This text has been translated from Norwegian with the assistance of GPT UiO.
– Which teaching program would you like to highlight for your colleagues at the faculty right now?
– I would like to highlight the teaching programme that Maka Suarez has developed as part of our master’s students’ preparation for fieldwork. The students take part in a project development seminar while also following a course in recent anthropological theory. When working on their individual research questions, the students are asked not only to produce a written project description, but also to create a piece of creative work that expresses something central about the topic or the place where they will be doing their fieldwork.
– The students’ exhibition is in the foyer of the Social Sciences building, and it is one of the last things they do before setting off on extended fieldwork during the spring semester.
– This creative part of the project work is something our colleague Maka has developed, and it allows the students to become familiar with others’ projects in new ways. It also makes it possible for everyone at the Faculty of Social Sciences to gain a glimpse of what our students are engaged in and what they are working on.
– Who do you collaborate with?
– I collaborate with everyone at our department in my work on putting together teaching schedules, organising exchanges of experience and more. Particularly important is the collaboration with the master’s programme coordinator, Kenneth Bo Nielsen. He has unique experience because he has previously held the position of Head of Studies. In addition, he is extremely thorough and able to identify potential challenges in proposed plans, and he is very good at finding solutions to them.
– I would also like to highlight our study administration: Liv Christina Varen, Kristian Teofilovic and Kirsten Greiner. Together with Kenneth, I would say that the four of them make up a brilliant team that I am fortunate to be able to work with.
– In your opinion, what are the three most important factors for achieving good teaching in this field?
– I would emphasise the need for good coordination between the different courses we offer – that there are a natural progression and coherence between them from the students’ perspective. This can only be achieved if persons with course responsibility talk to each other, and if programme coordinators assume overall responsibility for the whole.
– In addition, a key factor for success is combining the classics with more recent academic literature, and drawing connections to current events.
– Finally, it is important that we talk with the students and establish contact so that the teaching succeeds in connecting with their worlds.
– If you were to give one piece of advice to new teachers at the faculty, what would it be?
– Talk to other teachers, find out what they do and what works for them. Do feel free to accept technical and pedagogical support (see the pages for EILIN and LINK). But most important of all is that you find a way to make the lecture hall your own arena - a place where you can feel comfortable, and where you are happy to use different forms of communication, as suits the topic and the type of lecture. .