"False"
Skip to content
printicon
Main menu hidden.
Published: 2024-03-01 Updated: 2024-03-04, 11:33

Valuable meetings at Nordic pedagogical conference in Norway

NEWS In autumn 2023, Associate professor Gerd Pettersson went to Mo i Rana in Norway to participate at a conference on pedagogy and special education, as well as to meet research colleagues. The trip and participation were made possible with funds from the Arctic Centre.

Gerd Pettersson is an Associate professor at the Department of Education at Umeå University. Thanks to granted funds from the Arctic Centre at Umeå University, she and her colleague Monika Diehl were able to go to Mo i Rana in Norway to meet research colleagues from Finland and Norway at a planning conference. The conference was called “Gemensamma Vägar” (GV) and was organised by the Special Education and Pedagogical Research and Development Network (FoU)

Creative and innovative encounters led to excellent cooperations

– The planning conference was very pleasant and well planned by the Norwegian hosts, which laid good foundations for creative and innovative thought processes that were shaped and realised. After two days with a busy program, two fantastic tours at the National Library in Mo i Rana, and a visit to the newly built Science Centre, we returned home happy. The groundwork for continued good cooperation has been made, says Pettersson.

Many schools in sparsely populated areas are often threatened with having to close down, and this pressure from outside creates a deep engagement among villagers and parents

What did this trip mean to you as a researcher?

Pettersson shares that meeting with colleagues from Norway and Finland was good for future research collaborations. Among other things, they decided the theme for an upcoming joint application.

– One of my research areas is Rural Educational Environments and Schools, and this will also be the theme of a future joint application.

Rural schools are common in the Arctic

Pettersson describes that rural educational environments and schools are typical in Arctic areas in Sweden, Norway and Finland. These schools are characterized by geographically large areas and the consequences are long distances between the schools and long journeys for the school students.

– Many schools in sparsely populated areas are often threatened with having to close down, and this pressure from outside creates a deep engagement among villagers and parents. The school is seen as important for everyone, not least for Sami families who live and work in these sparsely populated areas.

Pettersson expresses that the encounters and exchanges at the conference led to collaborations that will be valuable for her continued research within education and rural schools in the Arctic.

About the conference

The Nordic special education conference Gemensamma Vägar is organised by the Special Education and Pedagogical Research and Development Network (FoU) and intends to discuss special education issues for different target groups.

In 2022, the conference was held in Umeå, and in 2023, there was a planning conference in Mo i Rana, Norway. It had several intentions which were to:

– present and discuss joint research and development areas and agree on a joint FoU area where we can jointly draft an application.

– draft a new proposal for a collaboration agreement between Nord University, Åbo Akademi in Vasa and Umeå University.

– identify how our collaboration can be developed and where FoU funds can be found.

– plan for next year's conference which will be hosted be Nord University.

See previous conferences here (in Swedish)

Gerd Pettersson
Other position
E-mail
Email