Education is a complex human endeavour and it is viewed as a cornerstone for developing creative and innovative individuals and for advancing democratic societies. Integrated Education Studies, a research group affiliated with the pedagogy section in the NTNU’s Department of Teacher Education, provides a venue for internally cross-sectional and externally national and international research and collaboration. It strives for a more holistic and comparative view of education phenomena for a more complex and multifaceted understanding that is relevant for the 21st century and contributes to further development of schooling and societies. 

The work of the research group primarily focuses on Continental and Nordic Didaktik and Anglo-American curriculum theories and how they apply to teacher education and other contemporary issues and domains in education. Education phenomena and topics are framed from various innovative theoretical perspectives and addressed through varied qualitative and quantitative methodologies and systematic reviews. 

The research group is well-connected nationally and internationally with collaborative research efforts underway in Norway, Sweden, Finland, Germany, Austria, the UK, and the US, and it is open for collaboration with researchers, Master students and PhD candidates in Norway and abroad.

Ongoing Projects and Activities

Systematic Review of Research on Bildung in Education

Since 2021, InEdS research group members are undertaking a comprehensive systematic review of research on Bildung in education. The purpose of this project on Bildung (danning in Norwegian) is to identify and discuss conceptual understanding of Bildung and its relevance and implications for education theory, policy and practice in the Nordic context and internationally, relying on research on Bildung published in peer-reviewed journals in English covering a timespan of 30 years (1990-2020). 

Advancing Teaching Practice

InEdS team has developed a Research Council of Norway (RCN) project proposal that is under review in 2022 focusing on advancing teaching practice through explorations of teaching practices among student teachers and in-service teachers. The motivation for the project is grounded on the notion that we know little about how and what student teachers and in-service teachers learn in practice through their actions, while teaching. Learning in practice means learning through what one does, through action. An overall aim of the Norwegian education pertains to both subject specific and all-around development (Bildung) of the human being. The project will study how and in what ways teachers’ teaching creates spaces for students’ participation (or not) towards their Bildung. 

Recent - Selected Publications

Hoveid, M. H. (2021). Sensing Feeling Alive: Attentiveness to Movements in/with Embodied Teaching. Studies in Philosophy and Education, 40(3), 303-315.

Hoveid, H. & Hoveid, M. H. (2019). Making Education Educational. A Reflexive Approach to Teaching. Springer Nature

Tahirsylaj, A. & Werler, T. C. (2021). In Search of Dimensions of Bildung: A Quantitative Approach. Nordic Studies in Education, 41(1), 1–23.

Werler, T.C., & Tahirsylaj, A. (2020). Differences in teacher education programmes and their outcomes across Didaktik and curriculum traditions. European Journal of Teacher Education.

Tahirsylaj, A., & Sundberg, D. (2020). The unfinished business of defining competences for 21st century curricula—a systematic research review. Curriculum Perspectives, 40(2), 131-145.