Faculty of Education and International Studies, Department of Primary and Secondary Teacher Education

Oslo Metropolitan University is Norway's third largest university with almost 22,000 students and over 2,500 employees. We have campuses in central Oslo and at Romerike. OsloMet educates students and conducts research that contributes to the sustainability of the Norwegian welfare state and the metropolitan region.

The Faculty of Education and International Studies (LUI) has approximately 550 employees and 7000 students and is located in Oslo and Akershus. The Faculty is comprised of four departments as well as the National Centre of Multicultural Education (NAFO). The Faculty educates tomorrow’s teachers from kindergarten through upper secondary school, in close cooperation with the field of practical training. The Faculty offers a PhD in Education. In addition, the Faculty offers development studies and studies in sign language and interpreting. Diversity is a core value for the Faculty and its activities. The Faculty’s research and development focuses on practical training and is both profession-oriented and internationally oriented.

The Department of Primary and Secondary Teacher Education (GFU) has strong research communities within the field of school subjects, educational science, and digital competence, and educates teachers for the Norwegian school system in close cooperation with the field of practical training. The Department offers studies on bachelor and master level, and contributes to the general development of skills for school employees through continuing and further education.

PhD Fellowship in Literacies for Health and Life Skills in Teacher Education and Schools 

The Faculty of Education and International Studies announces two PhD fellowships within the project Literacies for Health and Life Skills funded by the Norwegian Research Council. The positions are linked to one of the work packages in the project: 1) Critical multimodal literacies for public health and life skills, and 2) Public health and life skills’ impact on pupils’ health and well-being. The positions will be based at the Department of Primary and Secondary Teacher Education. The fellowships are a 3-year full-time position. The academic work is to result in a doctoral thesis that will be defended at the Faculty to obtain the degree PhD. 

Applicants are required to develop a research proposal that will be submitted together with their application. The proposal must be linked to one of the two work package areas. More information and the proposal template are found here. 

Interested applicants should contact the project coordinator: Professor Kristin Walseth, E-mail kriwa@oslomet.no, Phone: 67237301. For information and advice on how to develop a research proposal, the Faculty of Education and International Studies is organising a research proposal seminar 11. February 2020, 14.00-15.30 pm to be held at Pilestredet 42, room Q6031. Those interested in attending this seminar should register via the following link; seminar. The deadline for registration is Thursday, 6. February 2020.

 More details about the two work package areas are found below:

  • Critical multimodal literacies for public health and life skills: This part of the project aims to examine to what degree and how pre-service teachers learn to teach critical multimodal literacy through a new didactic approach in the subject of Norwegian language arts. The project is based on action research and will occur on campus. The project will focus on how critical literacy can be developed with visual methods and the examination of multimodal texts. The pre-service teachers will study different multimodal texts from social media (i.e., Instagram, blogs, and YouTube) and develop didactic tools that can examine these multimodal texts critically with reference to gender, body ideals, and health. The project will use solicited journals to document pre-service teachers ongoing experiences, and video data to enable systematic analyses of the instruction. The objective is to identify what aspects of teachers’ training affect their ability to teach critical multimodal literacy.
  • Public health and life skills’ impact on pupils’ health and well-being: This part of the project aims to examine how the new didactic approach presented in the “Literacies for Health and Life Skills” study affects the pupils’ health and life skills. As pupils’ health and life skills are a new theme in the national curriculum, this project addresses how to develop effective indicators to detail the students' health and life skills in addition to their attitudes and motivation. The project will be conducted through a mixed-method approach. The qualitative approach builds on data from life-mode interviews, focusing on the pupils’ experience of health and life skills in a school context. The quantitative approach includes a quasi-experiment with test and control groups. The initial step (study 1) is to analyse the interviews from pupils in lower secondary school about how they perceive health and life skills. Second, building on the answers from study 1, we will adapt and validate questions about pupils’ health and life skills to the national curriculum for eighth to 10th grades using a sample of 500 pupils from lower secondary school (study 2). The third step will be to conduct a quasi-experiment with test and control groups. As the test group, we will use pupils from the schools where the 30 pre-service teachers have their practicums. The control group will be selected from schools that are comparable with the test schools in terms of national test scores and Statistics Norway’s ‘school contribution indicator’ (‘skolebidragsindikator’). The pupils in both the test and control groups will take a pretest, a posttest, and a post-posttest using the instruments that have been adapted and validated in an earlier stage of the project. 

Read about the Department of Primary and Secondary Teacher Education here and the Research group Body, Learning and Diversity. 

Qualifications and terms

  •  Completed master’s degree (equivalent to 120 credits) with a grade B or better and with a background in teacher education, other educational sciences or other relevant education at a similar level.
  • Admission to the PhD programme in Educational Sciences for Teacher Education is a prerequisite.
  • A final project plan for the fellowship period is required completed and acknowledged within three months after accession.
  • Good written and oral commination abilities in a Scandinavian language and English.

When assessing and ranking the qualified applicants emphasis will be placed on

  • The scientific quality of the project description, including originality and potential
  • The project's feasibility within the standard period (three years)
  • The relevance of the project description to the overall project to which the PhD proposal is linked (cf. the overview above)
  • Attached scientific work
  • Other relevant publications
  • Experience from previous research activities and project participation
  • Experience from teaching at the college or university level can count positively
  • Personal characteristics 

Desired qualifications

  • Motivation and potential for research in the field of research
  • Personal qualities that, among other things, show the ability to complete tasks
  • Ability to work independently and in collaboration with other researchers, as well as being innovative and creative
  • Ability to work systematically
  • Capacity to work under pressure 

It is important to OsloMet to reflect the population of our region, and all qualified candidates are welcome to apply. We make active endeavours to develop OsloMet as an inclusive workplace and to adapt the workplace if required. You are also welcome to apply for a position with us if you have experienced periods where you have not been in work, education or training. 

We can offer you

  • An exciting job opportunity at Norway’s third largest university
  • Participation in an established doctoral program and a research group where the project is located.
  • Beneficial pension arrangements with the Norwegian State Pension Fund
  • Good employee welfare arrangements
  • Working location in downtown Oslo with multiple cultural offers 

Other information

If you would like more information about the position, feel free to contact:

  • Professor and Head of Studies, Ingeborg Krange, telephone 67237071, email ingeborg.krange@oslomet.no
  • Professor, PhD- and project coordinator, Kristin Walseth, telephone 67237301, email kriwa@oslomet.no 

The salary for the position is in accordance with the pay scale for Norwegian state employees, PhD and position code 1017. State salary wage scale 54, 479 600 NOK per year.   

If you wish to apply for the position, please apply electronically by clicking the button at the bottom of the page. 

Expert evaluation

An expert committee will assess applicants. You must upload the following documents together with your application by the final date for applications:

  • CV, references and all pages of certificates/diplomas. The certificates/diplomas must include ECTS grades (A–F). Foreign diplomas must be translated into English by the degree-conferring institution. Education taken abroad should preferably be recognised in advance by NOKUT, and a confirmed copy of the letter of recognition should be enclosed.
  • Project description: maximum of 10 pages. The project description must be written in English or a Scandinavian language.
  • Your master's degree/second degree thesis (and any other scholarly work that you wish the expert committee to take into consideration) and a list of your publications, if relevant

You must upload all of these documents. Original documents must be presented if you are invited for an interview. OsloMet performs document inspections in order to give you as a candidate a proper evaluation and ensure fair competition. 

If you have documents that cannot be uploaded electronically, please contact:
Email: hbakkeli@oslomet.no  

Please note that incomplete applications will not be considered. The application must state your reasons for applying to the project and what makes you particularly qualified to carry out this PhD work.

Type of employment FELLOW
Contract type Full time
First day of employment 1. September 2020
Salary NOK 479 600,- per år.
Number of positions 1
Full-time equivalent 100%
City Oslo
County Oslo
Country Norway
Reference number 20/00999
Published 22.Jan.2020
Last application date 08.Mar.2020 11:59 PM CET

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