Kirsi Yliniva

M.Ed.
PhD researcher
Anthropocene, biopolitics, childhood studies, children’s political agency, early childhood education, education policy, future of education, resilience

Values, Ideologies and Social Contexts of Education
Faculty of Education and Psychology

Teacher education, school and society
Faculty of Education and Psychology

Kirsi Yliniva is a PhD researcher and university teacher at the University of Oulu working within a Foucauldian tradition. Her dissertation, currently in its final stages, examines the possibilities and limitations of children’s political agency in the Anthropocene; an era in which human activity is increasingly recognised as a threat to the conditions of life.

The study explores two discursive formations related to the Anthropocene: international education policy, which often frames education as a means of supporting children’s adaptation to global crises, and early childhood and childhood studies, which emphasise relational and multispecies perspectives. Methodologically, the dissertation draws on Foucauldian problematisation and Carol Bacchi’s WPR approach.

Yliniva investigates how these discourses shape understandings of childhood, agency, the role of education and potential futures in times of crisis. Her work contributes to rethinking how education might support children’s political orientation to the world.