My research interests are learning, teaching, teacher education, and teachers’ professional learning, especially in the fields of Religious and Theological Education. I hold degrees in Theology from the University of Helsinki (MTh 2001, ThD 2008) and have worked as a Secondary Teacher, University Teacher, Senior Lecturer, and Postdoctoral Researcher in Religious Education. Since moving to England in 2010, I have been a Visiting Research Fellow at King’s College London, sponsored by the Academy of Finland.
My recent post of All Saints Saxton Research Fellow in Education at Regent’s Park College was funded by All Saints Educational Trust (ASET). I was a Coordinator of the Special Interest Group (SIG 9.) Phenomenography and Variation Theory of the European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction (EARLI) in 2011-2015. I am currently a member of the UNESCO Chair network in Teacher Education for Diversity and Development.
Selected Quote
“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” John 1:5
-
Selected Publications
Articles and Research Papers
- With R. Osman, 'What is Critical for Transforming Higher Education? The Transformative Potential of Pedagogical Framework of Phenomenography and Variation Theory of Learning', Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment 28.3 (2018), pp. 257-70
- With A. Wright, 'Teacher Education in Religious Education', in D. Jean Clandinin and J. Husu, eds, The SAGE Handbook of Research on Teacher Education (London: Sage, 2017), pp. 713-27
- With A. Wright, 'Thinking Skills and Religious Education', in P. Barnes, ed., Debates in Religious Education, Debates in Subject Teaching Series (London: Routledge, 2012), pp. 223-34
- With A. Wright, 'Learning ‘About’ and Learning ‘From’ Religion: Phenomenography, the Variation Theory of Learning and Religious Education in Finland and the UK', British Journal of Religious Education 31.1 (2009), pp. 53-64
- 'Teaching about Religions through the Variation Theory of Learning', in J. Berglund, and L. Roos, eds, Your Heritage and Mine: Teaching in a Multi-Religious Classroom, Studies on Inter-Religious Relations 43 (Uppsala: Swedish Science Press, 2009), pp. 25-34
- 'Developing Students’ Worldview Literacy through Variation: Pedagogical Prospects of Critical Religious Education and the Variation Theory of Learning for Further Education', Journal of Chaplaincy in Further Education 5.1 (2009), pp. 4-12
- 'Phenomenography and the Variation Theory of Learning as Pedagogical Tools for Understanding Religion', in F. Oser and W. Veugelers, eds, Getting involved: Global Citizenship Development and Sources of Moral Values (Rotterdam: Sense Publishers, 2008), pp. 343-58
- 'Variation in Finnish Students’ Understandings of Lutheranism and its Implications for Religious Education: A Phenomenographic Study', British Journal of Religious Education 30.3 (2008), pp. 247-57
-
See also