The research group on Finnish language and literature education is studying the school subject ‘mother tongue and literature’, and especially the syllabi of Finnish language and literature, and Finnish as a second language and literature. We conduct research from the viewpoints of learning, teaching, guidance, and assessment on the topics of reading, writing, knowledge about language, interaction skills, literature education, drama and media education, and linguistic development and support of a language learner. Our interests range from early childhood education to preparatory education, basic education, upper secondary school, vocational education, and teacher education.
The Research Group for Foreign Language Education teaches, researches, and develops foreign language education. The research group has a wide range of research foci within foreign language education at the primary, secondary, and tertiary levels of education as well as in teacher education. We also participate actively in developing and implementing in-service training.
The Research Group for Geography and Environmental Education has two main tasks: research concerning geography education and environmental education.
Research on geography education builds bridges between the academic discipline of geography and the school subject of geography. It applies new perspectives on geography education and brings the everyday environments of children and young people into the sphere of geographical research.
Our research group studies themes related to the teaching and learning of history and social sciences. We are interested in topics such as the development and evaluation of historical thinking as well as reasoning in the social sciences. We also study the history of education and the complex relationship between education and society. We are interested in the historical formation of teacherhood, the development of teacher education, the rhetoric of the public debate on education, and the various political and ideological pressures on schools. We also explore how people use history in their everyday lives.
In addition to research, our group produces materials to support the teaching of history and social studies as well as organising development projects in the field. We are responsible for teaching history and social studies didactics in the Faculty of Education, and provide doctoral training linked to our research themes.
Our topical research themes include the implementation of religious and secular worldview education in a diverse society, issues related to the professional competence of worldview education teachers both at school and in early childhood education as well as human rights and citizen education.