Tuelo Matjokana 

Dr. Tuelo Matjokana is a senior lecturer at the University of South Africa in the Department of Early Childhood Education and Development. She holds a Bachelor of Primary Education (BPrimEd) and Bachelor of Education (BEd) from the University of the Witwatersrand (WITS), Master’s in Public Administration (MPA), and a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) from the University of Pretoria. Her research focuses on the implementation of Early Childhood Development (ECD) policies and practices.

Matjokana previously lectured at the University of Pretoria. She held several roles in the education sector as a School Improvement Support Coordinator, overseeing Education District Managers. She also served as a Senior Education Specialist in a district office, where she implemented skills development and performance management policies, including the Integrated Quality Management System (IQMS). She coordinated the implementation of the Gauteng Primary Literacy Strategy (GPLMS), overseeing its rollout and providing support to Foundation Phase mentors and coaches.

Matshediso Rebecca Modise 

Prof. Matshediso Rebecca Modise is an Associate Professor in the Department of Early Childhood Education and Development at the University of South Africa (UNISA). Her research focuses on leadership and management in the early years, with emphasis on transformative pedagogy, curriculum development, teacher professional development, pedagogical leadership, and sustainable development in schools- the role of leadership. She began her career as a teacher across the Early Childhood, Foundation, and Intermediate Phases, later serving as Deputy Principal and Senior Education Specialist at the department level, supporting curriculum implementation in schools. She holds a Ph.D. in Education, specialising in Curriculum Studies- Early Childhood Development at UNISA. Prof Modise teaches Children’s Literature for the Early Years, B.Ed. Honours modules and supervises postgraduate research. She has supervised Masters and PhD students to completion. Prof Modise presented at national and international conferences and published extensively, including sole- and co-authored journal articles and book chapters. Her current international collaborations involve scholars from Finland, Singapore, Germany, and Sudan, and ADA University, focusing on leadership in early childhood. They together completed research on ‘Comparative studies in Early Childhood Education’. She coordinated the 2019 International Leadership Research Forum Conference in Early Childhood (ILRF-EC) and is a chief editor of Global Leadership in Early Childhood (2023). She is currently leading two research projects: Critical Analysis of Middle Leaders, their identity and Wellbeing, and Discourses of Leadership in Early Childhood Research. She serves on several institutional committees, including ethics and academic integrity, and received the Women in Research Scholarship Grant in 2022. She is currently Conceptualising a new project on leadership and Sustainable development in schools and the lekgotla (Indigenous way of leading) leadership concept.

Hannele Roponen  

District manager Hannele Roponen works at the City of Helsinki. Previously Roponen has worked as a university teacher at the University of Jyväskylä, Institution of Educational Leadership focusing. She has also held the roles such as pedagogical advisor in the City of Espoo, ECE unit manager and ECE teacher in the City of Helsinki. 

Roponen is finishing her doctoral dissertation on leadership culture and distributed pedagogical leadership in early childhood education. Roponen's other research interests has consisted of pedagogical leadership in an international context and inclusive leadership in early childhood education and the practices of special education.

Elina Fonsen

Associate Professor Elina Fonsén works at the University of Jyväskylä, Institution of Educational Leadership. She has a Titel of Docent at the University of Helsinki and at the University of Eastern Finland. She was previously part of the faculty at the University of Helsinki, Finland, and has worked as a project coordinator, lecturer, and teacher at the University of Tampere. She has also held roles such as Deputy Director of the Department of Education and ECE teacher in the cities of Pirkkala and Tampere in Finland.  

Fonsén’s research interests focus on leadership in the educational sector, including pedagogical leadership, discourses of leadership, and professional development. She has led numerous national and international research projects, such as exploring the discourse of leadership in early childhood education and supporting structures and administrative processes for early childhood education service providers. She is a member of the Board of the Early Childhood Education Association Finland (ECEAF) and leads the International Leadership Research Forum (ILRF-EC). Additionally, she serves on the Executive Board of the Education, Administration, and Science Special Interest Group (SIG) of the Finnish Society for Education.

Anna Cristina D'Addio 

Anna Cristina D’Addio is an economist by background and the Chief of Education Policy at UNESCO. She has been part of UNESCO’s Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report team since 2017, contributing her expertise to global discussions on education policy and equity. Before joining UNESCO, Anna worked at the OECD, where she addressed a wide range of issues including financial education and literacy, inequality, poverty, ageing, social protection, and the intergenerational transmission of education. 

Earlier in her career, Anna was a research professor specializing in micro-econometrics applied to labour market and education issues. She has taught and conducted research at leading European universities and research centres, including the University of Copenhagen, Catholic University of Leuven, University of Aarhus, Aarhus Business School, and the Catholic University of Louvain-la-Neuve. 

She holds a Ph.D. in Quantitative Economics (European Doctoral Program) from CORE and IRES at the Catholic University of Louvain-la-Neuve, a Doctorate in Public Economics from the University of Pavia, and a Master’s in Quantitative Economics from CORE.

Henna Rouhiainen 

Henna Rouhiainen is a Postdoctoral researcher at the Biodiversity Unit of the University of Turku. Rouhiainen’s research focuses on environmental and sustainability education (ESE) and sustainable consumer behaviour. She is particularly interested in the role of values and worldviews in ESE.

Currently, Rouhiainen works in the BIODIFUL research project (funded by the Finnish Research Council) that focuses on biodiversity-respectful leadership on different levels of society. Rouhiainen has also coordinated and carried out science and environmental education projects and developed learning materials for environmental education.

Eija Hanhimäki 

Eija Hanhimäki is working as a Senior Lecturer in Educational Leadership in the Department of Education at JYU. She has a Title of Docent (Adjunct Professor) at the University of Lapland in the field of Leadership and Professional Development in Education. Her job description includes teaching and guidance tasks in the International Master's Programme in Education (EDUMA) and in the continuing learning training of the Institute of Educational Leadership. In addition, she supervise theses (master's theses and dissertations). Her research areas are educational leadership, adult education and guidance and counselling. At the moment, she is mainly working in a two projects in educational leadership, in the ESF+-funded KASVU (GROWTH) project and in the EU-funded ELNE project. 

Anna Lehtonen 

Anna Lehtonen, PhD, works as a post-doc researcher at the Finnish Institute for Educational Research, University of Jyväskylä. Her research focuses on promoting sustainability competences and pedagogies for fostering individuals’ and communities’ critical and creative initiatives to support sustainability transitions on different levels of education. Recently she has been working for ECF4CLIM Horizon 2020 project on sustainability competences, where leadership has been a key factor for successful implementation of sustainability education as a whole institution approach. 

Currently she is working for CREA+BIRD, an Erasmus + project about creative pedagogies and birds as messengers, and for another Erasmus + Greenversity about sustainability competences and pedagogy for higher education. With a strong background as a teacher of art and drama, she has special expertise in applying arts-based approaches to sustainability and climate change education.

Kristóf Fenyvesi 

Kristóf Fenyvesi, Ph.D. is a Senior Researcher in STEAM education at the Finnish Institute for Educational Research, University of Jyväskylä, where he coordinates the international activities of the Innovative Learning Environments research group. He holds adjunct, associate, and visiting professorships at the Korea National University of Education, Indonesia University of Education, University of Milano-Bicocca, Tallinn University, Hang Seng University, and Hong Kong Metropolitan University. As the Overseas Director of the International Society for the Advancement of STEAM (ISAS), Dr. Fenyvesi promotes integrated, creative, and inquiry-based learning. He is a core member of the STEM Special Interest Group at the Education University of Hong Kong’s Global Research Institute for Finnish Education. He also contributes to digital transformation initiatives in education as Assistant to the UNESCO Chair on Digital Platforms for Transforming Economies at Lappeenranta University of Technology in Finland. He actively contributes to international science outreach, serving on the European Mathematical Society’s Committee for Raising Public Awareness. He is also the founder of Experience Workshop—Global STEAM Network, which bridges mathematics, the arts, and education to inspire innovation in teaching and learning. Dr. Fenyvesi has served as an evaluator for the European Commission, the Slovak Accreditation Agency for Higher Education, and the Science Fund of Serbia. He is a regular keynote speaker at global conferences and a contributor to numerous scholarly publications, advancing the discourse on interdisciplinary and creative approaches to STEAM education.