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Academic environment and networks

Academic environment

Approximately 40 professors and associate professors from the faculty's academic staff contribute actively to the PhD programme through supervision, teaching and evaluation. 

Both the academic staff and the PhD candidates are members of one of the faculty's research groups (see the section Research Groups associated with PROFF), to the research centre Centre for Studies of Educational Practice (SePU) or the Centre for Collaborative Learning for Sustainable Development (CCL), which holds the holds the UNESCO-Chair on Education for Sustainable Lifestyles. The research groups and centres play a vital role in the establishment of academic networks. Several research groups include an international professor II.

The research schools in which the programme participates have also facilitated academic collaboration. In 2023, a collaboration agreement with Queen Maud University College of Early Childhood Education. 

Professors II at the Faculty of Education

The Faculty of Education includes several professor II positions in order to strengthen academic cooperation and internationalisation. Most are directly associated with one of the faculty's research groups, while others are associated directly with the PhD programme or the research center SEPU. 

Subjects and subject didactics

Pedagogy

Scientific research conferences

The department regularily arranges scientific research conferences. The following will be arranded during the autumn 2023:

Large research projects are also central areas for academic networking, something that is also benefitting the programme's PhD candidates. Below is an overview of significant research projects associated with PROFF.

Research projects

Research projects financed by NORDFORSK

Resarch projects financed by the Research Council of Norway

New:

Exploring Social Politics, Inclusive Education, and Cultural Democratization Through the Lens of Norwegian Hip Hop Music (NORHOP) (2023–2027). Project leader: Professor Kai Arne Hansen. Financed by “Researcher Project for Young Talents (FRIPRO)”. In this project, collaborators include the University of Brighton, University of Bristol and Nord University. Read an interview with project leader KaI Arne Hansen and more about the project her. One PhD fellowship is about to be established.

INN University as coordinator:

INN University as consortium partner:

  • Sustainable eaters: Consumers in a sustainable Norwegian food system (2021–2025), Project leadership by NOFIMA, INN University participates in the work package three with a didactic format. Work package leader at INN University: Associate Professor og UNESCO chair Robert Didham, PhD candidate Ingunn Solbakken. Financed by “Collaborative Project to Meet Societal and Industry-related Challenges”.
  • Linguistic Integration of Adult Migrants with Poor Education and the Consequences of Migration Tests (2021–2025), Project leadership by Western Norway University of Applied Sciences (HVL), work package 4 leader at INN University: Associate Professor Marte Nordanger, who is also employed as post doctoral fellow on the project (with a leave of absence from INN University). Financed by “Researcher Project for Young Talents (FRIPRO)”.
  • Multilingualism in transition (2021-2025), Project leadership by the University of Tromsø, leader of INN University's research part: Associate Professor Anja Pesch.  Financed by "Programme for Research and Innovation in the Educational Sector (FINNUT)”.
  • Bridging the gaps in teacher education and schools through interdisciplinary work, (BRIDGES), 2020-2024, Project leadership by the University of South-Eastern Norway, in collaboration with INN University (by Associate Professor og UNESCO chair Robert Didham) og and the University of Tromsø. Financed by “Programme for Research and Innovation in the Educational Sector (FINNUT)”.  

Finished projects

  • NFR: The social dynamics of musical upbringing and schooling in the Norwegian welfare state (DYNAMUS), (2018-2022). Project leader: Professor Petter Dyndahl, PhD candidate: Friede Merkelbach, who successfully defended her thesis in 2021. Financed by “Ground-breaking research (FRIPRO) - frihumsam”
  • NORDFORSK: Inclusive science teaching in multilingual classrooms - a design study. (2018-2021) Project leader Professor Maaike Hajer, Utrecht University of Applied Sciences in collaboration with INN University (project leader Associate Professor Anne B. Øyehaug) og Malmö University. PhD candidate Pauline Book successfully defended her PhD thesis in 2022. She was associated with the project, but financed by Hedmark county's "universitetsfondet". 

Honorary Doctorates

When the then Hedmark University College celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2014, the board awarded three honorary doctorates (doctor honoris causa) associated with the PhD programme in Teaching and Teacher Education (PROFF).

Picture of honorary doctorates
Honorary doctorates at PROFF. From left: Professor Jim Cummins, writer Karin Sveen, and Professor Lucy Green. Photo: Hedmark University College.

Author Karin Sveen, Hamar/Oslo

Karin Sveen has been awarded the degree of honorary doctor (doctor honoris causa) for significant artistic effort and for outstanding work for the benefit of science. Karin Sveen has a long and significant authorship with persistent literary exploration of class travel, belonging and linguistic diversity issues, often based on experiences from Hedmark. In the biography Mannen i Montgomery Street from 2011, Karin Sveen combines literary traditions within fiction and prose with painstaking and demanding source work and proves that the emigrant Peder Sæther from Sør-Odal must have been one of the founders of the famous Berkeley University in San Francisco. The book was published in English in 2014 - The Immigrant and the University: Peder Sather and Gold Rush California - at the University of California Press. Karin Sveen is educated as a teacher at the then Hamar College of Education and made her debut as a writer in 1975. She has written poetry, short stories, novels and published three collections of essays. She has also been a member of the Arts Council Norway's Essay Committee, the board of the The Norwegian Authors’ Union and the The Norwegian Authors’ Union's literary council. She has received De Norske Bokklubbenes lyric prize (1978), Cappelen prize (1984), Språklig samling's literature prize (1986), Neshornet Klassekampens culture prize (2005) and The Language Council of Norway's language prize (2007). In 2004-2005 she was a visiting researcher at the University of California, Berkeley.

Professor of Education Jim Cummins, Toronto, Canada

Jim Cummins has been awarded the degree of honorary doctor (doctor honoris causa) for significant scientific contributions within language learning, bilingualism and bilingual education and in particular for research and theory development on the role language plays in the acquisition of knowledge and social integration of pupils with a multilingual and multicultural background. Cummins has published a number of influential works, including Bilingualism and Special Education (Multilingual Matters, 1984); Language, Power and Pedagogy: Bilingual Children in the Crossfire (Multilingual Matters, 2000); Encyclopedia of Language and Education: Bilingual Education (ed. with Nancy Hornberger, Springer 2008) and Identity Texts. The collaborative Creation of Power in Multilingual Schools (with Margaret Early, Trentam Books, 2011). The work with Identity texts has become an important approach to including students' multilingual background in teaching. Cummins has collaborated with the Hedmark University College's strategic research area Education and diversity. He has, among other things, been a plenary speaker at scientific conferences in Hamar, participated in applications for research and partnership funding and organized practice visits and a joint symposium in Toronto.

Professor of Music Education Lucy Green, London, UK

Lucy Green has been awarded the degree of honorary doctor (doctor honoris causa) for significant scientific contributions within music education, particularly for research and theory development both on music education and gender and on learning processes within popular music and for, on the basis of this, having established a new and research-based classroom pedagogy in the subject of music. In addition to her pioneering work as a researcher, Lucy Green is known for her extensive work in converting her popular music-based research findings into classroom pedagogy. Through the organization Musical Futures, she has carried out far-reaching work to renew the music education practice in British schools. Among her important works are Music on Deaf Ears: Musical Meaning, Ideology and Education (1988, Manchester University Press), Music, Gender, Education (1997, Cambridge University Press), Music, Informal Learning and the School: A New Classroom Pedagogy ( 2008, Ashgate) and Learning, Teaching and Musical Identity: Voices Across Cultures (2011, Indiana University Press).

Published Aug. 18, 2023 9:01 AM - Last modified Oct. 27, 2023 10:36 AM