Lovisa Bergdahl

Research Interests

I am an Associate Professor in philosophy of education at Södertörn University. My research can be placed in the intersection of philosophy of education and didactics (as the art of teaching), drawing mainly on pedagogic theory and feminist and postseular philosophy. Broadly, I am interested in the formative role of teachers and schools in a postsecular and liberal democratic society. More particularly I am interested in the value conflicts and dilemmas that arise in the pluralistic classroom and the pedagogical and ethical questions that this stituation gives rise to.

I am currently conducting research within two projects funded by the Swedish Research Council. The first, Forms of Formation (2020-2023), explores the role of the body and the senses in the pedagogical task of handling value conflicts in the classroom. The second project, How can the school reduce unequal educational opportunities? (2020-2023), studies the importance of school culture and school composition for students' academic success and well-being. I am part of an international research network on sustainability issues in education, Public Pedagogy and Sustainable Challenges (2017-2021) funded by the Flemish Research Council (link: here) and I am an affiliated researcher at IMS: Institute for Research on Multi-Religiousness and Secularity (link: here). I am also part of the project After Religious Education under the leadership of Dr. David Lewin, Strathclyde University, Glasgow.

I have previously conducted the project Lived Values (VR 2015-2019), a study that aimed to develop a general didactical thinking about the fostering task of schools' and teachers'. I have also been responsible for the Swedish part of the project The Inquiring Classroom, a Strategic Partnership Program funded by the Council of Europe (ERASMUS +), together with researchers in Greece (Ellinogermaniki Agogi, Athens) and in Ireland (Mary Immaculate College, Limerick, Maynooth University, Dublin) - a project aimed at developing teaching through arts based methodologies for teachers in Europe working with ethics and values ​​in the integration of newly arrived.

I have previously studied the gendered coding of the teaching of religious studies in high school within the framework of the project Conceptions of femininity and masculinity in the classroom (VR, 2011-2015) and my dissertation, Seeing Otherwise: Renegotiating Religion and Democracy as Questions for Education (2010 , link here), explores how two of the pedagogical trends that are best considered to be able to accommodate diversity and pluralism relate to religion and the religious subject: the cosmopolitan ideal of education (Martha Nussbaum) and the deliberative model of democracy (Jürgen Habermas). Against the background of the tensions that the new visibility of religion has caused in a secular and democratic society and with the help of agonistic democracy theory and post-secular philosophy, the dissertation renegotiates some of the values ​​(freedom) and ideals (dialogue) on which the above trends are based.

TEACHING

I teach Timeless pedagogical problems (undergraduate level), The prerequisites of pedagogy: theory and policy (post gradutate level) and within the educational sciences core syllabus (UVK) in teacher education.

OTHER

- Assistant Editor for Journal of Philosophy of Education
- Programme Chair for International Network of Philosophers of Education (INPE): https://inpe.info/

I am a member of the following international research organizations:
NERA (Nordic Educational Research Association);
EERA (European Educational Research Association);
PESGB (Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain) and
INPE (International Network of Philosophers of Education).
I am a member of the Editorial Board for Utbildning & Demokrati and Pedagogisk Forskning i Sverige and I review articles for Journal of Curriculum Studies; British Journal of Religious Education, Gender and Education and Demokrati & Utbildning.

PUBLICATIONS

JOURNAL ARTICLES (refereed)

Bergdahl, Lovisa., & Langmann, Elisabet. (2020). Sustaining What is Valuable: Contours of an Educational Language About Values. Journal of Philosophy of Education, 54(5), 1260-1277.

Bergdahl, Lovisa (2020) 'Kvinnan som plats och kvinnans plats', i Kvinnligt religiöst ledarskap: En vänbok till Gunilla Gunner (red.) Sorgenfrei & Thurfjell. Stockholm: Södertörn Studies on Religion 10, ISBN 978-91-89109-03-2.

Bergdahl L. (2019) Educationally Connecting to the Past in Teaching. In Philosophical Perspectives on Teacher Training. In: Peters M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Teacher Education. Springer, Singapore.

Bergdahl, L. & Langmann, E. (2018). Pedagogical Postures: A Feminist Search for a geometry of the Educational Relation. Ethics and Education.

Bergdahl, L. (2017b). Crisis or Struggle? A Language of Natality as a Struggle for Education. In Studier i Pædagogisk Filosofi. Årg. 6, Nr. 1 (2017), s. 25-38.

Bergdahl, L. (2017a). Language matters: gendering Religious Education teaching. In British Journal of Religious Education, ISSN 0141-6200, E-ISSN 1740-7931, p. 1-10.

Bergdahl, L. & Langmann, E. (2017b). Time for Values: Responding Educationally to the Call from the Past. In Studies in Philosophy and Education.

Bergdahl, L. & Langmann, E. (2017a). Where Are You?: Giving Voice to the Teacher by Reclaiming the Public/Private Distinction. In Journal of Philosophy of Education, 51 (2), 461-475.

Bergdahl, L. (2009) Lost in Translation: On the Untranslatable and its Ethical Implications for Religious Pluralism. In Journal of Philosophy of Education, Vol. 43, no 1, p. 31-44.

BOOK CHAPTERS

Bergdahl, L. (2017c). Könsskillnadens religionskunskapsundervisning. I Interkulturell Religionsdidaktik, (red. Olof Frank & Peder Thalén). Lund: Studentlitteratur.

Bergdahl, L. (2012). Religion och bildning: Emilia Fogelklou och bildningsbegreppets mystika förankring. I Svenska Bildningstraditioner Del II. (red.) Anders Burman och Patrik Mehrens, Göteborg: Daidalos.

Bergdahl, L. (2011). När mänskligheten får ansikten. I Det goda lärandet, (red.) Anders Burman och Patrik Mehrens, Lund: Studentlitteratur.

Bergdahl, L. (2009). Public Education Private Religion – on redefining borders in religious education. I Your Heritage and Mine: Teaching in a Multi-Religious Classroom, (red.) Ewa Roos & Jenny Berglund. Studies in Inter-Religious Relations, Nr. 43. s. 60-67. Uppsala: Universitetstryckeriet.

CONFERENCE PAPERS (refereed)

Bergdahl, L. & Langmann, E. (2018). The Work of Values: A Post-Conflictual Pedagogical Response. Paper presented at ECER, Bolzano, Italy, August 2018.

Bergdahl, L. & Langmann, E (2017). Gendering the Scholastic Techniques. Paper presented at ECER, Copenhagen, Denmark, August 2017.

Bergdahl, L. & Langmann, E. (2017). Time for Values: Responding Educationally to the Call from the Past. Paper presented at PESGB, Oxford, England, March 2017.

Bergdahl, L. & Langmann E. (2017). Ambivalent Teaching: Gendering the Scholastic Techniques. Paper presented at NERA, Copenhagen, Denmark, March 2017.

Bergdahl, L. & Langmann, E (2016). Making Values Common: On the Importance of Turning Fostering into a Public Matter. Paper presented at INPE, Warsaw, Poland, August 2016.

Bergdahl, L. & Langmann, E (2016). "Where Are You?": Teaching Values and Virtues by Reclaiming the Private/Public Distinction. Paper presented at ECER, Dublin, Ireland, August 2016.

Bergdahl, L. & Langmann, E (2016). No Longer and Not Yet: Teaching Values and Virtues beyond the Private/public Distinction. Paper presented at NERA, Helsinki, Finland, March 2016.

Bergdahl, L. (2014). Religious Education For More Than One Sex. Paper for the AARE Conference, Australian Association for Research in Education, Brisbane, 1st - 5th of November.

Bergdahl. L. (2012). ‘Educating for a Love’s Difference: on democracy, religion, and the conflicted space between us’. Paper presented at NERA, Copenhagen, Denmark.

Bergdahl. L. (2012). Possibilities for New Beginnings in the Present. Article presenteed at CASEP (Centre for Aristotelian Studies in Ethics and Politics) Religion, Civil Religion, and the Common Good, London Metropolitan University, London.

Bergdahl. L. (2011). “Unfinished Selves: Rethinking Freedom as an Iconic Relation of Self to Others”. Paper presented at the 11th Essex Conference in Critical Political Theory, University of Essex, Storbritannien.

Bergdahl, L. (2011). Unfinished Selves: Rethinking Freedom as an Iconic Relation of Self to Others, EASR 2011 (European Association for the Study of Religions), 18-22 September, Budapest, Hungary.

Bergdahl, L. (2011). Seeing Education Otherwise: After Secularization. Paper presented at Education in a Post Secular Society Conference, Saturday 29th January 2011, Canterbury, Great Britain.

Bergdahl. L. (2010). ’”Giving an Account of Oneself”: the limits of dialogue and the irony of narratability’. Paper presented at ECER, Helsinki.

Bergdahl, L. (2009). Response paper to panel on cosmopolitanism and education at AERA, American Educational Research Association, San Diego, 13-17 April, USA.

Bergdahl. L. (2008). ’Lost in Translation – on the Untranslatable and its Ethical Implications for Religious Pluralism’. Paper presented at SCPT (Society for Continental Philosophy and Theology), Gordon College, Boston, USA.

Bergdahl. L. (2007). ’”Educating for a World out of Joint”: Challenging Orders and Borders for Religious Diversity in Liberal Education’. Paper presenterd at PESGB, Oxford.

Bergdahl. L. (2006). ’Exclusion and Embrace. Paper presented at NERA, Örebro University, Sweden.

OTHER PUBLICATIONS

Bergdahl, L. Det Banalt Goda. Ledare i tidskriften Signum: Katolsk Orientering om Kyrka, Kultur & Samhälle. Nr. 4, 2018

Bergdahl, L. #metoo och moderlöshetens kultur. Artikel i tidskriften Signum: Katolsk Orientering om Kyrka, Kultur & Samhälle. Nr. 8, 2017

Bergdahl, L. Demokratins motstridighet. Ledare i tidskriften Signum: Katolsk Orientering om Kyrka, Kultur & Samhälle. Temanummer: Demokrati. Nr. 4, 2017

Bergdahl, L. Att skola skönhetssinnet. Artikel i tidskriften NOD: Forum för Tro, Kultur och Samhälle. Temanummer: Postsekulär kompetens?, Nr. 2-3, 2016, sid. 65-69.

Bergdahl, L. Vad vill vi säga? Om yttrandefriheten och det goda samhället. Ledare i Signum: Katolsk Orientering om Kyrka, Kultur & Samhälle. Nr. 2, 2015.