Kone Foundation has announced the results of its autumn call, allocating more than 48 million euros in grants to scientific researchers and artists. Ten research projects at the University of Eastern Finland secured a grant from Kone Foundation, with the total funding amounting to 1.78 million euros.
The largest individual grant, 401,700 euros, was awarded to Professor Sirpa Lappalainen and working group for the project What Must Be Learned? Negotiating the Minimum of Literacy in Compulsory Education. In contemporary society, active participation and enacting citizenship demand a wide range of literacies. For example, processes like drafting and supporting citizens' initiatives require expertise in handling long and complex texts.
For this reason, the study focuses on literacies and the teaching of the Finnish language as a cornerstone of democratic participation and social inclusion within the educational system. The project takes an interdisciplinary approach, drawing on educational sociology and studies on sociocultural literacy. The research examines how the minimum is negotiated in educational policy documents and in everyday educational settings. The study delves into how the minimum is defined, justified, and connected to societal distinctions in and through these negotiations.
The project provides comprehensive insights into the practices of societal participation—and thus democratic citizenship—that emerges from these negotiations about the minimum literacies in schools.
University of Eastern Finland projects securing Kone Foundation funding:
- Docent, University Lecturer Teppo Eskelinen and working group: 119,200 euros. Project title: Hiljaisuuksien äänet: Demokratian muutos ja vaikenemisen kuvaaminen.
- Postdoctoral Researcher Anna Heinonen: 121,400 euros. Project title: Sukupuoli ja seksuaalisuus suomalaisissa kommuuneissa.
- Juho Kahila, Doctor of Education: 126,800 euros: Project title: ”Menikö tunteisiin?” – Moninäkökulmainen tutkimus lasten ja nuorten peliraivosta.
- Postdoctoral Researcher Taina Kalliokoski and working group: 112,900 euros. Project title: Jatkuvasta kasvusta kohti ekologisen luopumisen aikakautta: Luopujien sosiaalinen ja moraalinen toiminta tieteen ja taiteen silmin.
- Professor Jari Kouki and working group: 147,100 euros. Project title: Vanha puu ei ole aina iso, eikä iso puu vanha: puiden iän ja koon merkitys metsien suojeluarvoille.
- Professor Sirpa Lappalainen and working group 401,700 euros. Project title: Mitä on pakko oppia? Tekstitaitojen minimistä neuvottelu ja eriarvoisuus oppivelvollisuuskoulussa.
- Doctoral Researcher Georgios Manoudakis: 148,600 euros. Project title: Nocturnal Being(s): Foreign Wanderers in the Precarious Weather-Scape of the North.
- Project Researcher Marianna Preston: 100,200 euros. Project title: Role of Social Inclusion in the Well-being of the Hearing-Impaired Participants in Tourism.
- University Lecturer Sanna Ryynänen, PhD, and working group: 381,700 euros. Project title: Temppurata vai kaikkien turva? – selviytymisen strategiat ja uudet eriarvoisuuden rakenteet murenevassa hyvinvointivaltiossa.
- Heli Turtinen, MSocSc: 120,400 euros. Project title: Kestävän hyvinvoinnin mittarit ekologisissa makrotalousmalleissa.
