- Which teaching program do you want to highlight to your colleagues at the faculty right now?
I would actually like to highlight an educational program from outside UiO: the so-called Intensive Courses Abroad (ICAs) that I am involved in through my affiliation with Drexel University in Philadelphia (USA). An ICA is a short international exchange program of 1-2 weeks that takes place between study quarters, where students travel to different parts of the world to delve into a given topic and complete an academic project upon their return to campus. The most interesting and relevant aspect for UiO is probably not the international exchange component itself, but the extensive focus on experiential learning and collaborations with practitioners that characterize these programs.
I am personally involved in two ICAs, Addiction, Public Health & Harm Reduction in Denmark, and Scandinavian Perspectives on Humanity & Justice that takes students to Norway and Sweden. Here, we combine relatively traditional teaching methods such as lectures and group discussions with visits to relevant institutions and organizations, including prisons, drug consumption rooms, and voluntary organizations. Through these visits, students can form their own experiences and talk to people who work in or are users of these systems. We also incorporate a cultural program that gives the students an overview of the historical, social, and institutional characteristics of the societies in which these systems are embedded.
As an instructor, I find it incredibly rewarding to discuss academic topics with students outside the traditional classroom setting, and the learning that happens when they get to talk to experts and experience things firsthand is something I simply cannot facilitate alone. I would love to incorporate much more of these experiential learning opportunities in my other courses as well, and I’m sure that many others at UiO would enjoy the same! An exciting example of a sociology course that includes such components is Johan Fredrik Rye's new version of the deviance course at the master's level, which is starting again this spring after a couple of years break.
- Who do you collaborate with?
Jordan M. Hyatt from Drexel University has the main academic responsibility for both courses, and we could not have done this work without our incredible partners from all over Scandinavia. These include (but are not limited to) state representatives from the criminal justice system (police, courts and prisons) and health care, as well as voluntary organizations that support individuals that find themselves in challenging life situations due to crime and substance use.
- Which, do you think, are the three most important factors for achieving good teaching in the field?
These programs rest on three pillars: the first-hand experiences provided by field trips and visits to practitioners, the cultural program, and the academic discussions that tie everything together. Jordan and I have collaborated on one or more versions of these ICAs since 2016, and we’ve both sensed it the few times that the balance between the three isn't quite right.
One year, for example, I ended up giving a rather spontaneous "lecture" on modern Scandinavian immigration history in the minivan on the way to a site visit, as we got the impression that the students lacked some background information to contextualize and make sense of the information they were provided. For the next iteration of the course we implemented this lecture into the schedule from the get-go.
The exact nature of these programs do in many ways depend on the contributions of both academic and practitioner partners, a diverse and (at least in the beginning) relatively unknown student group, jet lag, the weather gods, and the reliability of public transport, and it is simply impossible to plan for everything. But as long as you are comfortable with relinquishing some control, I believe this type of setting sets you up for one of the most rewarding and educational experiences possible – for both student and instructors alike!
- If you were to give one piece of advice to new teachers at the SV faculty, what would it be?
Create courses and teaching activities that you yourself find enjoyable to be a part of! It’s clearly not the case that we can do exactly what we want, but there is a lot of flexibility both within and beyond the traditional 2x45 minutes auditorium lecture format. I think students can clearly sense whether we are motivated or not, and believe that having a personal drive and a dash of passion makes it both easier and more natural to revise courses and keep them updated and relevant over time.