Jonna Lappalainen wrote her thesis (Den Enskilde: En studie av trons profana möjlighet i Sören Kierkegaards tidiga författarskap) in philosophy on Søren Kierkegaards understanding of "the single individual". Lappalainen participates in an ongoing research project on collective practical knowledge. The project combines philosophical investigations of the concept of "collective phronesis" with a study of how professionals in the education system ande the police force in Sweden and Germany – understand
and relate to this very concept.

In recent years she has conducted research on the role of thinking in higher education and how it has changed over the last 20 years of transformations in the education system. She works as lecturer at the Center for practical knowledge.