Diversity and interaction
The Diversity and Interaction research group is open to researchers who work with diversity issues in connection with teacher education and the school system. The group is based in Oslo, where it holds most of its meetings, but it is open to members from other NLA campuses and other educational establishments.
The research group aims to focus on R&D work within the field of diversity. This is a broad field that covers many areas, including linguistic and cultural diversity. The field could also include a range of sub-topics that may be subject to conflicting analytical models and approaches.
The interaction element of the research represents the group’s interest in working with diversity both as a problem and as a resource in different types of interaction in schools and higher education. Generating empirical knowledge of such interaction will provide input for the development of high teaching standards at both levels, and stimulate theory development in the field.
Work of the research group
The development work is linked to the integrated master’s degree for primary and lower secondary school teachers at NLA University College. We want to work with empirical material in the form of classroom research, but also literature analysis and theory development. One of the goals is to develop a collaboration with primary and lower secondary schools in the Oslo area with a view to creating an environment in which teachers can actively participate in a research collaboration.
The research project has two thematic areas:
- Linguistic diversity – learning and using language, Norwegian as a second language, Nynorsk and Bokmål, dialects, language ideology etc.
- Cultural diversity – socialisation processes in different cultures, home-school collaboration, intercultural competence, religious practices and cultural encounters, communities of practice, etc.
Members
Bjørghild Kjelsvik (head of research group), Associate Professor
Brit Marie Hovland, Associate Professor
Tone Helene Skattør, Assistant Professor
Ingfrid Mattingsdal Torjussen, Assistant Professor
Linnea Jermstad, Assistant Professor
Dag Øivind Østereng, Assistant Professor
Marit Brendbekken, Associate Professor
Leah Junge, Consultant
Contacts
Head of the research group: Bjørghild Kjelsvik
Vice Rector for Research and Development: Torgeir Landro