Kirsi Pyhältö
Dados Biográficos
| ID | 1500592 |
|---|---|
| NOME | Kirsi Pyhältö |
| PRENOMES | Kirsi |
| SOBRENOME | Pyhältö |
| ASSINATURA | PYHÄLTÖ K |
| AFILIAÇÕES | University of Helsinki |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-8766-0559 |
| VERIFICADO | Sim |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 59 |
| TOTAL DE CITAÇÕES | 80 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 59 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 0 |
| PRIMEIRO ANO DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 2011 |
| ANO MAIS RECENTE DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 2026 |
| ÍNDICE H | 5 |
What is the point of the PhD in this age of uncertainty
In contemporary European societies, we are living through increasingly turbulent times characterised by rapid societal shifts driven by new technologies, communication methods, and work practices. Simultaneously, universities face mounting external pressures such as government policies, funding cuts, and reallocation. In this paper, we view these challenges as an opportunity to reconsider the fundamental nature of PhD education. If the PhD, as we…
Early career teachers’ professional agency in the professional community and their perceived teacher-working environment fit
The association between PhD holders’ experiences of professional support and work engagement and burnout
Most new PhD graduates are going to have non-academic careers, but research on their work experience has so far been limited, particularly regarding the quality of professional interactions and how they contribute to their occupational wellbeing. This paper reports on experiences of professional support among PhD holders working outside academia. The dynamics between professional support from colleagues, burnout symptoms and work engagement were …
How does curriculum making contribute to teaching culture in higher education
Curriculum making characterized by effective change management and knowledge sharing in the professional community is at the core of developing higher education. Curriculum making both contributes to teaching culture and is affected by it. However, empirical evidence of this relationship is scarce. This study addresses the gap in the literature by examining the interrelation between higher education teachers’ and pedagogical leaders’ perceptions …
How do physical activity and social media use predict the study wellbeing profile of comprehensive school students
Students' study wellbeing plays a crucial role in protecting against social and academic challenges, both within and outside school. However, little is known about how the extent of physical activity and social media use affects study wellbeing. To explore this, we identified profiles of study engagement and burnout among Finnish primary school students (n = 345, age 11), and lower secondary school students (n = 447, age 14). Using latent profile…
Considering‐Mobility
Globally more than half of PhD graduates work beyond academia and they change jobs with greater frequency than in academia. We have been researching this post‐PhD mobility for some time, and recently, in beginning a study, we became intrigued by transcript excerpts that were not actual mobility but still referenced mobility. On examining these more closely, we realised they represented assessing options/possibilities without actual moving . This …
PhD candidates’ and supervisors’ wellbeing and experiences of supervision
PhD candidates’ wellbeing has become a global concern over the past decade, and the topic has been addressed in several studies. At the same time, PhD supervisors’ wellbeing has remained largely unexplored. Also, most studies about supervisors’ and supervisees’ wellbeing have focused on negative aspects, such as stress and burnout, and they have generally ignored positive aspects, such as work engagement. For this study, we explored the variation…
Enhancing study engagement and inclusion of students with disabilities in higher education through self-determination
The relationship between academic achievement and off-task social media and smartphone usage
Validation of the Parental Reflective Functioning Questionnaire in Finnish mothers and fathers of toddlers
Parental reflective functioning (PRF) is important in guiding parenting behavior. It is traditionally measured with interviews that are relatively time‐consuming. A self‐report measure of PRF, the Parental Reflective Functioning Questionnaire (PRFQ), has been developed but has not yet been extensively validated across different sociocultural contexts. The aim of this study was to examine the factorial structure of the PRFQ in a community‐based fi…
Life satisfaction, relatedness, and study engagement in the upper secondary school transition
Transition to upper secondary education can represent a challenge for students’ wellbeing. In this study, we examined how the social support from guardians, peers, and teachers experienced before transition predicts study engagement, sense of relatedness and overall life satisfaction after transition. Survey data (n = 280) were collected from Finnish students in the 9th grade of lower secondary school (T1), and during the first year of their uppe…
Transitioning beyond Academia
PhD holders are increasingly exploring careers beyond academia, yet, little is understood about their transition experiences, particularly in the Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (HASS) disciplines. While research suggests that these transitions are both challenging and satisfactory, there is limited knowledge about the specific engagement (e.g. feeling absorbed) and disengagement (e.g. experiencing detachment) experiences during these trans…
Early Career Teachers' Sense of Professional Agency in the Classroom and Associations With Their Perception of Transformational Leadership Vision and School Size
This study explores the relationship between early career teachers' sense of professional agency in the classroom, their perceptions of principals' transformational leadership vision, and school size. The survey data were collected from 779 primary and junior secondary school teachers with a maximum of 5 years of teaching experience in China. The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling in the Mplus statistical package. The results s…
The Interrelation between teachers’ sense of professional agency and perceived professional recognition
Teachers’ engagement in active learning from and within their professional community is highly dependent on the support they receive from their colleagues. In this study we examined teachers’ sense of agency in the professional community and its relationship with received professional recognition over a five-year follow-up. The sample comprised 2310 Finnish comprehensive schoolteachers who responded to a survey in 2011 and 2016. The results showe…
PhD candidates’ engagement in researcher networks and the key learning experiences embedded in them
Researcher networks are highly important for a positive PhD experience as well as for the future career of PhD candidates in and beyond academia. This study explores PhD candidates’ engagement in researcher networks, ranging from the local to the global sphere, the key learning experiences embedded in them, and how such engagement is associated with their doctoral thesis format, research group status, and the candidate’s country of origin. A tota…
How is students’ well-being related to their class teacher’s professional agency in primary school
Class teachers have a meaningful role in the life of primary school students as they are responsible for the majority of their students’ instruction. Previous research has shown that teachers who make efforts to learn and develop in their work also promote their students’ learning and well-being. This learning orientation is referred to in this study as teachers’ professional agency. The well-being of students has been shown to be challenged in m…
Sense of relatedness and study engagement as mediators between students’ peer support and life satisfaction
Previous research suggests that peer support is an essential component of adolescents’ sense of relatedness in peer relationships and correlates with study engagement and life satisfaction. However, what the underlying mechanisms of these relationships are, has remained unclear. This study examined 1) whether the sense of relatedness or study engagement mediate the effect of peer support on students’ life satisfaction, and 2) whether sense of rel…
Examining Finnish teachers’ professional agency in the professional community in curriculum reform / Análisis de la agencia profesional de los docentes finlandeses en la comunidad profesional en la re…
Reforming curriculum is potentially a powerful tool for school development. Harnessing this potential calls for teacher engagement with colleagues for active professional learning, i.e., teachers’ professional agency. However, promoting teachers’ ownership and active involvement in curriculum-making provides a challenge for all levels of policy interpretation. Furthermore, variation in how teachers perceive a curriculum reform, its impact in scho…
Peer relationships and study wellbeing
The role of peer relationships in a student’s study wellbeing has been emphasised in research. However, the development of functional relationships with peers in educational settings cannot be taken for granted. In this study, we aimed to understand the variations in upper secondary school students’ experiences of peer relationships in terms of sense of relatedness, cognitive and affective empathy skills and peer support for studying, and whether…
Experienced burnout and teacher–working environment fit
This follow-up study compared two teacher cohorts: teachers with and without persistent turnover intentions. Burnout symptoms including exhaustion, cynicism towards the professional community, inadequacy in teacher-student interaction, and perceived teacher–working environment fit in terms of received recognition and constructive work climate were explored. The longitudinal survey data included 1064 teachers from Finnish basic education (grades 1…
Teacher agency in the professional community and association with burnout
Agentic teacher learning is central for teachers’ professional development, school development and student achievement. The purpose of the study was to explore trajectories of teachers’ professional agency in the professional community during a three-year follow-up period. The data comprised surveys with Finnish comprehensive school teachers (N = 2645) and latent profile analysis was used to identify subgroups of teachers. Four trajectories were …
Characteristics of social support experienced by differently engaged student teachers
This study explored student teachers’ experiences of study engagement and burnout by utilising profile analysis. Interrelations between the student teachers’ profiles and perceptions of their learning environment were also explored. To complement the statistical analysis, the student teachers’ social support experiences during teaching practice were explored based on interview data. Two study engagement—burnout profiles were detected among studen…
The influence of the Covid-19 pandemic on PhD candidates’ study progress and study wellbeing
The COVID-19 pandemic has had its impact on research and researchers, and hence potentially on the future of academia. Yet, empirical evidence on the impact of COVID-19 on PhD candidates is limited. This study explores the influences of the pandemic on PhD candidates' progress and wellbeing. In addition, the aim is to identify potentially particularly vulnerable candidate groups. In total, 768 PhD candidates from a Finnish research-intensive mult…
Profiles of doctoral students’ experience of ethics in supervision
The purpose of this study was to examine variation in doctoral students’ experiences of ethics in doctoral supervision and how these experiences are related to research engagement, burnout, satisfaction, and intending to discontinue PhD studies. Data were collected from 860 doctoral students in Finland, Estonia, and South Africa. Four distinct profiles of ethics experience in doctoral supervision were identified, namely students puzzled by the su…
Differences in Teacher Burnout Between Schools
Differences in teacher burnout between schools are likely to occur due to differences in the quantity and quality of interaction within the schools. Multilevel latent growth curve analyses of burnout symptoms were performed on three-wave longitudinal data collected from 2,619 teachers in 75 schools in Finland. The results showed that differences in teacher burnout between schools were pronounced in cynicism, followed by emotional exhaustion. Orga…
Reducing teacher burnout
Teacher–working-environment fit as a framework for burnout experienced by Finnish teachers
How does the learning environment in teacher education cultivate first year student teachers' sense of professional agency in the professional community
Why leave the teaching profession? A longitudinal approach to the prevalence and persistence of teacher turnover intentions
Teacher turnover has been recognized as a significant problem in the education worldwide. This study focuses on exploring reasons behind the turnover intentions, and persistence of such intentions in 5-year follow-up among Finnish teachers. Longitudinal survey data were collected from Finnish comprehensive school teachers in 2010 (T1 n = 2310) and 2016 (T2 n = 1450). The results showed that 50% of the teachers had turnover intentions. Turnover in…
Primary and Lower Secondary School Students’ Social Support Profiles and Study Wellbeing
This study explored an individual variation in perceived social support from teachers, peers, and guardians and their association with experienced study engagement and study burnout. Two cohorts of students participated in the study: fourth graders from primary school (age 10, n = 2401) and seventh graders from lower secondary school (age 13, n = 1529) in Finland. The analysis was conducted using latent profile analysis. Several equivalent profil…
Conceptions of research
This study investigates how doctoral students perceive research work in the context of their own PhD projects. Thirty-two students from a Finnish university were interviewed, representing three disciplines: medicine, natural sciences and behavioural sciences. Their conceptions of research varied in terms of describing research as a job to do, obtaining qualifications and gaining accomplishments, a personal journey, and making a difference. The co…
Development of students’ social support profiles and their association with students’ study wellbeing
Effective social support from teachers, peers, and guardians is a key to promoting students' study wellbeing at school. However, little longitudinal research has examined the implications of distinctive combinations of social support for students' study wellbeing. To address this limitation, we measured multiple dimensions of school-related social support (teacher, peer, and guardian support), study engagement, and study-related burnout in a samp…
The Supervisory Relationship as an Arena for Ethical Problem Solving
Doctoral supervision involves the analysis of situations and decision making, some of which include ethical perspectives. This research endeavoured to gain a better understanding of the nature of the ethical problems encountered by supervisors. We have interviewed fourteen supervisors in two disciplines: the natural sciences and the behavioural sciences. We have identified the ethical issues in light of five ethical principles, namely respect for…
Dynamics between perceived social support and study engagement among primary school students
Perceived high study engagement relates to higher school achievement and has been found to promote social and emotional well-being as well. Social support for studying has typically been examined as a resource for study engagement. However, the interrelation between social support and study engagement is likely to be bidirectional: engaged students might be more willing to find and share social support in their studies. The students' emotions and…
PhD experience (and progress) is more than work
Prior studies have reported high levels of PhD stress resulting in exhaustion and cynicism related to negative institutional factors. Yet, we know little of the possible influence of personal lives on exhaustion/cynicism. This mixed-methods study examines the interrelation. We drew on exhaustion, cynicism, life-work relation scales and free-write responses about managing life and work of 123 Swiss PhD students. Respondents typically reported posi…
Student teachers' and pupils' co-regulated learning behaviours in authentic classroom situations in teaching practicums
Student teachers' and pupils' co-regulated learning behaviours during teaching practicums were examined. • Learning incidents student teachers' perceived positive included more proactive co-regulated learning behaviours. • The more flexibly student teacher utilized regulated learning, more engaged pupils were in co-regulated learning behaviours
Special education teachers’ experienced burnout and perceived fit with the professional community
In many countries, including in Finland, promoting inclusive school practices supporting pupils’ equal rights for learning is the focus of school development. Special education teachers play a central intermediary role in developing inclusive school and classroom practices by providing support both for pupils and peer teachers. This may increase their risk of experiencing exhaustion, cynicism towards the teacher community and/or inadequacy in pup…
The function of social support in engaging and disengaging experiences among post PhD researchers in STEM disciplines
The post-doctoral phase is characterized by a high level of competition and even a risk of unemployment due to the increasing number of PhDs. This study explores the function of social support or lack of it in post PhD researchers’ engaging and disengaging experiences from the beginning of their careers as researchers. The data were collected from 40 post PhD researchers from STEM disciplines through semi-structured interviews and qualitatively c…
The anatomy of adolescents’ emotional engagement in schoolwork
Engagement in learning
Drawing on research on both engagement in learning and approaches to learning, we examine the associations between international students’ approaches to learning, factors in the teaching/learning environment and self-assessed academic outcomes. A total of 307 students responded to our survey. Their experience of the purposefulness of their course assignments and the relevance of their studies was related to students having a deep approach to lear…
Transitioning beyond Academia
PhD holders are increasingly exploring careers beyond academia, yet, little is understood about their transition experiences, particularly in the Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (HASS) disciplines. While research suggests that these transitions are both challenging and satisfactory, there is limited knowledge about the specific engagement (e.g. feeling absorbed) and disengagement (e.g. experiencing detachment) experiences during these trans…
Experienced burnout and teacher–working environment fit
This follow-up study compared two teacher cohorts: teachers with and without persistent turnover intentions. Burnout symptoms including exhaustion, cynicism towards the professional community, inadequacy in teacher-student interaction, and perceived teacher–working environment fit in terms of received recognition and constructive work climate were explored. The longitudinal survey data included 1064 teachers from Finnish basic education (grades 1…
Interrelations between principals’ risk of burnout profiles and proactive self-regulation strategies
Intensive studying or restlessness in the classroom
Ethics in the supervisory relationship
This study explored the perceptions of ethical issues in supervision among doctoral students and supervisors. The nature of ethical issues identified by doctoral students (n = 28) and their supervisors (n = 14) is explored and the degree of fit and misfit between their perceptions in two cases representing the natural and behavioural sciences is analysed. Supervisors and students identified different ethical issues, which suggest that there are a…
How does it feel to become a teacher? Emotions in teacher education
Balancing between inspiration and exhaustion
This paper explores doctoral students' experiences of their scholarly communities in terms of socio-psychological well-being. Further, the study examines how experiences were related to study engagement and to self-reported stress, exhaustion, and anxiety. Altogether 669 doctoral students from the University of Helsinki, Finland, responded a survey. The answers to an open-ended question were content analysed and then statistically compared to wel…
Teacher–working-environment fit as a framework for burnout experienced by Finnish teachers
The Supervisory Relationship as an Arena for Ethical Problem Solving
Doctoral supervision involves the analysis of situations and decision making, some of which include ethical perspectives. This research endeavoured to gain a better understanding of the nature of the ethical problems encountered by supervisors. We have interviewed fourteen supervisors in two disciplines: the natural sciences and the behavioural sciences. We have identified the ethical issues in light of five ethical principles, namely respect for…
Reducing teacher burnout
Students’ emotional and cognitive engagement as the determinants of well-being and achievement in school
Engagement in learning
Drawing on research on both engagement in learning and approaches to learning, we examine the associations between international students’ approaches to learning, factors in the teaching/learning environment and self-assessed academic outcomes. A total of 307 students responded to our survey. Their experience of the purposefulness of their course assignments and the relevance of their studies was related to students having a deep approach to lear…
Conceptions of research
This study investigates how doctoral students perceive research work in the context of their own PhD projects. Thirty-two students from a Finnish university were interviewed, representing three disciplines: medicine, natural sciences and behavioural sciences. Their conceptions of research varied in terms of describing research as a job to do, obtaining qualifications and gaining accomplishments, a personal journey, and making a difference. The co…
Teachers’ professional agency and learning – from adaption to active modification in the teacher community
The aim of this study was to examine teacher learning in terms of teachers’ professional agency in the professional community of the school. Altogether 2310 Finnish comprehensive school teachers completed a survey. Results showed that teachers’ active efforts to learn in the professional community and to promote school development cannot be explained, and hence reduced, to a single behavioral attribute. The findings indicated that teacher learnin…
What contributes to first-year student teachers’ sense of professional agency in the classroom?
This study explores Finnish first-year primary teacher students’ (N = 244) sense of professional agency in the classroom. In addition, the interrelation between student teachers’ sense of professional agency and the perceptions of teacher education as a learning environment is explored. The sense of professional agency in the classroom simultaneously requires the motivation to learn, efficacy beliefs about learning and intentional acts for facili…
Teachers’ professional agency in contradictory times
Teacher agency is suggested to be a key capability not only for facilitating student learning but also for continuing professional development, collaborative teacher learning and school development...
The anatomy of adolescents’ emotional engagement in schoolwork
How does it feel to become a teacher? Emotions in teacher education
Interrelations between principals’ risk of burnout profiles and proactive self-regulation strategies
Intensive studying or restlessness in the classroom
How does the learning environment in teacher education cultivate first year student teachers' sense of professional agency in the professional community
Ethics in the supervisory relationship
This study explored the perceptions of ethical issues in supervision among doctoral students and supervisors. The nature of ethical issues identified by doctoral students (n = 28) and their supervisors (n = 14) is explored and the degree of fit and misfit between their perceptions in two cases representing the natural and behavioural sciences is analysed. Supervisors and students identified different ethical issues, which suggest that there are a…
The function of social support in engaging and disengaging experiences among post PhD researchers in STEM disciplines
The post-doctoral phase is characterized by a high level of competition and even a risk of unemployment due to the increasing number of PhDs. This study explores the function of social support or lack of it in post PhD researchers’ engaging and disengaging experiences from the beginning of their careers as researchers. The data were collected from 40 post PhD researchers from STEM disciplines through semi-structured interviews and qualitatively c…
Student teachers' and pupils' co-regulated learning behaviours in authentic classroom situations in teaching practicums
Student teachers' and pupils' co-regulated learning behaviours during teaching practicums were examined. • Learning incidents student teachers' perceived positive included more proactive co-regulated learning behaviours. • The more flexibly student teacher utilized regulated learning, more engaged pupils were in co-regulated learning behaviours
What sustains doctoral students’ interest? Comparison of Finnish, UK and Spanish doctoral students’ perceptions
Interest plays a major role in the doctoral experience. However, previous research has not considered how the national context might influence interest. This study focused on exploring cross-national variation in doctoral students’ experiences by comparing Finnish, UK and Spanish doctoral students’ research interests. Participants (n = 2.426) responded to the Doctoral Experience survey. Spanish students sustained higher levels of researcher and i…
Special education teachers’ experienced burnout and perceived fit with the professional community
In many countries, including in Finland, promoting inclusive school practices supporting pupils’ equal rights for learning is the focus of school development. Special education teachers play a central intermediary role in developing inclusive school and classroom practices by providing support both for pupils and peer teachers. This may increase their risk of experiencing exhaustion, cynicism towards the teacher community and/or inadequacy in pup…
What influences PhD graduate trajectories during the degree
During the past two decades, PhD graduate numbers have increased dramatically with graduates viewed by governments as a means to advance the knowledge economy and international competitiveness. Concurrently, universities have also invested in policies to monitor satisfaction, retention, and timely completion—and researchers have expanded the study of PhD experience. We, as such researchers, have increasingly received invitations from university d…
Why leave the teaching profession? A longitudinal approach to the prevalence and persistence of teacher turnover intentions
Teacher turnover has been recognized as a significant problem in the education worldwide. This study focuses on exploring reasons behind the turnover intentions, and persistence of such intentions in 5-year follow-up among Finnish teachers. Longitudinal survey data were collected from Finnish comprehensive school teachers in 2010 (T1 n = 2310) and 2016 (T2 n = 1450). The results showed that 50% of the teachers had turnover intentions. Turnover in…
Does It Feel the Same? Danish and Finnish Social Science and Humanities Doctoral Students’ Academic Emotions
Even if pursuing a doctorate is both emotionally challenging and rewarding, empirical research focusing on doctoral students’ academic emotions is limited. Therefore, in this study we have contributed to bridging the gap in the research on the doctoral experience by mapping the emotional landscape of doctoral experience. In addition, we have shed light on potential invariants and socio-cultural characteristics of the emotional landscape by doing …
Professional Agency for Learning as a Key for Developing Teachers’ Competencies
Teacher’s professional competencies have been discussed extensively in the literature, often linked to educational policy discourses, teaching standards, student learning outcomes, or the intended outcomes of teacher education. Extensive, but fragmented and loosely theoretically or empirically based lists of teacher competencies are provided without much clarification of how, when, and why teachers learn and identify the competencies they need. T…
Setting Individual Goals for Pupils with Profound Intellectual and Multiple Disabilities—Engaging in the Activity Area-Based Curriculum Making
The activity area-based curriculum model (AACM) is used in the Finnish basic education to support pupils—most of whom have profound intellectual and multiple disabilities (PIMD)—who could benefit more from skills that advance independent life coping. Existing studies have concentrated mainly on the Individual Education Plan (IEP) goal-setting process for pupils with milder disabilities than PIMD and have consistently demonstrated significant barr…
Psychology (52 obras) · Pedagogy (36 obras) · Social Psychology (34 obras) · Mathematics education (23 obras) · Sociology (23 obras) · Developmental psychology (21 obras) · Social Psychology (21 obras) · Burnout (18 obras) · Doctoral Education Challenges and Solutions (15 obras) · Political science (15 obras)