Research-based studies in the Education and Globalisation programme

During the first semester, the Scientific Practices and Academic Skills course introduced me to the characteristics and rules of research. I received information on how to improve my academic writing skills. I learned how to look for and read academic articles and how to recognize a good article. This course also helped me start the process of clarifying my master’s thesis topic.

Then, during the second semester, I was able to further develop my knowledge about research through the Research Methodology course that familiarised me with different approaches to research and helped me understand better how to conduct it.

I appreciate that the Education and Globalisation programme allows me to improve my research skills through practice. For example, I worked on my academic writing and article search abilities by writing a literature review. I also developed my understanding of the master’s thesis writing process by reading and commenting on a former Education and Globalisation student’s master’s thesis.

Moreover, I had an opportunity to conduct a mini research project on international students’ perception of their integration at the University of Oulu. In addition, my classmates and I got a chance to build a whole journal about education beyond hegemonic structures, from article writing, to editing, visual designing and social media communication.

Finally, the Master’s thesis seminar that runs throughout the two years of the programme is an opportunity to develop our master’s thesis alongside other students from different Education and Globalisation cohorts.

Research-based studies have been very present in other classes I have attended as well. My coursework has involved reading a lot of academic literature written by researchers from various backgrounds. In several of my courses, I have also had a chance to learn from guest speakers that were invited to talk and discuss about their research.

To my mind, one of the strengths of the Education and Globalistion programme is that it does not only teach us academic and research skills but also encourages us to adopt a critical perspective towards the academic world. Indeed, the programme puts emphasis on reflecting about hegemonies in academia and knowledge production and imagining ways of making the world of research more inclusive of different ways of being, thinking and knowing.

My first year as an Education and Globalisation student, therefore, opened me to research as a space where it is possible to reflect on education, on our ways of being a society, but also on the process of doing research itself.

It has showed me that academia can create opportunities for exchanging diverse forms of thoughts and knowledge at an international level, allowing us to improve our understanding of the world we live in and our awareness of the structures that constitute it, and therefore giving us the possibility to imagine new ones that are more socially just.