Pirita’s lecture series 2022-2023

The Embodied Making and Learning research group is arranging a series of lectures by our visiting Professor II, Pirita Seitamaa-Hakkarainen. Pirita is professor of Craft studies in Helsinki University, and she has a long career in arts and crafts research which has led to the renewal of the related teacher education field in Finland. In this lecture series of three lectures, she provides insight into the various research strategies and methodologies for researching crafts and design activities that she has used and developed together with her research group over a long period of time.

Lecture 1. 19 January, 2022

In this first lecture:Perspectives on craft teacher education and research 

Pirita gives an overview of the research settings and research contexts that she has been involved in and that she has developed during her career. She will also give an account of the changing arts and crafts teacher education landscape during this time and point to possible future directions in this field.  

Lecture 2. 6 October, 2022 

In this second lecture: Methodological developments in crafts-based classroom research   

Pirita presents development of both the methodological frameworks and the individual methods for collecting qualitative and rich data in classroom research and children’s collaboration in design and craft projects. The use of educational design research (EDR), video documentation and analysis is discussed. 

Lecture 3. 15 February, 2023

In this third lecture: Methods for analysis in the context of crafts-based classroom research   

Pirita presents development of methods that are useful in analysing data collected in classroom research and related contexts within design and craft education and making. Pirita especially discusses, and shows examples of, structured and systematic video analysis methods including both large datasets and in-depth qualitative analysis and visualisations of these.