Dr. Kristiina Kumpulainen is a Professor in the Department of Language and Literacy Education at the University of British Columbia. Her research is grounded in qualitative research, specializing in multimodal, interactional, and ethnographic approaches in and for education. Dr. Kumpulainen’s inquiries span formal, informal, and online learning settings, including early childhood centers, schools, museums, and augmented-reality environments. She has pioneered innovative methodologies, such as interactional ethnography, visual and multimodal discourse analysis, and participatory arts-based inquiry. Her recent work has been informed by post-qualitative and ecological approaches, including StoryWalking Ethnography, which explores learning as an embodied, relational process of becoming-with place and more-than-human worlds. Drawing on social design experiments, she collaborates with learners, educators, and communities to co-create playful, participatory learning environments. Dr. Kumpulainen’s research bridges theory and practice, promoting socially responsive and inclusive educational research that move beyond human-centered paradigms and reimagines pedagogy through ethical, ecological, and situated inquiry.