Honorary Doctors
Honorary doctors at the Faculty of Education.
2021: Kirsti Klette
Kirsti Klette is a professor at the Department of Teacher Education and School Research at the University of Oslo. Her research has, among other things, focused on how education reforms are implemented at classroom level, how teaching changes over time and the correlation between teaching practices and student outcomes.. In recent years, Klette has especially worked with video documentation from the classroom and she has led for several major national and international research projects. Klette is also the leader of the Nordic Center of Excellence: Quality in Nordic Teaching (QUINT) – a new initiative for comparative Nordic classroom research.
Kirsti Klette has collaborated for a long time with the Faculty of Education in research projects, seminars, books and in developing teacher education. She also teaches at the doctoral program and at research schools at the University of Gothenburg.
Read an interview with Kirsti Klette here.
2020: Arjen Wals and Peter Grootenboer
Professor Arjen Wals of Wageningen University, The Netherlands, is prominent in the research field Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). He is also the UNESCO Chair for Social Learning for Sustainability and has been instrumental in establishing Learning for Sustainable Development as a research community and enhancing its profile at the Faculty of Education.
Arjen Wals was a visiting professor at the Faculty of Education from 2012–2018. During that time, he helped develop and consolidate ESD as a research and teaching area. For example, he contributed to the creation of an undergraduate course and an international masters in ESD, as well as to several doctoral projects, and to the research team becoming involved in a number of international networks within the field.
During his time at the University of Gothenburg, Arjen Wals, whose own research is largely interdisciplinary, has also been instrumental in initiating cross-faculty collaborations, not least through the development of the Gothenburg Centre for Sustainable Development (GMV). The team participated in organising the World Environmental Education Congress in 2015, for which Arjen Wals and Ingrid Pramling Samuelsson were the hosts.
Professor Peter Grootenboer, Griffith University, Australia, is prominent in the field of practice theory and action research. He has led several minor and major research projects that have improved teaching in schools, and which have increased our understanding of teaching practices.
For more than 15 years, Peter Grootenboer has collaborated with researchers and doctoral students at the Faculty of Education via the international network Pedagogy, Education, Praxis (PEP). He established the research team, Educational Praxis, Practice Theory, and Action Research (EPPTAR) at Griffith University. It is an important part of the international network and has published many scientific articles in collaboration with researchers from the University of Gothenburg.
Over the years, Grootenboer has also visited the Faculty of Education several times and organized seminars and supervised doctoral students.
2019: Alfredo J. Artiles
Professor Alfredo J. Artiles, Arizona State University, USA, together with colleagues from the University of Gothenburg, is a member of an international consortium focusing on inclusive special education. Through Professor Artiles, researchers at the Department of Education and Special Education have, among other things, been invited to book projects and to conferences.
The researchers in the research community, PRIS – Platform for Research in Inclusive education and School development, at the aforementioned institution are hoping to continue their collaboration with Alfredo J. Artiles. PRIS’s remit is to create a research platform with a high research profile that examines issues of inclusion and exclusion of children and adults in education, policies and practice. An important task is to combine the field of school development with inclusive education, with a stated goal of equality and social integration for all.
His many accolades include being appointed a member of the President’s Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanics by President Obama. He is also a member of the National Academy of Education.
Alfredo J. Artiles was a visiting professor at the Department of Education and Special Education from 2012–2014.
2018: Sten Ludvigsen
For the past 20 years, Professor Sten Ludvigsen, University of Oslo, has conducted a large number of projects dealing with how digital tools change the conditions for learning and classroom activities for pupils and teachers. Among other things, he has worked on how different learning resources and learning platforms can support the development of scientific thinking and the scientific method among pupils at different stages. These studies have both a practical and a theoretical relevance.
Throughout his career, Sten Ludvigsen has collaborated with the University of Gothenburg. He has been a member of the management team of The Linnaeus Centre for Research on Learning, Interaction, and Mediated Communication in Contemporary Society (LinCS) and has continuously participated in the centre's course activities, seminars and projects and has contributed to the scientific output. He followed the establishment of LETStudion and has served as an excellent interlocutor and advisor in its interdisciplinary collaborations. Sten Ludvigsen and his research team are also very active in collaborating with courses within the faculty's doctoral programmes. He has an extensive international network and has constantly strived to include both researchers and doctoral students at the University of Gothenburg in a variety of activities.
Among his many accolades, Sten Ludvigsen is also the editor-in-chief of the highly influential journal The International Journal of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning and is a member of the editorial boards for several other journals.
2017: Päivi Palojoki and Nikolay Veraksa
Professor Päivi Palojoki, University of Helsinki, has been interested in pedagogy and learning, diversity and equality in relation to schools and learning, as well as didactics and tools for learning about food, health and sustainable development. For a period in the early 2000s, Professor Palojoki was a guest researcher at the Department of Food and Nutrition and Sport Science, IKI. Over the years, the collaboration between her and several members of staff at IKI has continued in many ways.
On a number of occasions, Professor Palojoki has contributed to IKI with her knowledge as an external reviewer, expert and expert supervisor. In collaboration with other Finnish researchers and staff at IKI, she also participated in organizing a Nordic doctoral conference on promoting healthy eating habits. Furthermore, she has been involved as an expert with the research school that unites the four Swedish universities educating prospective teachers in the school subject home economics and consumer knowledge, Uppsala, Umeå, Kristianstad and Gothenburg.
Professor Nikolay Veraksa, Moscow City University and the Russian Academy of Education, initiated the now long-standing collaboration with a number of people in the Early Childhood Education (ECE) research team at the Department of Education, Communication and Learning, IPKL. The long-standing and mutual participation in workshops and conferences in Gothenburg and Moscow has strengthened the collaboration, which today includes several employees at the Faculty of Education.
An ongoing research project on quality assessments in pre-schools, with comparative studies mainly between Russia and Sweden, and where more Nordic countries are currently participating, contributes to a long-term approach in the collaboration. Collaboration agreements have also been signed with the Faculty of Education and the Moscow City Teacher's Training University and the Faculty of Psychology at Lomonosov Moscow State University. This is to increase the opportunities for internationalization and to advance the ongoing research collaboration and networking.
2016: Anne-Nelly Perret-Clermont
Anne-Nelly Perret-Clermont, Professor at the Université de Neuchâtel, Switzerland, has maintained close contact with researchers and doctoral students at the University of Gothenburg by inviting them to join her as partners in her research in Neuchâtel. Among other things, she has organized seminars and symposia where researchers from Gothenburg participated, and she has also visited the University of Gothenburg where she has held seminars.
Anne-Nelly Perret-Clermont has published extensively in the field of educational psychology where she has investigated issues such as IT and learning, collaboration and IT, social representations, argumentation and socio-materiality.
2015: Kathy Sylva and Milbrey Wallin McLaughlin
Kathy Sylva, Professor at the University of Oxford, England is one of Europe's foremost researchers in educational psychology where she has contributed much new and in-depth knowledge to the field of child and preschool pedagogical research.
For almost 20 years, a number of members of the early childhood education research team at the Faculty of Education have collaborated extensively with Kathy Sylva, partly during her work at Warwick University, London University, and also during her last ten years at the University of Oxford, where she is a Professional Fellow.
Among other things Professor Sylva has been the head of one of England's largest research projects, Effective Provision in Preschool Education (EPPE), a longitudinal study focusing on children's learning in different preschool environments. It is one of Europe's most discussed studies, as it shows that children not only learn in preschool, but that they also learn how to learn, which is beneficial later throughout school.
Milbrey Wallin McLaughlin, Professor at Stanford University, USA, is a leading researcher in the field of education and policy. She leads a number of major research programmes that deal with educational reform, evaluation and innovation, teacher learning, youth and youth organisations, as well as language and socialization studies.
Professor McLaughlin is involved in research collaboration, lecturing and supervision at the faculty. Her publications have been used in master's and doctoral courses, for example in curriculum theory and in professionalism and professionalization. Professor McLaughlin has been a frequent visitor to Gothenburg since 2008. She was appointed guest researcher at the University of Gothenburg and in connection with this role, she has visited the faculty for extended periods from 2011–2012. She has authored more than 30 books and monographs and more than 80 articles in scientific journals.
2014: Stefan Hopmann and Sheila Riddel
Stefan Hopmann, Professor at the Institut für Bildungswissenschaft in Vienna, has, among other things, initiated a Nordic network, NORDID, which has given rise to Nordic seminars over the past eight years, joint Nordic doctoral courses and an anthology that discusses Nordic subject didactics and general didactics. His research is of great importance to the development of research in general didactics, as well as the focus of certain courses in teacher education and doctoral education.
His support for the field of knowledge and the recently launched journal, NoAD, Nordisk tidskrift för allmän didaktik (Nordic journal of general didactics) is invaluable. The new journal is headquartered at the University of Gothenburg.
Sheila Riddel, Professor at the University of Edinburgh, has contributed greatly to the development of research and collaboration in the area of inclusion and special education at the Faculty of Education. This has resulted in the research platform, PRIS (Platform for Research on Inclusion and School development), which conducts research within the field of inclusive education and school development.
Furthermore, it has resulted in international symposia and several joint publications.
2013: Timothy Koschmann
Timothy Koschmann, Professor at the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, USA, is a prominent researcher in the field of “computer-assisted learning”, how technology can support collaborative learning, and he is also an international advisor in one of the Faculty of Education's strongest research environments.
With his background in educational science, philosophy and informatics, he has introduced new ways of studying learning and cognition. He is a world leader in his field and in recent years, he has had been in continuous contact with the staff at the Faculty of Education.
For many years, Professor Koschmann has studied learning and education in medical contexts. Several of his studies have the potential to become future classics. A recurring theme is how learning takes place outside traditional teaching, and how technology can support learning and problem solving in different ways.
These studies have served as an important point of departure for the collaborations that the Faculty of Education has had with the Sahlgrenska Academy within the scope of the key area of learning.
2012: Ann Farrell
Ann Farrell, Professor at Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in Brisbane, Australia, is a prominent researcher in the field of Early Childhood Education and has a long-standing research partnership with colleagues at the University of Gothenburg.
She has been a driving force throughout the 20 years of collaboration. This has involved the exchange of researchers and doctoral students, joint applications and ongoing projects. One result of the partnership is joint scientific publications of monographs and articles.
Ann Farrell is internationally recognized and one of Australia's most successful and respected child researchers.
2011: No honorary doctor was appointed.
2010: John Siraj-Blatchford and Alan Dyson
John Siraj-Blatchford, Professor at Swansea University, has collaborated in various ways with researchers at the Faculty of Education over the course of ten years, and in many ways contributed to the development of the faculty. He has also often participated in workshops at the faculty and has held lectures at colleges, for doctoral students and master's students The collaboration has mainly been achieved through joint work in three different EU projects where young children and technology have been a common theme.
John Siraj-Blatchford is one of Europe's leading academics in this particular field, a field that has been neglected in both Sweden and the world in general.
In 2010, he led a project on Learning for Sustainable Development and Young Children, funded by the Gothenburg Centre for Sustainable Development in collaboration with the child and youth research team at the faculty.
Alan Dyson, Professor Alan Dyson from the University of Manchester, is a highly qualified and internationally recognized researcher who has both developed and revitalized the field of special education research. Among other things, he coordinated the creation of Open File on Inclusive Education in 2001 for UNESCO.
Alan Dyson has been a visiting professor at the Department of Education and Didactics, the Unit for Special Education, in the academic year 2009/2010. He has thus greatly contributed to the development and internationalization of the special education research and education environment at the faculty.
A collaboration between Manchester University and the University of Gothenburg is now being established.
2009: Stephen Kemmis
Stephen Kemmis, Professor at the School of Education at Charles Sturt University, CSU, Australia, leads a research team at the research institute RIPPLE (Research in Professional Practice, Learning and Education). The research team works on issues that focus on both teacher training and skills development for teachers.
Stephen Kemmis visited the University of Gothenburg and the research environment, Skolutveckling (School Development at the then Department of Education and Didactics, IPD, for the first time in 2005. At that time, an international research project Pedagogy, Education and Praxis, involving the Nordic countries, the Netherlands and England, was being devised. The project, which was led by Stephen Kemmis, has been very successful and four volumes were published in 2008.
A collaboration agreement between CSU and the University of Gothenburg has been signed.
For the research community Skolutveckling (School Development), the relationship with Stephen Kemmis and his research team has been of central importance. Understanding the concept of praxis and leadership has been and is important for the research community's work with its focus on schools and action research.
2008: Erno Lehtinen
Erno Lehtinen, Professor at the University of Turku, researches learning and technology development, and he has an interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary focus that is unusual in its theoretical and methodological breadth. His more recent research includes studies of biological correlates of the early development of children's numerosity, that is, perception of speech. In this research, he problematizes the relationships between biological indicators and understanding.
Erno Lehtinen has also devoted himself to research on the role of information technology in schools, and the consequences for learning and student knowledge.
The collaboration with the University of Gothenburg has extended over several decades and includes an increasingly extensive collaboration within research and doctoral programmes, primarily with the LinCS research community at the faculty.
2007: Lauren B. Resnick
Lauren B. Resnick, Professor at the University of Pittsburgh, is a leading international researcher in the field of cognition research with a focus on learning. She has been the director of the prestigious Learning Research and Development Center at the University of Pittsburgh since 1977. In 1995, she founded the Institute for Learning, which she still heads.
Lauren B. Resnick was the initiator of the New Standards Project (1990–1999), which had a tremendous influence on school development and the assessment of knowledge. In 2002, she founded the journal Research Points, whose target readership is policy makers within education. She has authored more than 150 books, articles and other works.
Her contact with the University of Gothenburg began back in the 1970s and she has collaborated with several generations of researchers.
2000-2006
2006
GÖRAN EMANUELSSON, University of Gothenburg
IVAR GOODSON, University of Brighton
2005
SOLWEIG EKLUND, the Swedish Teachers’ Union
2004
JÜRGEN TEICHMANN, München
2003
KJELL JOHANSSON, the City of Gothenburg
2002
BODIL JÖNSSON, University of Lund
2001
STEINAR KVALE, University of Århus
PERTTI KANSANEN, University of Helsinki
2000
LILIAN KATZ, University of Illinois