Elin Eriksen Ødegaard

Field of work

I am a Professor of Early Childhood Education and the founding director of KINDknow – Centre for Early Childhood Education and Care Research at HVL, which I have led since 2018. My research aims to strengthen children, educators, ECEC institutions and authorities in facing interconnected crises, and to build equitable, sustainable early childhood systems for the future. I study movement, play and exploration as integrated and central to children's holistic development. At the heart of my work is Collaborative Exploration, an approach that brings together dialogue, children's agency, responsive professional practice and education for sustainability. In 2026 I received the inaugural International Habermaass Prize for Pedagogical Research.

I currently lead Future4Child, in which partners in Ukraine and Norway renew early childhood teacher education to meet children's needs in times of war and crisis. I work internationally for children’s interest in water and Ocean topics (Ocean Literacy). I also serve as head of HVL's research and innovation programme for early childhood education and care.

I built up NORCHILD [NORBARN], the first research school for the kindergarten sector, and initiated EX-PED-LAB, a laboratory for co-creation and pedagogical innovation. I hold a PhD in Educational Sciences from the University of Gothenburg (2007), supervise PhD candidates, and share research through lectures, film and the KINDknow Notes Series.

Awards

•         International Habermaass Prize for Pedagogical Research (Habermaass Foundation, 2026) – inaugural award, for long-standing contribution to early childhood education research and the development of Collaborative Exploration. About the prize

•         Award of Recognition (Ethnokino, Bern, 2025) for the film Sea Portrait – The Children of the North Sea

•         First prize for best pedagogical concept in film (International Educational Film Festival, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, 2024) for Sea Portrait – The Children of the North Sea

•         Bergen Ambassador – award from Visit Bergen and the City of Bergen (2021–)

•         Bergen University College R&D Award 2013 for excellence in research and research leadership

Ongoing projects I lead

•         Future4Child – For the future we want: Renewal of Early Childhood Teacher Education in Ukraine and Norway (HK-dir, NANSEN-EDU, 2026–)

•         KINDknow – Kindergarten Knowledge Centre for Systemic Research on Diversity and Sustainable Futures [BARNkunne] (Research Council of Norway, 2018–2028, NOK 50.6 million)

•         One Ocean – Exploration (HVL and other funding sources, 2022–2026)

•         Water and Waterscapes – Children's Rights to Clean Water (HVL, OMEP Norway and OMEP World)

Projects I research in

•         MoveEarly – Move, Play, Explore in Early Childhood Education (Research Council of Norway, led by Eivind Aadland)

•         Playing Transitions (Independent Research Fund Denmark, led by Helle Marie Skovbjerg)

• •         THRIWE – Moving Towards a Thriving Early Childhood Workforce (HVL Programme for Excellence)

Projects I have built up and led

•         NORCHILD Research School for Early Childhood Education [NORBARN] (Research Council of Norway, 2022–2030, NOK 16 million), built up and led from its launch in 2022

•         EX-PED-LAB – Sustainable Design in the Kindergarten Sector through Exploration and Pedagogical Innovation Laboratories (Research Council of Norway, 2021–2025, NOK 12 million)

•         Nordic Childhood(s) in Transformation (Nordic Council of Ministers, 2011–2017)

•         Kindergarten as an Arena for Formative Education (Research Council of Norway, 2009–2014, NOK 4.5 million)

•         Kindergarten as an Arena for Learning and Formation (Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training, 2012–2013)

•         Leadership of Kindergarten Teacher Education (Western Norway Network, 2002)

•         Learning through Guidance (Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training and Nordplus, 2000)

Positions of trust

Current

•         Editorial board, International Journal of Early Childhood (2025–)

•         Editorial board, International Journal of Childhood in the Anthropocene (2025–)

•         Editorial board, International Journal of Play (2013–)

•         Steering group, PRODIALOG, a Research Council of Norway project led by Haukeland University Hospital (2022–)

Selected previous positions

•         Treasurer and Deputy Chair of World OMEP, member of the Executive Committee (2020–2023)

•         Editor, Nordic Early Childhood Education Research (2020–2023)

•         Scientific advisor to Playful Learning Research (LEGO Foundation, 2020–2024), World Care (Independent Research Fund Denmark and Aarhus University, 2020–2024), Play Responsive Teaching (University of Gothenburg, 2019–2023) and Children's Grief in ECEC (Research Council of Finland, 2020–2023)

•         Adjunct Professor, UiT The Arctic University of Norway (2012–2023)

•         Board member, Norwegian National Research School in Teacher Education, NAFOL (2016–2022)

•         Head of Secretariat, BIN – Children's Culture in the Nordic Region (2012–2018)

•         Chair of the working group that drafted Norway's new Framework Plan for Kindergartens (2014), and advisor on the final draft (2016)

•         Chair of OMEP Norway (2009–2013)

Invited speaker in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, France, Italy, Greece, China, South Korea, Brazil and Australia.

Selected publications (2026)

•         Ødegaard, E. E. & Birkeland, Å. (2026). Conceptualizing Emergent Ocean Literacy: Exploring Sensuous and Spatial Early Childhood Education and Ecological Care Practices in Coastal Landscapes. ECNU Review of Education, 9(2), 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1177/2096531126145573

•         Ødegaard, E. E., Hu, A., Benguye, N. D., Williams, N., Bergan, V., Ndijuye, L. G. & White, E. J. (2026). Navigating the waterscapes: children's expressions and perspectives of water across Aotearoa, Norway, and Tanzania. Children's Geographies, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/14733285.2026.2662332

•         Ødegaard, E. E. & Andreadakis, Z. (2026). Kindergarten as an Arena for Cultural Formation: A Theoretical Framework for Designing Research as a Response to Polycrises. In Z. Andreadakis & C. Oropilla (Eds.), Confronting the Polycrisis. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-032-22167-4_1

•         Oen, M., Ødegaard, E. E. & Sadownik, A. R. (2026). Early Childhood Educators' Doings to Facilitate Children's Participation in Play: A Scoping Review and Thematic Analysis of Research Literature. International Journal of Early Childhood. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13158-026-00528-7

•         Thyssen, G. & Ødegaard, E. E. (2026). Urban-coastal art and embodied re-membering of education: Reading 'StreetWise' and 'One Ocean – Ocean Portrait' through one another as cases of collaborative, artivist storying. Historia y Memoria de la Educación, 23, 195–236.

For further publications and dissemination, see my profile in NVA.

Teaching

•         NORCHILD Research School [NORBARN], HVL

•         PhD supervision, HVL

•         Continuing and further education, external assignments

Research areas

•         Movement, play and exploration in children's holistic development

•         Sustainability from a kindergarten perspective

•         Co-creation and pedagogical innovation

•         Narrative methodology

•         Formative education (Bildung)

•         Child and workforce resilience

•         Ocean and water literacy

•         Kindergarten history

•         The kindergarten's natural landscape

Links

•         Google Scholar

•         ResearchGate

•         Wikipedia

•     Habermaass Stiftung – Award Winners 2026.