ÌǹûÅɶÔ

What is your PhD project about?

My PhD project is part of one of three initiatives in NAFA, the Science Academy, which in short aims to create more motivating teaching in the natural sciences and thus get more children and young people interested in and competent in science. My research is in the field of teacher education, which is about 'developing teaching through competence development of teacher educators in national and local professional learning communities (PCFs) and practice collaborations with partner schools for the purpose of developing teaching’ (Quote from Nafa.nu). I investigate and describe the interactions that occur in professional learning communities among teacher educators, both between people – and between people and materialities, such as technologies. I am particularly interested in how these interactions can be described and explained from an organisational perspective. So you could say that my project aims to research and describe patterns and knowledge practices that inform the work that takes place in NAFA from an organisational perspective.

Why did you want to write a PhD?

The short answer is that I have something on my mind. I am – and always have been – a motivated and committed person who needs to make a difference. It's a basic need – I need to investigate and communicate and be part of something bigger than myself.

How does your background play a role in your project?

I have an interdisciplinary background with a BA in Business Communication and a Master's in Education. During my master's programme, I was a consultant at Ramboll Management, where I worked with the quality platform Brain&Heart and where we documented practice in pedagogy and learning. Here, I ended up teaching some of the quality modules and had a lot to do with teachers and pedagogues. I became very interested in what happens in learning cultures and pedagogical practice, and that brought me further into the field where I am now. I have a strong belief that new knowledge emerges at the interface between different disciplines. Science education was not something I was initially familiar with, but I have become curious about it. Perhaps because I don't have a science background, I'm exploring the field with a new perspective and can thereby contribute new knowledge to the field.

What did you dream of becoming when you were a child?

Everything! Coroner, lawyer, doctor, marine biologist, elite swimmer (as a child and teenager I swam six times a week). I also played the flute and four different recorders. So at some point I had to make a choice between going in an academic direction, a sports direction or choosing the artist path. I was interested in most subjects at school, and the fact that I chose to focus on languages and the humanities – that was probably a bit of a coincidence.

How do you think your PhD project can impact our society?

We talk a lot about what good teaching is. But to get closer to it, we need to look at everything that lies behind; the interactions between people. In general, everything that happens in the world, and when we learn something and something becomes meaningful, it's because it happens both in the interaction between people and between things and people. So I hope that my PhD project can help shed light on everything that happens around us, both intentionally and unintentionally, and what we don't necessarily realise.

My project can hopefully contribute to creating more knowledge about how we develop exciting and engaging science teaching, and I hope that my results can help hold up a mirror to the practices that exist, and that it can ultimately help strengthen the field of science education and knowledge about collaboration and networking in organisations, in a Danish and international context. The knowledge I gain will interact with the other results that NAFA achieves and can hopefully also be translated to other practices and areas in the education system.