The founders of Positive, Kaisa and Lotta, are originally special education teachers and have later become researchers of special education pedagogy.

Kaisa applied for postgraduate studies at the University of Helsinki and was inspired by the strength-based new pedagogy after talking with the university lecturer Lotta. Seeing the good and concentrating on what is functional in every pupil seemed like a promising approach for Kaisa. She already had years of experience in correcting errors and continuously correcting behavioural disturbances. The results had not been encouraging.

In 2018, Kaisa’s first peer-reviewed article was published. This study showed how special needs pupils benefit from strength-based teaching in forming friendships. The qualitative results were glowing. Both teachers and pupils spoke of how the meaningfulness of schoolwork had increased, they had freed up more resources, and the atmosphere had improved as a result of positive intervention. Many pupils said they now for the first time realized that they weren’t lousy after all and that others see a lot of good in them which they had not seen before.