People

The SusEdu community supports junior and senior researchers, research fellows and affiliates interested in questions of Sustainability. Researchers and key partners involved are introduced below. 

GROUP MEMBERS

Dr Lili-Ann Wolff

Lili-Ann Wolff, Associate professor, Lecturer in science education, member of HELSUS and SIRENE. Research interest: Sustainability education from various views, including philosophical, political, scientific, inter- and trans-disciplinary. She studies topics related to teacher education, biodiversity learning, sustainable leadership, social sustainability and education in the Anthropocene, etc.  Wolff actively participates in research collaboration and in a number of projects both nationally and internationally.

Lili-Ann’s researcher profiles: Tuhat ORCID ResearchGate

Dr Anna Uitto

Anna Uitto, Professor in Biology Education, Faculty of Educational Sciences, UH, works in class & subject teacher education. She is member of HELSUS Steering group and SIRENE and supervisor in the SEDUCE doctoral programme. Her research interests concern biology, biodiversity and sustainability education. Also interested in inquiry-based learning, outdoor learning and socio-scientific issues. She is leading or collaborating in national and international research projects.

Anna’s researcher profiles: Tuhat ORCID

Dr Markus Hilander 

Markus Hilander, Lecturer in environmental education, member of HELSUS and SIRENE.

Research interest: Hilander is especially interested in researching visual culture; for instance, the visual catalogues of media, textbooks and advertisements as well as drawing as a research method. In his research, Hilander applies semiotic concepts to the interpretation of photographs in the context of geography education.  

Markus’s researcher profiles:  Tuhat ORCID ResearhGate

Dr. Arja Kaasinen

Arja Kaasinen is University lecturer in Didactics of Biology and member of HELSUS and SIRENE. She is Founder of Finnish Kids Forest Trip Day, Blooming -plant walking Ideology, and Hemuli -childrens’ plant hobby club. Also, Arja is member of the KeKePeda -sustainability team. Main research interests include sustainability education, biodiversity education, plant species recognition and outdoor education. Kaasinen is working in several multidisciplinary projects.

Arja’s researcher profiles: Tuhat

Dr Hanelle Cantell

Hannele Cantell is university lecturer of geography education. Her main interests among sustainability issues are climate education, transformative climate action, global education, education of the other (minorities etc.), and pedagogy of possible futures. In addition, she is interested in learning, teaching and materials of environmental issues. Hannele is a member of SIRENE and HELSUS. Also the Chair person of Teachers Without Borders Network and KekePeda-group at the Faculty of Educational Sciences, UoH.

Publications and other information: ORCID

Dr Saiki Lucy Cheah

Saiki Lucy Cheah, facilitator of the Community of Philosophical Inquiry (CPI), researcher of education for environmental citizenship. Saiki’s CPI workshop series focus on environmental ethics, sustainability citizenship and personal identity.  Her research interests include environmental citizenship education, comparative & international education, and CPI pedagogy for sustainable development education. Saiki has recently joined HELSUS as a visiting scholar/ researcher. 

Saiki’s teaching and research profiles: ResearchGate, UWCBASF

Dr Marianna Vivitsou

Marianna Vivitsou, member of HELSUS and Global Education Research in Finland, is postdoctoral researcher at the Faculty of Educational Sciences. Her work draws from the theory of narratology, metaphor theory, the new materialist thinking and feminist studies. She is interested in policies and practices for sustainable university future-oriented hybrid pedagogies and the imaginaries that emerge with the use of digital technologies.   

Marianna’s teacher and researcher profiles: ORCID Teacher.helsinki.fi

Dr Shuanghong Jenny Niu 

Shuanghong Jenny Niu is working in the Faculty of Educational Sciences. She is dedicated in the research fields of school leadership and management; teachers’ education and training; and the development of 21st century skills. She provides teachings for principals and teachers on leadership, phenomenon-based learning, and digital storytelling. Her current research focus is teaching and learning 21st century competences which enables a sustainable growth in students’ and teachers’ future work and life.  

Jenny’s research profile:  Tuhat

Dr Sirpa Kokko 

Sirpa Kokko, University Lecturer, leads the study programme for craft teacher education, is a member of HELSUS and supervisor in SEDUCE doctoral programme. Her research concerns arts and crafts in culture and society and their role in education in Finland and international contexts. Her research interests include sustainability perspective on gender, cultural heritage, craft culture, approaches to craft pedagogy, interdisciplinary education, and Craft Science as an academic discipline. Kokko is active in research collaboration in a range of both national and international projects.

Sirpa’s researcher profiles: ORCID, Tuhat, Research Gate

Dr Satu Valkonen

Satu Valkonen is University Lecturer in early childhood education and member of HELSUS, AGORA and PERLA. Her research interests include sustainability education in ECEC and she has developed the PROSUS tool for promoting sustainability in early years setting. In addition, Satu’s research interests include marketization in early years education and the transnational nature of education governance, media education and multiliteracies, and social interaction in the digital age.

Research profile: Tuhat Orchid

Dr Riikka Hohti

Her research is situated at the intersections of childhood studies, human-animal studies, and education, with the specific aim of developing more-than-human education. She has conducted multispecies research in educational contexts as member of the cross-disciplinary research teams AniMate and CitiRats. Riikka has written about multispecies childhoods, care relations, digitality, temporality, and the atmospheres of the Anthropocene. In connection with these topics, she has developed feminist posthumanist and post-qualitative methodological approaches. 

More about Riikka’s research: Tuhat

Dr Harriet Zilliacus

Harriet Zilliacus is University Lecturer in educational sciences, and member of HELSUS and SIRENE. She is also a member of the KekePeda sustainability team at the Faculty of Educational Sciences.  Her research is focused on sustainability and worldview transformation in education and topics related to social justice and cultural, worldview and linguistic diversity in education.

More about Harriet’s research: Tuhat

Dr Antti Rajala

Antti Rajala is a Senior Researcher at the Department of Educational Sciences and Psychology, University of Eastern Finland. He is also affiliated to the Faculty of Educational Sciences at University of Helsinki (Title of Docent). Rajala’s research interests include dialogic pedagogy, global education, as well as learning, agency, and activism in education. Currently, he leads the projects Pedagogy of concrete utopias: Promoting youth climate activism in formal education (2020-2023, funded by the Academy of Finland and Maj and Tor Nessling Foundation) and Utopia-laboratory in education: Fostering community-based and inter-generational learning for sustainability (2023-2027, funded by University of Eastern Finland, 2023-2027).