Nominated by
- Hilde Marie Madsø Jacobsen, Department of Teacher Education and School Research, Faculty of Educational Sciences
- Sofie Bastiansen, Department of Education, Faculty of Educational Sciences
- Elisabeth Josefine Lackner, Department of Education, Faculty of Educational Sciences
- Alexandre Simon-Ekeland, Department of Archaeology, Conservation and History, Faculty of Humanities
- Hedda Novang Wahl, Department of Education, Faculty of Educational Sciences
- Christopher Sadorge, Department of Education, Faculty of Educational Sciences
- Simona Bernotaite, Department of Education, Faculty of Educational Sciences
- Andres Arturo Araos Moya, Department of Education, Faculty of Educational Sciences
- Rebecca Knoph, Department of Education, Faculty of Educational Sciences
Election Platform
I am running for election as representative for the University Board for the broad and diverse group of fixed-term academic staff at large and small faculties, centres, and museums at UiO. Since 2019, I have been a PhD-student in the Faculty of Education. I have previously worked in the Norwegian Directorate of Education and Training, in the Ministry of Education and Research and as a teacher. From 2020 to 2021, I was deputy member of the department board at the Department of Education. Through these positions, I have gained insight into policy development and decision making in the field of education. I will build on this experience in the University Board.
The University Board member selected from the fixed-term academic staff will serve for one year only (2021-2022). In this year, four issues will be of particular importance to me:
- Inclusive and predictable HR policy: For many, being a fixed-term academic is perceived to be an uncertain professional situation and can hinder academic freedom of expression. At UiO, several actions plans and strategies deal with the inclusion and career support for early-career researchers. I am interested in how these plans and strategies are operationalized and implemented. In addition, a specific issue I want to push for UiO is the introduction of a restart scholarship for PhD candidates and postdoctoral fellows who are returning from parental leave, since starting up your research after a long period of absence is challenging for many.
- Strengthen researcher education and teaching: Follow-up networks and support structures are essential to researcher education. I want to stimulate UiO to provide a variety of courses, not just academic but also skills- and communication oriented courses. In many cases, PhD candidates teach 25% but have no prior teaching experience. As part of my efforts, I propose that UiO offers fellows in the early stages in researcher education, as part of their training, beginning courses in teaching, which will include topics such as assessment and feedback, supervision of students, active learning, students as co-researchers and research-based teaching.
- Language use in academia: UiO has many international researchers, and more and more of us are writing in English. International collaboration and publishing are highly beneficial for UiO and for Norway. At the same time, Norwegian as well as English should be used for teaching and research at UiO. In order to participate in the international conversation, we must write in English, but it is also important to stimulate the Norwegian language among academics. UiO, as a significant institution in the Norwegian society, will disseminate research into that society, and the majority of students will enter Norwegian working life, communicating with children, parents, colleagues, pupils, parents, and patients. Thus, UiO should strive for the best possible balance between English and Norwegian.
- Interdisciplinary research and teaching: Interdisciplinarity has long been a goal in education, but achieving it in reality and practice can be challenging. Interdisciplinarity entails collaboration across disciplines and research communities, which means that suitable support structures are required. For example, many administrative finance and management models across departments and faculties are not adapted to such activities. In this regard, UiO still has some work to do.
About me
Before becoming a doctoral research fellow, I first worked as a teacher in upper-secondary schools and then in the Norwegian Directorate of Education and Training and in the Ministry of Education and Research. As a teacher, I was a union representative for several periods. This gave me experiences in negotiating and balancing the interests of employees and leadership. Even when leadership and employees agreed on a goal, there were tensions with regard to perspectives on a problem and what the most appropriate solution would be. In the directorate and ministry, I gained broad experience in collaborating across disciplines and agencies, as well as in critical literacy of national and international policy documents.
My doctoral project is an independent project related to curricula and educational reforms in schools. I am particularly interested in the question of what pupils need to know and learn in schools. I am also interested in knowledge utilization and transfer in education policy and how knowledge is used, for example, to legitimize education reforms. What happens when the content of reports, strategies and frameworks is interpreted and operationalized by those who use them? There are often tensions between formulation (theory) and realization (practice), and these are of special interest to me.
I am a member of the research group Curriculum Studies, Leadership and Educational Governance and connected to the resource centre IDEA - Innovation and Digitalisation in Education.
I have three children, and the two eldest are students in higher education. Through them, I get glimpses of student life in 2022!
Detailed platform
Inclusive and predictable HR policy
UiO has many policy documents. I am particularly interested in the follow-up on the Standards for UiO's career support for researchers in the early career phase, adopted in March 2020, and the Action Plan for Diversity, Gender Equality, and Inclusion 2021-2024. Strategy 2030 - Knowledge - Responsibility - Commitment: For a Sustainable World is also of particular interest. NTNU (Norwegian University of Science and Technology) is in the process of implementing a restart scholarship for PhD candidates and postdoctoral fellows (Universitetsavisa). Implementing a similar scheme at UiO is high on my agenda for the University Board.
The University and College Council (UHR) developed a guideline for assessing academic career paths in May 2021. This document highlights that "more transparency, greater breath, and comprehensive assessments as opposed to one-sided use of indicators" should be in focus. I will look at how these guidelines are relevant for UiO.
Strengthen researcher education and teaching
LINK - The Centre for for Learning, Innovation & Academic Development offers pedagogy courses in the Foundation Programme for academic staff at UiO. As limited spaces are available in these courses, research fellows may not be admitted in their first year of research education. I will therefore stress that LINK’s courses would be increased and expanded. This is one of the few places where PhD candidates and postdoctoral fellows meet across departments and faculties to discuss teaching practices, making it a valuable potential source for interdisciplinary collaboration.
I am familiar with the UiO postdoctoral career development programme (from 2016) at the Faculty of Medicine (The Postdoctoral Programme). Programmes of this kind can be developed at several faculties or by collaboration between faculties. The courses could focus on research management, career development, application writing, supervision roles, co-authorship, communication of research to a broad audience and research policy.
Language use in academia
In January 2022, Norway passed its first language declaration act (Act relating to Language ). The overarching goal is to strengthen the use of the Norwegian language. The policy document NOU 2022: 2 Academic Freedom of Expression also highlights several issues related to the use of the Norwegian language in academia. According to a survey from April 2022 (Velger engelsk, men mener norsk er best for studentene), that investigated syllabi in higher education, the Norwegian language is important, especially at the undergraduate level.
On the other hand, UiO has a large number of international researchers, and UiO researchers must be able to communicate on a high level in the international research community. In order to reach an international audience, Norwegian researchers may also need English language assistance. Additionally, Norwegian language training for international researchers may also be strengthened. In any case, there are challenges and dilemmas associated with language use in academia that should be discussed openly and thoroughly so that we can find the best solutions for the broad and diverse communities of researchers and students at UiO today and in the future.
Interdisciplinary research and teaching
In Strategy 2030, interdisciplinarity is a key objective. While some research communities at the UiO have a long tradition of interdisciplinarity, others do not. Nevertheless, interdisciplinarity must be anchored, built, and based on initiatives from within and below. It is also important to be aware of the nature of the disciplines. Student applications for 2022 shows that interdisciplinary study programmes, such as Philosophy, Politics and Economics, as well as the Honors Programme in the social sciences and natural sciences, are very popular. Moving forward, it is crucial to continue to develop interdisciplinarity at UiO. However, in order to realize it in practice, we also must be aware of the relevant challenges and obstacles.