Primary fields of research

My primary fields of research are sociology of education and history of education.  I am interested in the significance and effect of welfare state progressivism and integrationism, e.g., progressive pedagogy in public schools in Denmark and welfare work with immigrants and refugees in public welfare provisions.

I engage in critical studies of classification and racialization processes in connection to development and transformation of educational ideas and practices, and related to international, global and scientific efforts.  A part of this concerns the possibility of decolonising Western European notions of what it means to be human and listen to refusal and critique within education.

Previously, I have observed and analysed the social practice of thematic work and project work in public schools in a social class perspective (1970s and 2000s), examined the cultural constructs of the child and human potential in progressive pedagogy in Denmark as part of an international and scientific enlightenment movement (1920s to 1950s), conducted a collective biography of 549 Danish progressive ‘school-pedagogues’ such as teachers, psychologists, artists, philosophers, etc. (1929-1960), studied the political and educational ideas of canons on culture, history and democracy and the role intellectuals play in this context (2000-2010), and conducted a sociological interview study of 48 welfare workers' ambigous work with immigrants and refugees.

Current research

At the moment, I am involved in a project funded by The Independent Research Council Denmark: Refugees' stories and stories about refugees: Crafting new narratives of the Danish welfare state (RESTORE), 2021-2025. The project seeks to construct new narratives of the Danish welfare state at the intersection of refugees' stories about the welfare state and political-administrative stories about refugees. This project is carried out in collaboration with post.doc. Tine Brøndum (2021-2023) and research assistent Emilie Mallung Blinkenberg (2024).

Also, I recently finished two projects and the results are communicated in two books: Racism in Danish welfare work with refugees: Troubled by difference, docility and dignity co-authored with Marta Padovan-Özdemir, and Configurations of Interdisciplinarity within Education: Danish Experiences in a Global Educational Space co-authored with Sofie Sauzet, Marie Larsen Ryberg og Katrine Lindvig.

I am currently Head of Section for Education, University of Copenhagen (2013-), Head of the research group The History and Sociology of Welfare Work (2014-) and was member of the research group Children, Media and Culture (2014-2019).

I am also chairman of the professional board of the Consortium for Education and professional welfare work; a collaboration between University College Copenhagen and Section of Education, Faculty of Humanities, University of Copenhagen (2015-), I was editor of the Danish educational journal Dansk pædagogisk Tidsskrift (DpT) (2003-2020), and member of the steering group for the research center for Advanced Migration Studies (AMIS) (2019-).

I have supervised and am currently supervising the following Ph.D.-theses:

Eva Bertelsen (co-supervisor): 'Curriculum' til fremtiden? Karakteristikker af "den nye gymnasieskole" gennem perspektiver på institution, nybyggeri og elevsubjektiviteter, Ørestad Gymnasium som case (graduated 2013)

Marta Padovan-Özdemir (principal supervisor): The Making of Educationally Manageable Immigrant Schoolchildren in Denmark, 1970–2013: A Critical Prism for Studying the Fabrication of a Danish Welfare Nation State (graduated 2016)

Katrine Lindvig (co-supervisor): Creating Interdisciplinarity within Monodisciplinary Structures (graduated 2017). Institut for Naturfagenes Didaktik, KU.

Sofie Rosengaard (principal supervisor): Pædagogik i en krisetid. [Daycare Education In A Time Of Crisis] (graduated 2018)

Marianne Brodersen (co-supervisor): Forstyrret og forstyrrende: Analyser af velfærdsarbejdets viden om elever, som skolen har vanskeligheder med. [Disturbed and disturbing: Analyses of welfare work knowledge about children that the school have difficulties with] (graduated 2019). Roskilde Universitet.

Lone Bæk Brønsted (principal supervisor): Til statens forsvar: Om SSP-medarbejderes kriminalitetsforebyggende og socialt disponerende arbejde [In defence of the state: On crime preventive welfare work and its social work] (graduated 2019)

Malene Kubstrup Nelausen (principal supervisor): Elevfællesskaber og inkluderede elevers mulighed for at blive til som elever og klassekammerater efter inklusionsloven (2016-2020)

Stine Saabye Bach (principal supervisor): Skolens eksistensbetingelser for elever med social angst [Conditions of existence for pupils who suffer from social anxiety] (graduated 2020)

Stine Thygesen (principal supervisor): Normaliseringspraktikker og anbragte børns skolegang: velfærdsarbejdets praksis og potentialer [Welfare work with children in care] (graduated 2020)

Lærke Vildlyng (principial supervisor): Hvad kan jeg blive? Et intersektionelt studie af skolens uddannelsesforberedende arbejde i to udsatte boligområder [What am I supposed to become? An intersectional study of educational guidance in two marginalised housing areas] (2021-2024)

Dorthea Bjerre Jepsen (principal supervisor): Sociale konsekvenser af trivselspædagogikkens følelsesøkonomi [Social effects of the affective economy of well-being pedagogies] (2023-2026)

Nynne Von der Fehr (principial supervisor): Når det kriminalpræventive skolearbejde omfatter elevernes forældre [When crime prevention include pupils' parents] (2023-2026)

Laura Lawaetz (principal supervisor): (2024-2027)

Teaching

I have taught and teach the following courses (or similar):

The History of Education (BA)

Sociology of Pedagogy and Sociology of Education (BA)

Educational Research and research methods in Education (BA)

The field of educational sciences (MA)

Analysis of educational issues (MA)

I supervise papers, MA-thesis and PhD-thesis within these areas

CV

Academic degrees:

PhD in Educational Science 2007, Section of Education, Department of Media, Cognition and Communication, University of Copenhagen.   

MA in Educational Science & Political Science 1997, Department of Philosophy, Education and Rhetoric, University of Copenhagen respectively the Department of Political Science, University of Aarhus.

Appointments and research projects and priorities:

2017: Visiting professor at Department of Sociology, University of Manitoba, Canada, Att. Professor Mara Fridell and Andrew Woolford, September-October (Erasmus+ mobility)

2017: Erasmus+ Credit Mobility funding from the EU in a partnership between Department of Sociology, University of Manitoba, and Department of Media, Cognition and Communication, University of Copenhagen 2017-2018

2016-: Chairman of the professional board (faggruppe) for the Consortium for Education and welfare professional work

2015: Visiting scholar at Department of Sociology, Geopolitical Economy Research Group, University of Manitoba, Canada, Att. Professor Andrew Woolford, September-October 

2014-: Head of the research priority area/research group The history and sociology of welfare work

2013-: Head of Section of Education and PhD-coordinator for Ph.d.-scholars at Section of Education

2012- : Associate Professor, Section of Education, Department of Media, Cognition and Communication, University of Copenhagen.

2011-2012: External lecturer, Section of Education, Department of Media, Cognition and Communication, University of Copenhagen, december 2011-juli 2012

2008-2011: Post-doctoral scholarship and Assistant Professor, Section of Education, Department of Media, Cognition and Communication, University of Copenhagen, granted means from The Danish Council for Independent Research, Section of Humanities, to carry out the project Configurations of the Future Between Plans and Canons. Cultural-Historical Assumptions About the Individual and the Future in Danish School Pedagogy 1945-2008, http://futureinschoolped.mef.ku.dk/

2010: Post-doctoral assistant, The Faculty of Humanities, University of Copenhagen, employed to generate a network and to develop a PhD Research Programme in Education and Migration studies at the University of Copenhagen, nationally and internationally, October-December.

2004-2007: Post-graduate scholarship and PhD student, Section of Education, Department of Media, Cognition and Communication, University of Copenhagen, November 2004 - June 2007, granted means from The Danish Council for Independent Research, Section of the Social Sciences to carry out the project Progressive pedagogy – inclusion and exclusion.

2006: Visiting scholar at the research group “Sociology of Education and Culture”, University of Uppsala, Att. Professor Donald Broady, September-November.

2005: Research assistant at the research programme “IMIO – Integration and Migration. A comparative and interdisciplinary study of integration and migration in the Oeresund region”, Att. Associate Professor Bolette Moldenhawer, February-March.

2003-2020: Editor of the Danish educational journal Dansk pædagogisk Tidsskrift (DpT)

2002-2004: Assistant lecturer in Educational Science and General Pedagogy, Department of Philosophy, Education and Rhetoric, University of Copenhagen.

1999-2002: External lecturer, Department of Pedagogy and Adult Education, University of Roskilde & Department of Philosophy, Education and Rhetoric, University of Copenhagen.

1999-2001: Manager of, planner and main teacher on preschool teachers’ in-service courses in ”Multicultural Education?”, The Preschool Teacher-training College of Social Pedagogy in Copenhagen.

1998-1999: Part-time Academic Consultant at the Resource Centre for Bilingualism and Interculturalism (uc2), University College of Copenhagen.