Sigrid Ernstsen

• Ernstsen, Sigrid; Rødnes, Kari Anne & Furberg, Anniken (2026). Joining in or opting out? A sociocultural analysis of how students navigate classroom talk about personal issues in life skills education. European Journal of Psychology of Education (EJPE). ISSN 0256-2928. 41(3). doi: 10.1007/s10212-026-01164-4. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  In a time defined by societal instability, life skills education (LSE) has become an integral part of schooling worldwide. Through its engagement with issues closely related to the lifeworlds and personal experiences of students, LSE has the potential to facilitate meaningful classroom conversations. However, not all students find it comfortable to talk about personal issues and may hesitate to share what they regard as private in class. Since students experience such situations differently, it is important to develop a deeper understanding of how they respond to educational settings in which their own lives and experiences are a central part of the content. Employing a sociocultural and dialogic approach, this study explores how students participate in such learning activities by examining how they navigate talking about personal issues and what opportunities and challenges that emerge from their interactional approaches. The applied analytical procedure involves microanalyses of conversations in two contrasting student groups that navigated the talk in markedly different ways. The analyses show that in one group, the students interacted in a way that rendered their experiences more generalised and less personal, which opened up space for multiple perspectives and exploration of the issue. In another group, the students’ way of interacting made them accountable for providing personal answers, which resulted in contributions being withheld and the conversation breaking down. Finally, we discuss the implications of these findings and consider how teachers can support meaningful and educational discussions about personal issues in LSE.

• Ernstsen, Sigrid; Furberg, Anniken & Arnseth, Hans Christian (2025). Students' collaborative meaning-making in life skills education: Integrating personal experiences with theoretical knowledge. Learning, Culture and Social Interaction. ISSN 2210-6561. 54. doi: 10.1016/j.lcsi.2025.100943. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Reflecting an international policy trend, several countries have incorporated life skills education (LSE) into their school curricula. While education has always transcended mere subject mastery, embedding life skills prompts schools to engage more closely with students’ personal lives and experiences. The implications, and the opportunities and challenges that follow, remain relatively underexplored. Adopting a sociocultural and dialogic approach, this study examines students’ collaborative meaning-making processes where their personal experiences intersect with more conventional theoretical knowledge resources. The empirical context is an LSE project where lower secondary school students engaged with the topic ‘youth, identity and belonging’. Microanalyses of student interaction reveal that personal experiences became important mediational means in the sense of enabling students to collectively explore and invoke a variety of perspectives, while simultaneously fostering engagement and peer support. Although theoretical resources introduced students to ‘authorised’ conceptualisations, personal experiences and theoretical knowledge remained disjointed rather than integrated. The findings underscore the significance of building on students’ personal experiences within LSE, while also revealing challenges in integrating personal experiences with theoretical knowledge—an integral component for students’ development of conceptual understanding. Thus, this study contributes insights that support LSE facilitation, or other educational settings where personal experiences take centre stage.

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• Ernstsen, Sigrid; Furberg, Anniken & Arnseth, Hans Christian (2022). Enriching wellbeing competencies by bridging students’ personal experiences with canonical resources in collaborative interdisciplinary settings. Full text in Research Archive
• Ernstsen, Sigrid (2022). Tverrfaglig undervisning og læring: Å forberede elever på en kompleks fremtid. Full text in Research Archive
• Furberg, Anniken; Rødnes, Kari Anne; Silseth, Kenneth; Arnseth, Hans Christian; Kvamme, Ole Andreas & Lund, Andreas [Show all 12 contributors for this article] (2023). Fagfornyelsen i møte med klasseromspraksiser: Læreres planlegging og gjennomføring av undervisning om tverrfaglige tema. Universitetet i Oslo. ISSN 9788293847113. Full text in Research Archive

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