Professor

Elin Eriksen Ødegaard

Research
Elin Eriksen Ødegaard
Tel: +47 55 58 59 32
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Bergen
KRONSTAD G204-01
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Field of work

I am a Professor of Education with a PhD in educational sciences from the University of Gothenburg (2007). Currently, I work as the Director of  KINDknow  - Centre for Early Childhood Education and Care Research. Here, since 2018, I have built capacity for competence, knowledge, and innovation in the kindergarten sector, based on a commitment to sustainability and the best interests of all children. From spring 2026, I will serve as head of the ECEC research and innovation program. 

In 2026, we will launch the Future4Child project, funded by the NANSEN-EDU program. Here, together with partners from Ukraine, we will develop education that gives hope and better equips us to meet the needs of children when war strikes.

I am also head of the Research School NORCHILD [NORBARN], the kindergarten sector's first research school. The research school is an innovation that promotes skills relevant to both research and the rest of working life.  

I took the initiative for the Exploration and Pedagogical Innovation Laboratories (EX-PED-LAB) in 2020, a laboratory where we co-create, experiment, reiterate and conduct practice-developing research through workshops. 

I conduct a wide range of research on various topics within kindergarten research, but my main areas of expertise include Narrative Inquiry, children's collaborative narratives, play, and exploration. I have extensive management experience, including serving as a board member of a kindergarten, vice-dean for research, and holding editorial and editorial board roles in several journals, as well as holding elected leadership positions in organisations and on boards. I supervise PhD candidates, serve as an advisor on international research projects, and deliver invited lectures on my research. I enjoy communicating my research and creating research translations (films, etc.), and I founded the KINDknow Notes Series. 

I lead and co-lead the following ongoing projects:  

  • KINDKNOW-Kindergarten Knowledge Centre for Systemic Research for Diversity and Sustainable Futures [BARNkunne] (Research Council of Norway, 2018-2028: NOK 50.6 million).
  • NORCHILD Research School for Early Childhood Education  [NORBARN] (Research Council of Norway, 2022-2030, NOK 16 million).
  • One Ocean - Exploration - 2022- 2026 (HVL and various funding sources).
  • Water and Waterscape - Children's rights to clean water (HVL, OMEP Norway and OMEP World).

I am also a researcher in these projects: 

  •  MoveEarly - Move, Play, Explore in Early Childhood Education (The Research Council of Norway, chaired by Eivind Aadland)-
  • Playing Transitions (Danish Research Council, chaired by Helle Marie Skovbjerg).
  • THIWE - Moving Towards a Thriving Early Childhood Workforce (Through Program for Excellence - HVL)

I have led these completed projects:

  • 2021-2025: EX-PED-LAB - Sustainable Design for Early Childhood Sector (12 Mill NFR).
  • 2011-2017: Nordic Childhood(s) in Transformation (Nordic Ministries, 900 Euro).
  • 2009-2014: Kindergarten as an arena for education (Research Council of Norway, NOK 4.5 million).
  • 2000-2014: Kindergarten as an arena for learning and formation (UDIR), Working group for the framework plan for kindergartens (Ministry of Education and Research/UDIR), Learning through guidance (UDIR and NORDPLUS),  Management of kindergarten teacher education (VESTNORSK Nettverk (VESTNORSK Nettverk ). 

Invitations, awards and positions of trust

  • Invited speaker in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, France, Italia, Greece, China, South Korea, Brazil and Australia. 
  • Editorial board of the International Journal of Early Childhood Education (from 2025)
  • Editorial Board of International Journal of Childhood in the Anthroposcene (from 2025)
  • Editorial Board of International Journal of Play (from 2009) 
  • Editor of Nordic Kindergarten Research (2020-2023)
  • Award of Recognition (Etnhokino, Bern, 2025) for Sea Portrait - The Children of the North Sea. 
  • 1st prize for best pedagogical concept used in film (International Educational Film Festival, UiT - The Arctic University, 2024) for Sea Portrait - Children by the North Sea.
  • Elected treasurer and deputy chair of World OMEP, member of the World OMEP Executive board (2020-2023).
  • Scientific advisor for 'Playful learning Research' led by Helle Skovbjerg, funded by the Lego Foundation (2020-2024). 
  • Scientific advisor for 'World Care', led by Ditte Winther Lindquist, funded by the Research Council of Denmark and Aarhus University (2020-2024).
  • Scientific advisor for 'Play responsive teaching' led by Niklas Pramling, funded by the University of Gothenburg (2019-2023)
  • Scientific advisor in 'Children's grief and grief in ECEC', led by Lasse Lipponen, funded by the Finnish Academi (2020-2023)
  • Steering group for PRODIALOG - an NFR project led by Helse-Bergen
  • Bergen Ambassador - award from Visit Bergen and Bergen Municipality (2021-present)
  • Member of the editorial board of the 'International Journal of play' (2013-present)
  • Editor of the Journal of Nordic Early Childhood Education and Care Research (2020-2023)
  • Adjunct Professor at the University of Tromsø – The Arctic University of Norway (2012-2023)
  • OMEP World Treasurer and member of the Executive Committee of the World Organisation for Early Childhood Education (OMEP) (2020-2023)
  • Board member of the National Research School for Teacher Education (NAFOL, 2016-2022)
  • Head of Secretariat for BIN - Children's Culture in the Nordic Region (2012-2018)
  • Research award: HiB - R&D Award 2013 for high quality in research and research management
  • I led a working group that submitted a draft of a new Norwegian framework plan for kindergarten content and tasks in 2014 and was an advisor on the final draft (2016). 
  • Elected leader of the Norwegian OMEP 2009-2013. 

Latest publications: 

 

-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, 2026, Vol. 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.galanga.hvl.no/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: Andreadakis, Z., Oropilla, C. (eds) Confronting the Polycrisis. Sustainable Development Goals Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-032-22167-4_1  

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. 

-Hu, A., Birkeland, Å., Ødegaard, E.E. (2026). Kindergarten as an Agent for a Sustainable Community: Perspectives and Wisdom Gained from an International Collaboration. In: Andreadakis, Z., Oropilla, C. (eds) Confronting the Polycrisis. Sustainable Development Goals Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-032-22167-4_13  

-Fimreite, H. et al. ..// Ødegaard, E. E.(2026). EX-PED-LAB Workshops and the Courage to Co-create. In: Andreadakis, Z., Oropilla, C. (eds) Confronting the Polycrisis. Sustainable Development Goals Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-032-22167-4_3 

- Andreadakis, Z., Fragkiadaki, G., Gregoriadis, A., & Ødegaard, E. E. (2026). Investigating Transferable Skills in Early Childhood Education and Care PhD Programs in Norway and Greece. Nordic Journal of Comparative and International Education (NJCIE), 10(2). https://doi.org/10.7577/njcie.6393 

For more dissimination see NVA 


Teaches

  • PhD Research School NORBARN, HVL
  • PhD supervision, HVL,
  • Continuing and further education, external assignments


Researching

  • Play, movement and exploration
  • Sustainability from a kindergarten perspective 
  • Co-creation
  • Narrative methodology
  • Formative Education
  • Ocean and Water Literacy
  • Child and Workforce Resilience 
  • Kindergarten history
  • The kindergarten's natural landscape 


Research groups

Publications

  • Forskningens rolle i utviklingen av barnehagekvalitet

    Agneta Phil, Elin Eriksen Ødegaard (2025)

  • Å forstå og bruke forskning – Hvorfor, hva og hvordan ?

    Elin Eriksen Ødegaard (2025)

  • Verksted - Vi skaper drømmescenario - Verksted for ledning av förskolan på vetenskapens grund

    Elin Eriksen Ødegaard (2025)

  • A Pedagogy of Emergent Ocean Literacy – Narrative accounts of children’s explorations in the coastal landscapes of Western Norway

    Elin Eriksen Ødegaard, Åsta Birkeland, Czarecah Tuppil Oropilla (2024)

  • What was the driving force for amending the Kindergaten Act in 2006? Why did the Norwegian government find it necessary to integrate childhood education and care, instead of operating it separately?

    Elin Eriksen Ødegaard (2024)
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