In the Forest's Care - Utopian Pedagogy: Lecture by Professor Antti Rajala and Doctoral Researcher Aki Saariaho

The lecture introduces the history, background, and key ideas of utopian pedagogy under the guidance of professor Antti Rajala. Doctoral researcher Aki Saariaho describes how utopian pedagogy has been applied in practice in upper secondary education.

The core of utopia is being otherwise - examining the conditions and meaning of wellbeing and a good life. The lecture explores the pedagogy of concrete utopias: how teaching can support young people's civic agency and help them influence their local communities, society, and globally.

As an example, an educational experiment conducted at Otaniemi Upper Secondary School is presented, where students used artificial intelligence to envision alternative futures for Finland. In all the students' utopian models, the forest is present in some way.