Responsibilities
I work as Professor at the Faculty of Education and Culture.I also serve as the Director of the Doctoral Programme Education & Society.
I lead the research group RESET (Research Engagement for Sustainable and Equitable Transformations) which develops and brings into use conceptual tools and interventionist methodologies from cultural-historical activity theory to foster collective analyses of major societal challenges. These analyses are carried out together with stakeholders and practitioners. RESET’s Change Laboratory research in the fields related to the eradication of youth homelessness in Finland are attracting national and international attention and are consolidating the collaboration of the research group with numerous organizations at the local, city-level and national level.
Main positions of trust
Other affiliations:
Distinguished Research Fellow, Faculty of Education, Monash University in Melbourne, Australia (2021-2025)
Professor, Work-Integrated Learning, University West, Sweden (2016-2021)
Visiting Professor, Faculty of Education, Rhodes University, South Africa (2016-2022)
Research topics
My current research topics include:
- Collective transformative agency and expansive learning to address acute societal challenges
- Cross-sectoral and multilevel collaboration to eradicate homelessness in Finland
- The critical role scholarship on learning and organizing in support transformative agency for equity and sustainability
- Systemic thinking and dialectics in change processes
- Conceptualization and mapping of enacted utopias of equity and sustainability
My research toolkit combines resources from cultural-historical activity theory, pragmatic analyses of discourse and the methodology of formative interventions.
In recent years I have studied activities undergoing critical transformations and what these transformations entail in terms of collective agency and learning. I also looked at how agency and learning can be fostered by university-mediated participatory designs based on the Change Laboratory method. In my publications so far I have developed and tested theoretical and methodological tools to explore how emerging forms of transformative agency and expansive learning can be identified, supported and enhanced.
The settings of my empirical research have included schools, a university library, municipal home care and a hospital. Changes in these contexts were triggered by the introduction of new technologies and by emerging new needs among students, clients and patients. My analyses traced how actors in these contexts collectively created, negotiated with authorities and took into use their own designs to shape the transformation. My current work on poverty and homelessness builds on the theoretical tools and the methodology refined during these prior studies.
Research fields
Learning Sciences, Cultural Historical Activity Theory, Studies of Agency, Intervention Research Methods
Research career
I completed my PhD in Social Psychology at University of Nancy, France in 2000. I have an extensive record of mobility across international and interdisciplinary borders with long periods and appointments in American, French, and Italian universities. In Finland, before Tampere, I worked as University Lecturer and Academy Research Fellow at the Center for Research on Activity Development and Learning (CRADLE), University of Helsinki from 2008 to 2017. Results of my research have appeared in numerous publications including two edited books, by Cambridge University Press (2009) and Routledge (2013).
Selected publications
Hopwood, N. & Sannino, A. (2023). Motives, Mediation and Motion: Towards an inherently learning- and development-orientated perspective on agency. In N. Hopwood & A. Sannino (Eds.), Agency and transformation: Motives, mediation, and motion (pp.1-34). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Sannino, A. (2023). Toward a power-sensitive conceptualization of transformative agency. In N. Hopwood & A. Sannino (Eds.), Agency and transformation: Motives, mediation, and motion (pp.35-55). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Sannino, A. & Engeström, Y. (2023). In search of an experiment: From Vygotsky to Lewin and Dembo and back to the future. In P. Marsico & L. Tateo (Eds.), Humanity in psychology: The intellectual legacy of Pina Boggi Cavallo (pp. 159–177). Cham: Springer.
Sannino, A. (2023). Problem identification in Change Laboratories: Workplace learning to eradicate homelessness. In H. Bound, A. Edwards, K. Evans & A. Chia (Eds), Workplace learning for changing social and economic circumstances (pp. 201-218). London: Routledge.
Sannino, A. (2023). Cultural-historical activity theory and dialectics for a transformative agency agenda in higher education: The example of a formative intervention on academic dishonesty. In R. Pillay, S. Mkwananzi & S. Moonsamy (Eds.), Transforming teaching and learning experiences for helping professions in higher education (pp. 9-31). London: Brill.
Sannino, A. (2023). Tutkijoiden monet roolit Muutoslaboratoriossa. [The multiple roles of researchers in the Change Laboratory]. Kasvatus, 54(3), 253-270 (in Finnish).
Prokopis, D., Sannino, A. & Mykkänen, A. (2022). Toward a new beginning: Exploring the instructional dynamics of expansive learning with workers in a youth supported housing unit. Journal of Workplace Learning, 34(7), 628-642.
Caır, I. H., Bal, A., Engeström, Y. & Sannino, A. (2022). Contradictions as an entry into inclusive systemic design: Addressing racial disparities in the discipline at an urban middle school. Learning, Culture and Social Interaction, 35. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lcsi.2022.100641
Ivaldi, S., Sannino, A. & Scaratti, G. (2022). Is ‘co’ in coworking a short for contradictions. Qualitative Research in Organizations and Management, 17(5), 38-63.
Sannino A. & Engeström Y. (2022). Transformation through crisis: A municipal enacted utopia in Finland. Journal of the Network for International Policies and Cooperation in Education and Training - NORRAG, 7, 29-32.
Ko, D., Bal, A., Bird Bear, A., Sannino, A. & Engeström, Y. (2021). Transformative agency for Justice: Addressing racial disparity of school discipline with the indigenous learning lab. Race Ethnicity and Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/13613324.2021.1969903
Sannino, A., Engeström, Y. & Jokinen, E. (2021). Digital peer learning for transformative professional agency: The case of homelessness practitioners in Finland. British Journal of Educational Technology, 52, 1612–1628. DOI: 10.1111/bjet.13117
Engeström, Y. & Sannino, A. (2021). From mediated actions to heterogeneous coalitions: Four generations of activity-theoretical studies of work and learning. Mind, Culture, and Activity, 28(1), pp.4-23. DOI: 10.1080/10749039.2020.1806328
Engeström, Y. & Sannino, A. (2021). Des actions de travail aux coalitions hétérogènes: Quatre générations d’études théoriques de l’activité de travail [From work actions to heterogeneous coalitions: Four generations of theoretical studies on work activities]. In M.-A. Dujarier, A. Gillet, & P. Lénel (Eds.), L'activité en théories: Regards croisés sur le travail (pp. 241-251). Paris: Octares (in French).
Morselli, D. & Sannino, A. (2021). Testing the model of double stimulation in a Change Laboratory. Teaching and Teacher Education, 97, 1-8. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2020.103224
Sannino, A. (2020). Transformative agency as warping: How collectives accomplish change amidst uncertainty. Pedagogy, Culture & Society. DOI: 10.1080/14681366.2020.1805493
Sannino, A. (2020). Enacting the utopia of eradicating homelessness: Toward a new generation of activity-theoretical studies of learning. Studies in Continuing Education, 42:2, 163-179.
Sannino, A. (2018). Counteracting the stigma of homelessness: The Finnish Housing First strategy as educational work. Educação, 41(3), p. 385-392.
Sannino, A. & Engeström, Y. (2018). Cultural-historical activity theory: founding insights and new challenges. Cultural-Historical Psychology, 14(3), 43-56.
Sannino, A. & Engeström, Y. (2018). Valuable Innovations out of Nonsense? Expansive Organizational Learning and Transformative Agency in the Mann Gulch Disaster and in the Finnish Homelessness Strategy. Teoria e Prática em Administracão, 8(2), 60-79.
Engeström, Y. & Sannino, A. (2018). Expansive learning on the move: Insights from ongoing research. In U. Denet, C. Reis, C. Reutlinger & M. Winkler (Eds), Potentiale des Aneignungskonzepts [Potentials of the appropriation concept] (pp. 211-228). Weinheim: Belts Juventa.
Francisco, R., Klein, A., Engeström, Y., & Sannino, A. (2018). Knowledge on the move: Expansive learning among mobile workers. In D. Kolbaek (Ed.), Online Collaboration and Communication in Contemporary Organizations. Hershey, PA: Igi Global.
Nummijoki, J., Engeström, Y., & Sannino, A. (2018). Defensive and expansive cycles of learning: A study of home care encounters. Journal of the Learning Sciences. DOI: 10.1080/10508406.2017.1412970
Sannino, A. & Engeström, Y. (2017). Co-generation of societally impactful knowledge in Change Laboratories. Management Learning, 48(1), 80-96.
Sannino, A. & Engeström, Y. (2017). Relational agency, double stimulation and the object of activity: An intervention study in a primary school. In A. Edwards (Ed.), Working relationally in and across practices: Cultural-historical approaches to collaboration (pp. 58-77). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Sannino, A., Engeström, Y., & Lemos, M. (2017). Formative interventions for expansive learning and transformative agency. In M. Cole, W. Penuel & K. O'Neill (Eds.), Cultural-Historical Activity Theory Approaches to Design-Based Research (Routledge Special Issues as Books, SPIB series). London: Routledge.
Laitinen, A., Sannino, A., & Engeström, Y. (2017). From controlled experiments to formative interventions in studies of agency: Methodological considerations. Educação, 39, 14-23.
Vetoshkina, L., Engeström, Y., & Sannino, A. (2017). On the power of the object: History-making through skilled performance in wooden boat building. In J. Sandberg, L. Rouleau, A. Langley & H. Tsoukas (Eds.), Skillful performance: Enacting expertise, competence and capabilities in organizations (pp. 73-102). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Sannino, A., Engeström, Y., & Lahikainen, J. (2016). The dialectics of authoring expansive learning: Tracing the long tail of a Change Laboratory. Journal of Workplace Learning, 28(4), 245-262.
Sannino, A., Engeström, Y., & Lemos, M. (2016). Formative interventions for expansive learning and transformative agency. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 25(4), 599-633.
Gutiérrez, K. D., Engeström, Y. & Sannino, A. (2016). Expanding educational research: Toward viable interventionist methodologies. Cognition and Instruction, 3, 275-284.
Engeström, Y. & Sannino, A. (2016). Expansive learning on the move: Insights from ongoing research. Infancia y Aprendizaje: Journal for the Study of Education and Development, 39(3), 401-416.
- Spanish translation of the article reproduced in Infancia y Aprendizaje: Journal for the Study of Education and Development, 39(3), 417-435.
Virtaluoto, J., Sannino, A. & Engeström, Y. (2016). Surviving outsourcing and offshoring: Technical communication professionals in search of a future. Journal of Business and Technical Communication, 30(4), 495-532.
Sannino, A. (2016). Double stimulation in the waiting experiment with collectives. Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science, 50(1), 142-173.
Sannino, A. (Ed.) (2015). The emergence of transformative agency and double stimulation: Activity-based studies in the Vygotskian tradition. Special issue of Learning, Culture, and Social Interaction, 4.
Sannino, A. (2015). The emergence of transformative agency and double stimulation: Activity-based studies in the Vygotskian tradition. Learning, Culture, and Social Interaction, 4, 1-3.
Sannino, A. (2015). The principle of double stimulation: A path to volitional action. Learning, Culture, and Social Interaction, 6, 1-15.
Sannino, A. & Laitinen, A. (2015). Double stimulation in the waiting experiment: Testing a Vygotskian model of the emergence of volitional action. Learning, Culture, and Social Interaction, 4, 4-18.
Sannino, A. & Vainio, J. (2015). Gendered hegemony and its contradictions among Finnish university physicists. Gender and Education, 27(5), 505-522.
Engeström, Y., Kajamaa, A., Lahtinen, P., & Sannino, A. (2015). Toward a grammar of collaboration. Mind, Culture, and Activity, 22(2), 92-111.
Rajala, A. & Sannino, A. (2015). Students' deviations from a learning task: An activity-theoretical analysis. International Journal of Educational Research, 70, 31-46.
Engeström, Y., Sannino, A. & Virkkunen, J. (2014). On the methodological demands of formative interventions. Mind, Culture, and Activity, 2(2), 118-128.
Sannino, A. & Ellis, V. (Eds.) (2013). Learning and collective creativity: Activity-theoretical and sociocultural studies. New York: Routledge.
Sannino, A. & Ellis, V. (2013). Activity-theoretical and sociocultural approaches to learning and collective creativity: An introduction. In A. Sannino & V. Ellis (Eds.), Learning and collective creativity: Activity-theoretical and sociocultural studies (pp. 1-19). New York: Routledge.
Sannino, A. (2013). Critical transitions in the pursuit of a professional object: Simone de Beauvoir’s expansive journey to become a writer. In A. Sannino & V. Ellis (Eds.), Learning and collective creativity: Activity-theoretical and sociocultural studies (pp. 40-60). New York: Routledge.
Ajello, A.M., Engeström, Y., Sannino, A., Tuomi-Gröhn, T. (Eds.) (2013). Apprendere tra scuola e lavoro [Learning between school and work]. Bologna: Il Mulino. (in Italian)
Engeström, Y. & Sannino, A. (2013). La volition et l’agentivité transformatrice : Perspective théorique de l’activité [Volition and transformative agency: An activity-theoretical perspective]. Revue international du CRIRES: Innover dans la tradition de Vygotsky, 1(1), 4-19.
Sannino, A. (2012). Dialectique et intervention en théorie de l'activité [Dialectics and intervention in activity theory]. In Y. Clot (Ed.), Vygotski maintenant (pp. 213-230). Paris: La Dispute. (in French)
Engeström, Y. & Sannino, A. (Eds.) (2012). Concept formation in the wild. Mind, Culture, and Activity, 19(3).
Engeström, Y. & Sannino, A. (2012). Concept formation in the wild. Mind, Culture, and Activity, 19(3), 201-206.
Engeström, Y., Nummijoki, J. & Sannino, A. (2012). Embodied germ cell at work: Building an expansive concept of physical mobility in home care. Mind, Culture, and Activity, 19(3), 287-309.
Engeström, Y. & Sannino, A. (2012). Whatever happened to process theories of learning? Learning, Culture and Social Interaction, 1(1), 45-56.
Sannino, A. (2011). Ricerca–intervento in teoria dell’attività: Attualità della tradizione vygotskijana [Interventionist research in activity theory: Timeliness of the Vygotskian tradition], Formazione & Insegnamento, 3, 103-115. (in Italian)
Sannino, A. & Sutter, B. (Eds.) (2011). Cultural-historical activity theory and interventionist methodology: Classical legacy and contemporary developments. Special issue of Theory & Psychology, 21(5).
Sannino, A. & Sutter, B. (2011). Cultural-historical activity theory and interventionist methodology: Classical legacy and contemporary developments. Theory & Psychology, 21(5), 557-570.
Sannino, A. (2011). Activity theory as an activist and interventionist theory. Theory & Psychology, 21(5), 571-597.
Dochy, F., Engeström, Y., Sannino, A., Van Meeuwen, N. (2011). Interorganisational expansive learning at work. In F. Dochy, D. Gijbels, M. Segers, P. Van den Bossche (Eds.), Theories of learning for the workplace: Buiding blocks for training and professional development programs (pp. 125-147). London: Routledge.
Lasonen, J., Teräs, M. & Sannino, A. (2011). Tunnustaminen, kokeminen ja ekspansiivinen oppiminen käsitteellisinä resursseina maahanmuuttajia tutkittaessa [Recognition, experiencing and expansive learning as conceptual resources in studies of immigrants]. In J. Ursin & J. Lasonen (Eds.), Jatkuvuuksia ja katkoksia: Koulutus yhteiskunnan muutoksissa. Jyväskylä: Suomen Kasvatustieteellinen Seura. (in Finnish)
Engeström, Y. & Sannino, A. (2011). Discursive manifestations of contradictions in organizational change efforts: A methodological framework. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 24(3), 368-387.
Sannino, A. (2010). Teachers’ talk of experiencing: Conflict, resistance and agency. Teaching and Teacher Education, 26, 838-844.
Sannino, A. (2010). The predictable failure of sustainable innovations in school? From warrants to actions and back to the future. In K. Yamazumi (Ed.), Activity theory and fostering learning: Developmental interventions in education and work (pp. 61-85). Osaka: Kansai University Press.
Sannino, A. (2010). Breaking out of a professional abstraction: The pupil as materialized object for trainee teachers. In V. Ellis, A. Edwards & P. Smagorinsky (Eds.), Cultural-historical perspectives on teacher education and development: Learning teaching (pp. 146-159). London: Routlege.
Engeström, Y. & Sannino, A. (2010). Studies of expansive learning: Foundations, findings and future challenges. Educational Research Review, 5, 1-24.
- German translation of the article reproduced in F. Seeger (Ed.), Lernen Durch Expansion (pp. 403-461), 2011, Berlin: Lehmanns Media.
- Polish translation of the article reproduced in Forum Oświatowe, 1(46), 2012, 209-266.
Teräs, M., Lasonen, J. & Sannino, A. (2010). Maahanmuuttajien lasten siirtymät koulutukseen ja työelämään [Transitions of immigrant children into education and working life]. In T. Martikainen & L. Haikkola (Eds.), Maahanmuutto ja sukupolvet. Helsinki: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura. (in Finnish)
Sannino, A., Daniels, H. & Gutierrez, K. (Eds.) (2009). Learning and expanding with activity theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Sannino, A., Daniels, H. Gutierrez, K. (2009). Editors’ introduction. In A. Sannino, H. Daniels & K. Gutierrez (Eds.), Learning and expanding with activity theory (pp. xi-xxi). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Sannino, A., Daniels, H. Gutierrez, K. (2009). Activity theory between historical engagement and future-making practice. In A. Sannino, H. Daniels & K. Gutierrez (Eds.), Learning and expanding with activity theory (pp. 1-15). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Sannino, A. (2008). Experiencing conversations: Bridging the gap between discourse and activity. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 38(3), 267-291.
Sannino, A. (2008). From talk to action: Experiencing interlocution in developmental interventions. Mind, Culture, and Activity, 15(3), 234-257.
Sannino, A. & Nocon H. D. (Eds.) (2008). Activity theory and school innovation. Special issue of Journal of Educational Change, 9(4).
Sannino, A. & Nocon, H. (2008). Special issue introduction: Activity theory and school innovation. Journal of Educational Change, 9(4), 325-328.
Sannino, A. (2008). Sustaining a non-dominant activity in school: Only a utopia? Journal of Educational Change, 9(4), 329-338.
Sannino, A. (2006). Analyzing discontinuous speech in EU conversations: A methodological proposal. Journal of Pragmatics, 38(4), 543-566.
Sannino, A. (2005). Cultural-historical and discursive tools for analyzing critical conflicts in students’ development. In K. Yamazumi, Y. Engeström & H. Daniels (Eds.), New learning challenges: Going beyond the industrial age system of school and work (pp. 165-195). Osaka: Kansai University Press.
Sannino, A. & Trognon, A. (2004). Un'introduzione alla Logica Interlocutoria: Come studiare l’interlocuzione per accedere alle dinamiche generative del pensiero e dei rapporti sociali. [Introduction to Interlocutionary Logic: How to study interlocution in order to access to the generative dynamics of thinking and social relationships]. Ricerche di Psicologia, 27(4), 143-174. (in Italian)
Sannino, A. , Trognon, A. & Dessagne, L. (2003). A model for analyzing knowledge content and processes of learning a trade within alternance vocational training. In T. Tuomi-Gröhn & Y. Engeström (Eds.), Between school and work: New perspectives on transfer and boundary crossing (pp.267-285). Amsterdam: Pergamon.
- Italian translation of the chapter reproduced in Ajello, A.M., Engeström, Y., Sannino, A., Tuomi-Gröhn, T. (Eds.) (2013). Apprendere tra scuola e lavoro [Learning between school and work] (pp. 227-250). Bologna: Il Mulino.
Sannino, A. (2002). L'élaboration des avis dans une assemblée consultative de l'Union européenne: un jeu de langage dans un collectif complexe et en évolution [Developing opinions in a Consultative Assembly of the European Union: Language game of a complex collective in evolution]. Villeneuve D’Ascq : Presses Universitaires du Septentrion. (in French)
Sannino, A. , Trognon, A. , Dessagne, L. , Kostulski, K. (2001). Les connaissances émergeant d'une relation tuteur-apprenti sur le lieu de travail [Knowledge emerging from a relationship between tutors and apprentices in the workplace]. Bulletin de Psychologie , 54(3), 453, 261- 273. (in French)
Sannino, A. (1998). L’accomplissement interlocutoire et intergestuel d’une interaction en situation de travail [Interlocutionary and intergestural interactions at work]. In K. Kostulski & A. Trognon (Eds.), Communications Interactives dans les Groupes de Travail (p.123-157). Nancy, Presses Universitaires de Nancy. (in French)