Anu Alanko

Anu Alanko is a University Lecturer in the Faculty of Education and Psychology at the University of Oulu, within the Teacher Education, Education and Society Unit. She is a member of the Youth Education, Sociology and Gender Studies Research Group, whose research focuses on socially responsible education and training and their significance in building a more just society.

Alanko holds a Doctorate in Education and a Master's degree in Sociology. Her research is situated at the intersections of the sociology of education, youth studies, and educational research. In her doctoral dissertation, she examined the Oulu model of youth participation and young people's opportunities to participate in and be heard on matters affecting their lives within their local communities. Children's and young people's participation and agency have been recurring themes throughout her research career.

In her subsequent research, Alanko has focused on home-school collaboration and on how responsibilities, expectations, and power relations in education and schooling are constructed. Her work pays particular attention to the perspectives of guardians, the significance of family and close relationships, and issues of educational inequality.

Her current research focuses on the Wilma system, the central digital communication and administrative platform used in Finnish comprehensive education. This research examines how Wilma shapes relationships among students, guardians, and school staff, as well as practices of participation, responsibility, and collaboration within school communities. A unifying theme across Alanko's research is an interest in how the structures of education, schooling, and civic participation enable or constrain individual agency. Her work contributes to understanding the position of young people, families, and school communities in the context of societal change and increasingly digitalized educational environments.