Sai Väyrynen has a PhD in education (University of Kent, UK) and she is currently Director of the Global Innovation Network for Teaching and Learning (GINTL) coordination for Africa and China, at the University of Helsinki, Finland, Faculty of Educational Sciences. The network aims to enhance collaboration between 20 Finnish higher education institutions for a greater impact in teaching and learning, through coordinated collaboration between different partners.
Sai is university lecturer in special needs education, and has worked internationally over two decades with African collaborators, and lived almost 10 years in the African continent. She has also served the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland at the Embassy of Finland in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (2017-2020), as counsellor in education, and co-chaired the development partners’ and Ethiopian Ministry of Education coordination group over three years. Her research interests in education are related to education policies, inclusion and social justice, inclusive pedagogy, teacher education and development for inclusion, and understanding the phenomenon of education realities from multiple perspectives. She also holds the position of Adjunct Professor in education, in particular inclusive education and global education issues at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland.