Professor Sari Pöyhönen

I am Professor of applied linguistics at the Centre for Applied Language Studies, University of Jyväskylä. My research expertise is in the fields of language education policies and language policy, migration policy; language, identity & belonging, refugee & asylum seeker narratives, minorities and language rights, and adult migrant language education.

In general, research in applied language studies has an impact on people’s lives. Research themes arise from society, and the research results are applied, confirmed, and contested by various stakeholders and audiences. My research is not an exception: the interplay between development and practice, as well as an orientation towards multidisciplinary research, allows a multilayered approach to studying and discussing real-life phenomena involving language. I am interested in individuals behind statistics; their stories of being a person seeking asylum or a migrant professional trying to find a place in the labour market. Through linguistic ethnography, creative inquiry, and narrative approaches, I focus on individuals in interactions, telling with them their stories that are embedded within wider cultural and political contexts and social structures.

My research may be useful, for example, for integration experts in public authorities and non-governmental organisations, in the planning of education, in the development of working life practices and in voluntary work.

• Pöyhönen, S. and Simpson, J. (2021). Contesting language policy for asylum seekers in the northern periphery: The story of Tailor F. Language Policy 20, 261–285;
• Hiltunen, Kaisa; Sääskilahti, Nina; Vallius, Antti; Pöyhönen, Sari; Jäntti, Saara & Saresma, Tuija (2020). Anchoring belonging through material practices in participatory arts-based research. Forum: Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research 21/2, Art. 25;
• Pöyhönen, S., Kokkonen, L., Tarnanen, M. and Lappalainen, M. (2020). Belonging, trust and relationships: Collaborative photography with unaccompanied minors. In E. Moore, J. Bradley & J. Simpson (eds.) Translanguaging as Transformation: The Collaborative Construction of New Linguistic Realities. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
• Lehtonen, J. & Pöyhönen, S. (2019). Documentary theatre as a platform for hope and social justice. In E. Anttila & A. Suominen (eds.) Critical Articulations of Hope from the Margins of Arts Education. International Perspectives and Practices. London: Routledge, 31-44.