Dr. Johanna Lasonen is a Professor of Career and Workforce Education in the Department of Adult, Career and Higher Education, the University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida, USA.
In the past, she has worked as a teacher, teachers’ educator, senior researcher, research projects leader, and as a professor. She has accomplished and lead several emerging and critical aspects of education and workforce connections, vocational education and training, and in intercultural education. She has a research record based in Finnish vocational and professional education and in her many international and cross-national research collaborations. The international collaborations extend from Dr. Lasonen’s doctoral studies in the U.S., through a range of European cross-national studies and international aid projects in Africa, to her UNESCO professorship. Dr. Lasonen has clearly built a strong academic profile in the field of international learning environments in schools and at work. Her recent research project is about recognition of workforce competence among ethnic group members, which explores to what extent immigrants’ competences are recognized and how it influences their employment, career development, and access to education. Recognition is analyzed as a theoretical concept, and immigrants’ own aims are investigated with relation to feasible options. The research project also seeks to develop methodology relative to recognition and intervention. The target groups include first generation (female) adult immigrants and teenagers who represent the second generation, i.e. have parents with an immigrant background. The project consists of three interrelated studies.
Dr. Johanna Lasonen and Dr. Marianne Teras have developed a theoretical model of «Dimensions of perceiving intercultural competence in action» http://www.c-s-p.org/flyers/Mapping-the-Broad-Field-of-Multicultural-and-Intercultural-Education-Worldwide--Towards-the-Developm1−4438−4031−9.htm.
Relevant website: http://coedu.rc.usf.edu/research_staff/researcher.php?id=178
