Speakers @ Symposium / Seminar

Prof. Eero Ropo

Harri Jaskari

Prof. Kari Uusikyä

Jarmo Tanskanen


Sirpa Eskelä-Haapanen
Sari Yrjänäinen

Prof. Harri Melin

Heramb Kulkarni

Shirin Kulkarni

Jaana Huitti

Dr. Riitta Juusenaho

Dr. Sally Kesälahti

Petri Huitti
Prof. Eero Ropo - University of Tampere, Finland - School of Education
Prof. Eero Ropo is a senior professor and internationally acknowledged researcher from Department of Education, University of Tampere, Finland. Currently, he is Member of the Governing board, School of Education at University of Tampere. Also, he is a Member of the Editorial board, Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research. He is a renowned expert in the fields of Educational psychology, ICT in education, Teachers education and the curriculum theory. Prof Eero Ropo is a very down to earth and an amicable person. He has more than 35 years experience in the teaching profession and is a principal researcher in the Finnish education. There are more than 16 doctoral degrees made under his supervision at the University of Tampere and the Aalto University. Currently, he is doing supervision of 10 actively working doctoral students at the University of Tampere and one doctoral student at the University of Tartu, Estonia. He is an Experienced referee and opponent of doctoral dissertations and public defences. A visiting professor in Tx,USA also, he is an educational consultant for a textbook project in Zambia and many Asian countries. He has presented speeches as one of the Keynote speakers at the Chiba University of Japan.
Prof. Kari Uusikylä - University of Helsinki - Professor Emeritus of Education
Education: PhD, , 1977
Research Interests:
• research on teaching and teacher education
• gifted education
• creativity
Professional Records:
• Elementary school teacher 1967-73
• Assistant, Lecturer in Didactis, Associate Professor,
Department of Teacher Education, University of Helsinki, 1973-1986
• Associate Professor of Education, University of Joensuu 1986-1988
• Associate Professor of Education, University of Tampere 1988-1991
• Professor of Teacher Education, University of Tampere 1991-1997
• Professor of Education, Unversity of Helsinki 1997-2008
• EdD honoris causa, University of Turku 2011
• Visting scholar, University of Georgia, U.S.A Dept. of Psychology,
Torrance Center, 1990-91, 1995-96.
Other merits:
• Membership in The Finnish Academy of Science and Letters 1999-
• Prizes for career: The State of Finland 2006, The Finnish Cultural Foundation 2008
• Many books on teaching, gifted education and creativity
Prof. Harri Melin, Vice rector of University of Tampere
Harri Melin is Professor of Sociology, University of Tampere since 2008. After completing his M.A. in Sociology University of Tampere, he remained at the institute to become Docent of Sociology in 1997 and from 1998 he has held the position of Professor of Sociology. He was a Senior research fellow at the Academy of Finland from 2002 – 2003. He held a chair of professor of sociology at the University of Turku (2003-2008). He has been a project director and national contractor of many national and international research projects. His research interests are inequality, social classes, work. His Current research project is analysing work well-being and work commitment between Finland and Russia. He served as the Secretary of Finnish sociological association in 1978, 1990-1991 and President from 2001-2003. Between the years 1985-1987 he was editor of Acta Sociologica and is currently referee for International Sociology, Acta Sociologica and Sociology of Education. He is Finnish representative in the International social survey programme (ISSP).
Dr. Riitta Juusenaho - Tampere, Finland
Dr. Riitta Juusenaho is an expert of Finnish education system. She has experience of 27 years as a teacher and a principal in comprehensive education and she has made her doctoral dissertation in 2004 about leadership and management styles of Finnish comprehensive school principals from the perspective of gender.She has also worked as a Research and Evaluation manager in City of Tampere and her main task then, was to develop evaluation systems of public services in City of Tampere. At the moment she is a Project Director in TOP School project titled "The School in the Future". Her responsibility today is to develop and to coordinate widely learning environments in every educational level so that schools in City of Tampere can respond to the need of the 21st century skills thereby offering the best possible learning experiences to all children and youth of the 21st century. Dr. Juusenaho has wrote several publications and she is a regular speaker in the educational seminars and teacher training programs in Finland.
Ms. Shirin Kulkarni - Tampere, Finland
Shirin Kulkarni is the Director of CCE Finland Oy and leads a panel for educators for creative pedagogies in schools across multiple countries. She is a business consultant and a researcher in the field of education and educational psychology.Currently is a doctoral (Ph.D ) student at University of Tampere, Finland and doing a research about creative education under title "Creative thinking and school environment: A comparative study of India and Finland". She aims to bring creativity in day to day school activities like teaching, learning and perceiving and believes that there are traces of creativity in small things, which if found, can help students and adults also to develop a positive self-image. She is passionate about the studies of Indology (Indian studies) and giving info sessions about India to anybody who is interested. Her speciality is CII (Creativity-identity Interaction) model and she has sound knowledge about Indian and Finnish education system. She has done numerous presentations about Vedic education systems(Ancient Indian Education) in countries like Finland, Denmark and The U.S.A. In the past as a Psychologist with 10 years of experiences, she has successfully handled more than 500 cases and carried out clinical, industrial and educational counselling.
Mr. Heramb Kulkarni - Tampere, Finland
Heramb Kulkarni is an Expert in ICT innovations in education and researcher in the telecom evolution with leading MNCs. He held key positions in world's leadning research and development orgaizations like Nokia, Lucent Technologies - Bell Labs Innovations, Skyworks, Philips, Accenture, Sasken. A Certified Six Sigma Black with project management skills and certified scrum master, he an entreprenuer at heart. After spending 14 years in Wireless Telecommunications and IT Domain, Heramb has developed a vast business network across Europe, India and far eastern countries. Currently, he Heads the Stategy and ICT Development for CCE Finland and creating a network for educational solutions thorugh ICT and technology.
Ms. Elina Harju - Tampere, Finland
Elina is an enthusiastic and athletic person. She has a work experience of more than 21 years and is well known for teachers training. She is an Experienced inter-cultural teacher’s trainer. She is expert in dealing with an international audience. In the past, as a Project manager of Tampere region for the Learning Bridge - Education Export Network, she was responsible for the implementation of the project. Besides, she has Lead, developed and was responsible for the working and staff of Internetbus Netti-Nysse. She was Chief Coordinator for Internationalization of the Finland Education Network. She was an active member in planning and developing inclusive information society practices within the library and throughout the town. She has actively contributed and encouraged national and international co-operations and projects.
Dr. Sally Kesälahti - Tampere Finland
Dr. Sally qualified as a Junior/Secondary teacher in 1973, with a specialism in French, from London University. My MA (Ed) in 1995, focused on teaching and learning styles, and in 2005 I completed a doctorate in Education, having researched the future for smaller schools in the UK, and ultimately, mergers. She have a wide teaching experience, in a variety of schools and age groups, from five to sixteen years. She also worked for Cornwall Council as a foreign language tutor to migrant workers. Before coming to Finland She was teaching students with visual impairments as well as profound and multiple learning difficulties and physical disabilities. She now teach at The English School of Tampere, which is a Kindergarten and Preschool.
Mr. Miika Lehtovaara, Tampere, Finland
Mr Miika Lehtovaara is a class and subject teacher at the Finnish International School of Tampere (FISTA) since 2012. He graduated from the University of Jyväskylä with an M.Ed.in Education and Language Integration and has worked asa CLIL teacher for 8 years in Tammela School in Tampere. He has studied and worked in Iceland and other European countries and believes strongly in intercultural cooperation. He has organized and contributed to workshops managedby the Finnish Board of Education around Finland. He is alsocontributing to CLIL-related workshops and lectures organizedby the University of Tampere. He has worked as a guest speakerin Education forums in FinnFest USA 2012 and 2014.
Dr. Kaarina Marjanen - Joensuu, Finland
Dr. Kaarina is an expert and well known researchers in the field of music and education - interconnections and pre-natal education. She has PhD in Music Education. Presently working as a professor and lecturer in University of Eastern Finland. She is interested in music education activities for all ages; focus on early childhood music education perspectives widely comprehended.
Ms. Marja Suurla - Tampere, Finland
International trainer and researcher for Education and learning though paintings. Follows Waldorf pedagogy and teacher from Steiner School, Tampere.
Ms. Jaana Huitti , Spiritual Master Coach
Over 15 years experience on guiding individuals and groups on personal growth. Speaker in seminars on conscious presence & leadership, well-being, heartfulness, personal & spiritual growth. She is coaching coaches of personal growth, who can help people in their different roles, as e.g. nurse, teacher, leader. She can intuitively help individuals and organizations to increase performance, results and well-being. She can coach also very experienced coaches or leaders to increase their performance level even further. Her expertize is to guide people experience, feel themselves e.g. what is heartfulness, conscious presence, inner peace, what are our limiting beliefs, emotional blocks.
Mr. Petri Huitti, Business and Spiritual Coach
M. Sc. Industrial Engineering and Management(Logistics, 1996). Long experience on improving business and logistics performance with companies, with e.g. Lean & Theory Of Constraints(TOC). Teaching at Tampere University of Applied Sciences (TAMK) and other educational institutes since 2011. Spiritual coach, writing blogs and e-book “BE WELL – USE YOUR HEART (Guide for better life)” about applying heartfulness and ancient wisdoms in modern life. Coaching in how to increase results and well-being.
Jarmo Tanskanen, Tech.Lic, MSc. Tampere, Finland
Jarmo Tanskanen has over 20 years of experience on educational technology and teaching. At the begininning of 90's when World Wide Web was invented Jarmo was doing hypertext based materials for electronics learning. Since that he has developed different methods for internet and social media based teaching and learning. Learning management systems and tools are familiar. The most important in teaching are the methods and tools together and Jarmo will educate and coach educators how to use blogs, wikis, google docs, office365, videos etc in their own teaching. He is the board member in The associate of Finnish eLearning Center.
Sirpa Eskelä-Haapanen, PhD, Senior Lecturer of Special Needs Education
Sirpa Eskelä-Haapanen is a senior lecturer of Special Needs Education Tampere University, School of Education from the beginning of August 2014. In University of Jyväskylä 2012−2014, and before that in University of Lapland from the beginning of 2010 as a lecturer of early years education. Classroom teacher since 1985, working experience from different kind of schools: 700 pupils in Tampere`s suburb school, little village school in the home area, medium-sized school in the municipality of Hämeenkyrö, PhL in Education 2003, University of Tampere: Language awareness and especially phonological awareness supporting early reading and writing (action research, case study and narrative inquiry) - Special needs education, University of Jyväskylä, Master`s thesis 2012 (Pre-service teachers conceptions of inclusive schooling; phenomenographical research) - PhD in Education in 2012, University of Tampere: Targeted support in lower classes, teacher`s professional growth (teacher as a researcher, action researcher) Sirpa's qualitative research field has been related to teacher, child, home -interaction and child's well-being at school by inclusive classroom practices. Current research interests are inclusive schooling and teacher training, targeted support, children's beliefs and transition practices (from pre-school to elementary school) and classroom`s dialogic interaction.
Dr. Sari Yrjänäinen, University of Tampere
Dr. Sari Yrjänäinen (Ph.D), math and science teacher, teacher educator and university research of math and science education and learning spaces.