Academic Interests
- Socially inclusive energy transitions
- Education for sustainability
- Sustainable energy consumption
- Design based research
- Teaching and learning with technology
- Teacher learning and development
- Dialogic teaching
Background
- 2025 - : Associate Professor, Department of Educational Science, NMBU
- 2022 - : Postdoc research fellow, Department of Education
- 2021 - 2022: Researcher, Department of Education
- 2017 – 2021: Doctoral Research fellow, Department of Education
- 2015 – 2017: Consultant, Section for Research and Mediation Support, University of Oslo
- 2016: Master of education, University of Oslo
- 2009 – 2014: Primary school Teacher
- 2004 – 2009: Teacher education, Oslo University College
Tags:
Education,
ICT and learning
Publications
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Amundrud, Anja & Rasmussen, Ingvill
(2026).
Interpreting tensions in teacher–researcher collaboration.
Teachers and Teaching: theory and practice.
ISSN 1354-0602.
doi:
10.1080/13540602.2026.2713119.
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Teacher—researcher collaboration is often promoted to create research-informed schools. Yet, research highlights several challenges that generate tensions shaping how such collaborations unfold in practice. This article examines how teachers reflected on and responded to such tensions in a design-based research project to promote dialogic teaching, using pedagogical resources and digital technology. The analysis draws on interviews with 14 Norwegian lower-secondary teachers. Using activity theory and the concept of experiencing, we investigated tensions related to pedagogical aims, resource use, and expectations of participation. The findings demonstrate how teachers navigated tensions through reflection, pragmatic adjustments, and partial engagement. Participation reflected what felt realistic and valuable in teaching routines. Modest or temporary uses of new resources were seen as meaningful, indicating how teachers adapted project ideas to their practice. Building on the concept of experiencing, we introduce relational experiencing to capture the reciprocal dynamic by which evolving relationships, expectations, and ongoing negotiations in teacher—researcher collaboration shape what teachers take up from, engage with, and sustain regarding the pedagogical resources and ideas introduced by researchers. The article contributes to the nuanced understanding of how teacher—researcher collaboration develops in practice, emphasising the significance of everyday negotiations, situated reflections, and adaptive practices as constructive elements.
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Amundrud, Anja & Omland, Maren
(2026).
Design thinking as an approach to teaching sustainability in higher education: fostering interdisciplinary dialogue and co-creation.
International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education.
ISSN 1467-6370.
p. 20–20.
doi:
10.1108/ijshe-07-2025-0751.
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Purpose This study aims to explore how design thinking (DT) can foster interdisciplinary dialogue and co-creation within Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). This study examined the incorporation of DT into a sustainability-focused course at a Norwegian university, where students collaborated across disciplines and with external stakeholders regarding real-world challenges. Design/methodology/approach The authors drew on a case study of 21 students, two teachers and five stakeholders in an interdisciplinary course. The students collaborated in groups to address real-world sustainability cases using a DT approach. Data collected from the course included participant observations, interviews with students and stakeholders and students’ written feedback. A sociocultural perspective guided the thematic analysis, focusing on interaction through dialogue and co-creation. Findings The DT approach fostered the students’ engagement, supported interdisciplinary dialogue and helped the students navigate uncertainty and complexity. The students reported a sense of ownership and responsibility in their work, and the process encouraged participation and co-creation. Meanwhile, the DT approach required facilitation to sustain dialogue and encourage critical reflection on broader sustainability dimensions. Tensions emerged from divergent expectations, varying group dynamics and unclear stakeholder roles, which occasionally limited the depth of the students’ engagement with cases. Originality/value This study contributes to sustainability education by demonstrating how DT can be used as a pedagogical approach to foster co-creation and support the development of key ESD competencies. It offers practical insights into how interdisciplinary participatory learning environments can prepare students to engage with complex sustainability challenges.
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Omland, Maren; Hontvedt, Magnus; Siddiq, Fazilat; Amundrud, Anja; Hermansen, Hege & Mathisen, Maiken Andrea Simmersholm
[Show all 8 contributors for this article]
(2025).
Co-creation in higher education: a conceptual systematic review.
Higher Education.
ISSN 0018-1560.
doi:
10.1007/s10734-024-01364-1.
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Co-creation constitutes a novel pedagogical approach for enhancing teaching and learning in higher education. When students and staff collaborate to improve curriculum, pedagogical resources, and the development of students’ roles as peer-mentors or teaching assistants, it has led to increased learning outcomes, more inclusive practices, empowered students, and improved relationships between students and staff. In this conceptual systematic review of 222 research articles, we investigate characteristics of research on co-creation and analyse how the interactions constituting co-creation have been conceptualised. We identified dialogue, positioning, agency, and voice as core concepts describing co-creational interactions. These concepts are highly interconnected and were examined both as products of co-creation and as vital elements for co-creation to be productive. Based on these findings, we developed an analytical framework serving (a) to inform analyses of co-creational interaction and (b) as a model for educators designing co-creational activities. We further contribute to the theoretical underpinning of co-creation by discussing how dialogic theories can inform investigations of co-creational interactions in future research. We argue that there is a range of research questions related to the interactions constituting co-creation that are not sufficiently investigated. We suggest that future research should be directed towards observational studies of these interactions to develop knowledge on how educators can interact inclusively with students, fostering agency and positioning students as significant contributors to educational processes in higher education.
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Amundrud, Anja; Rasmussen, Ingvill & Warwick, Paul
(2024).
How teachers make talk rules relevant as collective scaffolds in the context of digital technology – support for and from microblogging.
Teacher Development.
ISSN 1366-4530.
doi:
10.1080/13664530.2024.2365720.
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Amundrud, Anja; Christensen, Ingrid; Smørdal, Ole & Ludvigsen, Sten Runar
(2023).
Exploring the Potential of a Co-Creation Platform for Children and Youth.
In Damsa, Crina I.; Borge, Marcela; Koh, Elizabeth & Worsley, Marcelo (Ed.),
Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning - CSCL 2023.
International Society of the Learning Sciences.
ISSN 9783030895815.
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Amundrud, Anja; Rasmussen, Ingvill; Smørdal, Ole & Ludvigsen, Sten Runar
(2023).
Classroom Talk for Learning: Support for and From Microblogging.
In Damsa, Crina I.; Borge, Marcela; Koh, Elizabeth & Worsley, Marcelo (Ed.),
Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning - CSCL 2023.
International Society of the Learning Sciences.
ISSN 9783030895815.
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Amundrud, Anja; Smørdal, Ole & Rasmussen, Ingvill
(2021).
#Fact or #opinion: the educational design of a microblogging activity intended to engage students in productive interactions.
Technology, Pedagogy and Education.
ISSN 1475-939X.
doi:
10.1080/1475939X.2021.1991997.
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Educational activities using microblogging co-located with face-to-face communication might promote productive classroom interactions. However, much depends on how teachers design those activities. This article explores how the educational design of an activity that uses microblogging engages lower secondary school students in classroom interactions that are productive for learning. It presents a study of one teacher’s educational design in which students (aged 12–13) in a Norwegian classroom use microblogging to explore distinctions between facts and opinions. Moreover, the authors consider how the students pick up on the educational design. The findings show that an educational design involving microblogging can provide new possibilities to facilitate peer interactions by systematically enabling students to access more of their peers’ ideas, produce and discuss collective ideas and participate in exploratory talk. In particular, the use of hashtags proves suitable for facilitating peer interactions with the aim to develop students’ critical thinking.
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Amundrud, Anja; Smørdal, Ole; Zhang, Jianwei; Chen, Mei-Hwa; Kalir, Remi & Chen, Bodong
[Show all 11 contributors for this article]
(2021).
Advancing technology environments for learning communities.
In Hmelo-Silver, Cindy E.; Wever, Bram De & Oshima, Jun (Ed.),
Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning - CSCL 2021.
International Society of the Learning Sciences, Inc..
ISSN 9781737330622.
p. 239–248.
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This symposium will examine and envision new possibilities to design next generation technology environments for advancing the study of classroom learning communities as a pedagogical approach. Of the many different kinds of technology environments used in educational research, technology designed for learning communities represents a unique genre in which the environments must support particular epistemic values, modes of learning, and discourse. The talks in this session represent five distinct projects, each focusing on the features of a technological environment and how they support learning communities (e.g., making learners’ ideas salient; representing community knowledge; enabling idea interaction across boundaries; fostering a sense of progress). Across the papers, we identify cross-cutting research priorities and common technological elements that characterize this pivotal research area, with implications for future research and the development of communitysupporting technology.
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Rasmussen, Ingvill; Amundrud, Anja Skrepstad & Ludvigsen, Sten Runar
(2019).
Establishing and maintaining joint attention in classroom dialogues: Digital technology, microblogging and ground rules.
In Mercer, Neil; Wegerif, Rupert & Major, Louis (Ed.),
The Routledge International Handbook of Research on Dialogic Education.
Routledge.
ISSN 9780429441677.
p. 410–423.
doi:
10.4324/9780429441677.
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Amundrud, Anja Skrepstad & Rasmussen, Ingvill
(2019).
Embedding Microblogging Technology to Support Classroom Dialogue.
In Lund, Kristine; Niccolai, G; Hmelo-Silver, Cindy E.; Gweon, G & Baker, Michael J. (Ed.),
A Wide Lens: Combining Embodied, Enactive, Extended, and Embedded Learning in Collaborative Settings, 13th International Conference on Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) 2019, Volume 1.
International Society of the Learning Sciences (ISLS).
ISSN 9781732467231.
p. 648–652.
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It’s crucial for teachers to support the development of students’ dialogic skills. Such skills refer to the students’ use of language as a tool to enable understanding of each other’s knowledge, which creates the possibility of constructing new knowledge together.
Digital technology in classroom activities can support this form of dialogue, but it must be embedded into a classroom’s complex ecosystem to be beneficial. This paper explores how a group of seventh grade students were taught dialogic skills through the integration of microblogging in the classroom. The data analysed consists of video from the classroom, and the study is grounded in sociocultural theory. Findings suggest that integrating microblogging
in classroom activities increased participation and made students’ contributions more visible, thus creating the opportunity for students to build on each other’s knowledge. However, this is dependent on the teachers’ facilitation of the activities.
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Amundrud, Anja & Smørdal, Ole
(2026).
Design for Dialogue Across Contexts.
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In the Norwegian educational context, increased emphasis on the interdisciplinary themes, democracy and citizenship, sustainable development, and health and well-being has strengthened expectations that schools support students’ engagement with complex societal issues across subjects. This places dialogue, collaboration, and collective meaning-making at the centre of democratic participation. While previous research has shown how dialogue can be deliberately designed for and supported in classrooms, less attention has been paid to what happens when such designs unfold in practice across contexts involving both schools and external actors.
This paper reports on a qualitative case study from a collaborative project involving a lower secondary school, a public library, and researchers. The aim was to explore ways of engaging young people more actively in local sustainability-related issues. Through a joint workshop, the partners co-created a teaching design that was implemented over one semester through classroom activities and field-based work at the library. Students were invited to explore the library as a community space and develop proposals for how it could become more relevant to young people. Data consist of video recordings from the design workshop, field observations, and interviews with participants from the school and library. The analysis draws on reflexive thematic analysis and activity theory, conceptualising the teaching design as the object of the activity.
The findings show that the design initially generated strong engagement among both students and teachers. Students developed many ideas and, according to teachers, more students participated than in ordinary classroom activities. At the same time, the design was interpreted differently in practice by the participants. As the work progressed, the design was gradually reshaped in relation to school expectations of assessment, progression, and completion. This narrowed the scope of the exploration, reduced students’ sense of ownership, and undermined the original ambition to carry students’ proposals forward in the library. Instead, the design became a basis for reflection on future collaboration.
The study empirically demonstrates the central challenges in designing for democratic participation, namely, creating authentic opportunities for dialogue while also sustaining them across phases, contexts, and institutional demands.
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Rasmussen, Ingvill & Amundrud, Anja
(2025).
Teachers accounts about opportunities and challenges in research-practice collaborations: a negotiation of change.
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Smørdal, Ole; Rasmussen, Ingvill & Amundrud, Anja
(2024).
Designing tasks and tools that foster dialogue and participation - demonstrating
Talkwall.
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Amundrud, Anja & Rasmussen, Ingvill
(2024).
Tensions in research-practice partnerships: How can they inform future research?
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Smørdal, Ole & Amundrud, Anja
(2024).
Designing bridging objects to connect civic education with local sustainable development.
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Amundrud, Anja & Rasmussen, Ingvill
(2024).
Democracy, Citizenship, and Sustainable Development through Digital Dialogues.
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Amundrud, Anja & Smørdal, Ole
(2024).
Pedagogical design in higher education: students’ engagement in authentic research
Projects about sustainable development.
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Amundrud, Anja; Smørdal, Ole & Rasmussen, Ingvill
(2024).
Democracy, citizenship and Sustainable Development through Digital Dialogues.
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Amundrud, Anja & Smørdal, Ole
(2024).
Students’ engagement in authentic
research projects about sustainable
development.
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Amundrud, Anja; Omland, Maren & Rasmussen, Ingvill
(2023).
Microblogging and classroom talk.
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Digital technologies, such as iPads, mobile phones, laptops, and interactive whiteboards, are now used in most Norwegian classrooms and have, in various
ways, changed how teachers and students work and interact. However, despite technology-induced change, language remains our most important tool for
learning. Research shows that teaching students in primary and secondary education how they can use their language productively in educational dialogue to
learn through interactions is beneficial. Today, explicit teaching of the dialogue skills needed for learning is sparse, and the increased use of digital technology
shows a tendency to more individualised activities, leaving less time for interacting in educational dialogue. In this paper, we focus on these challenges and
report the findings from a project with teachers from four different schools in Norway. The project aimed to incorporate dialogic pedagogy while using a digital
microblogging technology, Talkwall, which is designed to help teachers engage their students in educational dialogue. In Talkwall, students talk together in small
groups and write short messages that can be displayed, arranged and distributed across students’ devices and digital whiteboards for discussion in the whole
class. The study explored the use of Talkwall in the classroom, specifically the teachers’ practices when combining an explicit focus on educational dialogue and
microblogging, and the ways in which microblogging can enhance students’ participation in educational dialogue.
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Monica, Bjermeland; Amundrud, Anja; Smørdal, Ole & Tellefsen, Sølvi
(2023).
Bør alle kommuner skaffe seg en gaming-ekspert?
Forskning.no.
ISSN 1891-635X.
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Amundrud, Anja & Rasmussen, Ingvill
(2023).
Collaborative design for professional development in digital schools: Co-designing digital technology to develop teachers’ dialogic practice.
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Bjermeland, Monica; Amundrud, Anja; Smørdal, Ole & Tellefsen, Sølvi
(2023).
DET GRØNNE SKIFTET: En gamingekspert i hver kommune?
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Hvor innovasjonsvillige er norske kommuner, egentlig? Tør politikerne å ta et steg til siden for å la ungdom påvirke den lokale klimapolitikken, slik den nye kommuneloven sier at de skal?
Forskerne Ole Smørdal og Anja Amundrud ved forskningssenteret Include og biblioteksjef Sølvi Tellefsen svarer «tja». De tre samarbeider nå om å utvikle et spill om klima som skal føre unge og kommunepolitikere nærmere hverandre i jakten på en effektiv klimapolitikk.
Programleder er Monica Bjermeland.
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Smørdal, Ole & Amundrud, Anja
(2022).
IPEDs deltakelse i INCLUDE – et forskningssenter for sosialt inkluderende energiomstilling.
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Amundrud, Anja; Rasmussen, Ingvill & Smørdal, Ole
(2021).
Exploring how co-located microblogging can support young students’ collaborative reasoning.
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Boldyreva, Elena; Amundrud, Anja; Slotta, James & Niño-Soto, Maria
(2020).
Active learning for high school biology: Collaboration, cooperation, and scientific argumentation in a learning community.
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Amundrud, Anja Skrepstad & Smørdal, Ole
(2019).
Developing Educational Technologies: The continuous Improvement of Talkwall.
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Amundrud, Anja Skrepstad
(2018).
Multi-modelling dialogic skills: The use of multiple resources to
support classroom dialogue.
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Amundrud, Anja
(2022).
Microblogging and classroom talk: Teachers' practices and students' participation in talk for learning during microblogging activities in the classroom.
Universitetet i Oslo.
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Language is our most important tool for learning, and therefore it is important that students in primary and secondary education are taught how they can talk together to learn. This is especially important in classrooms where the use of digital technology is increasing. Research has demonstrated that the explicit teaching of talk for learning can promote students learning and their capacity to think critically and solve problems together. However, in today’s classrooms, there is only sparse explicit teaching of talk for learning, and the increased use of digital technology shows a tendency to more individualised activities in the classroom, which in turn leaves less time to focus on developing students’ talk skills. With more technology in the classroom, students must also be taught how they can talk together to learn both orally, but also in a semi oral manner, such as through short texts in social media that have an oral character. This thesis discusses the above issues. The study is part of the larger research project called Digital dialogues Across the Curriculum (DiDiAC) which aim is to develop teaching practices that combine the teaching of talk for learning with the microblogging tool Talkwall to address the need for developing oral skills in digital classrooms. Talkwall is a technology that has been developed by researchers and teachers. In Talkwall, students can write short messages called microblogs that can be displayed and arranged on a digital whiteboard. The written microblogs can support the students’ talk, and thus help students talk together in ways that they learn from. The thesis explores how Talkwall can be a useful tool in the classroom for both teachers and students to develop students’ talk for learning. I particularly focus on the teachers’ strategies used to support students’ development and participation in talk for learning. The empirical data mainly 8 consists of video observations of twenty teachers and their students in lower secondary education. The data collection is conducted in fourteen Norwegian classrooms and six British classrooms throughout one semester. The two overall research questions that are discussed in this thesis are (1) What characterises teachers' emerging educational practices when combining an explicit focus on talk for learning and co-located microblogging? (2) In what ways can co-located microblogging enhance students' participation in talk for learning? In the first part, the extended abstract, I discuss the findings from three empirical studies reported in research article which are included in part 2 of this thesis.
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Published
Aug. 9, 2017 2:56 PM
- Last modified
Dec. 18, 2025 10:19 AM