Sustainability Education Research Group in the Research Day of the Faculty of Educational Sciences

sustainability education for equality and women's voices

The Sustainability Education Research (SusEdu) Group is participating in the Research Day 2023 of the Faculty of Educational Sciences . The research day starts at 9am and extends through the day until 3.30pm, in Minervatori, Siltavuorenpenger 5A. More information can be found in the research day page (accessible only for the those with a UH account). Below is our group’s schedule for presentations.

Fri 03.03.2023, at 09.30–11.30 

Place: Minerva K113, Siltavuorenpenger 5A

PROGRAMME 

The session is held in English. 

09.30-09.35 Introduction 

09.35-09.50 Reframing Nature in Worldview Education (Harriet Zilliacus) 

09.50-10.05 FEDORA project: Developing Future-Oriented Science Education, Antti Laherto

10.05-10.20 Utopian Methodologies to Address the Social and Ecological Crises through Educational Research, Antti Rajala

10.20-10.35 From Theory to Practice; Producing Research-Based Sustainability Education Course with Upper Secondary School Students, Anna Uitto

10.35-10.50 The SveaSus Project – Sustainable World Heritage Learning through a Phenomenon-Based Approach, Lili-Ann Wolff & Emma Heikkilä

10.50-11.05 Metaphors of Sustainability and Transformation in Students’ Video Storytelling in SveaSus Project, Marianna Vivitsou 

11.05-11.20 Sustainability Competences, Jenny Niu

11.20-11.30 Discussion and Closing the Session 

SusEdu Seminar: Beyond Boundaries — check the program of the day

Sustainability Education Research Beyond Boundaries

The purpose of the Sustainability Education Research Day is to explore the intersections of current educational research and practices and sustainability studies. By the title “Beyond Boundaries”, this year’s seminar seeks to address the need and the potentials of examining perspectives across disciplines and accounting for transitions and margins. 

The day is organized by Sustainability Education (SusEdu) research group at the Faculty of Education, UH), a diverse group of sustainability researchers and educators from different research and didactic backgrounds. 

The program of the day:

9:00WelcomeChair of the seminar Marianna Vivitsou
Opening wordsDean of the Faculty of Educational Sciences Johanna Mäkelä

SusEdu group leader Lili-Ann Wolff
9:15-10:15KeynoteAssociate Professor Michiru Natagsu,
The case against (sustainability) education? On the convergence of Libertarian, Marxist and Anarchist view
Michiru Nagatsu

Michiru Nagatsu, PhD
·        Title of Docent, Faculty Common Matters
·        Associate professor, Practical Philosophy
·        Practical Philosophy
·        Helsinki Institute of Sustainability Science (HELSUS)
·        TINT – Centre for Philosophy of Social Science

Key note abstract:

One might reasonably expect that there is little in common among Libertarian, Marxist and Anarchist traditions in political philosophy. I argue that at least some strands in these traditions show an interesting convergence when it comes to their views on the main function of education as an institution in modern society: that it is a mechanism to produce conformists who support the dominant economic and political system. If there is some truth in this claim, then the prospect of sustainability education to help our society achieve sustainability transformation might be slim. I will discuss this worry and possible remedies.

Abstracts of presentations

Timetable of presentations : Session 1 & Session 2

10:20-11:30 Session 1 — moderated by Marianna Vivitsou

10:20-10:40Maritime archaeological research and sustainability educationAikaterini Velentza
10:20-10:40
(cancelled)
Promoting food sense through school meals Kristiina Janhonen
10:40-11:00Situating Energy Literacy within Fictional Writing: Intermedial Ecocritical Frames Inna Sukhenko
11:00-11:20Children of the Anthropocene. Researching Atmospheres in the Ruins of an Anthropocentric WorldRiikka Hohti
11:20-11:30Q & A

11.30-12:15 Lunch break

12:15-13:45 Session 2 — moderated by Satu Valkonen

12:15- 12:35Supporting children’ sustainable growth with skills learning mindset using solution-focused Kids’ Skills methodJenny Niu
12:35-12:55ECEC Personnel’s’ Views on Social and Cultural Sustainability: Dealing the questions of difference and diversitySatu Valkonen
12:55-13:15The role of futures in sustainability education Tapio Rasa & Antti Laherto
13:15-13:35Vanhakin nyt nuortuu: kokeneen kestävyystutkijan viimeaikaisia oivalluksiaHannele Cantell
13:35-13:45 Q & A
13:45-14:15
Let’s talk Boundaries
Inspired by the title of the seminar, this open session invites participants to reflect on and discuss approaches to Boundaries in Sustainability Education Research. The discussion will focus on questions such as: what boundaries are we talking about? why go beyond boundaries? are boundaries necessary at all?



Marianna Vivitsou
 




14:15Closing words Lili-Ann Wolff

Let’s talk Boundaries

Inspired by the title of the seminar, this open session invites participants to reflect on and discuss approaches to Boundaries in Sustainability Education and Research. Questions such as “What boundaries are we talking about nowadays? Why do we need to go beyond boundaries? Are boundaries necessary at all?” emerge nowadays and call for us to revisit the notion of boundaries.

Beyond Boundaries in Sustainability Education? 

Toward this direction, we will be using the metaphor of diffraction to look into boundaries from a new materialist and post-humanist perspective. In new materialist thinking and, more particularly, in the work of Karen Barad (Posthumanist Performativity: Toward an Understanding of How Matter Comes to Matter, 2003), the perspective on Boundaries is illustrated through the metaphor of diffraction of waves. An example of a diffraction pattern of waves is depicted in the featured image of this post. Diffraction appears in the form of more bright and more shadowy regions in the circular shape of ocean waves..

Continue reading “Let’s talk Boundaries”

Sustainability Education Research Beyond Boundaries

Online seminar on Friday, 4.3.2022, at 9.00am 

The purpose of the Sustainability Education Research Day is to explore the intersections of current educational research and practices and sustainability studies. By the title “Beyond Boundaries”, this year’s seminar seeks to address the need and the potentials of examining perspectives across disciplines and accounting for transitions and margins. 

The day is organized by SusEdu (Sustainability Education research group at the Faculty of Education, UH), a diverse group of sustainability researchers and educators from different research and didactic backgrounds.  

During this seminar day, we encourage participants to extend their thinking, research and collaboration beyond the confines of educational sciences. In hopes of drawing closer the disparate areas of sustainability research and educational practices, our seminar invites presenters to engage with topics that afford for transdisciplinary and other contact zones. In addition, the aim is to examine how sustainability educators and researchers nowadays navigate academic/non-academic, cultural/physical, temporal/spatial, ontological/epistemological and empirical/theoretical boundaries.  

We welcome all colleagues with an interest in these issues to take part.  

The seminar day will start with a welcome address by the Dean of the Faculty of Educational Sciences Professor Johanna Mäkelä. It continues with a keynote speech by Associate Professor Michiru Nagatsu (HELSUS). The keynote is followed by paper presentation sessions.  

If you would like to give a short presentation on your research topic, please contact Riikka Hohti (firstname.surname@helsinki.fi) and Antti Laherto (firstname.surname@helsinki.fi), and include:  

  • The title of your presentation  
  • Author’s name or authors’ names    
  • Author’s title, research field, and affiliation (for every author, if more than one)    
  • Abstract (100-150 words)  
  • The language(s) you are ready to present (in priority order)  

We welcome proposals in Finnish, Swedish and English.  

Please send your proposal no later than Friday, 4.2.2022

We will respond to the submitted proposals, and send further information on the programme by Monday, 14.2.2022. 

You are also welcome to participate in the seminar without a paper. You will find the programme and a Zoom-link in a forthcoming e-mail.  

What is SusEdu?  

Sustainability Education aims to build awareness and knowledge about sustainability issues, including contemporary unsustainability crises, and to envision and act for a better future.  Sustainability education research studies and develops educational theories and methods related to sustainability education. Currently, the members of SusEdu include professors, lecturers and researchers based at the Faculty of Education and/or HELSUS (Helsinki Institute of Sustainability Science).  The SusEdu group works in close collaboration with other working groups interested in sustainability at the Faculty, such as the Kestävän Kehityksen työryhmä (KekePeda).  

We would also like to invite interested researchers to become members of the SusEdu group. Please contact the chair Lili-Ann Wolff by e-mail (firstname.surname@helsinki.fi), if you would like to join or learn more about SusEdu.  

Transformation and Sustainability Education : news on SusEdu activity

image of trees with filters

As we are in the process of defining our terms for Sustainability Education, the SusEdu working group organises the next meeting for members on transformative learning. The meeting agenda includes four article readings on the theme. The articles will be summarised by participants and then discussion will follow.

Transformation has been a widely debated term, and challenging to define. What makes learning transformative, what does the process of transformation look like; what qualities are attributed to it. How much of it is linked with thinking and how much with action?. Nowadays, the issue becomes even hotter, as we look into transformation through the lens of Sustainability and relate to dimensions such as activism, enactivism and affection.

What are then new perspectives on transformation, learning and sustainable education? These are some questions the next SusEdu meeting will raise and put efforts to explore.

Tune in for more and get on board!