Anja Ramfjord Isaksen

• Isaksen, Anja Ramfjord & Gudmundsdottir, Greta Björk (2025). Teacher perceptions of digital life skills in upper secondary school: Digital detox, footprints and responsibility. Nordic Journal of Comparative and International Education (NJCIE). 9(4), p. 1–22. doi: 10.7577/njcie.6174. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The introduction of a new curricular reform in 2020 led to life skills becoming a widely discussed topic in Norway. Other commonly debated topics are young people’s technology use and time spent online. Their lives seem intricately dependent on technology and social media, which highlights a need to address societal pressures, including mental health, exclusion and online risks in their education. Given these developments, it has become important to further examine digital life skills to address the juxtaposition between digital technologies and life skills in young people’s lives to capture these challenges and understand how they are addressed in school. This study aims to enrich existing research by examining the concept of digital life skills and contributing to the conceptualisation of this concept through teachers’ perspectives in Norway. We interviewed 13 upper secondary school teachers from general and vocational study programmes to capture their views on the concept of digital life skills in two school subjects. Our findings indicate that the teachers relate to digital life skills and consider them important. The teachers connect digital life skills to three themes we have labelled digital detox, digital footprints and digital responsibility. This study presents pedagogical and didactical implications of teachers’ perceptions and integration of digital life skills into their instructional practices. Furthermore, the findings provide valuable insights for policymakers and school leaders, enhancing their understanding of how upper secondary teachers in English and social science in Norway conceptualise digital life skills.

• Isaksen, Anja Ramfjord; Mathé, Nora Elise Hesby; Brevik, Lisbeth M. & Gudmundsdottir, Greta Björk (2025). Life skills education as a balancing act: Preparing students to handle life challenges in upper secondary English and social science classrooms. Teaching and Teacher Education : An International Journal of Research and Studies. ISSN 0742-051X. 159. doi: 10.1016/j.tate.2025.104992. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Adolescents confront mental health challenges in a post-Covid19 world with warfare and increased digitalisation, necessitating resilient young adults. Despite global recommendations, evidence of life skills education (LSE) in classrooms is scarce. This study involved classroom observations of naturally occurring instruction across 18 Norwegian upper secondary classrooms and identified how LSE was implemented in English and social science lessons to support students’ handling of personal, societal and future challenges. The study revealed more prominence of LSE in English than in social science and more often in general compared to vocational studies, offering insights for LSE implementation in pedagogy and policy.

• Brevik, Lisbeth M.; Skarpaas, Kaja Granum & Isaksen, Anja Ramfjord (2020). Vocational English. Building vocational orientation and relevance. In Brevik, Lisbeth M. & Rindal, Ulrikke Elisabeth (Ed.), Teaching English in Norwegian classrooms: From research to practice. Universitetsforlaget. ISSN 9788215032283. p. 65–90. Full text in Research Archive

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• Brevik, Lisbeth M.; Eiene, Sarah Margrethe Øverlie; Isaksen, Anja Ramfjord; Elgen, Annie Karoline; Dodou, Katherina & Skarpaas, Kaja Granum (2026). Digital expectations vs. classroom reality in Nordic and European secondary classrooms: The importance of digital life skills, digital responsibility and student voices. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  In today’s digitalised society, the role of digitalisation is greater than ever. As digital technologies and Generative AI increasingly influence the lives and learning experience of young people, concerns about their ICT skills, screen usage and life skills have become commonly debated topics (Munthe et al., 2022). Students are expected to have sufficient – or even high – digital competence, be resilient, critical thinkers capable of identifying misinformation, amongst other challenges in a highly digital English-speaking world. Research indicates that students should develop into responsible technology users (Choi, 2016; Kure et al., 2025), while they also face challenges related to social media and technology, such as mental health issues, loneliness and exclusion (Holmarsdottir et al., 2024). Despite these insights, there is a lack knowledge of what happens inside the classrooms, including teachers’ and students’ perceptions on these matters. This symposium presents various perspectives of digitalisation in lower and upper secondary classrooms in Norway, England and France across four subjects. By analysing data from video-recorded classroom observations and teacher interviews, we draw on insights from two large-scale longitudinal projects, EDUCATE [AI2.1](Evaluation of the curriculum reform) and LANGUAGES (Language use and instruction across contexts), exploring how digital responsibility, student voices, and digital life skills are characterised and reflected upon in teaching. How can we facilitate the development of responsible technology use in the classroom? Are students becoming responsible users of technology, and what actually occurs inside the classroom in practice? In this symposium, we present four recent studies from Nordic and European classrooms, allowing us the opportunity to explore what actually occurs within today’s classroom. The first study observes and interviews teachers in xx lower secondary English classrooms, revealing that there is clearly an absence of teaching on digital responsibility (Paper 1). The second study contributes with important insights into how English and Norwegian teachers from xx classrooms in Norway understand and teach responsible use of GenAI technologies (Paper 2[AI3.1]). The third study explores 36 lower secondary classrooms of English and French, focusing on the role of technology in making students talk (Paper 3). The final paper presents a study that explores 68 upper secondary English and social science classrooms, highlighting the importance to put digital life skills on the agenda, especially if we aim to develop future responsible future technology users (Paper 4). The findings discussed in the symposium highlight the need to reconsider the approaches to teaching in Nordic and European secondary classrooms to emphasize the importance of embedding digital life skills and digital responsibility into everyday teaching and listening to student voices. We offer valuable insights and implications to research on ICT skills in the digital classroom.

• Isaksen, Anja Ramfjord & Dodou, Katherina (2025). Livsmestring gjennom litteraturens linser / Literature and Life skills. Full text in Research Archive
• Isaksen, Anja Ramfjord (2025). Digital livsmestring i samfunnskunnskap: En videostudie. Full text in Research Archive
• Isaksen, Anja Ramfjord (2025). Digital livsmestring i engelsk og samfunnskunnskap på videregående. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  I dagens samfunn, hvor digitalisering og sosiale medier preger unges liv, er det viktigere enn noen gang å fokusere på digital livsmestring. EDUCATE-prosjektet, som evaluerer innføringen av LK20, har siden 2021 filmet undervisning i engelsk og samfunnskunnskap og intervjuet lærere. I denne forelesningen ses det nærmere på hvordan lærere i engelsk og samfunnskunnskap på tvers av studiespesialisering og yrkesfag underviser i digital livsmestring. Arbeid med digital livsmestring gir mulighet til å adressere problemstillinger relatert til skjermtid, sosialt press og mental helse – temaer som utfordrer og engasjerer undervisningen. Forelesningen vil bidra med pedagogiske og didaktiske implikasjoner, samt gi praktiske eksempler fra klasserom i EDUCATE-prosjektet som kan brukes for å fremme og reflektere over digital livsmestring i klasserommet.

• Isaksen, Anja Ramfjord (2025). Teacher perceptions of digital life skills in upper secondary social science and English in Norway. Full text in Research Archive
• Isaksen, Anja Ramfjord (2024). Poster: Livsmestring som balansegang i engelsk og samfunnskunnskap. Full text in Research Archive
• Isaksen, Anja Ramfjord (2024). Hvordan foregår Livsmestring i engelsk og samfunnskunnskap på yrkesfag og studiespesialisering? Full text in Research Archive
• Brevik, Lisbeth M.; Gudmundsdottir, Greta Björk; Doetjes, Gerke (Gerard); Mathé, Nora Elise Hesby; Dodou, Katherina & Barreng, Rebecca Linnéa Söderström [Show all 11 contributors for this article] (2023). Hvordan fungerer livsmestring i norske klasserom? Full text in Research Archive
• Evertsen, Ingrid & Isaksen, Anja Ramfjord (2023). Teacher perspectives on life skills in Norwegian secondary school. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The aim of this study is to investigate teacher perspectives on and the implementation of “life skills” used in English classrooms with high technological infrastructure in Norway. In the educational context and national curriculum, “life skills” is emphasized. Students are expected to meet this concept in all subjects, and depend on their teachers’ operationalisation. We will compare and contrast their understanding and implementation of “life skills” with the new national curriculum (NDET, 2020). Little research has been done on investigating teachers’ self-reported perspective on “life skills” instruction from Norwegian classrooms (Danielsen, 2021), whether it is generic or subject-related use, and a description of “life skills” will be an issue of general interest. This study analysed teacher logs and -interviews among five grade 8- and six vg1 English teachers, from seven secondary classrooms in 2021-2022, as part of the EDUCATE project (UiO, 2021). The logs report teachers’ identification of “life skills” in their lessons. The design relied on two versions of logs, one to be filled out prior to (log 1) and one after (log 2) each observed English lesson, resulting in 40 pre-logs and 49 post-logs. The logs comprised both closed (predetermined) and open questions, and give information about whether teachers plan to teach life skills (log 1), and their perspectives on whether they actually did so (log 2). Interviews were conducted after the other data was collected, and resulted in 11 English teacher interviews. The interviews consisted of both open and closed questions, and the informants were asked to comment on their log answers. There are two main findings on English teachers’ perspectives on and implementation of “life skills”. Finding 1 shows that teachers report on using “life skills” in their English lessons. Pre-logs show that teachers planned to use “life skills” in 14 of their lessons, while post-logs identify 40 lessons where “life skills” was implemented. Among the 40 lessons reported to have included “life skills” in their instruction, 21 lessons were identified in lower secondary and 19 lessons in upper secondary. Finding 2 identifies how teachers have different perspectives when asked to describe and define “life skills”: a) the lack of definition in the core curriculum, b) their individual understanding of the concept, and c) a connection between life skills and digital competence as intertwined concepts in their teaching. This study offers input on how teachers report to use “life skills” in their English secondary digital classrooms, and discusses teachers’ understanding of the concept. References Danielsen, A. G. (2021). Lærerens arbeid med livsmestring. Fagbokforlaget. Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training [NDET]. (2020). Fagfornyelsen – Overordnet del [The National Norwegian K–12 curriculum]. https://www.udir.no/lk20/overordnet-del/prinsipper-for-laring-utvikling-og-danning/tverrfaglige-temaer/folkehelse-og-livsmestring/?lang=eng. University of Oslo [UiO]. (2021). Evaluering av fagfornyelsen i fag (EDUCATE). Institutt for lærerutdanning og skoleforskning. https://www.uv.uio.no/ils/forskning/prosjekter/educate/.

• Isaksen, Anja Ramfjord (2023). Livsmestring i samfunnskunnskap på videregående: Lærerperspektiver på livsmestring. Full text in Research Archive
• Evertsen, Ingrid; Isaksen, Anja Ramfjord & Heie, Magnus (2022). Stipendiatprofilen: ─ Vi trenger forskning på livsmestring som kan støtte lærere i klasserommet. [Internet]. Universitetet i Oslo. Full text in Research Archive
• Brevik, Lisbeth M.; Gudmundsdottir, Greta Björk; Mathé, Nora Elise Hesby; Stovner, Roar Bakken; Magnusson, Camilla Gudmundsdatter & Dodou, Katherina [Show all 8 contributors for this article] (2026). På fagenes premisser: EDUCATE sluttrapport. Evaluering av LK20 i fagene på trinn 4-13: livsmestring, utforsking, digital kompetanse og algoritmisk tenkning. Sluttrapport fra forsknings- og evalueringsprosjektet EDUCATE ved Institutt for lærerutdanning og skoleforskning, Universitetet i Oslo. Det utdanningsvitenskapelige fakultet, Universitetet i Oslo . ISSN 9788293847243. doi: https:/www.uv.uio.no/ils/forskning/prosjekter/educate/rapporter/brevik-et-al-(2026)-educate-sluttrapport.pdf. Full text in Research Archive
• Gudmundsdottir, Greta Björk; Brevik, Lisbeth M.; Aashamar, Peter Nicolai; Barreng, Rebecca Linnéa Söderström; Dodou, Katherina & Doetjes, Gerard [Show all 15 contributors for this article] (2024). Å gi rom for variasjon og valgfrihet, mens vi venter på digital dømmekraft. Universitetet i Oslo. ISSN 9788294119011. Full text in Research Archive
• Brevik, Lisbeth M.; Gudmundsdottir, Greta Björk; Barreng, Rebecca Linnéa Söderström; Dodou, Katherina; Doetjes, Gerke (Gerard) & Evertsen, Ingrid [Show all 15 contributors for this article] (2023). Å mestre livet i 8. klasse. Perspektiver på livsmestring i klasserommet i sju fag. Rapport 2 fra forsknings- og evalueringsprosjektet EDUCATE ved Institutt for lærerutdanning og skoleforskning, Universitetet i Oslo. Universitetet i Oslo. ISSN 9788269249842. Full text in Research Archive

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