Invitation to seminar and masterclass with professor Gert Biesta

Invitation

Professor Gert Biesta is professor 2 at HVL. He will have various seminars on campus Stord and campus Bergen in week 17, 2026. Biesta is a widely cited researcher in our PhD program's research area, and many of our PhD candidates and master-students refer to Biesta's work in their texts. 

We invite all interested fellows and employees to the following events at HVL campus Bergen, Kronstad:

A conversation about the relationship between “Bildung” and “The Art of Education” with the research environment connected to the PhD-program Studies on blldung and educational practices

Tuseday April 21, 13.00 - 14:30
Room:  F234, HVL Bergen K1

Programme:

• Introduction by Gert Biesta
• Short comments from Solvejg Jobst and Tom Are Trippestad
• Discussion

Chair: Knut Steinar Engelsen

Masterclasses for PhD-candidates

In this seminar three of our candidates will discuss own texts with Gert Biesta in a so-called "Masterclasses".

Tuesday April 21, 14.45 - 17.30
Room:  F234, HVL campus Bergen, K1

Programme:

• 14.45 – 15.30:  Yvonne Jasmin Demirel
• 15.45 – 16.30:  Live Grinden
• 16.45 – 17.30:  Odin Monrad Schei

Chair: Knut Steinar Engelsen

Gert Biesta is Professor of Public Education at Maynooth University, Ireland; and Professor II at the Faculty of Education, Arts and Sport at the University College of Western Norway (HVL). His work is strongly linked to the purpose of education, democracy and the role of teachers. Biesta is, among many other things, one of the most prominent living educational theorists who builds on and at the same time challenges Dewey and his pragmatism. He continues Dewey's emphasis on experience, democracy and education as a social practice, but he also criticizes certain aspects of Dewey and pragmatism, such as an excessively strong emphasis on learning and "student-centeredness". So on the one hand, one can say that Gert is a radical, critical thinker who challenges the "mainstream". On the other hand, one can say that he is a conservative who defends the art of teaching against, for example, too much attention to learning.

Gert Biesta is particularly known for his concept of the three functions of education: qualification, socialization and subjectification - which reflects a broader view of education as more than just the transfer of knowledge and skills. As Professor 2 at HVL, Biesta collaborates with HVL's own professor of pedagogy Herner Sæverot on the development of the concept "The art of education", which also frames the theme of today's lecture: “The aesthetics of teaching: How education really works”