Tapio Lahtero – Educational Leadership Consulting

KT Tapio Lahtero, docent, has built his career both in municipal education administration and in universities. He graduated as a primary school teacher from the University of Turku in 1993 and completed his doctoral dissertation at the University of Jyväskylä in 2011 on the topic “The Leadership Culture of Comprehensive Schools.” He obtained his Executive MBA in Public Administration Management at the University of Tampere in 2015.

Before joining the University of Helsinki in 2015, Tapio worked in the City of Vantaa’s education department as a principal, area principal, and Head of Basic Education. He is currently Head of the Department of Teacher Training Schools at the Faculty of Educational Sciences, University of Helsinki – comprising Viikki Teacher Training School and Helsinki Normal Lyceum. In addition, he serves as the director responsible for education and municipal cooperation in the Research Community for Leadership in Education.

Tapio is a sought-after trainer and consultant for educational leadership, both nationally and internationally. He has held leadership roles in several in-service training projects funded by the Finnish National Agency for Education. Tapio has supervised theses in educational leadership and published several research articles on leadership culture, distributed leadership, management, and pedagogical leadership.

In consulting and training for education administration and school leadership, his main areas of focus are pedagogical leadership, organizational culture, learning communities, and leadership of inclusion.