Mervi Kaukko

My current research has three primary areas: migration and refugee research, intercultural education and practice theories/praxis.

Migration/refugee research, especially in relation to childhood and education (Kaukko & Wilkinson 2018; Wilkinson & Kaukko 2019; Kohli & Kaukko 2017; Millei, Korkiamäki & Kaukko 2019), has been my main interest since the beginning of my PhD. Currently my main agenda in this field is to understand refugee students’ educational success and school wellbeing. I believe that while certain circumstances and processes can make refugee children vulnerable and struggle in school, the relationship between difficult experiences and consequent problems is correlational rather than causal (Kaukko & Wilkinson 2018). I want to understand how, despite a fragmented educational history and exile-related stressors, many refugee children succeed in schools, and what kind of educational practices they have found helpful in their learning.

The second theme is ethical praxis in intercultural education. Ethical praxis in intercultural settings requires teachers to critically reflect their work beyond their immediate teaching practice and think, what is good for the individual learners now and in the long run (regardless of where they will be), and what kind of practices resonate with the lifeworlds of the child, (regardless of how distant they are from the world of the teacher). In my ongoing research, I explore this with Finnish and Australian teachers and educational leaders working with refugee students.

My third, mainly theoretical research interest is closely linked to the other two. I frame my current research within practice theories, especially within the theory of practice architectures (Kemmis, Wilkinson, Edwards-Groves, Hardy & Bristol 2014). This theoretical approach conjoins the individual and the societalapproaches, and the ways in which experiences and the site-specific (educational) practices are nested with one another: how the everyday reality (of students, teachers, educational leaders, to take school as an example) is composed in socio-material realities (of schools) and, especially, shaped by the cultural-discursive, material-economic and social-political arrangements among which the practices are enacted (Kemmis et al 2014).

I came to Tampere in 2019 to join the Institute for Advanced Social Research (IASR) after three years at Monash University, Australia. Before that, I was a lecturer (Global Education) at University of Oulu, Finland. I continue as an adjunct researcher at Monash University and a docent (adjunct) at Oulu University.

I am Professor (Multicultural Education) at Faculty of Education and Culture. I lead the Kone-foundation funded project From Panic Solutions Towards Equal Refugee Education — Participation, Support and Inclusion of Students from Countries in Crisis (KOTI) (2023-2027) and I am the Project Manager for NordForsk-funded project Relational Wellbeing in the Lives of Young Refugees in Finland, Norway and the UK (2020-2024). Year 2022-2023 I spend at Harvard Graduate School of Education as a Fulbright fellow. 

MTT - Multiculturalism, Transnationalism and Transformation in Education

Refugee education, practice theory, multicultural education, intercultural education, research ethics. 

Kaukko, M. Petäjäniemi, M., Harju-Autti, R., Haswell, N. Alisaari, J. Heikkola, L. & Mustonen, S. (2023) Tasapainoilua, tilan antamista ja näkymätisöintiä – Pakolaisaiheiden käsittely suomalaisissa kouluissa [Balancing, giving space and invisibilsation – Addressing refugee issues in Finnish schools]. Kasvatus ja Aika [Education and Time], 17(4).

Kaukko, M., Macaulay, L., Reimer, K., Webb, S., Dunwoodie, K. and Wilkinson, J. (2023) ‘It is a university where I felt welcome’: Poems of asylum-seeking students’ sense of coherence in Australian higher education. Higher Education Research and Development. DOI 10.1080/07294360.2023.2280746 

Kauhanen, I., Lanas, M. & Kaukko, M. (2023) (Im)possibilities of Parity of Participation in School Settings in the Lives of Unaccompanied Youth. International Journal of Inclusive Education, DOI 10.1080/13603116.2023.2287474

Rissanen, I., Kuusisto, E., Timm, S., & Kaukko, M. (2023). Diversity beliefs are associated with orientations to teaching for diversity and social justice: A study among German and Finnish student teachers. Teaching and Teacher Education, 123, 103996. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2022.103996

Kaukko, M., Alisaari, J., Heikkola, L., Haswell, N. (2022) Migrant Background Students’ Experiences of Facing and Overcoming Difficulties in Finnish Comprehensive Schools. Education sciences. 12, 450. DOI: 10.3390/educsci12070450

Kaukko M., Wilkinson J., Haswell, N. (2022). ‘This is our treehouse’. Investigating play through a practice architectures lens. Childhood 29(2), 187–203. DOI:10.1177/09075682221091419

Korkiamäki, R. & Kaukko, M. (2023) Faceless, voiceless child – Ethics of visual anonymity in research with children and young people Childhood 30(1), 55–70. DOI:10.1177/09075682221126586

Mustonen, S., Kaukko, M., Alisaari, J., Petäjäniemi, M., Heikkola, L. M., Harju-Autti, R., & Haswell, N. (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 

Kaukko, M. & Wilkinson, J. (2023) Challenging ontological and epistemological assumptions of researching: A practice architectures approach. In Whatman, S. Wilkinson, J., Kaukko, M., Vedeler, G., Blue, L. & Reimer, K. (eds). Researching practices across and within diverse educational sites. Onto-epistemological considerations. Emerald, 23-36. 

Kaukko, M. & Wilkinson, J. (2023) A site-ontological approach to researching with children and youth from refugee background. In Whatman, S. Wilkinson, J., Kaukko, M., Vedeler, G., Blue, L. & Reimer, K. (eds). Researching practices across and within diverse educational sites. Onto-epistemological considerations. Emerald, 37-60. 

Whatman, S. Wilkinson, J., Kaukko, M., Vedeler, G., Blue, L. & Reimer, K. (2023) Concluding thoughts on methodological resources and research challenges in diverse educational sites. In Whatman, S. Wilkinson, J., Kaukko, M., Vedeler, G., Blue, L. & Reimer, K. (eds). Researching practices across and within diverse educational sites. Onto-epistemological considerations. Emerald, 163-168. 

Heikkinen, H., Salo, P. & Kaukko, M. (2023) Mitä toimintatutkimus on, ja miten sitä tehdään? [What is action research, and how to do it?] In Heikkinen, M. & Kaukko, M. (eds.). Toimintatutkimus: Käytännön opas [Action research: Guide to practice]. Vastapaino, 17-38.

Salo, P., Kaukko, M. & Heikkinen, H. (2023) Toimintatutkimuksen monet historiat [Many histories of action research]. In Heikkinen, M. & Kaukko, M. (eds.). Toimintatutkimus: Käytännön opas [Action research: Guide to practice]. Vastapaino, 39-66.

Heikkinen, H., Salo, P., Kaukko, M., Kiilakoski, T., Huttunen, R., Mutanen, A., Friman, M. & Nuutinen, L. (2023). Suuntauksia ja tulkintoja [Approaches and interpretations]. In Heikkinen, M. & Kaukko, M. (eds.). Toimintatutkimus: Käytännön opas [Action research: Guide to practice]. Vastapaino, 67-110.

Niemi, R., Kiilakoski, T., & Kaukko, M. (2023). Suunnittelu ja toteuttaminen [Planning and implementation]. In Heikkinen, M. & Kaukko, M. (eds.). Toimintatutkimus: Käytännön opas [Action research: Guide to practice]. Vastapaino, 111-136.

Kaukko, M. & Kiilakoski, T. (2023). Toimi hyvin: Toimintatutkimuksen eettiset kysymykset [Do well. Ethical questions of action research]. In Heikkinen, M. & Kaukko, M. (eds.). Toimintatutkimus: Käytännön opas [Action research: Guide to practice]. Vastapaino, 137-162.

Kaukko, M. & Kiilakoski, T. (2023) Kenen hyvä, millainen muutos? Moninaisuus toimintatutkimuksessa. [Good for whom, what kind of change? Diversity in action research] In Heikkinen, M. & Kaukko, M. (eds.). Toimintatutkimus: Käytännön opas [Action research: Guide to practice]. Vastapaino, 163-196.

Heikkinen, H. & Kaukko, M. (2023) Kerronnallinen näkökulma [Narrative approach]. In Heikkinen, M. & Kaukko, M. (eds.). Toimintatutkimus: Käytännön opas [Action research: Guide to practice]. Vastapaino, 197-216.

Kaukko, M., Heikkinen, H. & Salo, P. (2023). Käytäntöteoriat ja toimintatutkimus. [Practice theories and action research]. In Heikkinen, M. & Kaukko, M. (eds.). Toimintatutkimus: Käytännön opas [Action research: Guide to practice]. Vastapaino, 267-291.

Whatman, S. Wilkinson, J., Kaukko, M., Vedeler, G., Blue, L. & Reimer, K. (2023) Onto-epistemological and axiological consideration for researching practices. In Whatman, S. Wilkinson, J., Kaukko, M., Vedeler, G., Blue, L. & Reimer, K. (eds). Researching practices across and within diverse educational sites. Onto-epistemological considerations. Emerald, 1-22. 

Kaukko, M., Windsor, S., Reimer, K. (2023). Searching for worlds for living in. In Reimer, K. Kaukko, M. Kemmis, S. Mahon, K. & Windsor, S. (eds). Living Well in a World Worth Living in for All: Current practices of social justice, sustainability and wellbeing (Part 1). Springer. 

Heikkinen, H., Kiilakoski, T., Kaukko, M. & Kemmis, S. (2023) Tehtävänä on käytäntöjen muuttaminen. Ekososiaalinen sivistys käytäntöarkkitehtuuriteorian valossa. [Changing practices. Eco-social wisdom in the light of practice architectures] Kasvatus 1(23). 

Haswell, N., Kaukko, M., Knag Fylkesnes, M., Sullivan, P. (2023) Keeping each other safe: Young refugees’ navigation towards a good life in Finland, Norway, and Scotland. In Reimer, K. Kaukko, M. Kemmis, S. Mahon, K. & Windsor, S. (eds). Living Well in a World Worth Living in for All: Current practices of social justice, sustainability and wellbeing (Part 1). Springer. 

Keary, A., Reupert, A., Kaukko, M., & Wilkinson, J. (2023) Education and Ethics of Care when Working with Refugee Families during COVID-19. Early years, 43(4–5), 875–888.

Kauhanen, I., Kaukko, M., Lanas, M. (2022) Pockets of love. Unaccompanied children in institutional care in Finland. In Children and Youth Services Review. Vol 141, DOI:10.1016/j.childyouth.2022.106621 

Alisaari, J., Kaukko, M. & Heikkola, L. (2022) Kotoutuminen, kuuluvuus, kielitaito ja kaverit: Opettajien ajatuksia maahanmuuttajataustaisten oppilaiden opetuksen kehittämiskohdista. [Integration, belonging, language and friends. Teachers’ thoughts about areas to develop in migrant students’ education]. Kasvatus ja aika 16(2), 26–46. DOI:10.33350/ka.103434

Alisaari, J., Kaukko, M. & Heikkola, L. (2022) Riitänkö minä? Osaanko auttaa? Opettajien huolia maahanmuuttajataustaisten oppilaiden opetuksessa. [Am I enough? Exploring teachers’ worries about working with migrant students] Kasvatus 53 (3), 229–244.

Alisaari, J., Kaukko, M., Heikkola & L. (2022) The Joys of Teaching: Working with language learners in Finnish classrooms. Scandinavian Journal of Education, 66 (4), 566-579 DOI: 10.1080/00313831.2021.1897877

Laletas, S., Grove, C., Sharma, U., O’Toole, T. & Kaukko, M. (2022) Breaking down the walls of the ‘Ivory Tower’: critical reflections on how co-teaching partnerships can bridge the gap between inclusive education theory and practice, Teachers and Teaching, DOI: 10.1080/13540602.2022.2062742

Millei, Z., Kaukko, M. & Korkiamäki, R. (2022) Thinking with publics, politics and ethical boards in ethnographic research. In B. Hünersdorf, G. Breidenstein, J. Dinkelacker, O. Schnoor & T. Tayagunova (eds) Going public? Ethnography in Education and Social Works and its Publics. Springer. 

MacDonald, K., Diamond, F., Wilkinson, J., Sum, N., Longmuir, F., Kaukko, M. (2022) Creating spaces of learning in academia: Fostering niches for professional learning practice. Studies in Continuing Education (44)2, 266-283, DOI: 10.1080/0158037X.2021.1956890

Keary, A., Reupert, A., Kaukko, M., & Wilkinson, J. (2022) Education and Ethics of Care when Working with Refugee Families during COVID-19. Early years. DOI: 10.1080/09575146.2022.2031120

Haswell, N., Kaukko, M., Knag Fylkesnes, M., Sullivan, P. (2023) Keeping each other safe: Young refugees’ navigation towards a good life in Finland, Norway, and Scotland. In Reimer, K. Kaukko, M. Kemmis, S. Mahon, K. & Windsor, S. (eds). Living Well in a World Worth Living in for All: Current practices of social justice, sustainability and wellbeing (Part 1). Springer. 

Kaukko, M., Windsor, S., Reimer, K. (2023). Searching for worlds for living in. In Reimer, K. Kaukko, M. Kemmis, S. Mahon, K. & Windsor, S. (eds). Living Well in a World Worth Living in for All: Current practices of social justice, sustainability and wellbeing (Part 1). Springer. 

Kaukko, M. (2021) Storycrafting refugee children’s lives. Presenting Ali and the Long Journey to Australia. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, online ahead of print.

Kaukko, M., Wilkinson, J., & Kohli, R. (2021) Pedagogical love in Finland and Australia. A study of refugee children and their teachers. Pedagogy, Society and Culture, online ahead of print.

Kaukko M. & Wilkinson J. (2021) ‘Learning how to go on’: Refugee students and informal learning practices. International Journal of Inclusive Education (24)11, 1175-1193.

Kaukko, M., Kemmis, S., Heikkinen, H. Kiilakoski, T. & Haswell, N. (2021). How to survive amidst nested crises: can the coronavirus pandemic help us change educational practices to prepare for the impending eco-crisis? Environmental Educational Research 27(11), 1559-1573.

Petäjäniemi, M., Lanas, M. & Kaukko, M. (2021) How to be a good asylum seeker? The subjectification of young men seeking asylum. Nordic Journal of Migration Research 11(3), 284-300. 

Petäjäniemi, M., Kaukko, M. & Lanas, M. (2021) Confined in Waiting - Young Asylum Seekers Narrating in and out of Temporary Shelter. YOUNG Special Issue: Intersections of Care, Punishment and Protection 29(1), 62-80.

Webb, S., Dunwoodie, K., Wilkinson, J., Macaulay, L., Reimer, K. E. & Kaukko, M. (2021). Recognition and precarious mobilities: The experiences of university students from a refugee background in Australia. International Review of Education. Online ahead of print.

Dunwoodie, K., Kaukko, M., Wilkinson, J. Reimer, K. & Webb, S. (2020) Widening university access for students of asylum-seeking backgrounds: (Mis)recognition in an Australian context. Higher Education Policy 33, 243-264. 

Kauhanen, I. & Kaukko, M. (2020) Recognition in the lives of unaccompanied children and youth: A review of literature. Child & Family Social Work 25(4), 875-883.

Wilkinson, J. & Kaukko, M. (2020) Educational leading as pedagogical love: The case for refugee education. International Journal of Leadership in Education 21(1), 70-85.

Wilkinson Jane & Kaukko Mervi (2020) How to support students of refugee background in your school Brooks, Jeff. & Heffernan, Amanda. (Eds.). The school leadership survival guide: What to do when things go wrong, how to learn from mistakes, and why you should prepare for the worst. Information Age Publishing: Charlotte, NC.

Sjølie Ela, Francisco Susanne, Mahon Kathleen, Kaukko Mervi, Kemmis Stephen (2020) Learning of academics in the time of the Coronavirus pandemic. Journal of Praxis in Higher Education, Vol. 2, Issue 1. 85-107

Petäjäniemi, Maria, Kaukko, Mervi & Lanas, Maija (2020) Confined in Waiting - Young Asylum Seekers Narrating in and out of Temporary Shelter. YOUNG Special Issue: Intersections of Care, Punishment and Protection. DOI: 10.1177/1103308820904271 

Kaukko, Mervi, Kielinen, Marko, Alasuutari, Hanna (2019): Linnunpesästä lentoon. Valmistavan opetuksen praksis opettajien kertomana. Aikakauskirja Kasvatus 5(19), 474-488.

Reimer, Kristin, Kaukko, Mervi, Wilkinson, Jane, Dunwoodie, Karen & Webb, Sue (2019) Acknowledging the Head, Heart, Hands and Feet: Research with Refugees and People Seeking Asylum in Higher Education. In Widening Participation and Lifelong Learning. 21(2), 190-208.

Wilkinson, Jane & Kaukko Mervi (2019) Leading for praxis in refugee education. Orchestrating ecologies of socially just practices. In Jeffrey Brooks, Khalid Arar & Ira Bogotch (eds) Education and Immigration: Policy, Leadership and Praxis for a Changing World. Bingley, UK: Emerald’s Advances in Educational Administration. 

Kaukko Mervi, Korkiamäki, Riikka & Kuusisto, Anna-Kaisa (2019): Normatiivisesta etiikasta elettyyn kohtaamiseen: tutkimuksellista hengailua yksin tulleiden maahanmuuttajanuorten kanssa. [From normative ethics towards lived encounters: research-like hanging out with unaccompanied minors] In Kaisa Vehkalahti & Niina Rutanen (Eds.) Lasten ja nuorten tutkimuksen etiikka II [Ethics of childhood and youth research II]. 

Millei, Zsuzsa, Korkiamäki, Riikka & Kaukko, Mervi (2019). ‘Arctic Childhoods' and mobilized differences - the mattering of skis and skates. In Pauliina Rautio & Elina Stenvall (eds.) Social, Material and Political Constructs of Arctic Childhoods: An Everyday Life Perspective. Springer. 

Dunwoodie, Karen, Kaukko, Mervi, Wilkinson, Jane Reimer, Kristin & Webb, Sue (2019) Widening university access for students of asylum-seeking backgrounds: (Mis)recognition in an Australian context. Higher Education Policy. 

Kaukko Mervi (2018) Intertwined journeys of a PhD-student, unaccompanied minors and the “refugee crisis”. International Journal of Doctoral Studies. 

Kaukko Mervi, Kiilakoski Tomi (2018) Tutkimus on toimintaa [Research is action]. In Honkatukia, Päivi (eds.) Miten tutkia nuoria ja nuorisotyötä [How to do research with youth and on youth work?] Helsinki, Finland: Nuorisotutkimusverkosto /Vastapaino.

Petäjäniemi, Maria, Lanas, Maija & Kaukko, Mervi (2018): Osallisuus turvaa hakevan reunaehdoissa: hätämajoitusyksikössä asuvien turvapaikanhakijoiden kertomuksia osallisuudesta ja osattomuudesta [Participation and seeking for safety: Narratives of asylum-seeking people in emergency housing]/ Aikuiskasvatus. [Adult Education] 2018/1.

Kaukko Mervi & Wilkinson Jane (2018) Praxis and language: Teaching newly arrived migrant children to ‘live well in a world worth living in’. TESOL in Context 27(1). 

Heikkinen, Hannu, Kiilakoski, Tomi, Huttunen, Rauno, Kaukko Mervi, Kemmis Stephen (2018). Koulutustutkimuksen arkkitehtuurit Aikakauskirja Kasvatus 49 (5), 368–383.

Kohli, Ravi & Kaukko, Mervi (2017) The management of time and waiting of unaccompanied asylum seeking girls in Finland. Journal of Refugee Studies. doi:10.1093/jrs/fex040. 

Kaukko Mervi & Wernesjö Ulrika (2017) Belonging and participation in liminality. Unaccompanied children in Finland and Sweden. Childhood: A Journal of Global Child Research 24(1)2017, 7-20, doi:10.1177/0907568216649104 

Kaukko Mervi (2017) The CRC of unaccompanied children in Finland. International Journal of Children’s Rights, 25(1)2017, 140 – 164, doi: 10.1163/15718182-02501006

Kaukko Mervi, Dunwoodie Karen & Riggs Elisha (2017) Rethinking the ethical and methodological dimensions of research with refugee children. ZEP: Journal for International Educational Research and Development Education 1(2017), 16-21.

Kaukko Mervi (2016) The P, A and R of participatory action research with unaccompanied girls. Educational Action Research, 24(2) 2016, 177-193, doi:10.1080/09650792.2015.1060159 

Kaukko Mervi & Fertig Michael (2016) Participatory action research, global education and social justice: Emerging issues from practice. International Journal of Development Education and Global Learning 7(3)2016, 24-46, doi: https://doi.org/10.18546/IJDEGL.07.3.03.

Kaukko Mervi & Parkkila Helena (2014) Nykyajan totaaliset laitokset tyttöjen suojelijoina. [The total institutions of today. Girls in foster care]. In Gissler, Kekkonen, Känkäinen, Muranen & Wrede-Jäntti (eds.) Nuoruus toisin sanoen. [Youth in other words]. Helsinki: Youth Research Network and National Institute for Health and Welfare, 113-121.

Kaukko Mervi (2013) 'We have to learn for ourselves' Participation of unaccompanied minors in a Finnish reception center. Siirtolaisuus-Migration, Special Issue “Unaccompanied Refugee Minors”, 12-21.

Kaukko Mervi (2013) Everyday choices, meaningful activities and reliable adults. Diverse paths to empowerment of unaccompanied asylum-seeking girls. In: Törrönen, Borodkina, Samoylova & Heino (eds.): Empowering Social Work: Research & Practice. Helsinki: Palmenia Centre for Continuing Education, 200-221.