Carina Hjelmér teaches students in pre-school didactics and pedagogy. As a teacher, she places importance on allowing students to be active, reflect and discuss with their classmates.
Carina Hjelmér teaches students in pre-school didactics and pedagogy
ImageMattias PetterssonImmediately after upper-secondary school, Carina Hjelmér studied to become a pre-school teacher at the teacher education, and later also studied to become a special needs teacher. Since 2000, Carina has worked with teacher training as a lecturer at Umeå University, but since 2013 she is an associate professor.
Carina teaches pre-school didactics and pedagogy, as well as some special needs education. She is particularly interested in values issues, such as democracy and gender equality, but also documentation, analysis and organisational development.
Carina finds being a teacher both interesting and stimulating. As a docent of pedagogical work, she combines teaching with research and explains that this combination is very rewarding.
What is the best part of teaching?
“That I get to work with teaching and how people learn. As a teacher, you get to develop across a lifetime, and you work to make a difference in other people's lives," says Carina.
The advantage of teaching while researching the same subject, Carina explains, is that research feeds the teaching, while the teaching feeds the research.
"On the one hand, I teach students what I have researched and learned, which permits deepening, problematizing and exemplifying the course content. On the other hand, I hear students' responses, what they find important and what they encounter during the work placement of the programme, which indicates future research subjects,” says Carina.
Carina deeply enjoys being a teacher at Umeå University. She appreciates the positive atmosphere among her team and in her department. The climate is permissive, and everyone is ready to lend a helping hand.
“That all of us seek to improve the programmes together is both fun and educational," says Carina.
In her teaching, Carina tries to combine theoretical presentations with applications to concrete examples from practice, based on the intended outcomes of the course. So lectures often contain a theoretical presentation that is concretised and problematised with examples from practical research. This enables students to reflect and discuss amongst themselves.
"It’s important that students are active in different ways in instruction, so that the teaching feels meaningful and varied," says Carina.
What advice would you give to someone considering starting university?
"Go with the flow, and just enjoy the opportunity to develop and learn!”