Feb 02 2026 to Feb 02 2026 6:30 p.m.

Where

Bangalore International Centre

7 4th Main Rd, Stage 2, Domlur 560071

Event Description

How do we teach children to hold difference without fracturing?

As worldviews polarize globally, education becomes critical terrain for cultivating resilience, communicating values, and building social connectedness among the youth of today. Professor Arniika Kuusisto, leading scholar of early childhood education at the University of Helsinki, presents empirical findings from Finland exploring this urgent challenge.

This talk examines educational approaches that equip children to navigate difference constructively. Rather than erasure, Kuusisto focuses on developing capacities for genuine engagement across divides. In increasingly pluralistic societies, the question extends beyond tolerance: how do we foster peer communities where diversity becomes source of strength rather than fragmentation?

This lecture is a part of Azim Premji University’s Public Lecture Series.

Presented by:

Speaker

Arniika Kuusisto
Professor, Early Childhood Education, University of Helsinki
Arniika Kuusisto is Professor of Early Childhood Education at the University of Helsinki and a leading scholar of education, worldviews, religion, and childhood studies. She holds a PhD in Education from the University of Helsinki and the Title of Docent in Education, with doctoral training partly completed at King’s College London. Her research focuses on how children and young people develop values, belonging, and existential resilience in diverse and unequal societies.

She is Principal Investigator of the Research Council of Finland–funded project Child in Time: Existential Resilience in Early Childhood and Guest Professor at Karlstad University, Sweden. Kuusisto has previously held senior academic roles at Stockholm University and is an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Oxford. She has published over 180 scholarly works and is co-editor of The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Education.