Elina Kuusisto

I am a Senior Research Fellow at Tampere Institute for Advanced Study (2024-2027). Here is a link to a short video about my research.

I am a researcher of purpose in life and class tutoring (also known as homeroom teaching and form tutoring). I am also interested in teachers’ professional ethics and school pedagogy, on which I have written two books (see Tirri & Kuusisto, 2019, 2022).

I am currently leading the MOTIproject “Towards professional class tutoring and a motivating school community”, funded by the Kone Foundation and Tampere Institute for Advanced Study (2024-2027). The MOTIproject addresses the problems of young people and schools by developing class tutoring pedagogy. The project will support the well-being and life purposes of both class tutors and young people. MOTI is an interdisciplinary and multi-method research project combining research and art, and bringing together the research traditions of life purpose, youth studies and school pedagogy.

I also run Erasmus+ Blended Intensive Programme (BIP) “Ethics education for future teachers” with researchers from Palacký University Olomouc in the Czech Republic, Comenius University Bratislava in Slovakia and Tallinn University in Estonia. The course was taught in Olomouc in 2024 and in Tampere in 2025.

In 2019-2022 I led a Finnish-Dutch study on the life purposes of higher education students (e.g., Kuusisto ym., 2023).

At Tampere University, I am also a University Lecturer, specializing in diversity and inclusive education. I hold Title of Docent (Associate Professor) at the University of Helsinki. Before coming to Tampere, I worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Helsinki (2011-2018), as an Associate Professor at the University of Humanistic Studies in Utrecth, the Netherlands (2018-2019), and as a Senior Researcher at the Tallinn University (2018-2019).

I am on the editorial boards of the Journal of Moral Education and the International Journal of Children's Spirituality.

Purpose in life, class tutoring pedagogy, class tutors, homeroom teachers, teachers' professional ethics, growth mindset

CLASS TUTORING - HOMEROOM TEACHING - FORM TUTORING

Kuusisto, E., Koskela, T., Viljanen, M., & Järvelä, V. (2025). Näkymätön näkyväksi - Yläkoulun opettajien tuen tarve luokanohjaajan opiskeluhuoltotehtävissä [Making the invisible visible – Lower secondary school teachers’ needs as class tutors in student welfare support]. Kasvatus, 56(3), 327–345. https://doi.org/10.33348/kvt.162448

PURPOSE AND PURPSEFUL EDUCATION

Kuusisto, E., Gholami, K., & Tirri, K. (2016). Finnish and Iranian teachers’ views on their competence to teach purpose. Journal of Education for Teaching, 42 (5), 541-555. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02607476.2016.1226553

Kuusisto, E., de Groot, I., de Ruyter, D., Schutte, I., Rissanen, I., & Suransky, C. (2023). Life purposes: Comparing higher education students in four institutions in the Netherlands and Finland. Journal of Moral Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057240.2022.2159347

Kuusisto, E., & Schutte, I. (2022). Sustainability as a purpose in life among Dutch higher education students. Environmental Education Research. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2022.2107617

Kuusisto, E., & Rissanen, I. (2023). Kohti päämäärätietoista yhteiskunnallista opettajuutta? Opettajaopiskelijoiden tulevalle työlleen asettamat päämäärät [Towards a purposeful, societal teaching profession? Student teachers’ work-related purposes]. Kasvatus, 54(4), 385–398. https://doi.org/10.33348/kvt.138074 - English summary: https://journal.fi/kasvatus/article/view/138049/85994

Kuusisto, E., & Tirri, K. (2021). The challenge of educating purposeful teachers in Finland. Education Sciences, 11(1), 29. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci11010029

TEACHER ETHICS

Kuusisto, E., Ubani, M., Nokelainen, P. & Toom, A. (Eds.) (2021). Good teachers for tomorrow’s schools – Purpose, values and talents in education. Brill Sense. https://brill.com/display/title/60323

Tirri, K., & Kuusisto, E. (2022). Teachers’ professional ethics: Theoretical frameworks and empirical research from Finland. Brill. https://brill.com/display/title/63853

Tirri, K., & Kuusisto, E. (2019). Opettajan ammattietiikkaa oppimassa [Learning teachers’ professional ethics]. Helsinki: Gaudeamus.

Gholami, K., Kuusisto, E., & Tirri, K. (2015). Is ethical sensitivity in teaching culturally bound? Comparing Finnish and Iranian teachers’ ethical sensitivity. Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, 45 (6), 886-907. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057925.2014.984588

GROWTH MINDSET 

Kuusisto, E., Laine, S., & Tirri, K. (2017). How do school children and adolescents perceive the nature of talent development? A case study from Finland. Education Research International, 2017. https://doi.org/10.1155/2017/4162957

Rissanen, I., Kuusisto, E., Tuominen, M., & Tirri, K. (2019). In search of a growth mindset pedagogy: A case study of one teacher’s classroom practices in a Finnish elementary school. Teaching and Teacher Education, 77, 204-213. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2018.10.002

Rissanen, I., Laine, S., Puusepp, I., Kuusisto, E., & Tirri, K. (2021). Implementing and evaluating growth mindset pedagogy -A study of Finnish elementary school teachers. Frontiers in Education. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2021.753698

CULTURES AND WORLDVIEWS

Kuusisto, E., Kuusisto, A., Rissanen, I., Holm, K., & Tirri, K. (2015). Finnish teachers’ and students’ intercultural sensitivity. Journal of Religious Education, 63 (29), 65–77. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40839-016-0018-0

Rissanen, I., Kuusisto, E., & Kuusisto, A. (2016). Developing teachers’ intercultural sensitivity: Case study on a pilot course in Finnish teacher education. Teaching and Teacher Education, 59, 446-456. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2016.07.018

GIFTEDNESS

Kuusisto, E., Laine, S., & Rissanen, I. (2021). Education of the gifted and talented in Finland. In E. Kuusisto, M. Ubani, P. Nokelainen, & A. Toom (Eds.), Good teachers for tomorrow’s schools – Purpose, values and talents in education (pp. 195–216). Brill Sense. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004465008_011

Tirri, K., & Kuusisto, E. (2013). How Finland serves gifted and talented pupils. Journal for the Education of the Gifted, 36(1), 84– 96. https://doi.org/10.1177/0162353212468066