- Established:
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2017
- Academic discipline:
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Upbringing and education
The picture shows a blancket laid out in the grass, where a child acts together with straw and sticks, and a child's drawing (Photo: Agnes Westgaard Bjelkerud)
The Childhood and Early Years Education Research Group strive to create research-based knowledge about childhood and for both kindergarten teacher’s education programmes and early childhood education practices. Furthermore, the group will participate in national and international contexts where research about children, childhood and professional practice in early childhood education is discussed and developed.
The research group also seek to contribute to interdisciplinary projects and projects based on a wide range of diverse theoretical perspectives and methodologies.
What we research
The groups overarching goal stems from an interest in exploring cutting edge critical questions related to educational policy and central values in a Nordic field of education in general, and more specifically in the field of early childhood education. Overall values include democracy, equality, gender equality, justice, diversity and sustainable development, while the intrinsic value of childhood and play are examples that are specific to early childhood education.
More about the research group
Research is performed in the context of kindergarten teacher education, professional education, professional practice, professional ethics and pedagogical practice in early childhood. Some of the groups research projects also inquires how philosophy, theory of science and methodology affect scientific knowledge-producing processes. The research group's projects use various critical and pedagogical theories and philosophy.
Ongoing projects focus on
- kindergarten teacher education and sustainable development
- conceptualisations of kindergarten teachers’ professionalism
- kindergarten teacher students’ processes of bildung
- contours of children in theoretical perspectives on children and childhood
- kindergarten pedagogy as a science subject and a professional subject
- racialisation and social inequality in early childhood education
- gender and sexuality diversity in early childhood education
CEE’s projects are in dialogue with several research fields, such as kindergarten pedagogy, childhood studies, professional studies, pedagogical science, educational science, cultural studies, environmental sciences and pedagogical philosophy. In some projects, we strive for an interdisciplinary approach.
Childhood and Early Years Education (CEE) has been active since January 2017. The members are PhD-students admitted to the PhD program in Educational Sciences, scientific staff at the Department of Educational studies in Teacher Education, and associate members with different backgrounds. The group collaborates with several international researchers and research communities.
Publications
Andersen, C. E., & Massao, P. B. (2026). Undervisning om rasisme i lærerutdanningen. Studenters fortellinger om kunnskap, savn og uro. I P. B. Massao, C. E. Andersen, & T. M. H. Joranger (Red.), Rase, rasisme og hvithet: Perspektiver og forskning for lærerutdanningen og lærerprofesjonen. Universitetsforlaget.
Angell, M.-L., Andersen, C. E., & Otterstad, A. M. (2026). Foreldresamtalens og barnehagepedagogikkens (brutale) optimisme: En performativ litteraturstudie. Nordisk tidsskrift for pedagogikk og kritikk, 12(1). https://doi.org/10.23865/ntpk.v12.7152
Gregers Eriksen, K., Andersen, C. E. & Somby, H. M. (2026). Conceptualizing truth-telling pedagogies in the Norwegian—Sámi context: beyond “closing the knowledge gap” in teacher education. Frontiers in Education, 11, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2026.1909684
Høglind, H. (2026). Children´s Expressions of Resistance in a School-Preparing Language Training Programme for Minoritised Children. In A.-L. Borg, H. Fransson, & R. Emilsson Peskova (Eds.), Educational transitions for marginalized, multilingual and migrant youth: Northern European perspectives. Palgrave Macmillan.
Westgaard Bjelkerud, A. (2026). Forslag for en barokk pedagogikk: bøyninger mot det som blir av betydning. I B. Bergstedt og S. Jamouchi (Red.), Multisensorisk læring: Om intensitet og affekt i en performativ kunstpedagogikk (s. 175–198). Fagbokforlaget, Open Access. https://fagbokforlaget.no/produkt/9788245053111-multisensorisk-laering
Osgood, J., Bjelkerud, A. W., & Andersen, C. E. (2026). Special Issue: Beyond critique <=> towards creativity: Revisiting ‘professionalism’ in early childhood education. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 27(2), 147–155. https://doi.org/10.1177/14639491261446071
Der Westgaard Bjelkerud bidrar med artikkelen What is needed is a cryptographer: baroque conceptualisations of professionalism.
Hansen, I. M., Joensen Kjær, L., Østland Vala, H., Sivertsen Worum, K., Jonsson, S. G., Blystad, B. & Bjerkholt, E. (2025). Utdanning i profesjonsveiledning: Veilederstudenters perspektiver på utdanningens betydning. In E. Bjerkholt, N. C. Aagesen Vasseljen, A. Kr. Dahl, & G. S. Steinnes (Eds.), Profesjonsfaglig veiledning for individuell og kollektiv utvikling (pp. 111–135). Cappelen Damm Akademisk. https://hdl.handle.net/11250/5204754
Bjelkerud, A. W., Aglen, G. S., Bern, L.-T., & Hagen, D. G. (2025). Hva mer kan veiledning være og bli? : En utforskning av tverrfaglige undervisningspraksiser i veilederutdanning. Nordisk Tidsskrift I Veiledningspedagogikk, 10(2). https://doi.org/10.15845/ntvp.v10i2.4405
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