Arniika Kuusisto
Biographic Data
| ID | 105272 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Arniika Kuusisto |
| GIVEN NAMES | Arniika |
| FAMILY NAME | Kuusisto |
| SIGNATURE | KUUSISTO A |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Helsinki |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-6085-576X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 32 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 48 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 32 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2003 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Promoting sustainable occupational well-being through leadership in Finnish early childhood education
Societal and structural changes in Finnish early childhood education and care (ECEC) have introduced new expectations for pedagogical quality. At the same time, the intensifying administrative and resource-related pressures are causing challenges to employee well-being and ECEC leadership. While leadership is a key determinant for occupational well-being, growing systemic and operational demands threaten the leaders’ ability to focus on pedagogic…
The variety of worldview profiles among Finnish upper secondary school students
In recent decades, the religious landscape in Europe, including Finland, has witnessed increasing secularisation and pluralisation. In this article, we investigate the diversity of worldviews among Finnish upper secondary school students from a person-centred perspective. By conducting latent class analysis on the survey responses of 973 students, we distinguish five different worldview profiles: the Culturally Moderate are characterised by avera…
Young people’s experiences of religious socialisation in Sweden and Finland
The religious landscape in the Nordic countries has changed in recent decades. This article looks at what this means from the perspective of the religious socialisation experiences of Finnish and Swedish youth. Research has shown that the views and values of parents, family, friends, the youth culture and those that are prevalent in school and society as a whole are important for young people’s self-development. The intergenerational socialisatio…
Teachers’ Pedagogical Competence in Finnish Early Childhood Education—A Narrative Literature Review
Finnish early childhood education (ECE) is defined in education policies and research as an activity with an emphasis on pedagogy as a holistic and Nordic model of education. Pedagogical competence can be viewed as a special expertise of teachers responsible for the implementation of pedagogy in ECE. However, it is unclear how a teacher’s pedagogical competence is defined, understood, and implemented in pedagogical practices and policies. Previou…
Teaching English as a Second Language in the Early Years
Second language (L2) education in the early years has been steadily increasing worldwide. Since second language education at earlier ages is relatively new in many countries, not much research is available regarding teaching practices in this context. Likewise, limited research attention has been directed to teachers’ perspectives on early L2 teaching. This study investigated what characterises teachers’ pedagogical planning, teaching practices a…
Teachers’ Perceptions of the Cultural Capital of Children and Families with Immigrant Backgrounds in Early Childhood Education
Finnish society has become increasingly diverse relatively recently, notably during the past few decades. This paper explores the perceptions of early childhood education and care (ECEC) teachers (n = 11) about the cultural capital of those children and families growing up in immigrant background families and their sense of belonging in early childhood settings in Finland. We draw on curriculum frameworks to understand these constructs. The paper…
Teaching Kindness and Compassion
In this exploratory intervention study, the aim was to teach 5–7-year-old children prosocial skills in an inclusive Finnish early childhood education and care (ECEC) setting. The intervention programme was based on previous studies and helps fill a gap in how to promote prosocial behaviour in an ECEC setting encompassing children with diverse needs. The theoretical framework draws on research on character strengths in the field of positive psycho…
The fluidity of Finnish youths’ Personal worldviews
This article aims to understand the personal worldviews of Finnish youths. The fluidity of young people’s personal worldviews has been highlighted in a number of previous studies, and this study presents more information by focusing on possible spiritual and religious elements in the personal worldviews of young people and on the influences that affect their personal worldviews. The data of this study consist of a quantitative questionnaire acqui…
Values, lifestyles, and narratives of prejudices amongst Finnish youth
Prejudices are innate to the human condition and at the base of most conflicts between social groups. Yet, despite much local and global educational effort to promote equality and peace, expressions of hate and violence are omnipresent across the globe. For gaining more understanding about the complex relationship between values and beliefs that influence people’s prejudiced attitudes towards others, this study investigates how Finnish upper-seco…
Anchors of belonging and the logics of othering of young Finns
To better understand the ways the youth perceive ‘us’ and ‘them’ in twenty-first-century Western societies, this article looks at belonging and othering in the wider context of research on self-other identification and distantiation by exploring values, as anchors of belonging, and the logics of othering of young Finns. The analysis of interview data (N = 45) shows that young Finns studying in upper secondary education hold values of self-transce…
Discursive Norms and Incentives for Equipping Students with Religion and Worldview Literacy in Swedish Preschool Teacher Education Policy
The increasing societal diversity of religions and worldviews (R&W) in Swedish preschools affects what competencies today's preschool teachers need and what needs to be taught in Swedish Preschool Teacher Education (PTE). The study aims to investigate the content and discursive norms regarding religion and worldviews in Swedish PTEs on a national policy level and contribute to knowledge in the research field of Religious Studies and Higher Educat…
Outlining play and playful learning in Finland and Brazil
Early childhood education and care is a current interest in many countries. Many international studies have highlighted the importance of high-quality early education environments where learning and play are integrated. Studies show that these types of learning environments have a positive impact on children’s future prospects and overall development. Critical curriculum steering documents from Finland and Brazil form the basis of this study and …
Value Profiles Among Finnish Adolescents and Their Associations With Subjective and Social Well-Being
Previous research on Schwartz’s theory of basic human values has mostly applied a variable-oriented approach . This study took a person-oriented approach and investigated how values co-occur and are manifested in individuals, that is, what kind of value profiles exist and how they differ in terms of subjective (i.e., life satisfaction) and social well-being (i.e., sense of belonging). In a sample of Finnish adolescents ( N = 973; women 59.6%; M a…
Safe Space, Dangerous Territory
Initiatives for preventing radicalization and violent extremism through education (PVE-E) have become a feature of global educational policy and educational institutions across all phases, from early childhood to universities, also in Finland. If schools may be regarded as safe spaces here for identity and worldview construction and experiences of belonging, the specific subject matter of PVE-E is also dangerous territory. Not least because of PV…
Decolonising the religious education curriculum
(2021). Decolonising the religious education curriculum. British Journal of Religious Education: Vol. 43, Decolonising the Religious Education Curriculum: International Perspectives in Theory, Research, and Practice, pp. 1-8
Resourcing resilience
Resilience has been highlighted in educational policies internationally as one of the key elements that may prevent negative developmental trajectories, such as radicalization into violent extremism. To examine the factors that contribute to resilience at adolescence and to understand how resilience relates to wellbeing this study investigates the resilience resources of Finnish youth (n=2837). Furthermore, we examined the relationship between re…
The learning trajectory of emerging professionalism
This article examines the learning trajectory of the emerging professionalism of Finnish early childhood education and care student teachers, focusing in particular on their professionalism in early childhood education and care world-view education in the context of cultural and world-view superdiversity. Of specific interest here is what students postulate as meaningful in their professional learning processes and why, and what kinds of directio…
Religion and children’s perceptions of bullying in multicultural schools in Estonia, Finland and Sweden
The paper explores children and youths’ perceptions of the reasons for bullying in multicultural schools. How do their different backgrounds explain the variations in those perceptions? The questions will be answered based on data gathered from 9 to 10, 12 to 13 and 15 to 16-year-old students (N = 2781) in Estonia, Finland and Sweden. A survey and in-depth interviews were used in the study. About half of the students have been frequently or occas…
Four Religious Education Teachers
This article examines the career paths of Finnish Religious Education (RE) teachers who were born in the 1930s, through a retrospective, self-autobiographical life history approach. The material reported here is a part of wider data of mainly written narratives (N = 62) from RE teachers who recount their career trajectories. In these career-focused life histories, the teachers outline their own professionalism as embedded in changing sociohistori…
Why Teach about Religions? Perspectives from Finnish Professionals
Acknowledging recent research literature on professionalism and religious education across Europe, the article examines the scholars' and senior professionals' views on the curricula aims and objectives in religious education in Finland. Through asking the professionals' views on the aims of RE in relation to supporting of child's growth and development on one hand and the societal aims of RE on the other, the findings were thematically classifie…
Researching religious authority in education
This article provides a theoretical frame to structure methodological approaches to examining religious authority in education. It does so by examining the complex, overlapping relationship between secular and religious authority and the institutional power of education evident through responses to issues of cultural expression. The political theologies research examined ongoing tensions – accommodations, conflicts and resolutions – of religious …
How and Why Education Counters Ideological Extremism in Finland
The intensification of radical and extremist thinking has become an international cause of concern and the fear related to terrorism has increased worldwide. Early 21st century public discourses have been correspondingly marked by hate speech and ideological propaganda spread from a variety of perspectives through the intensified presence of global social media networks. In many countries, governments have reacted to these perceived and actual th…
Developing teachers' intercultural sensitivity
Thinking multicultural education ‘otherwise’ – from a secularist construction towards a plurality of epistemologies and worldviews
This article examines educational, political and philosophical perspectives on the concepts of worldview and religion in the context of multicultural education. Using a postcolonial and post-structural approach combined with theories that analyse the politics of secularism, we attempt to pinpoint key perspectives in the recognition of worldviews in the current discourse on liberal multiculturalism. We suggest that the liberal-secular foundation o…
Pupils' Perceptions of Worldview Diversity and Religious Education in the Finnish Comprehensive School
The focus of this article is on Finnish ninth grade pupils' perceptions on worldview diversity and Religious Education (RE). The data were gathered by using a mixed methods approach combining quantitative and qualitative methods. Worldview diversity has a long history in Finnish society. Yet this has only really been acknowledged in recent years, when increased immigration introduced issues related to the diversity of cultures and religions into …
Developing teachers' intercultural sensitivity
Discussing school celebrations from an intercultural perspective – a study in the Finnish context
The increased diversity in pupils’ cultural and ethnic backgrounds in schools creates urgent demands for the organization of school celebrations in many countries. Celebrations represent the cultural values of the society and it is important to find out how various traditions are expressed in them. This study examines teachers’ and other educational staff members’ perceptions of Finnish culture, Lutheran religiosity, and intercultural education r…
Thinking multicultural education ‘otherwise’ – from a secularist construction towards a plurality of epistemologies and worldviews
This article examines educational, political and philosophical perspectives on the concepts of worldview and religion in the context of multicultural education. Using a postcolonial and post-structural approach combined with theories that analyse the politics of secularism, we attempt to pinpoint key perspectives in the recognition of worldviews in the current discourse on liberal multiculturalism. We suggest that the liberal-secular foundation o…
Moral Foundation of the Kindergarten Teacher’s Educational Approach
This paper investigates the moral foundation of Kindergarten teachers’ educational approach from the perspective of sensitivity towards religions and other worldviews. As a context for the examination, the paper presents the current situation of the Finnish multi-faith kindergartens through the empirical mixed method data gathered from five day care centres in the capital Helsinki area. The findings illustrate that at present, the multitude of re…
Social networks and identity negotiations of religious minority youth in diverse social contexts
This study is looking at how youth growing up in families affiliated with a religious minority negotiate their religious values and social identity in the social contexts of minority and majority. Although these youth belong to the ethnic majority in Finland, the religious and lifestyle values of their home and religious community differ from the Lutheran mainstream, which causes discrepancies between the values of their socialization background …
How and Why Education Counters Ideological Extremism in Finland
The intensification of radical and extremist thinking has become an international cause of concern and the fear related to terrorism has increased worldwide. Early 21st century public discourses have been correspondingly marked by hate speech and ideological propaganda spread from a variety of perspectives through the intensified presence of global social media networks. In many countries, governments have reacted to these perceived and actual th…
Anchors of belonging and the logics of othering of young Finns
To better understand the ways the youth perceive ‘us’ and ‘them’ in twenty-first-century Western societies, this article looks at belonging and othering in the wider context of research on self-other identification and distantiation by exploring values, as anchors of belonging, and the logics of othering of young Finns. The analysis of interview data (N = 45) shows that young Finns studying in upper secondary education hold values of self-transce…
Value Profiles Among Finnish Adolescents and Their Associations With Subjective and Social Well-Being
Previous research on Schwartz’s theory of basic human values has mostly applied a variable-oriented approach . This study took a person-oriented approach and investigated how values co-occur and are manifested in individuals, that is, what kind of value profiles exist and how they differ in terms of subjective (i.e., life satisfaction) and social well-being (i.e., sense of belonging). In a sample of Finnish adolescents ( N = 973; women 59.6%; M a…
Four Religious Education Teachers
This article examines the career paths of Finnish Religious Education (RE) teachers who were born in the 1930s, through a retrospective, self-autobiographical life history approach. The material reported here is a part of wider data of mainly written narratives (N = 62) from RE teachers who recount their career trajectories. In these career-focused life histories, the teachers outline their own professionalism as embedded in changing sociohistori…
Why Teach about Religions? Perspectives from Finnish Professionals
Acknowledging recent research literature on professionalism and religious education across Europe, the article examines the scholars' and senior professionals' views on the curricula aims and objectives in religious education in Finland. Through asking the professionals' views on the aims of RE in relation to supporting of child's growth and development on one hand and the societal aims of RE on the other, the findings were thematically classifie…
Pupils' Perceptions of Worldview Diversity and Religious Education in the Finnish Comprehensive School
The focus of this article is on Finnish ninth grade pupils' perceptions on worldview diversity and Religious Education (RE). The data were gathered by using a mixed methods approach combining quantitative and qualitative methods. Worldview diversity has a long history in Finnish society. Yet this has only really been acknowledged in recent years, when increased immigration introduced issues related to the diversity of cultures and religions into …
Transmitting religious values in adventist home education
This article explores the process of value transmission, particularly in Adventist home education, based on a study of the religious home education experienced by young Seventh-day Adventist adults in their childhood (Kuusisto, 2000). The main aim was to find the conditions that support the successful transmission of parental values to the next generation. The method was both qualitative and quantitative, as the data were assembled with in-depth …
Growing up within a Religious Community
Utilising an ecological framework, this study presents a meta-analysis of four sub-studies investigating the socialisation experiences of young people affiliated with a religious minority community. More precisely, it is a study of how this particular socialisation context affects the individual's construction of a personal value system and religious identity and how the developing person interacts with his/her environment. Seventh-day Adventism …
Social networks and identity negotiations of religious minority youth in diverse social contexts
This study is looking at how youth growing up in families affiliated with a religious minority negotiate their religious values and social identity in the social contexts of minority and majority. Although these youth belong to the ethnic majority in Finland, the religious and lifestyle values of their home and religious community differ from the Lutheran mainstream, which causes discrepancies between the values of their socialization background …
Moral Foundation of the Kindergarten Teacher’s Educational Approach
This paper investigates the moral foundation of Kindergarten teachers’ educational approach from the perspective of sensitivity towards religions and other worldviews. As a context for the examination, the paper presents the current situation of the Finnish multi-faith kindergartens through the empirical mixed method data gathered from five day care centres in the capital Helsinki area. The findings illustrate that at present, the multitude of re…
Gender variance in interreligious sensitivity among Finnish pupils
This paper examines gender variance in the interreligious sensitivity among Finnish children and youth using a non-probability sample of 1000 Finnish lower secondary school pupils representing the age group 12–16. The data were gathered in three geographical locations: the capital city of Helsinki area, and two smaller municipalities in other parts of the country. The pupils’ self-reported attitudes towards interreligious sensitivity were measure…
Pupils’ views of religious education in a pluralistic educational context
This article examines Finnish pupils’ views of religious education (RE) in a pluralistic educational context. The focus is on pupils’ views of the aims and different approaches to RE in a multi-faith school. The study utilised a mixed method approach, combining quantitative and qualitative data. It employed a survey (n=1301) and interviews (n=38) of pupils from grade levels 3, 6, and 9 (age groups 9–10, 12–13, 15–16) in Finnish comprehensive scho…
Discussing school celebrations from an intercultural perspective – a study in the Finnish context
The increased diversity in pupils’ cultural and ethnic backgrounds in schools creates urgent demands for the organization of school celebrations in many countries. Celebrations represent the cultural values of the society and it is important to find out how various traditions are expressed in them. This study examines teachers’ and other educational staff members’ perceptions of Finnish culture, Lutheran religiosity, and intercultural education r…
Thinking multicultural education ‘otherwise’ – from a secularist construction towards a plurality of epistemologies and worldviews
This article examines educational, political and philosophical perspectives on the concepts of worldview and religion in the context of multicultural education. Using a postcolonial and post-structural approach combined with theories that analyse the politics of secularism, we attempt to pinpoint key perspectives in the recognition of worldviews in the current discourse on liberal multiculturalism. We suggest that the liberal-secular foundation o…
Pupils' Perceptions of Worldview Diversity and Religious Education in the Finnish Comprehensive School
The focus of this article is on Finnish ninth grade pupils' perceptions on worldview diversity and Religious Education (RE). The data were gathered by using a mixed methods approach combining quantitative and qualitative methods. Worldview diversity has a long history in Finnish society. Yet this has only really been acknowledged in recent years, when increased immigration introduced issues related to the diversity of cultures and religions into …
Developing teachers' intercultural sensitivity
Researching religious authority in education
This article provides a theoretical frame to structure methodological approaches to examining religious authority in education. It does so by examining the complex, overlapping relationship between secular and religious authority and the institutional power of education evident through responses to issues of cultural expression. The political theologies research examined ongoing tensions – accommodations, conflicts and resolutions – of religious …
How and Why Education Counters Ideological Extremism in Finland
The intensification of radical and extremist thinking has become an international cause of concern and the fear related to terrorism has increased worldwide. Early 21st century public discourses have been correspondingly marked by hate speech and ideological propaganda spread from a variety of perspectives through the intensified presence of global social media networks. In many countries, governments have reacted to these perceived and actual th…
Four Religious Education Teachers
This article examines the career paths of Finnish Religious Education (RE) teachers who were born in the 1930s, through a retrospective, self-autobiographical life history approach. The material reported here is a part of wider data of mainly written narratives (N = 62) from RE teachers who recount their career trajectories. In these career-focused life histories, the teachers outline their own professionalism as embedded in changing sociohistori…
Why Teach about Religions? Perspectives from Finnish Professionals
Acknowledging recent research literature on professionalism and religious education across Europe, the article examines the scholars' and senior professionals' views on the curricula aims and objectives in religious education in Finland. Through asking the professionals' views on the aims of RE in relation to supporting of child's growth and development on one hand and the societal aims of RE on the other, the findings were thematically classifie…
The learning trajectory of emerging professionalism
This article examines the learning trajectory of the emerging professionalism of Finnish early childhood education and care student teachers, focusing in particular on their professionalism in early childhood education and care world-view education in the context of cultural and world-view superdiversity. Of specific interest here is what students postulate as meaningful in their professional learning processes and why, and what kinds of directio…
Religion and children’s perceptions of bullying in multicultural schools in Estonia, Finland and Sweden
The paper explores children and youths’ perceptions of the reasons for bullying in multicultural schools. How do their different backgrounds explain the variations in those perceptions? The questions will be answered based on data gathered from 9 to 10, 12 to 13 and 15 to 16-year-old students (N = 2781) in Estonia, Finland and Sweden. A survey and in-depth interviews were used in the study. About half of the students have been frequently or occas…
Safe Space, Dangerous Territory
Initiatives for preventing radicalization and violent extremism through education (PVE-E) have become a feature of global educational policy and educational institutions across all phases, from early childhood to universities, also in Finland. If schools may be regarded as safe spaces here for identity and worldview construction and experiences of belonging, the specific subject matter of PVE-E is also dangerous territory. Not least because of PV…
Decolonising the religious education curriculum
(2021). Decolonising the religious education curriculum. British Journal of Religious Education: Vol. 43, Decolonising the Religious Education Curriculum: International Perspectives in Theory, Research, and Practice, pp. 1-8
Resourcing resilience
Resilience has been highlighted in educational policies internationally as one of the key elements that may prevent negative developmental trajectories, such as radicalization into violent extremism. To examine the factors that contribute to resilience at adolescence and to understand how resilience relates to wellbeing this study investigates the resilience resources of Finnish youth (n=2837). Furthermore, we examined the relationship between re…
Outlining play and playful learning in Finland and Brazil
Early childhood education and care is a current interest in many countries. Many international studies have highlighted the importance of high-quality early education environments where learning and play are integrated. Studies show that these types of learning environments have a positive impact on children’s future prospects and overall development. Critical curriculum steering documents from Finland and Brazil form the basis of this study and …
Value Profiles Among Finnish Adolescents and Their Associations With Subjective and Social Well-Being
Previous research on Schwartz’s theory of basic human values has mostly applied a variable-oriented approach . This study took a person-oriented approach and investigated how values co-occur and are manifested in individuals, that is, what kind of value profiles exist and how they differ in terms of subjective (i.e., life satisfaction) and social well-being (i.e., sense of belonging). In a sample of Finnish adolescents ( N = 973; women 59.6%; M a…
Teachers’ Pedagogical Competence in Finnish Early Childhood Education—A Narrative Literature Review
Finnish early childhood education (ECE) is defined in education policies and research as an activity with an emphasis on pedagogy as a holistic and Nordic model of education. Pedagogical competence can be viewed as a special expertise of teachers responsible for the implementation of pedagogy in ECE. However, it is unclear how a teacher’s pedagogical competence is defined, understood, and implemented in pedagogical practices and policies. Previou…
Teaching English as a Second Language in the Early Years
Second language (L2) education in the early years has been steadily increasing worldwide. Since second language education at earlier ages is relatively new in many countries, not much research is available regarding teaching practices in this context. Likewise, limited research attention has been directed to teachers’ perspectives on early L2 teaching. This study investigated what characterises teachers’ pedagogical planning, teaching practices a…
Teachers’ Perceptions of the Cultural Capital of Children and Families with Immigrant Backgrounds in Early Childhood Education
Finnish society has become increasingly diverse relatively recently, notably during the past few decades. This paper explores the perceptions of early childhood education and care (ECEC) teachers (n = 11) about the cultural capital of those children and families growing up in immigrant background families and their sense of belonging in early childhood settings in Finland. We draw on curriculum frameworks to understand these constructs. The paper…
Teaching Kindness and Compassion
In this exploratory intervention study, the aim was to teach 5–7-year-old children prosocial skills in an inclusive Finnish early childhood education and care (ECEC) setting. The intervention programme was based on previous studies and helps fill a gap in how to promote prosocial behaviour in an ECEC setting encompassing children with diverse needs. The theoretical framework draws on research on character strengths in the field of positive psycho…
Sociology (28 works) · Psychology (24 works) · Pedagogy (19 works) · Religious Education and Schools (17 works) · Political science (16 works) · Social Psychology (13 works) · Law (10 works) · Social science (10 works) · Gender Studies (9 works) · Religion and Society Interactions (9 works)