Mervi Kaukko

Dr. Mervi Kaukko is Professor of Multicultural Education at Tampere University in Finland. Mervi studied in the International Master of Education program at Oulu University, where she was introduced to the interconnectedness of ethics, diversity, and educational praxis. After working as a classroom teacher for several years, Mervi started her PhD doing participatory action research with unaccompanied asylum seeking girls in a Finnish reception center. The PAR project focused on what youth participation, in this case with unaccompanied girls, might encompass. The project took into consideration the intersection of their status, their gender, their age, ethnicity, and so forth. Their project expanded into what is an ongoing collaboration between Oulu University teacher students and the local reception center for refugees.

Mervi's most recent action research projects focus on refugee and asylum-seeking children in Finland and Australia. Dr. Kaukko is the Finnish coordinator of the International Action Research Practice Theory Network - Pedagogy, Education and Praxis.

Select Publications:
Kaukko, Mervi, Jane Wilkinson & Ravi Ks Kohli (2022). Pedagogical love in Finland and Australia: a study of refugee children and their teachers, Pedagogy, Culture & Society, 30:5, 731-747.

Kauhanen, Iida , Maija Lanas & Mervi Kaukko (2023). (Im)possibilities of parity of participation in school settings in the lives of unaccompanied youth, International Journal of Inclusive Education.

Kaukko, Mervi, Stephen Kemmis, Hannu LT Heikkinen, Tomi Kiilakoski, and Nick Haswell. (2021). Learning to survive amidst nested crises: can the coronavirus pandemic help us change educational practices to prepare for the impending eco-crisis? Environmental Education Research 27, no. 11: 1559-1573.

Kaukko, Mervi. (2018). Intertwined journeys of a PhD student and unaccompanied minors: Autoethnography of research with vulnerable participants. International Journal of Doctoral Studies, Volume 13 https://oulurepo.oulu.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/23368/nbnfi-fe2019112744505.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

Kaukko, Mervi & Ulrika Wernesjö (2017). Belonging and participation in liminality: Unaccompanied children in Finland and Sweden. Childhood, 24(1), 7-20. https://doi.org/10.1177/0907568216649104

Kaukko, Mervi, Karen Dunwoodie, and Elisha Riggs (2017). Rethinking the ethical and methodological dimensions of research with refugee children. Zeitschrift Fuer Internationale Bildungsforschung Und Entwicklungspaedagogik 40 (1): 16–21

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

Kaukko, Mervi, and Michael Fertig (2016). Linking participatory action research, global education, and social justice: Emerging issues from practice. International Journal of Development Education and Global Learning 7, no. 3: 24-46.

Kaukko, Mervi. (2015) Participation in and beyond liminalities: Action research with unaccompanied asylum-seeking girls. Dissertation, University of Oulu, Finland.