Inkeri Rissanen
Biographic Data
| ID | 231629 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Inkeri Rissanen |
| GIVEN NAMES | Inkeri |
| FAMILY NAME | Rissanen |
| SIGNATURE | RISSANEN I |
| AFFILIATIONS | Tampere University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-2676-0169 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 23 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 69 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 23 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2011 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Teachers’ talk about worldview dialogues between home and school. A Finnish case-study
This study explored Finnish basic education teachers’ talk about worldview dialogues between teachers and guardians in Nordic, and more specifically in the Finnish context. Applying thematic discourse analysis to data from semi-structured interviews (N = 5) of the basic education teachers, we identified two discourses: differing worldviews and value conflicts between school and guardians. Results highlight that, from the teacher’s point of view, …
Civic purposes in teaching
This study explored Finnish ( n = 379) and German ( n = 477) student teachers’ professional purposes – meaningful long-term intentions to contribute beyond the self through the teaching profession. Due to global crises and calls for social reconstructionism in teacher education, we were especially interested in how civic purposes manifested in student teachers’ thinking. Qualitative content analysis of written responses showed that student teache…
Letters to researcher
Towards worldview literate climate change education
Climate change education (CCE) often involves profound, value-laden, and existential questions that are closely tied to the worldviews through which individuals interpret the world. This article explores the potential of worldview literacy as an approach for recognising and engaging with worldview influences in CCE. Based on in-depth interviews with 37 educators working in formal and non-formal education across four European city-regions, the stu…
Values manifested in life purposes of higher education students in the Netherlands and Finland
This study investigates the life purposes and values of higher education students in the Netherlands and Finland (nDutch = 663, nFin = 846). The theoretical framework is built on the conceptualisation of life purpose by Damon et al. as well as Schwartz’s values model. The study adopted a convergent mixed methods design analysing qualitative and quantitative survey data. The content of students’ life purposes was explored with qualitative content …
The role of mindsets in culturally responsive teaching
This research explores how Finnish pre-service teachers’ beliefs about malleability (mindsets), inform their pedagogical strategies in culturally responsive teaching. The study is part of a larger mixed-methods project which includes survey data and follow up interviews with a smaller group of participants, utilizing vignettes. Qualitative results based on interviews reveal that pre-service teachers primarily focus on supporting the development o…
Learning from young people’s experiences of climate change education
This article centres on young people’s experiences of climate change education (CCE). There is much written on CCE (e.g. what it is, what it should be, how it should be taught, where it should be taught), but there is little exploring young people’s views on learning about climate and the climate crisis. This Spotlight On article considers data collected as part of 21 focus groups, which engaged more than 100 young people in Bristol (UK), Galway …
Exploring the association between growth mindsets and climate action with young people
Decades of research has demonstrated the power of growth mindsets (i.e. belief in the malleability of the qualities of humans) to shape people’s ways of making sense of their socio-cultural reality and influence their ways of thinking about and acting towards change. Yet, research which connects mindsets with climate action or sustainability behavior remains scarce. This study explores the association between mindsets and climate action among Eur…
Life purposes
Universities worldwide are beginning to counter the prevailing neo-liberal ideology by paying renewed attention to the moral development of students and fostering their life purposes. This mixed methods study investigates the life purposes of higher education students in four institutions in the Netherlands (nDutch = 663) and Finland (nFinnish = 846). Based on quantitative data, we identified four purpose profiles: purposeful, self-oriented, drea…
Civic Purpose among Higher Education Students – A Study of Four Dutch and Finnish Institutions
Given the increasing interest in academic citizenship in higher education, this study examines the civic purposes of higher education students in two European countries, namely the Netherlands and Finland, and relations between students’ worldviews and their civic purposes. The majority of students was categorized as so-called disengaged or dreamers, respectively either not civically interested or active or then visioning but not actualizing civi…
Identifying core beliefs of an intercultural educator
The domain of beliefs and attitudes is generally included as one key component of teachers’ intercultural competence, but there is little consensus over what the core beliefs shaping teachers’ intercultural competencies are. This mixed methods study draws from social psychological research on inter-group relations and explores the role of polyculturalist beliefs and group malleability beliefs in shaping teachers’ orientation to teaching for diver…
Diversity beliefs are associated with orientations to teaching for diversity and social justice
This mixed methods study explored German (n = 477) and Finnish (n = 379) student teachers' color-blind, multiculturalist, and polyculturalist diversity beliefs. Statistical analyses identified polyculturalism and multiculturalism as the most prominent diversity beliefs among the student teachers and detected associations between diversity belief profiles and student teachers' orientations to teaching for diversity and social justice. Polycultural…
The role of growth mindset in shaping teachers' intercultural competencies
A growth mindset (a belief that intelligence, personality and other such qualities can be cultivated) predicts positive intergroup attitudes and reduces stereotyping, but has not been researched as an aspect of teachers' intercultural competence. This study analyses the role of growth mindset in shaping three aspects relevant to teachers' intercultural competencies: process versus trait orientation to students, diversity beliefs and orientation t…
Implementing and Evaluating Growth Mindset Pedagogy – A Study of Finnish Elementary School Teachers
This article presents a study of five teachers at a Finnish elementary school who implemented and evaluated growth mindset pedagogy (GMP). The teachers received GMP training and conducted student interventions in their classrooms. We analyzed the impact of GMP on the teacher’s pedagogical thinking and practices and found significant differences between fixed-mindset and growth-mindset teachers in the ways they internalized and applied GMP princip…
School principals’ diversity ideologies in fostering the inclusion of Muslims in Finnish and Swedish schools
Mainstream scholarly approaches to improving equity in education, including culturally responsive education, promote multicultural recognition of diversity and abandon color-blindness as an ineffective strategy. The social psychological literature affords a more nuanced understanding of the merits of different diversity ideologies. However, these research strands rarely address religion. It is vital to study the actualization and influences of di…
What kind of tensions are involved in the pedagogical use of religious narratives? Perspectives from Finnish Evangelic Lutheran and Islamic religious education
In this article, we examine how narratives of religious traditions are used as resources in religious education (RE) and compare practices from Evangelic Lutheran religious education (LRE) and Islamic religious education (IRE) in Finnish public schools. The sacredness of narratives from holy books entails that there can be contestations over their pedagogical use, and teachers need to negotiate the possible tensions between the pedagogical aims o…
In search of a growth mindset pedagogy
In this article we take up the two-fold task of creating a framework for a growth mindset pedagogy on the basis of our previous studies and exploring the critical points of this pedagogy in the classroom of a mixed-mindset teacher. The data include classroom observations and stimulated recall interviews. The results show how a teacher who is socialized into the Finnish educational system pursues core features of growth mindset pedagogy, despite n…
Developing teachers' intercultural sensitivity
Finnish Teachers' Attitudes About Muslim Students and Muslim Student Integration
Although there is much discussion of educational needs and how to integrate Muslim students into modern Western contexts, there is a shortage of research on teachers' attitudes about these issues. Finland offers a particularly interesting context for research, given its relatively new, small, yet rapidly growing Muslim population, its prominence of negative attitudes to visible religiosity, and its official policy of multiculturalism. This articl…
Teaching Islamic education in Finnish schools
How Finnish Muslim Students Perceive and Deal with Religious and Cultural Difference
This paper presents the results of a qualitative case study examining Muslim students' ways of perceiving and dealing with difference. The study is motivated by the need, expressed in previous literature, to achieve more elaborate comprehension of the relation between tolerance and religiosity. Deeper understanding of these dynamics is pursued by concentrating on one specific group and context-Muslim youngsters in Finland. The students' negotiati…
Finnish Teachers' Ethical Sensitivity
The study examined the ethical sensitivity of Finnish teachers (N=864) using a 28-item Ethical Sensitivity Scale Questionnaire (ESSQ). The psychometric qualities of this instrument were analyzed, as were the differences in self-reported ethical sensitivity between practicing and student teachers and teachers of different subjects. The results showed that the psychometric qualities of the ESSQ were satisfactory and enabled the use of an explorativ…
Religion and Modern Society
Bryan S. Turner, RELIGION AND MODERN SOCIETY: CITIZENSHIP, SECULARISATION AND THE STATE, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011, xxvii + 344 pp., £19.99 (paper), £60.00 (hard) This book is a s
Developing teachers' intercultural sensitivity
In search of a growth mindset pedagogy
In this article we take up the two-fold task of creating a framework for a growth mindset pedagogy on the basis of our previous studies and exploring the critical points of this pedagogy in the classroom of a mixed-mindset teacher. The data include classroom observations and stimulated recall interviews. The results show how a teacher who is socialized into the Finnish educational system pursues core features of growth mindset pedagogy, despite n…
School principals’ diversity ideologies in fostering the inclusion of Muslims in Finnish and Swedish schools
Mainstream scholarly approaches to improving equity in education, including culturally responsive education, promote multicultural recognition of diversity and abandon color-blindness as an ineffective strategy. The social psychological literature affords a more nuanced understanding of the merits of different diversity ideologies. However, these research strands rarely address religion. It is vital to study the actualization and influences of di…
Finnish Teachers' Ethical Sensitivity
The study examined the ethical sensitivity of Finnish teachers (N=864) using a 28-item Ethical Sensitivity Scale Questionnaire (ESSQ). The psychometric qualities of this instrument were analyzed, as were the differences in self-reported ethical sensitivity between practicing and student teachers and teachers of different subjects. The results showed that the psychometric qualities of the ESSQ were satisfactory and enabled the use of an explorativ…
Diversity beliefs are associated with orientations to teaching for diversity and social justice
This mixed methods study explored German (n = 477) and Finnish (n = 379) student teachers' color-blind, multiculturalist, and polyculturalist diversity beliefs. Statistical analyses identified polyculturalism and multiculturalism as the most prominent diversity beliefs among the student teachers and detected associations between diversity belief profiles and student teachers' orientations to teaching for diversity and social justice. Polycultural…
Identifying core beliefs of an intercultural educator
The domain of beliefs and attitudes is generally included as one key component of teachers’ intercultural competence, but there is little consensus over what the core beliefs shaping teachers’ intercultural competencies are. This mixed methods study draws from social psychological research on inter-group relations and explores the role of polyculturalist beliefs and group malleability beliefs in shaping teachers’ orientation to teaching for diver…
The role of growth mindset in shaping teachers' intercultural competencies
A growth mindset (a belief that intelligence, personality and other such qualities can be cultivated) predicts positive intergroup attitudes and reduces stereotyping, but has not been researched as an aspect of teachers' intercultural competence. This study analyses the role of growth mindset in shaping three aspects relevant to teachers' intercultural competencies: process versus trait orientation to students, diversity beliefs and orientation t…
Finnish Teachers' Attitudes About Muslim Students and Muslim Student Integration
Although there is much discussion of educational needs and how to integrate Muslim students into modern Western contexts, there is a shortage of research on teachers' attitudes about these issues. Finland offers a particularly interesting context for research, given its relatively new, small, yet rapidly growing Muslim population, its prominence of negative attitudes to visible religiosity, and its official policy of multiculturalism. This articl…
How Finnish Muslim Students Perceive and Deal with Religious and Cultural Difference
This paper presents the results of a qualitative case study examining Muslim students' ways of perceiving and dealing with difference. The study is motivated by the need, expressed in previous literature, to achieve more elaborate comprehension of the relation between tolerance and religiosity. Deeper understanding of these dynamics is pursued by concentrating on one specific group and context-Muslim youngsters in Finland. The students' negotiati…
Teaching Islamic education in Finnish schools
Exploring the association between growth mindsets and climate action with young people
Decades of research has demonstrated the power of growth mindsets (i.e. belief in the malleability of the qualities of humans) to shape people’s ways of making sense of their socio-cultural reality and influence their ways of thinking about and acting towards change. Yet, research which connects mindsets with climate action or sustainability behavior remains scarce. This study explores the association between mindsets and climate action among Eur…
Religion and Modern Society
Bryan S. Turner, RELIGION AND MODERN SOCIETY: CITIZENSHIP, SECULARISATION AND THE STATE, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011, xxvii + 344 pp., £19.99 (paper), £60.00 (hard) This book is a s
Religion and Modern Society
Bryan S. Turner, RELIGION AND MODERN SOCIETY: CITIZENSHIP, SECULARISATION AND THE STATE, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011, xxvii + 344 pp., £19.99 (paper), £60.00 (hard) This book is a s
Teaching Islamic education in Finnish schools
How Finnish Muslim Students Perceive and Deal with Religious and Cultural Difference
This paper presents the results of a qualitative case study examining Muslim students' ways of perceiving and dealing with difference. The study is motivated by the need, expressed in previous literature, to achieve more elaborate comprehension of the relation between tolerance and religiosity. Deeper understanding of these dynamics is pursued by concentrating on one specific group and context-Muslim youngsters in Finland. The students' negotiati…
Finnish Teachers' Ethical Sensitivity
The study examined the ethical sensitivity of Finnish teachers (N=864) using a 28-item Ethical Sensitivity Scale Questionnaire (ESSQ). The psychometric qualities of this instrument were analyzed, as were the differences in self-reported ethical sensitivity between practicing and student teachers and teachers of different subjects. The results showed that the psychometric qualities of the ESSQ were satisfactory and enabled the use of an explorativ…
Finnish Teachers' Attitudes About Muslim Students and Muslim Student Integration
Although there is much discussion of educational needs and how to integrate Muslim students into modern Western contexts, there is a shortage of research on teachers' attitudes about these issues. Finland offers a particularly interesting context for research, given its relatively new, small, yet rapidly growing Muslim population, its prominence of negative attitudes to visible religiosity, and its official policy of multiculturalism. This articl…
Developing teachers' intercultural sensitivity
What kind of tensions are involved in the pedagogical use of religious narratives? Perspectives from Finnish Evangelic Lutheran and Islamic religious education
In this article, we examine how narratives of religious traditions are used as resources in religious education (RE) and compare practices from Evangelic Lutheran religious education (LRE) and Islamic religious education (IRE) in Finnish public schools. The sacredness of narratives from holy books entails that there can be contestations over their pedagogical use, and teachers need to negotiate the possible tensions between the pedagogical aims o…
In search of a growth mindset pedagogy
In this article we take up the two-fold task of creating a framework for a growth mindset pedagogy on the basis of our previous studies and exploring the critical points of this pedagogy in the classroom of a mixed-mindset teacher. The data include classroom observations and stimulated recall interviews. The results show how a teacher who is socialized into the Finnish educational system pursues core features of growth mindset pedagogy, despite n…
School principals’ diversity ideologies in fostering the inclusion of Muslims in Finnish and Swedish schools
Mainstream scholarly approaches to improving equity in education, including culturally responsive education, promote multicultural recognition of diversity and abandon color-blindness as an ineffective strategy. The social psychological literature affords a more nuanced understanding of the merits of different diversity ideologies. However, these research strands rarely address religion. It is vital to study the actualization and influences of di…
Implementing and Evaluating Growth Mindset Pedagogy – A Study of Finnish Elementary School Teachers
This article presents a study of five teachers at a Finnish elementary school who implemented and evaluated growth mindset pedagogy (GMP). The teachers received GMP training and conducted student interventions in their classrooms. We analyzed the impact of GMP on the teacher’s pedagogical thinking and practices and found significant differences between fixed-mindset and growth-mindset teachers in the ways they internalized and applied GMP princip…
Life purposes
Universities worldwide are beginning to counter the prevailing neo-liberal ideology by paying renewed attention to the moral development of students and fostering their life purposes. This mixed methods study investigates the life purposes of higher education students in four institutions in the Netherlands (nDutch = 663) and Finland (nFinnish = 846). Based on quantitative data, we identified four purpose profiles: purposeful, self-oriented, drea…
Civic Purpose among Higher Education Students – A Study of Four Dutch and Finnish Institutions
Given the increasing interest in academic citizenship in higher education, this study examines the civic purposes of higher education students in two European countries, namely the Netherlands and Finland, and relations between students’ worldviews and their civic purposes. The majority of students was categorized as so-called disengaged or dreamers, respectively either not civically interested or active or then visioning but not actualizing civi…
Identifying core beliefs of an intercultural educator
The domain of beliefs and attitudes is generally included as one key component of teachers’ intercultural competence, but there is little consensus over what the core beliefs shaping teachers’ intercultural competencies are. This mixed methods study draws from social psychological research on inter-group relations and explores the role of polyculturalist beliefs and group malleability beliefs in shaping teachers’ orientation to teaching for diver…
Diversity beliefs are associated with orientations to teaching for diversity and social justice
This mixed methods study explored German (n = 477) and Finnish (n = 379) student teachers' color-blind, multiculturalist, and polyculturalist diversity beliefs. Statistical analyses identified polyculturalism and multiculturalism as the most prominent diversity beliefs among the student teachers and detected associations between diversity belief profiles and student teachers' orientations to teaching for diversity and social justice. Polycultural…
The role of growth mindset in shaping teachers' intercultural competencies
A growth mindset (a belief that intelligence, personality and other such qualities can be cultivated) predicts positive intergroup attitudes and reduces stereotyping, but has not been researched as an aspect of teachers' intercultural competence. This study analyses the role of growth mindset in shaping three aspects relevant to teachers' intercultural competencies: process versus trait orientation to students, diversity beliefs and orientation t…
Learning from young people’s experiences of climate change education
This article centres on young people’s experiences of climate change education (CCE). There is much written on CCE (e.g. what it is, what it should be, how it should be taught, where it should be taught), but there is little exploring young people’s views on learning about climate and the climate crisis. This Spotlight On article considers data collected as part of 21 focus groups, which engaged more than 100 young people in Bristol (UK), Galway …
Exploring the association between growth mindsets and climate action with young people
Decades of research has demonstrated the power of growth mindsets (i.e. belief in the malleability of the qualities of humans) to shape people’s ways of making sense of their socio-cultural reality and influence their ways of thinking about and acting towards change. Yet, research which connects mindsets with climate action or sustainability behavior remains scarce. This study explores the association between mindsets and climate action among Eur…
Values manifested in life purposes of higher education students in the Netherlands and Finland
This study investigates the life purposes and values of higher education students in the Netherlands and Finland (nDutch = 663, nFin = 846). The theoretical framework is built on the conceptualisation of life purpose by Damon et al. as well as Schwartz’s values model. The study adopted a convergent mixed methods design analysing qualitative and quantitative survey data. The content of students’ life purposes was explored with qualitative content …
The role of mindsets in culturally responsive teaching
This research explores how Finnish pre-service teachers’ beliefs about malleability (mindsets), inform their pedagogical strategies in culturally responsive teaching. The study is part of a larger mixed-methods project which includes survey data and follow up interviews with a smaller group of participants, utilizing vignettes. Qualitative results based on interviews reveal that pre-service teachers primarily focus on supporting the development o…
Teachers’ talk about worldview dialogues between home and school. A Finnish case-study
This study explored Finnish basic education teachers’ talk about worldview dialogues between teachers and guardians in Nordic, and more specifically in the Finnish context. Applying thematic discourse analysis to data from semi-structured interviews (N = 5) of the basic education teachers, we identified two discourses: differing worldviews and value conflicts between school and guardians. Results highlight that, from the teacher’s point of view, …
Civic purposes in teaching
This study explored Finnish ( n = 379) and German ( n = 477) student teachers’ professional purposes – meaningful long-term intentions to contribute beyond the self through the teaching profession. Due to global crises and calls for social reconstructionism in teacher education, we were especially interested in how civic purposes manifested in student teachers’ thinking. Qualitative content analysis of written responses showed that student teache…
Letters to researcher
Towards worldview literate climate change education
Climate change education (CCE) often involves profound, value-laden, and existential questions that are closely tied to the worldviews through which individuals interpret the world. This article explores the potential of worldview literacy as an approach for recognising and engaging with worldview influences in CCE. Based on in-depth interviews with 37 educators working in formal and non-formal education across four European city-regions, the stu…
Sociology (16 works) · Pedagogy (15 works) · Psychology (13 works) · Global Education and Multiculturalism (11 works) · Political science (11 works) · Social science (9 works) · Religious Education and Schools (8 works) · Educator Training and Historical Pedagogy (6 works) · Geography (6 works) · Islam (6 works)