Steering committee

Hege Knudsmoen – Coordinator
Faculty of Education and International studies, Oslo Metropolitan University

Hege is an associate professor in education and academic international coordinator at the Department of primary and secondary teacher education at OsloMet. Her research is primarily in the field of adapted, inclusive and special education. She has now a special focus upon international perspectives, such as internship as practicum and study exchange abroad. Recently, as internationalization at home by virtual mobility, implementing collaborative online international learning (COIL) with partners in the Global South.

Kaisa Pihlainen
School of Educational Sciences and Psychology, University of Eastern Finland.

Kaisa is a post-doctoral researcher. She studies topics concerning special education, early childhood education, older adults´ learning and educational technology. Currently she does research in the following projects: ACCESS – Supporting digital literacy and appropriation of ICT by older people. (EU / Academy of Finland). Peer Interactions involving Children with Autism Spectrum disorder in inclusive classrooms (PEICAS) (Academy of Finland). Expanding learning environments and support in early childhood education (LaTVa) (European Regional Development Fund). She also develops research tools for the use of various user groups, including older adults and people with disabilities.

Getahun Yacob Abraham 
Faculty of Librarianship, Information, Education and IT, University of Borås

Getahun is a associate professor at the University of Borås, Faculty of Librarianship, Information, Education and IT. His research focuses on democracy linked to education. It also covers interculturality, social justice, migration and other societal issues with close links to education at different levels. He use different perspectives such as critical pedagogy, postcolonialism, poststructuralism and Indigenous Knowledge System. His teaching includes research methods, theory of science and learning theories. Human rights, children’s rights and fundamental human values ​​were included in my teaching.

Ann Sylvi Larsen
Department of Teacher Education, NTNU Norway

Ann Sylvi is professor in Norwegian didactics at the Department of Teacher Education at NTNU. Her field of expertise is children’s literature and children’s narratives, and she has published a number of articles, books and book contributions on these topics. Larsen was co- editor for the new Norwegian publication about practicum in the Global South (Klein, Bergesen & Larsen, 2022)

Ariana Mihalik Ward Jespersen
Department of Education, University College Northern Denmark (UCN)

Ariana is assistant lecturer and international coordinator at the Department of Education for primary and secondary education at UCN in Aalborg, Denmark. Ariana teachers English with a special focus on creative writing and intercultural competence. She has varied research interests that currently include topics on student well-being, the influence of AI on writing and reading in primary education, and the impact of internationalization of education via virtual exchange.