Description of research and teaching

Mikko Puustinen, PhD, associate professor, is University Lecturer in History and Social Science Education. He is societally oriented educationalist with a background in the discipline of history. Puustinen has studied the history of Finnish teacher education, disciplinary knowledge in subject-specific teaching, the rhetoric of public debate on education, and discussion culture in universities. He is particularly interested in the interaction between education and society, and the recontextualization of curriculum knowledge in societal processes. Puustinen is actively involved in international cooperation around the concept of powerful knowledge and is a senior member in the research project ‘Envisaging Sustainable Futures via Powerful Knowledge’ (2023-2027) funded by the Research Council of Finland. Puustinen is principal investigator of the project ‘Difficult Topics and Dialogue in Education’. He has edited books ‘Erimielisten tila: Vaikeiden aiheiden käsittely käsittely koulutuksessa’ [A space for the unlike-minded: Discussing difficult topics in education] (Gaudeamus, 2025) and ‘Bringing powerful knowledge into classrooms: Subject teachers as recontextualising agents’ (UCL Press, 2025).