Social Justice at the Focus of Education (SAFE)

SAFE focuses on the possibilities for agency, participation and safety for different students within school, and how the societal and educational structures and practices impact these possibilities.
SAFE research group, photo by Iikka Jaakola

Research group information

Unit and faculty

Center for the study of society, philosophy and education

Contact information

Research group leader

Researchers

Research group description

The group focuses on questions of social justice in education: the possibilities for agency, participation and safety for different students within school, and how the societal and educational structures and practices impact these possibilities.

The researchers in the group are: Kaisu Alamikkelä, Katja Castillo, Anna Itkonen, Iida Kauhanen, Veli-Mikko Kauppi, Virve Keränen, Iiris Kivioja, Maija Lanas, Maria Petäjäniemi, Eveliina Puutio, Veera Tervo, Anu Uusikylä, Anne-Mari Väisänen, Kirsi Yliniva and Mehmet Öztürk.

Recent activities

SAFE leader Maija Lanas becomes the Dean of the Faculty of Education and Psycho…

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Kaleva [in Finnish]: Teachers can have a long-lasting impact on their students

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Maija Lanas [in Finnish]: Challenging situations in school, podcast

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Eveliina Puutio [in Finnish]: On gender and sexuality in primary school

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Five SAFE members presenting in ECER Glasgow this year

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Award for the best scientific article of the year goes to SAFE's Väisänen & Lan…

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Finnish Cultural Foundation awards funding for SAFE’s Kaisu Alamikkelä & Kirsi …

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MLL funding for SAFE researcher Kirsi Yliniva

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TOKPIK/SAFE course for teachers: "Safe growing environment in bullying preventi…

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FERA 2022: Unheard voices and unseen sceneries in education. A SAFE-led themati…

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Publications

List of publications by SAFE researchers from the past five years

Alamikkelä, K., Petäjäniemi, M., & Lanas, M. (2024). Saako mennä käytävälle tekemään? Nomadinen tutkimus avautuvan kouluympäristön arjesta. Kasvatus, 55(1), 21–32. https://doi.org/10.33348/kvt.143504

2023

Kaukko, M., Petäjäniemi, M., Harju-Autti, R., Haswell, N., Alisaari, J., Heikkola, L. M. & Mustonen, S. (2023). Tasapainoilua, tilan antamista ja näkymätisöintiä – Pakolaisaiheiden käsittelysuomalaisissa kouluissa. Kasvatus & Aika 17 (4), 45–63.

Kauppi, V.-M. & Pettersson, H. (2023). John Deweyn reflektiivinen ajattelu ja nykyinen kriittisen ajattelun kasvatusideaali [John Dewey's notion of reflective thinking and the modern educational goal of critical thinking]. Kasvatus & Aika 17 (1), 28–49.

Keränen, V. & Ylitapio-Mäntylä, O. (2023). Big and small, girls and boys: intersecting gendered touch practices in early childhood educators’ discourses. Gender and Education.

Lanas, M., Petäjäniemi, M., Väisänen, A.-M., Alamikkelä, K., Kauhanen, I. & Yliniva K. (2023). Appearing as Impossible Subjects on the Scene of Education - Potato Smashing, Laying on Couch and Asking for a Key. In Katie Wright and Julie McLeod (eds.), Childhood, Youth and Activism: Global Perspectives on Demands for Rights and Justice from Young People and their Advocates. Sociology Studies of Children and Youth.

Puutio, E., Pihkala, S., Lehtonen, J. & Huuki, T. (2023). School, online communities, and creative workshops as spaces for non-normative pre-teen gendered and sexual cultures. YOUNG.

Väisänen, Anne-Mari (2023). Tutkimus koulukiusaamista koskevasta asiantuntijapuheesta. Oulun yliopisto. Acta Universitatis Ouluensis. E, Scientiae rerum socialium

Väisänen, A.-M. & Lanas, M. (2023). Nuoret yksilöllistävän koulukiusaamispuheen kohteena kiusaamista koskevissa asiakirjoissa. Nuorisotutkimus, 41(2), 3–19.

Yliniva, K., Brunila, K. (2023). Re-Conceptualizing the Political Agency of Young Children in the Anthropocene. In: Wyn, J., Cahill, H., Cuervo, H. (eds) Handbook of Children and Youth Studies. Springer, Singapore.

2022

Castillo, K., Kukkola, J. & Siljander, P. (2022) Conserving the dignity of teaching through ethics as ‘mise en question’. Journal of Philosophy of Education, 56, 318– 328.

Itkonen, A., & Holma, K. (2022). From Reactivity to Sustainable Citizenship: Perspectives from Braidotti’s Philosophy. In: Holma, K., Kontinen, T. (eds.) Learning, Philosophy, and African Citizenship. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.

Kauhanen, I., Kaukko, M. & Lanas, M. (2022). Pockets of love. Unaccompanied children in institutional care in Finland. Children and Youth Services Review 141.

Kauppi, V.-M. (2022). Education and intelligence: Reconstructing John Dewey’s theory of intelligence from an educational perspective. Acta Universitatis Ouluensis E: Scientiae rerum socialium 208.

Lanas, M., Bendix Petersen, E. & Brunila, K. (2022). The discursive production of misbehaviour in professional literature, Critical Studies in Education, 63(3), 355-370.

Lanas, M. & Kiilakoski, T. (Eds.). (2022). Häiriö – Näkökulmia työrauhan säröihin koulussa. Vastapaino: Tampere

Lanas, M. (2022) Häiritsevä potunmuussaus. In M. Lanas & T. Kiilakoski (Eds.) Häiriö - Näkökulmia työrauhan säröihin koulussa. Vastapaino: Tampere.

Petäjäniemi, M. (2022). (Un)becoming an asylum seeker: Nomadic research with men awaiting an asylum decision. Acta Universitatis Ouluensis E: Scientiae rerum socialium 210.

Poulter, S. & Castillo, K. (2022). Subjectification as an Educational Goal in Religious and Worldview Education in Early Childhood Education and Care. In A. Kuusisto (ed.) The Routledge International Handbook of the Place of Religion in Early Childhood Education and Care.

Puutio, E., Huuki, T., & Pihkala, S. (2022). Mundane matters: Mapping the becomings of heterosexual girlhood in the emerging sexual cultures of elementary school children. Sexualities, 0(0).

Väisänen A.-M., & Lanas, M. (2022). Kuinka kiusaamistilanteissa olevista lapsista puhutaan? In M. Lanas & T. Kiilakoski (Eds.), Häiriö? — Näkökulmia työrauhan säröihin koulussa. Tampere: Vastapaino.

2021

Castillo, K. & Kekki, M.-K. (2021). Kokemus toisesta ja kesto Bergsonin filosofiassa. Tiede & Edistys, 46(3), 192–205.

Castillo, K., Ylitapio-Mäntylä, O., Mikkonen, J. & Kuorilehto, M. (2021). Tilaa toisen kohtaamiselle vai tilaa toiseuttaa? Katsomuskasvatuksen merkityskerrokset varhaiskasvatussuunnitelmissa. Journal of Early Childhood Education Research 10(3), 2021, 93–120.

Kauppi, V.-M. (2021). Älykkään toiminnan kontekstit: Deweyläinen näkökulma kasvatuksen dekontekstualisaatioon. Kasvatus, 52(4), 388–400.

Kauppi, V.-M., & Drerup, J. (2021). Discussion and inquiry: A Deweyan perspective on teaching controversial issues. Theory and Research in Education, 19(3), 213–234.

Petäjäniemi, M., Kaukko, M., & Lanas, M. (2021). Confined in waiting: Young asylum seekers narrating in and out of temporary shelter. YOUNG, 29(1), 62–80.

Petäjäniemi, M., Lanas, M., & Kaukko, M. (2021). How to be a ‘good asylum seeker’? The subjectification of young men seeking asylum. Nordic Journal of Migration Research, 11(3), 284–300.

Väisänen, A.-M., & Lanas, M. (2021). Dekontekstualisaatio kiusaamiskirjallisuudessa. Kasvatus, 52(4), 438–449.

2020

Kauhanen, I. & Kaukko, M. (2020). Recognition in the lives of unaccompanied children and youth: A review of the key European literature. Child & Family Social Work. 2020; 25: 875– 883.

Kauppi, V.-M., Holma, K., & Kontinen, T. (2020). John Dewey’s notion of social intelligence. In K. Holma & T. Kontinen (Eds.), Practices of citizenship in East Africa: Perspectives from philosophical pragmatism (pp. 44–54). London, United Kingdom: Routledge.

2019

Castillo, K. & Kukkola, J. (2019). Koloniaalisen subjektin purkaminen ja eettisten subjektifikaation prosessien mahdollisuus. Kasvatus, 2019(5), 430–445.

Huuki, T. & Lanas, M. (2019). Sámi child-adult/past-present entanglements in a painful lecture at university. In P. Rautio & E. Stenvall (Eds.). Social, Material and Political Constructs of Arctic Childhoods: An Everyday Life Perspective. Springer. 135-148.

Lanas, M. (2019). Can performing happy childhood be an occupational skill required of students? Childhood 26(2), 250-262.

Lanas, Maija, Brunila, Kristiina (2019) Bad behavior in school: discursive approach. British Journal of Sociology of Education. 40 (5).

2018

Petäjäniemi, M., Lanas, M., & Kaukko, M. (2018). Osallisuus turvaa hakevan reunaehdoissa: Hätämajoitusyksikössä asuvien nuorten miesten kertomuksia arjesta. Aikuiskasvatus, 38(1), 4–17.

2017

Ahola, K., Lanas, M. & Hämäläinen, A. (2017) Opettaja tukemassa kouluviihtyvyyden ilmapiiriä tunteita navigoimalla. Kasvatus. 48(4), 288-300.

Kivioja, I., & Puroila, A.-M. (2017) Alakoulun arkea lasten kertomana. Kasvatus & Aika, 11(1), 41-53.

Lanas, M. (2017) Giving up the lottery ticket: Finnish beginning teacher turnover as a question of discursive boundaries. Teaching and Teacher Education. 68. 68-76.

Lanas, M. & Huuki, T. (2017). Thinking beyond student resistances: a difficult assemblage in teacher education. European Journal of Teacher Education. 40(4), 436-446.

Lanas, M. (2017) An Argument for love in intercultural education in teacher education. Intercultural Education. 28(6), 557-570.

Lanas, M., Rautio, P., Viljamaa, E., Kinnunen, S., Juutinen, J., Koskela, A. (2017) Engaging with theoretical diffraction in teacher education, Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 38(4), 530-541