Hege Fimreite

Field of work

Research

My research areas are within guidance/counseling/mentoring, educational quality, and leadership in kindergarten. Between 2023 and 2025, I served as a postdoctoral researcher in the EX-PED-LAB project (Exploration and Pedagogical Innovation Laboratory) at KINDknow, with a primary responsibility for research focused on developing teaching in kindergarten teacher education through interdisciplinary educational workshops. Several initiatives have emerged over the past two years aimed at promoting kindergarten education through innovative practices. Co-creation with artists and designers has led to more playful learning activities and exploration of the teaching role, which we see changing in accordance with student groups and societal changes.

Together with colleagues in kindergarten teacher education in Sogndal, and in collaboration with the municipalities in the Sogn Region, we continue the development of kindergarten teacher education. This collaboration started in 2024 with the development of SognaBLU, a unique partnership with six municipalities where the municipalities offer full-time positions for kindergarten teacher students at 20% alongside their studies. Educators, students, and kindergarten teachers are also involved in designing relevant learning activities. This model aims to strengthen recruitment, relevance, and reflective capacity in education and is expected to have a societal impact beyond the education at HVL, Sogndal.

My area of expertise is guidance for collective learning. I defended my Ph.D. thesis, "Peer Counseling and Change of Collective Knowledge in ECEC Institution", in February 2022. The thesis thematizes peer counseling as a professional learning community and explores how peer counseling can provide a space for kindergarten teachers’ critical assessment of their practice. The main research question is: "How can systematic peer counseling contribute to changing the collective knowledge in ECEC institutions by turning individual experience into common knowledge?"  

I am the leader of the research group "Leadership in Educational Systems" and a member of the research area of Pedagogical Innovation in KINDknow - ECEC Knowledge Centre for Systemic Research on Diversity and Sustainable Futures.

Previous experience

From spring 2011 to autumn 2015, I worked as an assistant professor in kindergarten teacher education at Sogn &Fjordane University College (HiSF) with counseling and leadership as the main courses.

From the autumn of 2015, I was the head of ECEC teacher education at HiSF until the spring of 2018 when HiSF became HVL. From September 2017 to December 2018, I was a member of the Ministry of Education Expert Group on Kindergarten Teacher Role.

Previously, I worked as an assistant and manager of an ECEC institution as a manager of SFO, and I have also worked for 10 years as an educational therapist at BUP.

Education

I have my education as an ECEC teacher from Volda University College, with a major in organization and leadership. I completed the main subject in ECEC pedagogy in Trondheim, a collaboration between DMMH and NTNU. Title of the main thesis: «Vi ska' leike i fred – ei gransking av barna sitt samspel i leik som kjelde til læring og utvikling». A Ph.D. education I have from Western Norway University of Applied Sciences and the doctoral program "Bildung and didactic practices".

Courses taught

• Counseling
• Pedagogy
• Leadership and development

Research areas

• Education quality
• Leadership of learning processes
• Peer counseling for collective learning
• Counseling/mentoring for learning, change, and development of practices in kindergarten

Research groups

• Leadership in Educational Systems
• KINDknow, WP9, Systematic knowledge