Elina Härkönen
In her research, artistic inspiration comes from northern handcraft traditions and natural materials. She is interested in examining the technics of traditional crafts and implementing them into her art projects. Art as participation and processes interest her in art making.
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Elina Härkönen works as an art educator in the Faculty of Art and Design and is also coordinating the international master's programme of Arctic Art and Design. She lives in Rovaniemi with her family and her roots are deep in the soil of the same northern latitudes. Her research interest is on cultural sustainability in university art education in the North. The framework for her study is especially on the Arctic Sustainable Arts and Design (ASAD) -network's participatory and community-based intensive courses arranged for university students in collaboration with local communities. Place-specifity in all making is close to her heart.
Research output |
DissertationSeeking culturally sustainable art education in higher education: A NOTHERN PERSPECTIVEThe purpose of the research thesis was to explore the development needs for internationalizing art education in higher education within the framework of cultural sustainability. Only recently has culture been integrated alongside the three other ‘pillars’ of sustainability – ecological, social and economic. The culture programme now intersects nearly all 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Culture is seen as essential, particularly in human and socioeconomic development, quality education, social inclusion, sustainable cities, environmental sustainability and peaceful societies.
The primary objective was to investigate the implementation of the principles of cultural sustainability in art education practices in higher education in the context of the European Arctic. For the main findings, Härönen proposed an art-based integrative pedagogic model for culturally sustainable art education in higher education, in which the strategies of contemporary art intersect the theoretical, practical, self-regulatory and sociocultural knowledge construction. Read the research here. |