Here you will find an overview of the projects of all current and former Ph.D. students and postdoctoral fellows affiliated with FILIORUM.
Current ph.d. candidates
Thomas Andre Ims - Projects of Belonging – Kindergartners belonging as ongoing projects narrated and influenced by their significant others
The purpose of the research project, from a diversity perspective, is to better understand how parents choose kindergarten, family activities, and leisure activities, and what roles these are thought to have for the child's present and future sense of belonging. This is approached through the overarching research question, "How do parents perceive their children's kindergarten and activities as part of an ongoing belonging project, and to what extent do they try to influence them?"
Thomas H. Lund - A study of language practices in a selection of multilingual children's groups in preschool age
The project examines various aspects of the language environment in kindergartens, including observable language actions and underlying practices. Central to this are the perceptions of the kindergarten teachers regarding the language environment, knowledge, attitudes, and the decisions made based on these. The study's data foundation consists of observations in practice and interviews with kindergarten teachers. The project is limited to mainly address multilingual and verbal language actions.
Jannike Lyngtun - Early childhood education students' professional development – an exploration of students' learning and educational processes in practical training, and the various actors' roles in this process
Based on social constructivist theories, professional theories, and cultural-historical theories, this study aims to explore students', practice teachers', and subject teachers' understandings and descriptions of what characterizes practical training in early childhood education by exploring i) professional development, ii) learning and educational processes, and iii) the individual actors' own role in practical training.
Bente Gurine Nordmo - Physical activity of 3-5-year-old boys and girls in the outdoor playground of the kindergarten, viewed from a gender perspective of the kindergarten staff
The project consists of both qualitative and quantitative data and aim to explore how female and male kindergarten staff promote physical activity to boys and girls in the outdoor playground of a Norwegian kindergarten. The results will hopefully improve practice in kindergarten when it comes to physical activity, and thus indirectly improve health. At the same time, it will generate new knowledge and improve a research-based approach in the discipline of “Nature, health and movement” in early childhood education in Norway.
Enrico Pollarolo - Higher-Order Thinking in Norwegian and Italian Early Childhood Education and Care
The project the role of Higher-Order Thinking in Early Childhood Education and Care in the Norwegian and Italian contexts, with a particular focus on the relationship between mathematics and higher-order thinking skills.
Adrian Kristinsønn Jacobsen - Early Childhood Science Education for Toddlers Trough Outdoor Play and Learning
The purpose of this thesis is primarily to increase the understanding of how teachers perceive early childhood science education for toddlers (EST) through outdoor play and learning, and how they practice EST in Norwegian preschools. These results might shed light on important challenges and what is best practice for EST.
The background of the project is that the Norwegian framework plan for kindergartens includes goals related to both science, such as providing children experiences with natural phenomena, and goals related to being outdoors, such as using nature as an arena for play and learning. This applies to children in all ages, including toddlers. However, there is a significant research gap on EST, which makes it difficult to design and practice a science education that takes the needs of toddlers into account.
Johana Evelyn Montalvan Castilla - Children's participation and experiences in Smart and Sustainable cities
This project researches on children’s participation, competences and experiences in the development of Smart and sustainable cities. Smart cities have moved from the understanding of merely being cities with a strong technocratic or technological focus, to try to be more inclusive, sustainable cities with a human, participatory focus. The topic and context of children growing, living and participating in such Smart cities is new and understudied. Thus, the exploration of the opportunities, constraints and challenges Smart cities may bring upon children, along with children’s participation and role in the city deserve attention.
Lisbeth Iversen - The staff's significance for children's play communities in kindergarten
The aim of the study is to gain increased insight and knowledge into the backgrounds and rationales that the staff have regarding their own understanding and choices in relation to children who are excluded from the kindergarten's play communities. It involves understanding the range of actions and possibilities the staff perceive in such situations, and how they utilize them. It also involves gaining insight into what the staff believe is their role and responsibility when exclusion occurs, as well as the attitudes and values that influence the staff in such situations.
Anne Marta Vinsrygg Vadstein - Digital picture books from a written language perspectiveebøker i eit skriftspråkperspektiv
The project is based on socio-cultural literacy research and aims to explore the implications of digital picture books for children's literacy development. In addition to using data from the research project SPrELL, I will conduct focus group interviews and case studies in kindergartens that use books from SPrELL. The project aims to contribute new knowledge about how to facilitate holistic and non-instrumental literacy development by studying the use of and conversations around digital picture books.
Ellen Tveit - Language-creating opportunities through poetic language in picture books
The data foundation for the study will consist of focus group interviews and video observations of reading situations. The purpose of the project is to develop knowledge relevant to kindergarten teachers' work with reading and language environment in kindergarten. The project is associated with SPrELL (Conversation-based reading practices in kindergarten and at home for experiences with literature and language learning).
Monika Kamola - Early childhood teachers’ role in supporting children’s mathematical learning and critical thinking in play with coding toys
This doctoral research focuses on teachers’ role in interactions with groups of children (age 3-5 years) during play with coding toys. I investigate how the teachers support preschoolers’ mathematical learning and critical thinking in digital play. The study is part of the project DiCoTe (Increasing professional Digital Competence in ECTE with focus on enriching and supporting children’s play with coding toys). The project has as main goal to increase Norwegian preschool teacher students’ and preschool education teachers’ professional digital competence by developing resources for the preschool teacher education and implementing these resources in all institutions that provide such education in Norway. The purpose of this PhD study is to increase the knowledge about preschool teachers ‘experiences from pedagogical use of digital toys. The primary goal of the study is to understand how early childhood teachers can make critical thinking accessible and tangible to young children and which pedagogical strategies can best foster their mathematical learning.
Radel James Gacumo - Exploring sensitive contents in children’s literature through multisensory books
The PhD research project is conducted as an extension of the Sensory Books project which is undertaken at the Centre for Learning Environment and funded by the Research Council of Norway (RCN-NFR). The Sensory Books project aims to establish the learning benefits of children’s e-books enhanced with sensory stimulation, specifically the sense of smell. The Sensory Books project examines how the “format” of the children’s books will affect the reading engagement of the children while this PhD research project extends it by enquiring the impact of the “content” of children’s literature in teaching and learning in combination with multisensory engagement. As a result of the coalescence of the two components, the PhD project will explore how both the content, i.e., LGBTQ themed-stories and the format, which is digital olfactory books, influence the reading experience and reading engagement of children in kindergarten settings. The project seeks to make a contribution to the growing body of knowledge on gender diversity, equality, and social justice and initiate inquiry on how reading experience is enriched by contents reflective of the contemporary society and the engagement of our senses in meaning-making.
Narges Ranginkaman - Social competence and optimism in Norwegian early childhood education and care
The PhD project is part of a larger project called SELMA (which stands for Social and Emotional Learning and Life-Mastery Early Childhood Education and Care). The SELMA project has three aims: 1) To develop and evaluate direct assessments of social-emotional learning for young children, 2) to develop an intervention for teachers and children with elements from positive psychology, and 3) to test the effects of the intervention in an RCT study design. The main objective of the PhD research is to evaluate the psychometric properties of direct measures for optimism and social competence in the Norwegian ECEC. The project also aims to investigate the association between optimism and social skills using these direct assessments.
Merete Haugstad - Exploring Factors Influencing the Outcomes of Early Language Interventions for Second Language Learners
In this study, I will investigate early language interventions for second language learners under the age of 5. The objective is to understand factors contributing to both success and failure in interventions designed to support language development in multilingual children. Individual factors, such as e.g. child's second language exposure, gender and age, as well as external factors like e.g. quality of implementation and socioeconomic status, can provide insights into reasons behind varying outcomes in language interventions. Research on language interventions often reports overall success through group studies, which generalize results. However, my study aims to reveal effective and ineffective outcomes for specific subgroups within language interventions. My study is a part of an intervention study with shared reading in multilingual homes within the project – Shared Reading Practices in Early Childhood Education and Families for Language Learning and Literature Experiences.
Magdalena Elnes - Gender differences in Verbal and Non-verbal Cognitive Skill Development
The projects serves a part of the longitudinal research project, GoBaN (OsloMet), encompassing approximately 1100 children across three data collection time points (at ages 3, 5, and 11). The primary objective is to investigate the impact of environmental factors, including kindergarten quality and home learning environment, on the development of verbal and non-verbal cognitive skills among boys and girls, and to assess whether these effects vary significantly between the gender groups.
Tor Mauritz Smedsrud - Nature and play in the kindergarten
The project investigates kindergarten staff's pedagogical practices in natural environments, with the aim of gaining more insight into how staff support children's play. A systematic literature review and fieldwork in kindergartens with a nature profile will be conducted. The results are expected to contribute to knowledge development on how kindergarten staff in natural environments facilitate play, guide, and support play processes.
Current postdoctoral fellows
Maria Fredriksson - ostdoctoral project associated with SPrELL "Shared Reading Practices in Early Childhood Education and families for Language Learning and Literature experiences"
SPrELL is short for " Shared Reading Practices in Early Childhood Education and families for Language Learning and Literature experiences ." The project focuses on reading together with multilingual children both in kindergarten and at home. One goal is to enhance the competence of kindergarten staff in using digital books in multiple languages in the kindergarten's language work. Additionally, another goal is to promote collaboration between multilingual homes and kindergartens through joint reading projects.
As a postdoc in this project, I will primarily address issues regarding success factors for effective collaboration between multilingual homes and preschools, but I am also interested in the didactic competence of preschool teachers when reading multilingual digital books.
Helga Maria Ploog - From intention to implementation - coding toys in kindergartens’ play – What are ECEC teachers’ perspectives?
The postdoc project is part of DiCoTe project "Increasing professional Digital Competence in Early Childhood Teacher Education with focus on enriching and supporting children’s play with coding toys ". The main project has the aim of developing research-based resources to be incorporated into ECTE as part of the students’ compulsory study, with a focus on how to enrich and support children's play and learning with coding toys in ECECs.
The goal of the postdoc is to investigate ECEC teachers' thoughts and strategies about using tools like a coding toy. The background is ubiquity of digital technology and the accompanying demand for digital competence in life, as member of society and as a professional. In this regard, skills like problem-solving, critical thinking and computational thinking are addressed. This affects children as the adults of the future and ECEC teachers as the facilitators of learning of today. The research will answer to two research questions: 1) “Why would ECEC teachers use a coding toy in kindergarten activities? What are their intentions and expectations? " and 2) “How do ECEC teachers actually use the coding toys in play activities? Which strategies do they apply? ". With an interview study and an observation study the project aims to get insights into ECEC teachers’ mindset towards and application of coding toys. This will help us when it comes to the development of the web-based resources for ECTE.
Ingrid Midteide Løkken - Quality conditions in toddler groups and children's social-emotional competence in Norwegian kindergartens
The thesis examines structural quality conditions such as organizational form and staff density and their relationship with interaction quality in toddler groups. Furthermore, it explores the significance of interaction quality as conditions for children's social-emotional competence in Norwegian kindergartens. To ensure a good measure for assessing children's social-emotional competence, I have evaluated the Lamers scale for social competence.
Ph.D. candidates who have completed their doctoral projects
Cecilie Evertsen-Stanghelle - Evaluation of CLASS in the Norwegian kindergarten context
The dissertation employs a qualitative design and investigates the experiences of professionals related to the use of CLASS (Pre-K and Toddler) in Norway. The dissertation examines the experiences and perceptions of kindergarten staff (Directors, Pedagogical Leaders, and pedagogical staff) and the kindergarten support system (Educational Psychological Service, Resource Center, Center for Multilingual Children and Youth, and professional staff from the selected municipality) regarding CLASS as a system for individual and collective learning, as well as their reflections and experiences in using CLASS within the Nordic social-pedagogical tradition. Among the participants are staff who are observed using CLASS as a measuring instrument for interaction quality and certified CLASS observers (those who observe staff in the kindergarten).
Maya Dybvig Joner - Capture and Follow-up: a document analysis related to four children referred for language disorders in kindergarten and their follow-up in kindergarten and school.
By studying documents related to four children from when they were referred for language disorders in kindergarten until middle school, this study aims to describe the characteristics of the assistance provided to these children, from the emergence of concern to the evaluation of interventions. The project is associated with the Stavanger Project - The Learning Child.
Beate Gilje Tumyr - Children, Music, and Health - Exploration of a Social-Musical Practice in a Kindergarten
The study explores aspects of relational health that may emerge when children participate in a social-musical practice. The study has a phenomenological-hermeneutic framework, and the social-musical practice constitutes the case of the study. Interviews, observations, and informal conversations with children, aged 3-5 years, and staff at a kindergarten department were conducted to generate the study's material. The analysis method used is Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA)
Lea Marie Maison - Understanding sustainability, developing values: A research project in Mexico and Norway
This project explores the perspectives on education and sustainability of Norwegian early childhood educators and members of the Zapatista organization of Mexico. The contrasts as well as meeting points between these two contexts and realities allow to discuss the political role of educators as agents of change for sustainable societies and education.
Postdoctoral fellows who have completed their postdoctoral project
Viviane Juguero - Pluriperceptive and Multicultural Theatricalities to diverse Early Childhoods
This postdoctoral research focuses on the role of the human property of theatricality since it bases both symbolic games and artistic creations, being essential to the communication development and the establishment of belonging bonds. The study is part of the project “Scenekunst til Alle Små” and investigates its intention of being a democratic project for all children in Stavanger. In this sense, the multicultural reality of the city besides the Norwegian policies to promote cultural democracy are essential factors to this reflection, besides the FILIORUM and the University of Stavanger commitments to the issue. In this path, it is vital to understand the specificity of aesthetic development in Early Childhood, from the intrauterine musicality to the construction of the pluriperceptive, emotional and axiological frameworks created by theatricality.
Janine Anne Campbell
PROJECT 1: The identification of academically talented children in Norwegian kindergartens: Potential, achievement, and error.
This study evaluated the psychometric characteristics of three instruments for identifying kindergarten students with high academic potential. Data was collected through the Norwegian “Skoleklar” project (2012 – 2021), where 243 preschoolers were assessed for academic potential by teachers, parents, and a test, and the consistency of those assessments with academic results were evaluated in kindergarten and eighth grade (n=136). Findings indicated that each scale was too imprecise for one-step identification of academic talent, but in combination they were sufficiently precise for the screening of a larger group, from which children with exceptional academic talent could be identified with further testing.
PROJECT 2: Inside out: A scoping review of optimism and growth mindsets for child development and well-being in ECEC.
This scoping review systematically explores the breadth and depth of the literature on optimism and growth mindsets in teachers and young children in ECEC contexts. It covers qualitative and quantitative literature reporting on children up to the age of 7, that discusses a theory of change including learned optimism and/or growth mindset and their relationship with the development and well-being of young children in ECEC, and was published post-1995.
PROJECT 3: The circular relationship between gender equality and ECEC: History, evidence, and challenges
Early childhood care and education (ECEC) has a circular relationship with gender equality in our societies, with each being associated with, predicted by, and moderated to some extent by the other. This study explores this relationship from an international comparative perspective, using longitudinal data from international organizations to compare the history and trajectory of ECEC enrolment (since 1970) and gender equality
Joakim Evensen Hansen
Importance of early childhood education and care [ECEC] experiences for language development in early years and later academic achievement in reading
Katarzyna Anna Tunkiel
Reading with Bilingual Children at Home and in Kindergarten
Anita Berge
Belonging and Diversity in Kindergarten - Intentions and Prescriptions in Policy Documents and Kindergarten Teachers' Perceptions