Antti Rajala is Professor of Sociocultural Psychology and Education. His research interests include critical pedagogy, global education, environmental and sustainability education, as well as learning, agency, and activism in education.

Rajala got his PhD in Education in 2016 at the University of Helsinki, Finland. In his PhD, he researched and created a new model of pedagogy that harnesses students’ agency – their opportunity, will and skill to act upon, influence as well as transform activities and circumstances in their lives and in the society. After his PhD, Rajala has worked as a postdoctoral researcher and senior researcher in University of Oulu and University of Eastern Finland. He has been leader or co-leader of several research projects, which have addressed topics, such as agency in education, cultures of compassion, global education, and sustainability education.

Rajala has been a leader of special interest groups and co-organized several conferences. Rajala serves as an editor Mind, Culture, and Activity (Taylor and Francis), European Journal of Psychology of Education (Springer), and Outlines: Critical Practice Studies. Through his research and other activities, Rajala engages in partnerships with municipalities, schools and non-governmental organizations. For example, he served four years as President of the Peace Education Institute in Finland.

For the past several years, Rajala has led a vibrant, inter-disciplinary research group on utopias and sustainability education (https://utopiaproject.fi/en). The research group brings together PhD researchers, postdocs, senior researchers as well as teacher researchers. The group has engaged in long-term collaboration with several Finnish upper and lower secondary schools to foster community-based and inter-generational learning for sustainable futures. As a recognition of his work on sustainability education, Rajala received The World Cultural Council Special Recognition Award for achieving outstanding performance in the fields of science and education.

Ecologies of learning for climate transformations in the lives of Finnish, Senegalese, and Brazilian young people (PI, 2025-2028, Funding from the Finnish foundation Koneen säätiö, University of Neuchâtel, University of Helsinki)

Global Responsibility to Act Sustainably as Students (Co-PI, 2022-2025, Funding by the Eudaimonia Institute of University of Oulu, University of Oulu)

Forest utopias – Forming new understandings, desires, and hope about forests (PI of the scientific part of the project, 2025-2026, Funding from the Finnish foundation Koneen säätiö, University of Neuchâtel)

• Perspectives
• Development in youth and adulthood
• Reading and Writing Seminar in Psychology
• Classic and contemporary theories in education
• Mémoire de bachelor en psychologie et éducation
• Utopian methodologies in education and social sciences

List of publications : Google Scholar