News from LeaDS – October 2026
Achievements in research, education and collaboration have characterised this year’s developments within LeaDS. Throughout the year, researchers have published studies that have attracted attention, participated in national and international activities, secured funding for new research projects and welcomed new doctoral students. Together, these activities demonstrate a strong and growing research environment with a significant impact both within academia and on educational practice in schools.
LeaDS research in collaboration – Seminar 16 October 2026
Eva Brooks introduced ULF (Education, Learning and Research) as an opportunity for researchers who are interested in research in close collaboration with schools. In ULF, researchers from all schools at the university can apply for funding for research circles and projects, in close collaboration with preschools and schools. Emma Edstrand presented a school-based research project together with multilingual study guidance (MSG) teachers working with immersive and interactive Virtual Reality (VR) technology to support students’ development of disciplinary knowledge through multilingual conceptual learning. Ebba Sundin presented her project Digikids that investigates 20 young children and their families’ digital media appropriation, practices and agency as well as parental mediation strategies, to advance the understanding of their implications on childhood and family life. Patrik Lilja and Björn Sjödén presented a research circle where they, over one year, will work with teachers to develop their teaching based on cognitive science. Alice Zupančič presented her co-design project where she investigates how the unique affordances of virtual reality (VR) offer immersive ways for students who have been absent for extended periods due to psychological, social, or medical reasons to engage with educational content while participating remotely. Joakim Tell presented his project Aquality in which he collaborates with university students, MSB and the emergency services, to develop floating drones equipped with sensors that can measure and analyse water quality in real time across a range of environments. The seminar provided an opportunity to share experiences, be inspired by each other´s projects and together discuss what practice-based and collaboration-oriented research can mean – for research, for our partners and for the continued development of joint research within LeaDS. Eva Brooks also invited LeaDS researchers to a meeting to discuss ULF Ideas on 20 November 2026, 09.30-15.00 at Resurscentrum Kärnhuset, Nässjögatan 6. The day serves as a shared arena for preschool teachers, teachers, school leaders, and other staff in preschools and schools, as well as school authorities, researchers, and teacher educators, to come together and explore issues for research that are significant to the everyday life of preschools and schools.
EDUCERE: an important international network for LeaDS
The EDUCERE NORDIC network, funded by the Swedish Research Council, held a two-day symposium on 14-15 October. Through a series of presentations, the symposium offered insights into current research and emerging directions in the Nordic region, inviting participants to engage in this critical dialogue.
The symposium brought together scholars from across the Nordic region to discuss how digital transformation and artificial intelligence are reshaping higher education. For LeaDS, EDUCERE is an important international network, and five LeaDS participants are members. For three years, the network has conducted research on several urgent questions: What institutional strategies, policies, and support structures are needed to navigate this transformation responsibly? What does it mean for educators to exercise professional judgement and competence in increasingly AI-mediated environments? How can students be supported in developing critical, ethical, and responsible uses of digital technologies? How do these developments reshape our understandings of knowledge production, assessment, authorship, and academic integrity? What tensions arise between technological innovation and the Nordic perspectives on inclusion, sustainability, and education?
Sylvana Sofkova Hashemi, a visiting professor in LeaDS, leads the network and, together with Eva Brooks, Jeanette Sjöberg, Nataliya Berbyuk Lindström, and Judit Hahn, organised the symposium.
LeaDS warmly acknowledges her leadership and the opportunities the network gives LeaDS researchers to work with colleagues across the Nordic countries. Eva Brooks and Jeanette Sjöberg are also in the management group of the EDUCERE network.
The second day, themed “Digital Transformation and AI in Higher Education – A cross-Nordic perspective”, posed the question of how universities can handle AI responsibly within teaching and learning in higher education. Questions included how educators can exercise professional judgement in AI-mediated environments, how students can learn to use AI critically and ethically, and how AI affects assessment, authorship and academic integrity.
LeaDS researchers contributed to this important topic in several ways.
Eva Brooks introduced a special issue in Nordic Journal of Digital Literacy with several contributions from LeaDS researchers. Guest editors for the special issues are; Sylvana Sofkova Hashemi, University of Gothenburg, Sweden Susanne Dau, University College of Northern Denmark, Denmark, Cathrine Edelhard Tømte, University of Agder, Norway
Sigurbjörg Jóhannesdóttir, University of Iceland, Iceland Päivi Kousa, University of Jyväskylä, Finland and Shola Oyedeji, LUT University, Finland
Eva Brooks and Jeanette Sjöberg co-authored two papers: one on professional development for generative AI in Nordic higher education on which also Emma Edstrand and Anne-Marie Cederqvist are co-authors, and one on shifts in perspectives on policy, literacy and sustainability. Emma Edstrand and Anne-Marie Cederqvist co-authored the cross-national study on professional development for generative AI. Sylvana Sofkova Hashemi presented work on student imaginaries and AI literacy and also co-authored the policy and sustainability paper. The papers are part of a special issue for Springer. The day also included presentations on AI-resilient assessment, the ethical and environmental impact of AI, and trust in students’ learning. In the closing of the conference, Pernilla Nilsson, program director of LeaDS, moderated a panel discussion, Key issues for the future of the field and the network, in which the LeaDS member Emma Edstrand participated.
Jeanette Sjöberg, Theme-leader for Theme 2 in LeaDS, is part of a newly formed international collaboration with colleagues specializing in higher education pedagogy from Canada. Two of them, Mary Wilson and Celia Popovic, along with Åse Nygren from BTH, visited Halmstad on October 1st to work on developing joint research projects.
