Anu Gretschel

Senior Researcher
+358 40 516 9189
anu.gretschel@youthresearch.fi

I work as a senior researcher in the Finnish Youth Research Society. My specialized interest is in the relationship between society, municipalities, and young people. This entails research projects related to youth participation, their impact creating possibilities, democracy, evaluation of youth work as well as developing public services through negotiations between young people, professionals, and decision-makers. Once again, some research projects have ended, and new ones have started.

The project called Taking the multifaceted evaluation tool into use developed for open youth work was funded by the Regional State Administrative Agency for Southwestern Finland. It was realised in co-operation with municipalities, non-governmental organisations and parishes mainly from the Southwestern Region of Finland but also with two non-governmental organisations offering web-based youth work services nation-wide. The evaluation cycle consists of four different focal points such as the utilisation rate of the service, young people’s satisfaction with the service and equality mapping. As a whole, the idea is to produce a thicker knowledge base for decision-makers and those planning youth work services about how to direct resources and if there is enough of them. The evaluation process is being carried out in South-Western part of Finland by the regional youth work coordinators. Meanwhile, this same tool has started to be put into use in the city of Tampere with the help of resources funded by Kanuuna, which is one of the Centres of expertise for youth work nominated by the Ministry of Education and Culture. In 2023, I wrote an article about the aspect of equality in the evaluation of open youth work related to the role the Finnish Youth Research Society have in the Centres of expertise for youth work. 

Most of 2022 and early 2023 was allocated to a project entitled ‘Situation picture and instruments of monitoring – Democracy and human rights education, participation rights and equality at field of education’. The research questions of the study concerned issues on intended learning outcomes, involvement, participation rights and evaluation of actualisation of equality. Purpose was to examine how well and how equally intended learning outcomes of democracy and human rights education comes true in Finland. Also, the study investigated fulfillment of involvement and participation rights of children, pupils, and students. The study operated at all levels of education practice from early childhood education to teacher education. It was realised in co-operation with Jyväskylä University and Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences. The research project was funded by the Government’s analysis, assessment and research activities, see abstract of the project in English included in the report published in Finnish.

Earlier, ‘Good Practices related to Democracy and Human Rights Education’ in early education, schools and educational institutions over the last five years were also collected during 2021-2022. The project produced a collection of stories about good practices in democracy and human rights education, which can now be accessed in Finnish, sign language, Swedish and Northern Sámi on the webpage of the Finnish National Agency of Education. The project was realised in co-operation with the National Youth Council Allianssi and Koordinaatti, which has a role in three different Centres of expertise for youth work. The project was contracted by the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Education and Culture.

The responsibility of writing and updating Youth Wiki chapters on Finland has given continuity to my working processes for several years now. Youth Wiki is Europe’s online encyclopedia for national youth policies that are rooted in EU Youth Strategy. Nowadays, the database includes 34 European countries and ten different thematic chapters for each. Youth Wiki is funded by EU Erasmus+, and nationally by the Ministry of Education and Culture (more information about the updating process of Youth Wiki).

Recent publications in English

Gretschel, A. & Kautto, T. & Lehikoinen, J. & Lehtonen, M. & Särkiluoto, V. & Tarvainen, K. (2023) Evaluation and monitoring of the activities of youth organisations in the Nordics. What could learned among the Nordic countries? Nordic Council of Ministers. TemaNord 2023:531. The publication is available also in Finnish and Swedish.

Gretschel, Anu & Korhonen, Antti (2019) What the European co-operation teach us about the nature of tools used in evaluation of (open) international youth work. International Journal of Open Youth Work, Issue 3, 83-92.

Cooper, Sue & Gretschel, Anu (2018) Evaluating youth work in its contexts. Teoksessa Pam Alldred, Fin Cullen, Kathy Edwards and Dana Fusco (toim.) SAGE Handbook of Youth Work Practice. Lontoo: Sage, 608–622.

Researcher profile in Finnish

Profile in Researchgate

Profile in Academia.Edu