Anna Rainio

Anna Rainio is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Education, University of Helsinki, and serves as a Supervisor for the Doctoral Programme in Cognition, Learning, Instruction and Communication. Her work bridges cultural-historical theory and play-based pedagogy across early education, youth work, and higher education contexts.

• Research Focus:
  • Student agency and engagement
  • Cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT)
  • Dialectical contradictions in teacher work
  • Discursive methodologies for sustained change
  • Time and sustainability in education
• Current Projects:
  • A tree of knowledge: Practicing slow science in accelerating society (2024-2025)
  • The Art of knowing through (un)learning (2025-2028)
  • JOUKO: Flexible early education (2023-ongoing)
• Methodological Expertise:
  • Video-based participatory ethnography
  • Discourse analysis
  • Collaborative research with practitioners

Recent publications explore international playworld-dance collaborations, future-oriented drama education, and slow science activism. She collaborates with institutions like Koneen Säätiö and Helsinki Inequality Initiative, emphasizing transdisciplinary research that impacts both theory and practice.