This article examines the role, meaning, and practice of letter writing in the lives of two Finnish girls during the Second World War (WWII). We use a particular set of letters (N = 41) from the wartime letter collection kept in the Tampere University Folklife Archives and argue that they give us an interesting perspective on not only the girls'…

Expert performance in a domain is often defined as maximal adaptation to stable task constraints. This definition is useful when analysing the vertical transition when novices become experts. However, many workplaces undergo considerable changes and, thus, task constraints change as well. In this paper a complementary conceptualisation of…

Due to COVID-19, schools closed in Finland for eight weeks in the spring of 2020, and teaching was conducted using distance education. Teachers used their professional agency to ensure a continuation of their students' learning. This study focuses on the experiences of teachers who taught pupils with intellectual disabilities during the distance…

In recent years, the idea that the future is inherently unpredictable has gained considerable currency in educational policymaking. In this paper, we seek to critically examine and analyze the implications that stem from embracing this concept of the future. To do so, we focus on current discussions of 21-century skills, and more specifically on…

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the digital transformation of Higher Education, necessitating a rapid shift from in-person to remote teaching and learning. This study investigates the experiences of doctoral students in an online Sino-Nordic summer school on aging, implemented during the pandemic. A survey was conducted to collect and…

The present study combines two separate research traditions that have been found to explain the way students deal with their university study and other challenges: psychological flexibility and cognitive-attributional strategies. The aim of this study is to explore the interrelationships between students' psychological flexibility,…

This longitudinal multiple case study explores children's transitions within early childhood education and care (ECEC) in Finland. In ECEC children typically transition from one group or center to another. This study explores how physical, social and philosophical discontinuities and continuities constitute these transitions. Five focus children's…

The study investigated a developmentally sensitive group, emerging adults going through a critical post-secondary educational transition in tandem with the first wave of the COVID pandemic in Finland. The participants (n = 330) were surveyed initially during their first year in secondary education, and again during the pandemic, right after their…

The rapid worldwide expansion of enrolment in higher education (HE) has led to greater diversity among students, with more first-generation learners, HE returnees, and disadvantaged groups. Yet, inequalities in participation persist and have worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic. The implementation of flexible learning pathways (FLPs) can help HE…

School lockdowns in response to COVID-19 have forced teachers around the world to quickly and unexpectedly shift from face-to-face to distance teaching. The struggle with the forced transition has been even more severe in the lower levels of schooling than in higher education institutions, which had already established online course delivery…

This study aims to reveal how primary school music education lessons are conducted during the pandemic process. For this purpose, answers to the following questions were sought in the study: How did music teachers adapt to the pandemic process? (Which practices did they plan and how did they manage the course process?); How has the pandemic…

The purpose of this study was to understand the factors behind university teachers' ability to implement instructional changes during the COVID-19 pandemic. An online questionnaire comprised of open-ended and Likert-scale questions was administered to teachers at a Finnish university in April 2020. The sample consisted of 378 university teachers…

Research has consistently shown that difficulties in facial emotion recognition (FER) are associated with peer problems and internalizing symptoms during middle childhood. However, no longitudinal research has investigated the direction of effects, that is, how these constructs influence each other across time. In this preregistered three-wave…

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the tension between learning and protection in university-industry relationships (UIRs) and, in particular, to identify practices that facilitate ways of coping with this tension. Design/methodology/approach: The empirical work for the study is based on a qualitative comparative case analysis of six…

Despite excellent education and a rich working experience in their home countries, skilled expatriates struggle to find employment that matches their qualifications. This article goes beyond the dominant stress and emotions' perspective on underemployment and presents the challenges of skilled migrant labour through the lens of the Common In-group…