My Research

My research focuses on inclusive and power-critical teaching practices, and on how these can be understood, embodied, and developed from both students’ and teachers’ perspectives. I view inclusion as a matter of general didactics rather than as a specific method or strategy. From this standpoint, teaching appears as a reflective and embodied educational process that extends beyond the classroom boundaries, encompassing the wider school culture and community.

Research on discrimination and degrading treatment in schools often addresses how students experience being subjected to exclusion or harm—knowledge that is undoubtedly essential. However, I argue that it is equally important to understand the opposite: how inclusion is experienced and realized in practice. To develop the school’s work with inclusion, we need to know how inclusion is enacted, not merely how it is talked about. Previous research on inclusive education often focuses on how teachers or schools act or should act, while students’ voices remain largely absent from the scholarly conversation. I argue that the student perspective is crucial—not merely as a supplement, but as a consistent element of an inclusive research approach. As Messiou (2006) aptly states: “Listening to children’s voices is a manifestation of being inclusive” (p. 9). I am a member of the international research network WERA IRN “Student Voice for Promoting Equity and Inclusion in Schools.” External link.

My doctoral project External link. therefore took its starting point in students’ experiences of inclusion and exclusion in upper secondary school. The study was based on extensive empirical material collected from six different schools through surveys (N=624), interviews (N=21), and creative workshops. Upper secondary students were considered to have particularly good conditions for reflecting on their schooling as a whole—they are at the end of their school journey and can relate to a variety of teachers, contexts, and teaching practices. In the phenomenological analysis, grounded in the theories of Husserl and Merleau-Ponty, three overlapping didactic dimensions emerged that, from the students’ perspectives, contribute to inclusive teaching: didactic persona, didactic alliance, and didactic action. Together, these form what I term woven inclusive teaching (WIT), where relationships, atmosphere, and action interact in a dynamic interplay. The students further described inclusion as a continuously unfolding educational process—a process that moves between self-experience, the group’s atmosphere, and the student’s will to learn and develop.

The aim of my research is to deepen the understanding of inclusion as part of the very core of the teaching profession—not as an add-on or a particular method, but as a didactic and educational-theoretical question. I seek to place the work of inclusion and anti-discrimination at the heart of teaching and to understand it as a general didactic task: a body of knowledge concerning the essence of teaching itself, the teacher’s professional judgment, the social life of the classroom, and the school’s societal context. In line with Korsgaard & Mortensen (2017), I argue that researchers must begin to ask educational questions of inclusion, rather than inclusive questions of education.

Norm-Critical Perspectives

My research interests are also deeply rooted in norm-critical perspectives, an area I have worked with since the early 2000s—as a teacher educator, author, and educational consultant. I have written several books and articles on the subject and have trained teachers and school leaders in norm-critical pedagogy and didactics. For more information about this work, please visit my website.

I am also a co-founder of the Nordic, interdisciplinary research network Shifting Grounds External link., which aims to develop and advance theoretical and methodological frameworks for norm-critical perspectives across academic disciplines. By combining phenomenological and norm-critical approaches, I seek in my research to understand the lived, relational, and power-bound aspects of educational practice—how inclusion can not only be described, but actually enacted.

Teaching

I have over 25 years of experience as a teacher, educator, and teacher trainer, and for the past decade I have primarily been active in higher education and teacher education programs. In my teaching, I strive to interweave theory and practice and to create inclusive learning environments where reflection, intersubjectivity, and critical dialogue are central. My pedagogical foundation is based on the understanding of teaching as a relational and reflective practice, where knowledge grows in the encounter between students’ experiences, theoretical perspectives, and shared inquiry. I regard the seminar as a key arena for professional formation—a space where learning unfolds through dialogue marked by openness, curiosity, and didactic intention.

With a background as a secondary school teacher and experience in adult education, I have developed broad didactic competence with a focus on teaching development, leadership, and learning processes. I have extensive experience in course design, course coordination, administration, and collegial collaboration. My research on norm-critical and inclusive teaching also shapes my own pedagogical practice. I continuously work to explore and refine didactic approaches that promote openness, dialogue, and professional self-reflexivity—with the aim of contributing to a teacher education that prepares future teachers to act in a diverse, complex, and democratic society.