Invited by Dr. Johanna Lasonen, Dr. Teräs visit is scheduled in October 20th through November 15th. The purpose of her visit is to learn about second-generation immigrant youth’s access to education in the United States. During her visit, she plans to get acquainted with the COEDU Center for Migrant Education and its work with second-generation Mexican-American youth. To share her work with faculty and graduate students, she will conduct a presentation on "Access to Education and Work among Ethnic Second-Generation Youth" on Thursday, October 27, 12:00-1:00 PM, EDU 155.
Dr. Teräs’ professional background includes working as a nurse for over four years in the City of Helsinki. She worked as a HIV/AIDS project manager in the Finnish Red Cross organization in 1989-1991, and during this time she was also a delegate for the World Health Organization and a consultant for the Finnish Nursing Association. After getting her Master’s degree in 1997 in Public Health and Education, she worked as a lecturer of health care and nursing in the Helsinki City College of Social and Health Care over 10 years. During this time she was also responsible for immigrant training of the College and for managing an European Union funded international project. She later served as a head of her department in 2007-2008. Further, in 1983-1984 she worked in Switzerland and lived in France in 1994-1995 in France and developed an interest is Italian language and culture.
In her doctoral dissertation, she developed an intervention method called a Culture Laboratory for intercultural learning and immigrant education. Upon graduation, her first post-doctoral research focused on co-operation and new types of educational methods of dental and oral-hygienist students in patient care. Her research interests are in the areas of professional and vocational education and training, and learning in multicultural learning environments with particular focus on children of immigrants’ access to education and on transition phases in their educational paths.
Dr. Teräs is a board member of the Finnish Vocational Educational Research Association, and she has published in Finnish and in English in national and international journals. She has also presented her research in numerous international and national conferences. She is frequently lecturing about intercultural issues in different agencies in Finland and other venues. In 2010, she was an invited as the keynote speaker, together with Professor Johanna Lasonen, in the European Conference on Educational Research/Network 2. In 2010, she also spent some time in the University of Colorado at Boulder/School of Education as a visiting scholar.
We welcome Dr. Marianne Teräs to USF and look forward to learning about developmental work research in the context of immigrant education in Europe.
