Antti Saari is an assistant professor (tenure track) in the Tampere University Faculty of Education and Culture. His main research interests include history and philosophy of education and curriculum studies.
Antti Saari
Associate professor, PI
Saari’s research covers two main themes:
The interfaces between expert knowledges and governing education, including how psychological and sociological discourses are translated into practices of evaluation, classroom management and the use of instructional technology. In particular, Saari has studied the psychological discourses of subjective well-being in the form of positive education and mindfulness, as well as the role of psychological theories and concepts of learning in governing education.
Recently, Saari has begun investigating the uses of psychoanalytic theories to analyze truth, power and subjection in education. In particular, Saari has studied how the concepts of desire and transference can aid in understanding subjection and emancipation. Moreover, Saari studies how the psychoanalytic concept of the uncanny can open novel vistas for theorizing environmental education in the Anthropocene.
Saari is a group leader and a founding member of the Political Philosophies and Sociologies of Education (POISED) research group.
Johanna Kallio is a doctoral researcher in the Faculty of Education and Culture at Tampere University, Finland. Her main research interests are philosophy of education, theories of self and theories of emotions in education.
Johanna Kallio
Doctoral Researcher
Kallio is currently working on her educational theoretic PhD research, which aim is to develop a model for ecologically sustainable self-cultivation. The theoretical background of her research is based on Martha Nussbaum’s neo-Stoic theory of emotions. Find more about her ongoing PhD research here.
Kallio is a founding member of the Political Philosophies and Sociologies of Education (POISED) research group.
Kallio is also a board member in The Finnish Society for Research on Adult Education during 2020–2022.
Jan Varpanen is a doctoral researcher in the Faculty of Education and Culture at Tampere University, Finland. His main research interests are philosophy of education, the question of Being in education, early childhood education and agency in educational settings.
Jan Varpanen
Doctoral Researcher
Varpanen is currently working on his doctoral dissertation where he inquires into the relationship of Being and thinking in the educational process of subjectification. He draws on the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze to develop key educational concepts originally put forward by Gert Biesta.
Varpanen is a member of the Political Philosophies and Sociologies of Education, (POISED) research group.
In addition to his primary interests, Varpanen has recently worked in the Innoplay project as well as the research project ”Discourses of leadership in early childhood education”. His contributions to these projects have focused on the concept of agency and related issues.
Selected publications:
Varpanen, J. (2019). What is children’s agency? A review of conceptualizations used in early childhood education research. Educational Research Review, 28.
Varpanen, J. (2018). Subjektifikaatio ja leikki: varhaiskasvatuksen antia subjektifikaation mahdollisuuden jäsentämiselle. Kasvatus & aika 12(3), 5-18.
Varpanen, J. (2018). Vapaus, demokratia ja jaettu todellisuus osallisuuden ytimessä. In J. Kangas, J. Vlasov, E. Fonsén & J. Heikka (toim.) Osallisuuden pedagogiikkaa varhaiskasvatuksessa 2 – Suunnittelu, toteuttaminen ja kehittäminen. Tampere: Suomen varhaiskasvatus ry, 120-134.
Katri Jurvakainen is a research assistant Enact project.
Katri Jurvakainen
Research Assistant
Katri Jurvakainen is a research assistant in Enact project and a master’s student in the Faculty of Education and Culture at Tampere University, Finland. Her main research interests are educational philosophy and theory, especially in the context of climate education.
Jurvakainen is a member of the Political Philosophies and Sociologies of Education, (POISED) research group.
EnAct – Researching Environmental Activism and Self-Cultivation 