Rauni Räsänen

Dr. Rauni Räsänen is Professor Emerita in the Faculty of Education at the University of Oulu, Finland. In the 1960s, she started out as a primary and secondary school teacher and a provisional supervisor for language teaching. In the 1970s, she was a Fulbright Scholar in the U. S., where she was influenced by Angela Davis’s civil rights and anti-racist work.

At Oulu University, she coordinated two groundbreaking international programs, the Master of Education International Program, which is now Intercultural Teacher Education, and the Education and Globalization Master's Program. As a global education professor, her main interest has been developing pedagogy that facilitates future educators’ awareness of the many forms of diversity, as well as the individual and structural barriers to overcoming inequity, mono-culturation, and ethnocentrism.

Dr. Räsänen’s research interests are wide. They include ethics of education, teachers’ professional ethics, diversity in education, inclusive education, intercultural education, and international or global education. She's committed to the transformative potential of education and has decades of experience reforming teacher education through action research. Among her many distinctions is completing the first action research dissertation in the field of education in Finland. She has worked in several research networks in Finland and abroad and as a member of the National UNESCO Commission

Select Publications (see Google Scholar for comprehensive list)

Räsänen, Rauni, and Elina Lehtomäki. (2023). Education as an ethical task for global learning and sustainable development. Zwischen (Welt-) Gesellschaft und (Welt-) Gemeinschaft: Fragen an die Pädagogik: 55.

Räsänen, Rauni. (2015). International education as an ethical issue. The Sage handbook of research in international: 130-142.

Räsänen, Rauni. (2010). Intercultural education and education for global responsibility in teacher education. Finnish Journal of Music Education 13, no. 1 (2010): 12-24.

Räsänen, Rauni. (2009) Teachers as bridge builders and change agents of global responsibility. The future is in us. Growing into global responsibility. Publications of the Ministry of Education 40: 29-42.

Räsänen, Rauni. (2008). Transformative global education and learning in teacher education in Finland. International Journal of Development Education and Global Learning 1, no. 2: 25-40.

Räsänen, Rauni. (2007). Intercultural education as education for global responsibility. Education for global responsibility–Finnish perspectives: 17.

Räsänen Rauni, Jokikokko Katri, Järvelä Maria-Liisa & Lamminmäki-Kärkkäinen Tanja (Eds.). (2002) Intercultural teacher education. From utopia to practice trough action research. Department of Educational Sciences and Teacher Education, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland.

Räsänen, Rauni. (2000). Teachers’ ethics, teacher education and changing horizons. In Ethical challenges for teacher education and teaching: 168.

Sunnari, Vappu, Rauni Räsänen, Eeva Hujala, and Kaija Matinheikki-Kokko. (2000). Ethical challenges for teacher education and teaching: Special focus on gender and multicultural issues. University of Oulu, Finland.

Räsänen, Rauni. (2000). Ethics, education and teacher education. In search of powerful learning environments for teacher education in the 21st century. Acta Univ Oul E 39: 127-136.

Räsänen, Rauni (1993) Opettajan etiikkaa etsimässä: opettajan etiikka-opintojakson kehittelyprosessi toimintatutkimuksena opettajankoulutuksessa. In search of teachers' ethics: the process of developing a study module on teachers' ethics through action research in teacher education.