Marika Oikarinen

Dr. Marika Oikarinen is a teacher educator and researcher currently working at the University of Oulu in the Intercultural Teacher Education Programme. She has worked over a decade as a project coordinator and a teacher educator in Southern Africa, particularly Namibia. Her Phd focused on educational marginalization and explored how to develop a more just education in the hard-to-reach and hard-to-teach contexts. Her overarching research focus is on equity and cultural responsiveness in education, spanning teacher education, global education, and higher education partnerships. There is a strong emphasis on contextualized approaches—how education systems can adapt to diverse cultural, social, and political realities.
She is actively involved in north-south higher education institutional collaboration and is passionate about developing meaningful partnerships that spearhead, transform and inspire sustainable and equitable (teacher) education.