Programme
This webinar is organised in collaboration with Christ University, Bengaluru (India).
Webinar is moderated by Emeritus professor Eero Ropo from Tampere University.
- Fostering positive culture through school-parent partnerships: Learnings from STEPS Parenting and the Wellbeing Van model – Dr. Aneesh Varrier, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, CHRIST University, Bengaluru
- What Educational Leaders can Learn from NGO-School-Community partnerships – Dr. Aditi Ashok Arur, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, CHRIST University, Bengaluru
- Positioning and conceptualising leadership in the context of education – Mika Risku, Head, Institute of Educational Leadership, University of Jyväskylä
Speakers
Aneesh Kumar
Dr. Aneesh Kumar, is an Assistant Professor of Psychology and Coordinator of Undergraduate Programmes at the Department of Psychology, CHRIST University, Bengaluru. His research interests include socio-emotional development, childhood experiences, play, positive parenting and positive school mental health. He is involved in research projects including the development of gratitude among cultures with the University of Virginia, USA with a grant of 7 crores from the Templeton Foundation. Some of his completed research projects include incorporating character strengths into the early school curriculum, student mental health through a positive schooling program, and the United States-India Education Foundation project with Miami University to develop a training model for culturally competent and evidence-based mental health care for diverse societies. He is associated with Strengths Gym, UK, International Play Association, and represents India at the International Committee on Undergraduate Psychology Outcomes (ICUPO). He has published and presented papers in various national and international forums. Dr Kumar and colleagues both at national and international work on various key areas of school mental health and have initiated a movement named the wellbeing van aiming to create evidence and advocate for positive school mental health.
Aditi Arur
Dr. Aditi Arur is Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at Christ University. She teaches primarily on the educational psychology program, and courses on qualitative research across the department. Her primary areas of interest include qualitative research, and anti-oppressive pedagogies amongst others. She has a Ph.D. in Comparative and International Development Education from the Department of Organizational Leadership Policy and Development at the University of Minnesota. Her doctoral dissertation was a critical ethnographic case study that explored how the public health curriculum, and the community service-learning pedagogy at a medical college in India shaped medical students’ orientations towards the rural and urban poor. She has also conducted feminist evaluations of girls’ education programs of different multi-national non-governmental organizations that partnered with government schools in marginalized communities in India.
Mika Risku is the Head of the Institute of Educational Leadership, University of Jyväskylä, Finland. He has been with the Institute since 1996 and has acted as its head since 2013. The Institute is a full-service house with comprehensive research, education, and social interaction in educational leadership domestically and internationally. Mika Risku’s recent main interests lie in positioning and conceptualising the phenomenon of leadership in the field of education. This particularly involves educational policy and governance as well as developing educational organisations and leaders.
