Maria Petäjäniemi

My current research focuses on the normative discourses surrounding refugee students, subject formation, and the oppressive mechanisms within the education system. Theoretically, my research is situated within feminist poststructuralism. In my PhD, I examined ‘asylum-seekingness’ as a process constantly in motion and contextualized by waiting, through the concepts of subject position and subjectification.

I act as the co-director of the SAFE (Social Justice at the Focus of Education) research collective. SAFE explores the possibilities of agency, participation, and safety for diverse students in schools, as well as how societal, educational, and developmental structures create or hinder these possibilities.

I work on various national and international projects related to forced migration and education. In the KOTI project funded by the Kone Foundation, we investigate the possibilities and limitations of refugee education with the goal of transforming Finnish refugee education practices from temporary panic solutions to more sustainable approaches. The VOITTO research project, funded by the Ministry of Education and Culture, aims to understand how the comprehensive support of newly arrived students' integration into the school community can be achieved. In the INFLUX project, funded by NordForsk, we examine governance structures, reception facilities, and the social and educational support provided to refugee children and families in the Nordic countries. In the ERAPAN project, also funded by NordForsk, we explore the effects that the COVID-19 pandemic has had and continues to have on the lives of children and young people with a refugee background.

Forced migration, refugeeness, social justice, critical integration research, education, preparatory education, feminist poststructuralism, intersectionality, nomadic research, ethnography

MTT - Multiculturalism, Transnationalism and Transformation in Education

Alamikkelä, Kaisu, Petäjäniemi, Maria, Lanas, Maija (2024) Saako mennä käytävälle tekemään? Nomadinen tutkimus avautuvan kouluympäristön arjesta. Kasvatus. https://journal.fi/kasvatus/article/view/143504/90908

Lanas, Maija, Petäjäniemi, Maria, Väisänen, Anne, Alamikkelä, Kaisu, Kauhanen, Iida & Yliniva, Kirsi (2023) Appearing as impossible subjects on the scene of education - potato smashing, laying on couch and asking for a key. In (eds.) K. Wright and J. McLeod. Childhood, Youth and Activism. Demands for Rights and Justice from Young People and their Advocates. (Sociological Studies of Children and Youth, Vol. 33), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 73-88.

Kaukko, Mervi, Petäjäniemi, Maria, Harju-Autti, Raisa, Haswell, Nick, Alisaari, Jenni Heikkola, Leena Maria & Mustonen, Sanna (2023) Tasapainoilua, tilan antamista ja näkymätisöintiä – Pakolaisaiheiden käsittely suomalaisissa kouluissa. Kasvatus ja Aika, 17(4), 4–25.

Karimi, Zeinab, Ennser-Kananen, Johanna, Petäjäniemi, Maria, Sadatizarrini (Rahaa) Sepideh, Masoud, Ameera & Khalimzoda Ilkhom (2023) Introduction. Thinking integration otherwise. In (eds.) Z. Karimi, J. Ennser-Kananen, S. Sadatizarrini (Rahaa), M. Petäjäniemi, I. Khalimzoda & A. Masoud. Rethinking integration: challenging oppressive practises and pointing to ways forward. Migration Institute of Finland.

Mustonen, Sanna, Kaukko, Mervi, Alisaari, Jenni, Petäjäniemi, Maria, Heikkola, Leena Maria, Harju-Autti, Raisa, & Haswell, Nick (2023) Pakolaistaustaisten oppilaiden tuki koulutoimen hallinnollisissa diskursseissa [School administration discourses concerning support for students with a refugee background]. AFinLAn Vuosikirja. https://doi.org/10.30661/afinlavk.127097

Petäjäniemi, Maria (2022) (Un)becoming an asylum seeker. Nomadic research with men awaiting an asylum decision. Doctoral dissertation. University of Oulu.

Petäjäniemi, Maria, Lanas, Maija & Kaukko, Mervi (2021) How to be “a good asylum seeker”? The subjectification of young men seeking asylum. Nordic Journal of Migration Research. 11(3), pp. 284–300. DOI:10.33134/njmr.389

Petäjäniemi, Maria, Kaukko, Mervi & Lanas, Maija (2021) Confined in waiting – Young asylum seekers narrating in and out of temporary shelter. YOUNG, 29(1), 62-80. DOI:10.1177/1103308820904271

Petäjäniemi, Maria, Lanas, Maija & Kaukko, Mervi (2018) Osallisuus turvaa hakevan reunaehdoissa: Hätämajoitusyksikössä asuvien nuorten turvapaikanhakijamiesten kertomuksia arjesta [Stories of participation, inclusion and exclusion of young male asylum seekers living in a temporary shelter]. Aikuiskasvatus 38(1), 4-17. DOI:10.33336/aik.88118

Petäjäniemi, Maria, Siira, Virva, Lutovac, Sonja & Kaasila, Raimo (2023) Dimensions of wellbeing in mindbody bridging -based university psychology course. Nordic Psychology, 1-19.

Lutovac, Sonja, Kaasila, Raimo, Petäjäniemi, Maria & Siira, Virva (2022) How mind-body bridging supports professional identity development? International Journal for Educational and Vocational Guidance, 1-22.