Professor of Philosophy of Education and the Dean of Research (University of Oulu) and the leader of the largest research group in the philosophy of education in Finland. Holmaâs work focuses on theories and philosophies of citizenship education and democracy, and the philosophy of science in educational research. She has been the PI in two successful multidisciplinary research consortia (AoF 2015â2019, AoF 2018â2022, results e.g. Holma & Kontinen 2020, 2022), and in three other research projects related to citizenship, learning and democracy. Web page.
(Contact: katariina.holma at oulu.fi)
Professor of Social Studies Education and convenor of the Citizenship, Identity, and Ethics research group (University of Turku), has published extensively on social studies and democratic education, most recently in a project on intersections of historical and moral consciousness (e.g. Ammert, Edling, Löfström & Sharp, Historical and Moral Consciousness in Education: Learning Ethics for Democratic Citizenship Education. Routledge, 2022) and is in the steering group of the research network âDemocracy in the past, present, and looking to the futureâ (funded by the Swedish Research Council, 2023â2025). Web page.Â
(Contact: jan.lofstrom at utu.fi)
PI of the Tampere University subproject
Professor Emeritus of Educational Philosophy and Teacher Education (Tampere University)Â is the best-known Finnish pioneer of the dialogic theory of education and one of the leading Finnish philosophers of education today. He has extensive experience in the development of teacher education and leading research projects, and an exceptionally broad influence as a supervisor of later generations of researchers. In recent decades, he has become particularly known for his application of educational philosophy to societal and ecological issues.
(Contact: veli-matti.varri at tuni.fi)
Postdoc researcher
PhD, post-doc researcher (University of Oulu), is the main responsible researcher for the theoretical subproject. Huhtala has worked in the research projects âReforming the Theory of Citizenship Educationâ and âCitizenship in Change: Constructing a Novel Theoretical Framework for Educationâ. She served as the editor-in-chief of the educational journal Kasvatus & Aika from 2021 to 2024. She is a board member of the History and Philosophy of Education Network, which she chaired from 2017 to 2021, and a former member of the science association Finnish Society for the History of Education.  Web page.
(Contact: hanna-maija.huhtala at oulu.fi)Â
Doctoral researcher
MA (Ed.), Doctoral student (University of Turku), works as a project researcher in the empirical subproject. The survey and interviews of the subproject will comprise Jaakkolaâs doctoral research. She will be supervised by Löfström (Sp1, University of Turku) and Tomperi (Sp3, Tampere University). She has studied education (class teacher program) and journalism, focusing on education for democracy in schools, and has done her MA thesis with a large survey data on teachersâ views on democratic and political issues. She has already published in scientific journals in Finland and internationally.
(Contact: julia.jaakkola at utu.fi)Â
University researcher
PhD (Ed.), MA (phil.), senior researcher (Tampere University), is responsible for the implementation of the pedagogical subproject. He is also the leader of the research project âIntergenerational Justice and the Philosophizing Communitiesâ (Kone Foundation, 2022â2025). Tomperi is one of the founding editors of the philosophical journal niin & nĂ€in (1994â) and the publishing series Thinking Skills (Society for European Philosophy), and the editor of the Finnish editions of John Deweyâs Democracy and Education, Matthew Lipmanâs Thinking in Education and Paulo Freireâs Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Web page.
(Contact: tuukka.tomperi at tuni.fi)
We have agreed on both scientific cooperation with eminent international professors and domestic practical cooperation with key national actors developing deliberative democracy to get feedback and support and to disseminate the results and ideas of the project.
International steering group
Nicholas C. Burbules is Emeritus Professor from the Department of Education Policy, Organization and Leadership at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). The UIUC is one of the leading universities in the fields of philosophy of education and educational policy studies. Burbulesâs research focuses on philosophy of education; the ethics of communication; critical social and political theory; and technology and education. Burbules is a longstanding collaborator of PI Holma.
Silvia Edling is Professor of Education at the University of GĂ€vle and Scientific Director of the research programme Democracy and Equality: Learning Processes for Social Sustainability. Over the years, Edling has deepened her interest in the ethical, pluralistic, communicative and controversial dimensions of democracy in educational contexts. A sustainable and vibrant democracy cannot focus solely on democratic procedures and majority principles, but depends on issues of equality, ethics and diversity. In recent years, Edling’s research has come to approach democracy through the grid of historical consciousness as an educational means to understand its role in the past, present and future.
Andrea R. English is Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in Philosophy of Education at the University of Edinburgh. She is Executive Board member and Teacher Education Coordinator of the Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain, Editor of IMPACT for the Journal of Philosophy of Education, and Associate Editor of Dewey Studies. She is incoming President of the John Dewey Society. For more than two decades, her research has developed the ideas of âuncertaintyâ and âproductive struggleâ in transformative learning. Her scholarly work is concerned particularly with how these concepts are relevant for understanding the teacherâs role in building equitable, democratic classrooms today.
Maughn Gregory is Professor of Educational Foundations at Montclair State University (USA), and successor of Matthew Lipman as the director of the Institute for the Advancement of Philosophy for Children (IAPC). He is one of the leading figures of the community of philosophical inquiry education in the world.
Walter Kohan is Professor of Philosophy of Education and the Director of the Center of Studies in Philosophy and Childhood at the State University of Rio de Janeiro, and co-editor of the journal Childhood & Philosophy. His books on philosophy, childhood and democratic education have been published in several languages. Walter is a pioneer of CPI in Latin America.
Dina Mendonça is a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Philosophy of the Nova University of Lisbon (IFILNOVA) and coordinator of the research group on Philosophy and Argumentation in Society (PAIS). Her research interests center on philosophy of education, especially philosophy for/with children (which she studied under Lipman and Sharp in IAPC), and philosophy of emotions, focusing on developing a situated approach to emotions, based on Deweyan pragmatism.
National partners
National partners of practical collaboration in developing and disseminating educational ideas of deliberative democracy in Finland have confirmed their interest to cooperate: The Union of local Youth Councils in Finland (NUVA ry), The New Forms of Participation project of The Finnish Innovation Fund SITRA (SITRA), Timeout-foundation (Timeout-Dialogue), and FILOâPhilosophy for children, young people and communities -society (FILO). With our partners, we will organise, e.g., seminars, school visits, training for teachers and students, and public events. The partnersâ diverse and prominent activities in Finnish society will enable the projectâs experiments and results to be disseminated widely beyond the education system.