Professor Minna Autio serves as the director of the department.
Department staff by title.
The Department of Education is responsible for research and education in the educational sciences. Teaching is provided in both joint courses targeted at all students and in different study tracks. The department has a special Swedish-language duty to provide teaching in the field of educational sciences and teacher training in both Finnish and Swedish. In addition to a bachelor’s and master’s programme and two doctoral programmes, teaching is provided in the English-language Master’s Programme in Changing Education.
The staff of the department are organised according to their field of research and teaching. Studies carried out in the principal research areas of education, society and culture as well as learning and interaction provide the latest knowledge in the field for the benefit of education and society. Staff of the Department of Education are often invited to serve as experts in a range of duties. We have extensive international links, with educational cooperation currently ongoing in Africa and Asia in particular.
Most of our students receive training as teachers, making our links with educational institutions close. In addition to two teacher training schools of the University, a great deal of teaching practice is carried out in several other educational institutions and day care centres in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area. This also maintains an unbroken connection with the field for our supervisors of teaching practice. In addition, students practise working as experts in the service of various employers.
The first professorship in education at the University of Helsinki was established in 1852, specifically in pedagogy and didactics, founded on the idea of supporting teacher education. Today, the Department of Education carries on the activities of its predecessors, the Institute of Behavioural Sciences (and its predecessor that also went by the English name Department of Education) and the Department of Teacher Education. Teacher education was transferred to the University in 1974, while master’s level class teacher training commenced in 1979.