Gone with the Wind? : Immigrant Women and Transnational Everyday Life in Finland

Increased mass migration, as a result of economic hardship, natural disasters and wars, forces many people to arrive on the shores of cultures very different from those they left. How do they manage the legacy of the past and the challenges of their new everyday life? This is a study of immigrant women living in transnational families that act and communicate across national borders on a near-daily basis. The research was carried out amongst immigrant women who were currently living in Finland. The research asks how transnational everyday life is constructed. As everyday life, due to its mundane nature, is difficult to operationalise for research purposes, mixed data collection methods were needed to capture the passing moments that easily become invisible. Thus, the data were obtained from photographic diaries (459 photographs) taken by the research participants themselves. Additionally, stimulated recall discussions, structured questionnaires and participant observation notes were used to complement the photographic data. A tool for analysing the activities devealed in the data was created on the assumption that a family is an active unit that accommodates the current situation in which it is embedded. Everyday life activities were analysed emphasizing social, modal and spatial dimensions. Important daily moments were placed on a continuum: for me , for immediate others and with immediate others . They portrayed everyday routines and exceptions to it. The data matrix was developed as part of this study. The spatial dimensions formed seven units of activity settings: space for friendship, food, resting, childhood, caring, space to learn and an orderly space. Attention was also paid to the accommodative nature of activities; how women maintain traditions and adapt to Finnish life or re-create new activity patterns. Women s narrations revealed the importance of everyday life. The transnational chain of women across generations and countries, comprised of the daughters, mothers and grandmothers was important. The women showed the need for information technology in their transnational lives. They had an active relationship to religion; the denial or importance of it was obvious. Also arranging one s life in Finnish society was central to their narrations. The analysis exposed everyday activities, showed the importance of social networks and the uniqueness of each woman and family. It revealed everyday life in a structured way. The method of analysis that evolved in this study together with the research findings are of potential use to professionals, allowing the targeting of interventions to improve the everyday lives of immigrants.Väitöskirjassa tarkastellaan transnationaalin perheen arkea maahanmuuttajanaisten näkökulmasta. Transnationaalin perheen jäsenet elävät eri maissa, maanosissakin, mutta toimivat ja kommunikoivat kansallisvaltioiden rajojen yli lähes päivittäin. Tutkimuksen maahanmuuttajanaiset asuivat tutkimushetkellä Suomessa. Tutkimuksessa kysytään, miten transnationaali arki rakentuu? Arki, itsestään selvyytensä vuoksi, on haasteellinen tutkimuskohde. Tutkimusaineiston keräämisessä käytettiin monimenetelmäistä lähestymistapaa arjen ohikiitävien ja helposti huomaamattomien hetkien taltiointiin. Aineisto kerättiin naisten itsensä kuvaamien valokuvapäiväkirjojen (459 valokuvaa) avulla. Valokuvista käydyt keskustelut, kyselylomake ja osallistuva havainnointi täydensivät tutkimusaineistoa. Toiminnan analyysiväline luotiin perustuen käsitykseen, että perhe on aktiivinen yksikkö, joka sopeutuu kulloiseenkin vallitsevaan tilanteeseen. Arjen toimintaa analysoitiin sosiaalisen ja tilallisen sekä tekemisen tapaa kuvaavien ulottuvuuksien avulla. Arjen merkitykselliset tilanteet asettuivat jatkumoille yksin, toiselle, yhdessä sekä akselille rutiinia, poikkeamat rutiinista. Toiminta näyttäytyi seitsemässä eri tilallisessa ulottuvuudessa. Nämä toiminnan tilat ovat: ystävyydentila, ruoan, levon, lasten ja hoivan tilat sekä oppimisen ja järjestelyn tila. Toiminnassa oli myös nähtävissä piirteitä, jotka pyrkivät säilyttämään perinteitä, kotoutumaan Suomeen, mutta myös luomaan uusia toimintamalleja. Naisten kerronta nosti esiin arjen merkityksellisyyttä, kuten naisten ylirajaisen sukupolvien ketjun tärkeyttä ja informaatioteknologian tarpeellisuutta. Myös aktiivinen, moninainen suhde uskontoon, sekä elämän järjestyminen suomalaisessa yhteiskunnassa näyttäytyivät tärkeinä elementtinä naisten elämässä. Analyysi tekee arjen toimet näkyviksi, korostaa sosiaalisten verkostojen tärkeyttä, mutta kuvaa kunkin naisen ja hänen perheensä yksilöllisesti. Tutkimuksessa kehitettyä analyysimenetelmää ja saatuja tutkimustuloksia voidaan soveltaa maahanmuuttajiin fokusoituneissa kehittämishankkeissa. Analyysin ja tulosten perusteella arki esiintyy jäsentyneessä muodossa ja on siten helpommin hahmotettavissa erilaisten kehittämishankkeiden käyttöön. Väitös kuuluu kotitaloustieteen alaan

Exploring an Approach for Teaching Home Economics Science Students to Envision the Future

Peer reviewe

Guest Editorial : Special Issue: Teaching and Learning in Home Economics Education

Non peer reviewe

Educating professionals for sustainable futures

The recent discourse on sustainability science calls for interdisciplinary research. The home economics science approach ranges from individual actions to the involvement of communities and societies at large, and thus it can provide important perspectives on cultural sustainability. The aim of the research is to study the linkage between cultural sustainability and service sector education to support the creation of sustainable professions. In the present small-scale empirical study, the food service degree curriculum of a Finnish vocational college and teachers’ group interview data were analyzed to find how cultural sustainability is presented in the curriculum and how it is understood by teachers and integrated into teaching practices. Previous cultural sustainability research identifies four perspectives of cultural sustainability: (1) vitality of cultural traditions; (2) economic starting point; (3) diversity together with maintenance of local culture; and (4) possible influence on the balance between human actions and environment. Findings indicate that sustainability, including cultural sustainability, is integrated in the curriculum and considered important by teachers. Translating these into practice remains a challenge. The balance between human and nature was mostly understood as recycling, use of public transport, sustainable consumption, and taking trips to the nature nearby. Cultural sustainability as a concept is not well known, although themes such as multicultural issues, equality, charity, and environmental responsibility were included in teachers’ practical lessons daily. Feasts and celebrations in learning were opportunities to view cultural sustainability widely. This paper provides a way forward for the teachers to develop further their pedagogical practicesPeer reviewe

A Metaphorical Analysis of Mentoring for Education without Walls in Palestine and Finland with the OLIVE International Project as a Key Example

Nowadays, efforts are being made in Finland to develop education across borders through projects that seek to deal with global learning crises. Palestine, being engaged in high-intensity struggle and faced with emergencies in education, is one example of such an initiative. Both actual and virtual walls exist in the collaboration between Palestinian and Finnish universities. By using conceptual metaphor theory and Ricoeur’s metaphor theory, this paper discusses and analyzes metaphors that emerge in the process of building education without walls in the OLIVE international project. Project activities support online teaching and learning methods. Drawing from the experience of first-stage implementation, the paper brings forward metaphors that emerge in developing mentoring. The study explores new perspectives on mentoring to conceptualize the metaphor by considering the need to decolonize engagement with learning through both intellectual and embodied–affective elements. This is done by providing a framework for immersive learning. As a result, one can conclude that mentoring is not only cognitive but also an embodied metaphor with affective elements and needs immersive learning environments. Mentoring is fluid, as the roles of mentors and mentees interchange and intertwine. Mentoring takes place in groups, between and among peers, students, teachers, and researchers both on-line and on-site

Developing Learning Games for Culturally Responsive Home Economics Teaching

key words: culturally responsive learning, home economics education, learning games, teacher education, higher educationPeer reviewe

Adapting to change : Building learning spaces in a culturally responsive manner

Peer reviewe

A Cross-Cultural Perspective on the Role of Parents in University Students’ Mental Health

Peer reviewe

North–South–South collaboration as a context for collaborative learning and thinking with alternative knowledges

This article discusses North–South–South higher education collaboration as a context for development education. We analyse an intensive course on qualitative research methods and culturally responsive education organized by a network of five universities from global South and global North. The course aimed to enhance qualitative understanding of quality learning and educational practices through approaches of contextual and cultural relevance, in line with Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG4). The course initiated a research-focused learning dialogue among students and researchers and encouraged participants to reflect and critique their views and to engage with alternative knowledges. Analysis of participants’ course feedback highlights the opportunities and limits of North–South–South collaboration for enhancing contextual, cultural and epistemological awareness for a better understanding of quality education.Peer reviewe

Helicopter Parenting and Young Adults’ Well-Being : A Comparison between United States and Finland

Helicopter parenting, defined as a form of overinvolved parenting of young adult children, is shown to be associated with young adult children’s well-being. Furthermore, the phenomenon of helicopter parenting is increasingly evident across various cultures. In this study, the association between helicopter parenting and young adult children’s well-being problems was examined, and the associations were compared between samples of American and Finnish young adults. With a sample of 441 American and 306 Finnish university students, results from path models suggested that maternal and paternal helicopter parenting was associated with university students’ symptoms of anxiety and depression, life dissatisfaction, and emotional dysregulation. Furthermore, even though the mean levels of helicopter parenting were lower among Finnish parents as compared with American parents, the associations between helicopter parenting and young adults’ well-being problems were, in general, equally significant. The implications for university students, parents of students, educators, and university administrators from different cultural backgrounds were also discussed.Peer reviewe