Boardmembers’ Biographies
Chair Heli Ruokamo
HELI RUOKAMO is a professor of education, specialty on media education, a research vice dean of the Faculty of Education and a director of the Media Education Hub at the University of Lapland. She has been Visiting Scholar at Stanford University’s School of Medicine and H-STAR institute for three years. Ruokamo is a head of the Sino-Finnish JoLii Teacher Training Center in Finland and member of the Finnish Board of the Directors of the Sino-Finnish Joint Learning Innovation Institute (JoLii). She is a member and a 2nd vice chair of the Strategic Research Council at the Academy of Finland. Ruokamo is a president of FERA.
Vice-Chair Teemu Valtonen
Professor Teemu Valtonen works at the University of Eastern Finland at School of Applied Educational Science and Teacher Education. His research interests lie in the use and integration of the Information and Communication Technology in education. Recently the research has also focused on the integration of Flipped Classroom model on higher education teaching practices and for the roles of the machine learning and artificial intelligence as the new areas of 21st century skills
Secretary Satu Piispa-Hakala
Satu Piispa-Hakala works as a project researcher in the School of Applied Educational Science and Teacher Education in the University of Eastern Finland. She is also a doctoral student. Her research topic is teacher agency and digital pedagogy. She has been the secretary of FERA since 2020.
Treasurer Saku Määttä
Saku Määttä, MA (education), is a doctoral researcher in University of Turku. He works closely with research group for mathematics learning and instruction based in department of teacher education in Turku and is a part of Growing Mind project. His research focuses mainly on spontaneous mathematical focusing tendencies, mathematical thinking and mathematical achievement of comprehensive school students. He has started as a treasurer for the association in 2022.
Communications Officer Antti Ronkainen
Antti Ronkainen, MA (education) works as a university teacher at the School of Education and Adult Education, Psychology and Career Councelling in the University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu campus.
Board Members
Hanna Järvenoja
PhD Hanna Järvenoja works as an associate professor (Tenure Track) at the University of Oulu, Learning and Educational Technology Research Unit (LET). She also holds an adjunct professor position in the University of Turku, Finland. Currently, she acts as a coordinator for special interest group on motivation and emotions (SIG8) in European Association for Learning and Instruction (EARLI) and is an editor in Frontline Learning Research -journal. Järvenoja is one of the PIs LET, which is committed to research in the field of the learning sciences and technology-enhanced learning. In LET, Järvenoja is a principal Investigator in the focus area “Emotion and Motivation in Learning”. In her research, she implements process-oriented measures to investigate motivational and emotional processes as apart from regulated learning in social learning contexts.
Piia Seppänen
Tiina Soini-Ikonen
Tiina Soini-Ikonen (PhD in education) is research director in Tampere University, Faculty of Education and Culture. She is a leader of research group Leaning and Development in School. She is also adjunct professor in University of Eastern-Finland. Tiina’s research focuses on change and development processes in educational institutions and communities, for example in curriculum making, and learning, well-being and agency of students and professionals in comprehensive schools. Her research group utilises multimethod approach to empirically capture the multilevel processes of change and understand how reciprocal nature of different actors experiences of them.
Janne Varjo
Janne Varjo (PhD) is an Associate Professor (Research on education, society and culture) in the Faculty of Educational Sciences, and more particularly within the Research Unit Focusing on the Sociology and Politics of Education, at the University of Helsinki. His research interests include sociology, politics, history and administration of education.
Tanja Vehkakoski
Tanja Vehkakoski, PhD (title of docent), works as a senior lecturer of special education in the department of educational sciences at the University of Jyväskylä. Her research interests are the following: pedagogical documentation, classroom interaction and Disability Studies. Vehkakoski is specialized in qualitative research methods such as discourse analysis, conversation analysis and narrative research.