The animations were created with comprehensive school students in the Tampere region and are based on findings from the two research projects. We made the animations as both an effective and engaging means of publicly communicating our research findings, and also a way to bring the findings back to schools, to further explore the themes that arose in them with other school students.
KOTI animations at Tesoma school
These three animations below were made as part of the Kone Foundation-funded research project: KOTI – From Emergency Responses to Sustainable Refugee Education, which examines how schools could better support their refugee and asylum-seeking learners. For these animations, we selected four key themes from the findings: School safety and care; participation, power and conflict; gender, borders and norms; and language and interaction. Working in small groups, preparatory class students and their 5th grade buddy students chose one or two themes to focus on, Then, using a storycrafting approach, we guided the groups to develop fictional stories related to the themes, drawing on their own thoughts and experiences of them in their everyday school lives.
The Tale of the Flying School focuses on themes of safety and belonging and highlights how language can enable or constrain participation.
Animation Link: https://youtu.be/7NBES2iZ-TA (Finnish language, English subtitles available)
The Surprise Friend explores how crises such as war and illness can impact student’s school lives. It also highlights the important roles that friendship and empathy play in fostering refugee students’ sense of belonging in school.
Animation Link: https://youtu.be/AhTgXS1Oaxc (Finnish language, English subtitles available)
Jyrkki’s and Mari’s Snowman builds on themes of safety, power and language in school interactions, and shows how refugee students’ past experiences of forced migration can impact their present experiences in sometimes unexpected ways.
Animation Link: https://youtu.be/bfkJnTR9dYs (Finnish language, English subtitles available)
ERAPAN animation at FISTA school
Last but not least, we made an additional animation for the NordForsk-funded research project ERAPAN: Education of Refugees and Asylum Seekers under and post the Pandemic in the Nordic Countries.
Animation Link: https://youtu.be/q_gfvP_RKg0 (English language, Finnish subtitles available)
While in the KOTI animations we created the stories and artwork together with the students, in this animation we did things a little differently. Using a composite narrative method, we first produced the story using minimally-edited quotes from ERAPAN project interviews with Finnish, Swedish and Danish students. We then brought the resulting story to different groups of students at the FISTA school in Tampere (as well as a guest student Luka from Liuksiala school in Kangasala), who together created the artworks, voices and composition of the animation.
The resulting animation, Life and Other Crises: Learning in the Time of COVID-19, explores how the pandemic impacted both refugee and other students’ everyday school lives academically, socially, emotionally and psychologically.
Animating research: From theme to short film
Creating these animations was a collaborative process between our research teams and participating schools, teachers and students. Making them involved several phases taking place during the winter and spring of 2025-2026. Below is a brief outline of that process.
1 Initial theme selection: In which we (researchers) selected key themes from our research findings that we wanted to highlight and communicate in the animations
2 Story production: For KOTI we organised two storycrafting workshops with students, in which we guided students to create and develop their own imaginary stories based on the themes. For the ERAPAN animation there were no story workshops as we produced the story ourselves using the composite narrative method described above.
3 Storyboarding: An important step in all the animations was storyboarding, turning the textual story in a visual sequence of scenes in which characters act and interact with each other and their environment. For the KOTI animations, we typically began by developing the characters and their traits, then developed the plots around them. Often, the look of the characters developed in this stage, as students sketched out ideas for scenes.
4 Artmaking: A key aspect of making storyboards is that they clarify exactly what kinds of images were needed for the animation. Once they were finalised, we organised a series of artmaking workshops (4 for KOTI and 2 for ERAPAN) in which students made all the needed artworks using aquarelle pencils and watercolour paint on paper. All the artworks were photographed and edited using Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop programs.
5 Sound recording: After all the artworks were completed, we organised workshops for recording the animations’ narration, character voices, sound effects and background music. The voices were done with a selection of volunteers from the student groups. We encouraged all participating students to help make the music and sound effects using musical instruments and other classroom objects. The recording was done in separate classrooms with the help of a professional sound engineer.
6 Post editing: When all the artworks and soundtracks were collected, the animating process began. Guided by the student-made storyboards, we edited and arranged the artworks and soundtracks into animations using the Adobe Premiere and Adobe Character Animator programs. While the animating process unavoidably left our own (researchers’) marks on the final animations in terms of composition, editing and direction, we strived to remain as faithful as possible to the students’ own ideas, aesthetics and perspectives to ensure that it was their own voices that were presented.
All of the animations are freely available to view and share on Youtube. Once again we wish to say a big thank you to the Kone Foundation and to NordForsk for funding these projects, and to all the collaborating schools, teachers and students for their creativity and hard work helping to bring these stories to life.
Blog text written by Nick Haswell for the KOTI research team, also including Mervi Kaukko, Maria Petäjäniemi and Jussi Hakalahti