About the Lecture: As the ways of seeing the world become increasingly polarised, education plays a critical role in supporting the development of resilience and values in children and youth, and their social connectedness in peer groups and the community. 

Using empirical findings from Finland as a case, the presentation explores educational approaches for equipping pupils to navigate difference and contribute constructively to pluralistic societies.

Watch the recording:

About the Speaker: Arniika Kuusisto is Professor of Early Childhood Education at the University of Helsinki and a leading scholar of education, worldviews, religion, and childhood studies. She holds a PhD in Education from the University of Helsinki and the Title of Docent in Education, with doctoral training partly completed at King’s College London. 

Her research focuses on how children and young people develop values, belonging, and existential resilience in diverse and unequal societies.

She is Principal Investigator, Research Council of Finland – funded project ​‘Child in Time: Existential Resilience in Early Childhood’ and Guest Professor, Karlstad University, Sweden. Kuusisto has previously held senior academic roles at Stockholm University and is an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Oxford. She has published over 180 scholarly works and is co-editor of The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Education.