About us
For a better world
Ingunn Smenes
ingunn.wright@gmail.com
I have my education as educator of higher education with a specialty in athletics and art; respectively from the Norwegian School of Sports Sciences, Oslo, Norway and from the Bergen Academy of Art and Design in Bergen, Norway.
I have worked with students in a number of school levels but have a heart for working with people who are considered to fall into the periphery of society; so-called “outsiders.
I have worked as athletic consultant in jail, with school «drop outs» in secondary School and to do work training and consultancy for follow up for people who have gone through rehabilitation programs from addictions.
I volunteer at The Evangelic Center for rehabilitation and serve food to drug addicts and homeless Roma people.
For many years I have worked as an artist and have had many exhibits and cooperation projects, as well as working with the Norwegian “Arts-in-the-Schools” program.
Harry Bjerkeng
harry.bjerkeng@gmail.com
26 years experience with the Craft Federation of Norway and the Norwegian Federation of Business and Industry, within fields of vocational education, small business policies, wage settlements as Social Partner. 13 years within banking, also international. Chairman of the Norwegian Board of Leonardo da Vinci programme up to 2008. Chairman of the board of Nordic Forum of Crafts and member of Hanse-Parlament, a huge project manager for vocational educations and related projects in the Baltic Sea Region. Various positions within the professional photography sectors.
Elin Osjord
Key competence: Communication through video and photography.
Education: As a ballet dancer plus as a video and film producer.
Job experience: As dancer, choreographer, instructor, dance teacher, producer, idea developer, photographer and video producer.
Video Screenings: NRK2 and several film festivals in Norway and internationally.
Susan Guerra
Susan Morales Guerra, writer and facilitator
As writer, I have learned good structuring skills and to have faith in creativity and the organic flow of processes. I consult in co-creative process design. My training as facilitator is from the Art of Hosting; community organizing and community development; in public sector and as activist.
My skills include participatory methods such as Open Space, World dialogue, the Circle Way and creative workshops useful for community building and community dialogues.
My learning and work experience is from networks and projects in Norway and in Europe; linking the issues of sustainability, social cohesion, diversity and community development; aka Placemaking.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/susan-morales-guerra
Circle Way og kreative verksteder nyttig i lokal stedsutvikling og felles åpne dialoger. Min erfaring er fra nettverk og prosjekter i Norge og i Europa; ved å linke sammen bærekraftig utviklingssaker, sosialinkludering, mangfold, og lokalstedsutvikling; jmfr. Placemaking.
Sturla Bjerkaker
I am an experienced adult educator with many years of engagements both in Norway and abroad. My present activities are project management, project evaluation, teaching and training for adults. My background is General Secretary for the Norwegian Association for Adult Learning and for the Association for adapted adult education. I was also principal and director for the Nordic Folk Academy run by the Nordic Council of Ministers. I have university degrees in pedagogy/adult education, sociology and social science and has written several books and articles about adult learning and study circles. I was board member of the European Association for the Education of Adults and the International Council for Adult Education. Since 2014 I am member of the International Adult and Continuing Education Hall of Fame and from 2018 also member of the Hall of Fame Executive Board. I am vice president of the Seniornett Norway – an NGO for promoting digital skills among seniors.
Homepage: www.bjerkalerlearninglab.no
Kirsten Paaby
Kirsten Paaby, pedagog, fasilitator og skribent
Utdannet cand. mag. i nordisk språk og litteratur og dramapedagogikk (fra Danmark.) Min pasjon og mitt arbeidsfelt er demokratiske og kreative metoder innen utviklings- og aksjonsforskningsarbeid i både undervisningssektoren, kommunal forvaltning og i frivillige organisasjoner. Jeg har arbeidet som prosjektleder i (norsk) kommunal sektor med forebyggende barnevern i 10 år, spesielt med å utvikle modeller for tverrfagligsamarbeid og hvordan offentlig sektor kan samarbeide med sivilsamfunnet. Siden 2001 har jeg arbeidet innen fagfeltet utdanning for bærekraftig samfunnsutvikling og prosessledelse i Norge, Norden og Europa med et særlig fokus på eksempelpedagogikk og transformativ læring. Har publisert flere artikler i tilknytning til dette. Sjekk min nettside: www.eduation.no
Anita Evjen
anitaevjen@gmail.com
Several years’ experience working with children with special needs. Downs syndrome and other disabilities, and people with addictions/substance abuse, offering cognitive therapy and guidance, teaching and rehabilitation.
I also have long experience working in psychiatric institutions for individuals with various mental disorders, who cannot live by themselves.
I have a bachelor’s degree in nursing and have specialized in how to integrate children and adults with special needs or mental disorders into society. Focus on empowerment, building networks, guidance and development of personal skills.
Arild Mikkelsen
arild.mikkelsen@gmail.com
I have studied Music, the History of Ideas and Norwegian language and literature at the University of Oslo and the University of Bergen. For many years I have worked as educator and principal at the Buskerud Folk Highschool, where I taught philosophy, musc, and literature.
I have been head of the Norwegian Folk Highschool Alliance for ten years and have been a member of the Nordic Folk Highschool Alliance, as well as having had leadership of seminars and conferences organzied by the Nordic Council of Ministers.
For three years I had the position as educator in Norwegian at the Nordic Folk Academy in Gothenburg, Sweden.
I have worked to develop ideas behind the Nordic Public Community Education concept and often lecture on N.F.S. Grundtvig, Danish priest, philosopher and historian, and on his influence on the aspects of public communuty educaton in pedagogy, theology and philosophy.
Øyvind Brandt
oybrandt@gmail.com
Øyvind har allmennlærerutdanning i bunnen, med tilleggsstudier i medier og kommunikasjon IKT og ledelse. Tyngste ballasten er 30 års erfaring fra folkehøgskole som lærer, tillitsvalgt lokalt og rektor, hvorav de siste 20 årene som informasjonssjef og leder av Folkehøgskoleforbundet sentralt. I dette arbeidet har han vært sentral i både nasjonale og nordiske pedagogiske og politiske utviklingsprosjekter. Øyvind er spesielt opptatt av å bidra til unge voksnes dannelse til bæredyktige demokratiske fellesskaper lokalt, nasjonalt og internasjonalt via dialog og dermed ulike dialogprosjekter og -metodikker
Ellen Stavlund
ellenchrstavlund@gmail.com
I have my education as a teacher and have a Master’s Degree in Media and Communication from The University of Westminster. Throughout my entire career I have worked with knowledge and education possibilities, particularly facilitating for adult learning. I have worked nationally and in the Nordic region, to support adult’s involvement and civil participation through knowledge and learning. Throughout the years, I have acquired administrative leadership experience and I have led and participated in networks and projects, mainly in the Nordic region, but also in Europe. Presently, I have positions as Director of the Board of Folkeakademiet Viken and serve as well as board member in several educational and cultural organizations.
Jan Sørlie
My education is within the arts, i.e. languages and history of ideas. I have been working mainly in the field of adult learning. In addition to teaching English, I have organised a number of short courses and seminars and I have been involved in several international projects. I was working within this area also for four years at the Nordic Folk Academy in Göteborg. The last few years before retirement I was working for Skills Norway, mainly with a focus on providing in-service training for employees with limited basic skills.
My areas of interest are adult learning (which I prefer to call it rather that adult education), empowerment (including the development of personal resources), presentation skills and, in more general terms, democracy and civil society.