Trine Øland

Primary fields of research

My primary fields of research are sociology of education and history of education.  I am interested in the significance and effect of welfare state progressivism and integrationism, e.g., progressive pedagogy in public schools in Denmark and welfare work with immigrants and refugees in public welfare provisions.

I am concerned with the interplay between avowed intent and unheeded forms of practice within welfare work as a complex cultural and social matter. I engage in critical studies of classification and racialization processes in connection to development and transformation of educational ideas and practices, locally anchored but related to international, global and scientific efforts. I use a variety of methodological approaches, primarily historical and archival sources, observations and ethnographic field research, and sociological interviewing.

Previously, I have observed and analysed the social practice of thematic work and project work in public schools in a social class perspective (1970s and 2000s), examined the cultural constructs of the child and human potential in progressive pedagogy in Denmark as part of an international and scientific enlightenment movement (1920s to 1950s), conducted a collective biography of 549 Danish progressive ‘school-pedagogues’ such as teachers, psychologists, artists, philosophers, etc. (1929-1960), and studied the political and educational ideas of canons on culture, history and democracy and the role intellectuals play in this context (2000-2010).

Current research

I have just concluded a sociological interview study of welfare workers’ ambiguous work with immigrants and refugees. The study identified a welfare dynamic of remedial circularity and othering in modern welfare work, and it thus contributes to the field of sociology of professions with its focus on welfare work’s symbolic and societal effects. This work is published as a book: "Welfare Work with Immigrants and Refugees in a Social Democratic Welfare State" (Routledge, 2019).

In 2019 I am engaged in two projects. The first project is “Refugee arrivals and welfare dynamics in Denmark, 1978-2016”. This project explores hierarchical relations, investments and reasonings encompassed in welfare work with newcomers, respectively Vietnamese in the 1970s, Bosnians in the 1990s, and Syrians in the 2010s. Focus is on the sociological effects of welfare work and the agency of the welfare professions in a postcolonial perspective. Sources for analyses are professional periodicals for social educators, teachers, social workers and nurses, but also material from municipaloties and civil society organisations. The project is carried out in collaboration with VIA University College by Marta Padovan-Özdemir.

The second project is ”Interdisciplinarity, problem based learning and school management in public school practice”.  Focus is on how an interdisciplinary and flexible school is produced by engaged agents through processes, situations and manifestations in the everyday life of the school. Foundations for analyses are literature on school management, observations of project processes in third-fifth grade, and interviews with the teams involved. This project is part of a book venture about interdisciplinarity across the educational system in collaboration with researchers from Department of Science Education, Copenhagen Business School, and University College Copenhagen.

I am currently Head of Section for Education, Department of Media, Cognition and Communication, University of Copenhagen (2013-), Head of the research group The History and Sociology of Welfare Work (2014-)  and was member of the research group Children, Media and Culture (2014-2019).

I am also chairman of the professional board (faggruppen) of the Consortium for Education and professional welfare work; a collaboration between University College UCC and Section of Education, Faculty of Humanities, Univresity of Copenhagen (2015-), I am editor of the Danish educational journal Dansk pædagogisk Tidsskrift (DpT) (2003-), and member of the steering group for AMIS (2019-).

I have supervised and am currently supervising the following Ph.D.-theses:

Eva Bertelsen (co-supervisor): 'Curriculum' til fremtiden? Karakteristikker af "den nye gymnasieskole" gennem perspektiver på institution, nybyggeri og elevsubjektiviteter, Ørestad Gymnasium som case (graduated 2013)

Marta Padovan-Özdemir (principal supervisor): The Making of Educationally Manageable Immigrant Schoolchildren in Denmark, 1970–2013: A Critical Prism for Studying the Fabrication of a Danish Welfare Nation State (graduated 2016)

Katrine Lindvig (co-supervisor): Creating Interdisciplinarity within Monodisciplinary Structures (graduated 2017). Institut for Naturfagenes Didaktik, KU.

Sofie Rosengaard (principal supervisor): Pædagogik i en krisetid. [Daycare Education In A Time Of Crisis] (graduated 2018)

Marianne Brodersen (co-supervisor): Den ”forstyrrende” elev som interventionsfelt for professionelle i og omkring skolen. Et studie af dynamikker i professionel viden mellem elever, professionelle og stat. [The “disturbing” child as field of intervention for professionals in and around the school. A study of the dynamics of professional knowledge between pupils, professionals and state] (graduated 2019). Roskilde Universitet.

Lone Bæk Brønsted (principal supervisor): Lærerarbejde og socialpædagogik. [Teacher Work and Social Pedagogy] (2016-2019)

Malene Kubstrup Nelausen (principal supervisor): Elevfællesskaber og inkluderede elevers mulighed for at blive til som elever og klassekammerater efter inklusionsloven (2016-2019)

Stine Saabye Bach (principal supervisor): Skolens eksistensbetingelser for elever med social angst [Conditions of existence for pupils who suffer from social anxiety] (2017-2020)

Stine Thygesen (principal supervisor): Normaliseringspraktikker og anbragte børns skolegang: velfærdsarbejdets praksis og potentialer [Welfare work with children in care] (2017-2020)

Teaching

I have taught and teach the following courses (or similar):

The History of Education (BA)

Sociology of Pedagogy and Sociology of Education (BA)

Educational Research and research methods in Education (BA)

The field of educational sciences (MA)

Analysis of educational issues (MA)

I supervise papers, MA-thesis and PhD-thesis within these areas

CV

Academic degrees:

PhD in Educational Science 2007, Section of Education, Department of Media, Cognition and Communication, University of Copenhagen.   

MA in Educational Science & Political Science 1997, Department of Philosophy, Education and Rhetoric, University of Copenhagen respectively the Department of Political Science, University of Aarhus.

Appointments and research projects and priorities:

2017: Visiting professor at Department of Sociology, University of Manitoba, Canada, Att. Professor Mara Fridell and Andrew Woolford, September-October (Erasmus+ mobility)

2017: Erasmus+ Credit Mobility funding from the EU in a partnership between Department of Sociology, University of Manitoba, and Department of Media, Cognition and Communication, University of Copenhagen 2017-2018

2016-: Chairman of the professional board (faggruppe) for the Consortium for Education and welfare professional work

2015: Visiting scholar at Department of Sociology, Geopolitical Economy Research Group, University of Manitoba, Canada, Att. Professor Andrew Woolford, September-October 

2014-: Head of the research priority area/research group The history and sociology of welfare work

2013-: Head of Section of Education and PhD-coordinator for Ph.d.-scholars at Section of Education

2012- : Associate Professor, Section of Education, Department of Media, Cognition and Communication, University of Copenhagen.

2011-2012: External lecturer, Section of Education, Department of Media, Cognition and Communication, University of Copenhagen, december 2011-juli 2012

2008-2011: Post-doctoral scholarship and Assistant Professor, Section of Education, Department of Media, Cognition and Communication, University of Copenhagen, granted means from The Danish Council for Independent Research, Section of Humanities, to carry out the project Configurations of the Future Between Plans and Canons. Cultural-Historical Assumptions About the Individual and the Future in Danish School Pedagogy 1945-2008, http://futureinschoolped.mef.ku.dk/

2010: Post-doctoral assistant, The Faculty of Humanities, University of Copenhagen, employed to generate a network and to develop a PhD Research Programme in Education and Migration studies at the University of Copenhagen, nationally and internationally, October-December.

2004-2007: Post-graduate scholarship and PhD student, Section of Education, Department of Media, Cognition and Communication, University of Copenhagen, November 2004 - June 2007, granted means from The Danish Council for Independent Research, Section of the Social Sciences to carry out the project Progressive pedagogy – inclusion and exclusion.

2006: Visiting scholar at the research group “Sociology of Education and Culture”, University of Uppsala, Att. Professor Donald Broady, September-November.

2005: Research assistant at the research programme “IMIO – Integration and Migration. A comparative and interdisciplinary study of integration and migration in the Oeresund region”, Att. Associate Professor Bolette Moldenhawer, February-March.

2003-: Editor of the Danish educational journal Dansk pædagogisk Tidsskrift (DpT)

2002-2004: Assistant lecturer in Educational Science and General Pedagogy, Department of Philosophy, Education and Rhetoric, University of Copenhagen.

1999-2002: External lecturer, Department of Pedagogy and Adult Education, University of Roskilde & Department of Philosophy, Education and Rhetoric, University of Copenhagen.

1999-2001: Manager of, planner and main teacher on preschool teachers’ in-service courses in ”Multicultural Education?”, The Preschool Teacher-training College of Social Pedagogy in Copenhagen.

1998-1999: Part-time Academic Consultant at the Resource Centre for Bilingualism and Interculturalism (uc2), University College of Copenhagen.