophy of the intertwined nature of reason, emotion, and morality in the  processes of growing into citizenship.

Anniina Leiviskä, MA, Doctoral Student
anniina.leiviska@helsinki.fi

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Anniina Leiviskä completed her Master’s degree in 2010 and began her doctoral studies at the University of Helsinki in 2011. Leiviskä is currently working on a doctoral thesis that examines the relevance of Hans-Georg Gadamer’s philosophical hermeneutics for contemporary moral and citizenship education. In her thesis, Leiviskä aims to find possible ways of overcoming the juxtaposition between modern and postmodern tendencies in the contemporary philosophy of education, which give rise to different, even contradictory understandings of the aims and scope of moral and citizenship education. Leiviskä argues that Gadamer’s hermeneutics can be interpreted as an ethical theory, which bears an understanding of morality that circumvents both the rationalism of the Enlightenment philosophy and the relativism of postmodern philosophy, and thus bears significance for the contemporary problematic of the philosophy of education. Furthermore, Leiviskä argues that Gadamer’s educational relevance has not been sufficiently recognized, although Gadamer’s notion of understanding involves an exceptionally perceptive analysis of the nature and structure of the event of learning.

Hanna-Maija Huhtala, MA, Doctoral Student,
hanna-maija.huhtala@helsinki.fi

Hanna-Maija Huhtala completed her Master’s degree in 2012. In 2013, she began her doctoral studies at the University of Helsinki. In her thesis Huhtala focuses on constructing a theoretical perspective which derives from Critical Theory, but also takes the current philosophical discussions of citizenship education into consideration. Huhtala’s particular interest is the examination of the solutions for the dichotomies between subject and society from the perspective of Critical Theory. The tension between subject and society will be approached particularly by analyzing the themes of reason, freedom and autonomy from the perspective of Critical Theory. In addition, Huhtala will analyze the features of modern society, which Critical Theory understands as functioning against the requisites of the balanced structure of personality. These discussions are related to the philosophical questions concerning the relationship of subject and society as well as the educational questions of fostering the processes of democracy, tolerance, and dialogue.

Katariina Tiainen, MA, Doctoral Student
katariina.tiainen@helsinki.fi

Katariina Tiainen completed her Master’s degree at the University of Helsinki in 2013 and began her doctoral studies during the same year. Her doctoral thesis focuses on the philosophical background of the critical pedagogy in American critical pedagogy and evaluates its relevance from the perspective of citizenship education. Tiainen concentrates particularly on the moral and political commitments underlying Critical Pedagogy and analyzes their relevance and legitimation in today’s societies. She also analyzes the dialectics between the subject and the structure as it is interpreted in critical theory, and the relevance of this interpretation to citizenship education.