Anne Grethe Sønsthagen

Field of work

I am an Associate Professor in Education at the Department of Education, Religion and Social Studies, and I teach in the early childhood teacher education program in Sogndal. I am the leader of the research group Diversity and Intercultural Communication in Education and serve as the R&D partner for the teacher-education kindergarten Stedje barnehage. In addition, I am a development partner for several kindergartens in the Sogn and Sunnfjord regions. 

Research and development work

Blind-spots in the ECEC sector

 In June 2024, the project “Blind-spots in the ECEC sector” started, with Monica Hauge Skaten as project leader and myself, Thor Erik Sortland and Hilde Hjertager Lund (UiB) as participants. We have carried out an extensive scoping review of empirical research on early childhood education and care globally to map how social inequality is conceptualized and addressed. The field is fragmented, with no overall insight into what forms of inequality are being studied, who participates, and which perspectives dominate across regions – with clear blind spots at the research front. So far, the project has generated four articles (one published and three scheduled for submission during autumn 2026).

 SognaBLU

 SognaBLU is a partnership that was established in autumn 2024. The six municipalities in the Sogn region, together with HVL, have signed letters of intent (December 2024), in which the municipalities offer full-time students in the early childhood teacher education program (BLU), Campus Sogndal, a 20% part-time position in a kindergarten, and the parties commit to a joint effort for recruitment. In autumn 2025, the first cohort of students linked to this scheme started. The letters of intent were prompted by a major decline in applicants to BLU at Campus Sogndal, which led to no admissions in autumn 2024, and by the municipalities’ challenges in meeting the requirement for the number of qualified pedagogical staff in their kindergartens. SognaBLU entails a regional, binding partnership between the education provider, municipalities and kindergartens. Since the beginning, I have been part of the working group, which includes representatives from the owner level, the Union of Education Norway, head teachers, assistant head teachers, academic staff, administration and management from BLU. In addition, together with Hege Fimreite and Lillian Pedersen, I conduct research on the students’ and kindergartens’ experiences with SognaBLU.

 LEIKFORSK

 In autumn 2023, together with Hege Fimreite and Lillian Pedersen, I started the project LEIKFORSK, in which we, together with colleagues in the early childhood teacher education program, develop our teaching practice. The project grew out of EX-PED-LAB and brings together academic staff from all subject areas at BLU in Sogndal. The project links course and program development with systematic work on educational competence. In the 2023/24 academic year, artists from Kunstpilotene supervised academic staff in making their teaching more co-creative, exploratory, and playful, and conducted workshops with students, academic staff, and kindergarten teachers. In 2025, play researchers and designers Professor Helle Marie Skovbjerg and Postdoctoral Fellow Mathias Poulsen from Design School Kolding supervised the academic staff in developing and testing teaching experiments. Throughout the whole period, academic staff have met regularly in professional communities where we explore, play with and discuss our own teaching. Based on this work, we have edited the professional book “Å vere ein modig maur: Utforsking, leik og samskaping i barnehagen” [Being a Brave Ant: Exploration, Play and Co-creation in Kindergarten], which was published by Fagbokforlaget in summer 2026. Several of the academic staff involved in LEIKFORSK have written chapters in this book. 

 EX-PED-LAB: Exploration and Pedagogical Innovation Laboratories

I have been a researcher and work package leader in the Research Council of Norway–funded project EX-PED-LAB (2021–2025), which focused on exploratory processes and pedagogical innovation in kindergartens through workshop methodology. In the project, I focused on leadership and organizational learning, collaboration with families, and the replication potential of the workshop methodology in early childhood teacher education. I also had special responsibility for follow-up and contact with participating kindergartens in Kinn municipality. 

Collaboration between kindergarten and home – before and during the Corona pandemic

 In spring 2020, my colleague Karin Street and I started the study “Collaboration between kindergarten and home – before and during the Corona pandemic”. This was a quantitative study aimed at investigating whether parents and pedagogical staff perceived changes in the collaboration between kindergarten and home after the kindergartens reopened following closure due to the Corona outbreak in 2020. Heads/managers of 630 kindergartens in Vestland county were invited to forward online questionnaires to pedagogical staff and parents in their kindergartens. In total, the study had 575 participants across the county. 

Ph.D. study 

I defended my Ph.D. on the 2nd of November, 2021. My Ph.D. study is titled Leadership and responsibility: A study of early childcare institutions as inclusion arenas for refugees. I have investigated the inclusion of parents from refugee backgrounds in early childcare institutions, where relationships and interactions with staff are central. I investigated the staff's multicultural competence and need for professional development, as well as the leadership's responsibility in this regard. I have studied two early childcare institutions that participated in the national in-service program Competence for Diversity.  

The thesis consists of four articles
Article I - "Jeg savner barnet mitt". Møter mellom somaliske mødre og barnehagen.
Article II - Early childcare as arenas of inclusion: the contribution of staff to recognizing parents with refugee backgrounds as significant stakeholders.
Article III - 'Learning by talking`' - The role of local line leadership in organisational learning. 
Article IV - Interkulturell kompetanseutvikling - ein studies om leing av barnehagepersonalet som lærer å lære om foreldresamarbeid.

I participated in the doctoral program "Pedagogical resources and learning processes" at South-Eastern Norway University (USN).
Heidi Biseth at USN was my main supervisor and Øyvind Glosvik at HVL was my co-supervisor. 

Experience  

I worked as an assistant professor from January 2015 to August 2016, teaching in early childhood teacher education, with an emphasis on multicultural pedagogy and leadership in kindergartens. 

I was a coordinator for the national initiative "Competence for Diversity" in the region Sogn og Fjordane in 2016-2017.

I have previously worked as an assistant and preschool teacher in a kindergarten, and as a consultant at a refugee service center.

Education

I hold a bachelor’s degree in preschool teaching from Sogn og Fjordane University College, with a specialization in Global Knowledge and a three-month practice placement in Zambia.

I hold a master’s degree in Multicultural and International Education from Oslo and Akershus University College, with two months of fieldwork in South Africa. Title of the master’s thesis: “Education in post-apartheid South Africa: A limited approach to social justice and redress”.

I hold a PhD in Education from the University of South-Eastern Norway, where I was affiliated with the PhD program Educational Resources and Learning Processes. 

Research areas

• Multicultural pedagogy / power and majority/minority
• Leadership in kindergartens
• Collaboration with parents
• Inclusion
• Competence development
• Learning organisations
• Symbolic power
• Quality of education in higher education
• Workshop methodology 

Research groups

• Everyday Life in Preschool Education
• Diversity and intercultural communication in education
• Diversity and Citizenship in Education (associated member - USN)