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Kjersti Løken Ødegaard

Assistant Professor

Email: kjersti.odegaard@inn.no
Phone number: +47 61 28 83 75
Mobile number: +47 92 80 81 63

Faculty of education
Centre for Lifelong Learning - LUP
Campus Lillehammer

Short description

I have a background as a teacher and school leader in upper secondary and lower secondary education and defended my Ph.D. in Educational Leadership at the University of Oslo in the spring of 2025. In my doctoral project, I researched the Change Laboratory as a method in partnerships between researchers and upper secondary school leadership teams.

Currently, I work as a process facilitator in partnership with schools, local education authorities, and educational-psychological services (PPT) within the national parntership arrangements, Decentralised Competence Development and The Competence Boost. Together with skilled colleagues, I collaborate with school professionals both locally at schools and in networks across institutions.

My academic interests are particularly focused on partnerships, educational leadership, school development and school-based mentoring, organisational learning, competence development, and reform work. I am especially interested in how data that mirror school practices can uncover tensions that serve as triggers for development work. Furthermore, I am concerned with the tools used in schools and what these tools convey or mediate. In my research, cultural-historical activity theory has been an important lens for studying practice.

Ødegaard, Kjersti Løken (2025). "It has to do with timing and context”: Theoretical models as tools in formative interventions in research-practice partnerships. Journal of educational change. ISSN 1389-2843. 26(2), p. 317–342. doi: 10.1007/s10833-025-09525-4. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
Partnerships between researchers and educators have become a common mode of working to support processes of school improvement. However, research on the processes and outcomes of long-term partnerships remains marginal. This paper increases our knowledge about the processes and experiences involved when researcher–interventionists introduce theoretical models as tools to facilitate reflection and change in long-term partnerships with upper secondary school leadership teams when working on specific challenges and dilemmas. Through an analysis of 41 hours of video data from Change Laboratories and 11 interviews with three upper secondary leadership teams in Norway, the paper examines what unfolds in such research-practice partnerships. The analysis is informed by cultural historical activity theory, with a focus on tools and mediation. The findings suggest that the introduction of theoretical models mediated the sharing of information and alignment of opinions and experiences, identifying issues and altering work procedures, but the participants found it challenging to utilise theoretical models perceived as more general and conceptual compared to those they regarded as organisation-specific and directly applicable. The paper argues that theoretical models may function as bridges to development by clarifying the object and stimulating change in research-practice partnerships, but to do so, researchers need to align the presentations of such models to context and timing.
Gunnulfsen, Ann Elisabeth & Ødegaard, Kjersti Løken (2024). Styringsforventninger til partnerskap. In Jensen, Ruth & Abrahamsen, Hedvig Neerland (Ed.), Ledelsesverksteder - arena for utforsking av utviklingsarbeid i skolen. Universitetsforlaget. ISSN 9788215071558. p. 63–74. Full text in Research Archive
Ødegaard, Kjersti Løken (2024). Facilitating and following school leaders’ work on reframing the teachers’ activity across time: tracing the objects of a formative intervention. International Journal of Leadership in Education. ISSN 1360-3124. doi: 10.1080/13603124.2024.2387546. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
This article examines a formative intervention conducted as a series of workshops in partnerships between school leadership teams and researcher-interventionists. The intervention focused on leading reform work in upper secondary schools. This paper contributes to increased knowledge about the processes involved in the development of a joint and durable purpose of collective activity (object) over time. Qualitative content and interaction analyses were employed on video data involving the leadership teams of three upper secondary schools and a team of university researcher-interventionists. The researcher-interventionists applied specific tools to trigger processes of development in the schools. The empirical context is the current curriculum reform in Norway. The study is anchored in cultural historical activity theory. Zooming in on one school leadership team, I have traced the object over two years showing how the initially abstract object expanded during the intervention, and how the leadership team developed transformative agency by double stimulation in the workshops when planning and reporting on reframing the teachers’ work activity. I argue that studying object-oriented processes over time is necessary for capturing the slow but observable transformation of a local activity system through double stimulation.
Ødegaard, Kjersti Løken & Gunnulfsen, Ann Elisabeth (2023). Policy pressure on partnerships: intentions, expectations and legitimisation of Norwegian educational reform policy. Journal of Educational Administration & History. ISSN 0022-0620. p. 1–21. doi: 10.1080/00220620.2023.2236962. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
Internationally, the emphasis on school reforms is increasing, and school leaders play a key role in realising reform initiatives for school development and change. Often, the formation of partnerships between researchers and practitioners for school improvement is promoted to facilitate professional development and enhance student learning. However, limited attention has been directed towards the underlying ideas, values and beliefs in government-initiated strategies for partnership in the policy context of educational reform. This paper examines how partnerships between schools and higher education institutions are conceptualised and legitimised in Norwegian reform policy documents. We analyse three government white papers, each coupled with an executive partnership strategy document. The analysis applies a discourse analytical approach to policy as text and transmission. Our findings show a shift in the official national discourse on partnerships in education, underscoring new tensions regarding the power to define focus areas in the local reform work.

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Jensen, Ruth; Abrahamsen, Hedvig Neerland; Gunnulfsen, Ann Elisabeth; Helstad, Kristin & Ødegaard, Kjersti Løken (2024). Forord. In Jensen, Ruth & Abrahamsen, Hedvig Neerland (Ed.), Ledelsesverksteder - arena for utforsking av utviklingsarbeid i skolen. Universitetsforlaget. ISSN 9788215071558. p. 11–12. Full text in Research Archive
Gunnulfsen, Ann Elisabeth; Abrahamsen, Hedvig Neerland; Helstad, Kristin; Jensen, Ruth & Ødegaard, Kjersti Løken (2024). The potentials and challenges of Change Lead as an arena and method for expansive learning in school leadership teams. Full text in Research Archive
Jensen, Ruth; Gunnulfsen, Ann Elisabeth; Abrahamsen, Hedvig Neerland; Ødegaard, Kjersti Løken & Helstad, Kristin (2023). Leading Reform work with Change Laboratories in Upper Secondary Schools - an Innovational Approach. Full text in Research Archive
Jensen, Ruth; Ødegaard, Kjersti Løken; Gunnulfsen, Ann Elisabeth; Abrahamsen, Hedvig Neerland & Helstad, Kristin (2023). School Leadership Development as School University Partnership – Tracing Relationships Across Episodes. Full text in Research Archive
Ødegaard, Kjersti Løken & Jensen, Ruth (2022). Formative interventions as a tool in leading reform work in upper secondary schools. A design and situational approach. Full text in Research Archive
Ødegaard, Kjersti Løken & Gunnulfsen, Ann Elisabeth (2022). Policy Demands on School Reform and Research-Practice Partnerships. Ideas and expectations in Norwegian policy documents. Full text in Research Archive
Ødegaard, Kjersti Løken & Jensen, Ruth (2022). Developing School Leadership Practices. The Change Laboratory as a Tool in Leading Reform Work in Upper Secondary Schools – Tracing the Objects in Formative Interventions. Full text in Research Archive
Ødegaard, Kjersti Løken & Gunnulfsen, Ann Elisabeth (2022). Research-Practice Partnerships as Policy in School Reform Work. Intentions, Expectations and Legitimisation in Norwegian Reform Policy Documents. Full text in Research Archive
Ødegaard, Kjersti Løken & Jensen, Ruth (2021). Formative Interventions in Leadership Teams in Upper Secondary Schools. Full text in Research Archive
Jensen, Ruth; Gunnulfsen, Ann Elisabeth; Abrahamsen, Hedvig Neerland; Helstad, Kristin & Ødegaard, Kjersti Løken (2021). Leading Reform Work in Upper Secondary Schools- Change Laboratories as Method (ChangeLead). Full text in Research Archive
Jensen, Ruth; Gunnulfsen, Ann Elisabeth; Abrahamsen, Hedvig Neerland; Helstad, Kristin & Ødegaard, Kjersti Løken (2021). Formative Interventions in School Leadership Teams in Upper Secondary Schools. Full text in Research Archive
Ødegaard, Kjersti Løken (2021). Tverrfaglig samarbeid på vgs - del 1 av 2. [Internet]. SELL-podden. Full text in Research Archive
Ødegaard, Kjersti Løken (2021). Profesjonsfellesskap på Nesbru vgs. [Internet]. SELL-podden. Full text in Research Archive
Ødegaard, Kjersti Løken (2021). Tverrfaglig samarbeid på vgs - del 2. [Internet]. SELL-podden. Full text in Research Archive
Laski, Alona Krieken; Blichfeldt, Kathinka & Ødegaard, Kjersti Løken (2020). Partnerskap i lokal skoleutvikling. Full text in Research Archive
Ødegaard, Kjersti Løken (2020). Inkluderende miljø fra første skoledag. [Internet]. SELL-podden. Full text in Research Archive
Ødegaard, Kjersti Løken (2020). LK20 i et PPT-perspektiv. [Internet]. SELL-podden. Full text in Research Archive
Ødegaard, Kjersti Løken (2020). Årets navneprofet. [Internet]. SELL-podden. Full text in Research Archive
Andersen, Tove; Grimsbø, Erik; Røhne, Hulda Marie Orskaug & Ødegaard, Kjersti Løken (2017). Læreplanverket: Når delene blir viktigere enn helheten. 29(3), p. 80–83. Full text in Research Archive
Andersen, Tove; Grimsbø, Erik; Røhne, Hulda Marie Orskaug & Ødegaard, Kjersti Løken (2017). Læreplanverket: Når delene blir viktigere enn helheten. 29(3), p. 80–83. Full text in Research Archive
Ødegaard, Kjersti Løken (2016). Rosicrucianism in the Contemporary Period in Norway, Western Esotericism in Scandinavia. De Gruyter Brill. ISSN 9789004302419. p. 453–462. doi: 10.1163/9789004325968_002. Full text in Research Archive
Ødegaard, Kjersti Løken (2008). Ny formålsparagraf, nytt fokus i etikk- og moralopplæringen? Religion og livssyn : Tidsskrift for religionslærerforeningen i Norge. ISSN 0802-8214. 1(1). Full text in Research Archive
Ødegaard, Kjersti Løken (2008). Skills in mathematics as a basic skill in English. Språk og språkundervisning. ISSN 0038-8521. Full text in Research Archive

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Addresses

Postal Address

University of Inland Norway
Postboks 400 Vestad
2418 Elverum
Norway