Research on Embodied Making and Learning (EMAL)

In our research group we study human creative interactions with materials and the learning that takes place in this process.

We base our view on learning in embodied cognition - that is, an understanding of learning as rooted in the body.

  • «Embodied» refers to the unity of mind-body-surroundings as we interact and experience with others and with materials in the world.
  • «Making» refers to the act of changing and influencing materials and situations (in a broad sense).
  • «Learning» refers to the change and development of the individual when engaged in embodied interaction with others and materials. This includes a perspective on knowledge as an active process and as continuous change.

Being a body in the world

The group explores basic conditions and consequences of being a body in the world, experiencing and learning through working in materials and with others.

This attitude is opening up for interdisciplinary approaches and practice-based research process in multiple contexts.

The research conducted in this vein is important especially in a time when materiality is in a state of constant change and creative practitioners as well as teachers and pupils must adapt to new conditions and modalities of making.

Knowledge that can explain embodied making practice

The goal of the research group is to develop knowledge that can explain embodied making practice, understand its role for individuals, their learning and for today's society.

We do this by collaborating interdisciplinary, in close contact with the international research front in the field.

The knowledge we develop contributes locally to strengthening USN's teacher education programs, and internationally to develop knowledge about learning, teaching and creative interactions with materials.

This is how we are organized

The organizational structure of EMAL is constructed of three levels.

1. Targeting

The EMAL research leader group is headed by professor Camilla Groth.  

2. Coordinating

The research is coordinated within three clusters:

3. Research

The actual research is conducted by the group members (see members list in fact box) within their different disciplines:

  • Arts & crafts
  • Design
  • Outdoor activity education and dance
  • Pedagogy
  • Music
  • Learning sciences
  • Creativity, culture, Education

Collaboration and network

Ongoing research projects

Evaluering av fagfornyelsen: planlegging og gjennomføring av undervisning i praktiske og estetiske fag (EVAPE25)

More information (Norwegian only).

Rebuilding futures: Empowering educators and students through cross-border collaboration and invention pedagogy (REFINE) 

EMAL members have secured EDUC funding for a project that brings together Ukrainian teachers and students from the Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University and Norwegian teacher educators and local actors at USN, Notodden campus, in a joint research project. 

The project is called «Rebuilding futures: Empowering educators and students through cross-border collaboration and invention pedagogy (REFINE)» and will be running for one year, from 15 November 2025 to 14 November 2026.  Active researchers at USN are senior researcher Larysa Kolesnyk and professor Camilla Groth.
 
The research project utilizes makerspace activities and investigates the effectiveness of Maker pedagogy and invention pedagogy in fostering resilience and agency among Ukrainian teachers and students. Through collaborative digital and hands-on makerspace activities, the project aims to:   

  • Equip Ukrainian educators and trainees with Maker pedagogy principles and collaborative learning methods.   
  • Implement and evaluate maker-centered projects in Ukrainian schools and communities.   
  • Analyze the feasibility, impact, and scalability of such pedagogy in post-conflict educational contexts.   

The project emphasizes the adaptation and implementation of Maker pedagogy and Invention Pedagogy in Ukrainian teacher education programs. By engaging the participants in creative problem-solving and collaborative projects that aim to design for preferable futures and positive «worldmaking», the research explores the potential of maker-centered activities to:  Build resilience and foster hope among teachers and students, empower individuals and communities in post-conflict settings, and to promote intercultural dialogue and knowledge exchange through Norwegian-Ukrainian collaboration.   

The project thus seeks to develop sustainable frameworks for integrating maker pedagogy into resource-constrained environments, prioritizing adaptability and long-term impact. By collaborating closely through research-practice partnerships we exchange and transfer knowledge effectively between researchers and teacher education in both countries, thus reaching a large audience, and in the long term also schoolchildren.

This investigation builds on a previous four-year project on maker-centered learning in Norway: Maker-Centered Learning: cultivating creativity in tomorrow’s schools funded by the Norwegian research council.

Crafting Creativity 2024-2027

mennesker som sitter i en gigantisk sofa inne på et museum​​​​​​

An interdisciplinary and international collaboration in craft research has been inaugurated between Sigmund Freud University (SFU), University of Vienna (UV), University of South-eastern Norway (USN), and University of Gothenburg (GU). This four-year project runs in the period 2024-2027 and it is funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF).

The Principal Investigator is cognitive scientists Mag. Dr. Michael Kimmel (SFU) together with PhD candidate Stefan Schneider (UV). EMAL research group is participating as international partners via Prof. Camilla Groth (USN), together with craft researcher and Phd candidate Gustav Thane (GU). The project also collaborates closely with researchers and practitioners at the University of Applied Arts Vienna and with the Museum of Applied arts in Vienna.

See the Austrian project webpages here.

About the project

As research on crafts is adopting the viewpoint of embodied cognition theory, catchwords like «material dialogues», «material engagement» or «distributed creativity» emphasize how crucial the interplay with the material is as makers tinker, exploit «happy accidents» or set constraints to heighten creativity. The project applies a combination of first and third person methods (i.e. interviews and ratings) to take a detailed look at how creative processes unfold in a highly skilled context, for example in the work of blacksmiths, ceramicists, and tailors.

The process trails will clarify how creative thinking evolves in doing, as interactivity-based and ideational creativity aspects trigger and complement each other. The research is guided by frameworks from «4E» cognitive science such as interactivity, affordance, soft assembly, and synergy to illuminate how novelty comes about and how it is grounded in embodied skill and interactive explorations.

The data consists of interviews of craft practitioners in three different domains; textiles, ceramics and blacksmithing, and who are observed and interviewed on their processes while making their crafts. The practitioners are given a certain number of constraints and workshop sessions are done iteratively and followed up by video induced interviews.

Slow pedagogies in Early Childhood Education and Care

Background 

Concerns about increasing pressure and measurement in Early Childhood Education and Care internationally has led to a growing interest in slow pedagogies. This concern is compounded by questions about children’s and educators’ wellbeing post pandemic and problems globally with staff recruitment and retention. Professor Alison Clark carried out the «Slow knowledge and the unhurried child» study (2020-2022) funded by the Froebel Trust which explored ways to make explicit the relationship with time in ECEC and in ECEC teacher education. This has drawn attention to the characteristics of slow practices that emphasise the value of play, deepening relationships and care and the benefits of ‘unfragmented time’.

The book based on the study was awarded Nursery World Professional Book of the Year in 2023.
 
Alongside this project has been the «Taking Time Back» study (2022-2024), a research collaboration between USN and Kobe Shinwa University, Japan. Professor Alison Clark and Emeritus Professor Kari Carlsen collaborated with Professor Mari Mori to research slow practices with materials and the role of pedagogical documentation.

Stilla, an Icelandic research and development study (2023-2025) has also been investigating slow pedagogies, working with four Icelandic preschools. The study was led by Dr Anna Magnea Hreinsdottir (University of Iceland) and Kristin Dyrfjord (University of Akureyri). Alison Clark and Kari Carlsen have been project advisors.

Current project 

A new network: Reclaiming Slow Nordic Early Childhood Education and Care was launched in May 2025, funded by Nordplus Higher Education. 
The network is project managed by Professor Alison Clark and Professor Karin Hognestad. 

The network fosters innovation in teacher training, playful learning, reflective leadership, and international collaboration to ensure sustainable, child-centred practices in early childhood education and care (ECEC) and higher education (HE), aligned with Nordplus objectives. 

USN coordinates the network and has been established with international partners at the University of Iceland and University of Akureyri, Iceland; Åbo Akademi University, Finland; Kolding School Design and Aalborg University, Denmark with plans to expand in subsequent years.

Grant amount: 43,515 euros

Project period: first year 01.05.2025-01.10.2026

Publications 

  • Clark, A. (2024) ‘What’s time got to do with it?’: The relationship with time in early childhood practice and care’, Early Childhood Folio, 28(1) 3-7.
  • Clark, A. (2023) Slow knowledge and the unhurried child: time for slow pedagogies in early childhood education. London: Routledge.
  • Clark, A. (2023)’Designing ways of listening to young children’ In Cameron, C., Koslowski, A., Lamont, A. and Moss, P. (Eds.) Social Research for our times: Thomas Coram Research Unit, past, present and future. London: UCL Press, 289-306.
  • Clark, A. (2023) ‘Wind as a crafting agent: learning from a slow engagement with time, place and nature’ in Fredriksen, B. & Haukeland, P. I. (eds.) Crafting a relationship with nature through creative practice. Oslo: Scandinavian University Press.
  • Clark, A. (2020) ‘Towards a listening ECEC system: valuing slow pedagogy and slow knowledge’ in Moss, P. and Cameron, C. (eds.) Transforming early childhood in England, London: UCL Press, 134-150. 
  • Carlsen, K. and Clark, A. (2022) Potentialities of pedagogical documentation as an intertwined research process with children and teachers in slow pedagogies, European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 30:2, 200-212, DOI: 10.1080/1350293X.2022.2046838
  • Pettersvold, M., Nordtømme, S. and Clark, A. (2022) ‘Looking for children’s resistance in pedagogical documentation with ECE students: a case study of slow and multiple listening Barn – forskning om barn og barndom i Norden 40(4)
     

Ongoing PhD projects

At the PhD Program in Culture Studies:

 

  • Ida Marie Oterholdt: "The interplay between artificial intelligence and traditional craftsmanship."
  • Ingrid Holmboe Høibo: "Læringskultur i makerspace- korleis kan denne bidra til å forme digitale ferdigheiter i Kunst- og handverksfaget."
  • Bård Gunnar Moe: "Skapersteder for musikalsk læring–utøvende praksis og språkterminologi i Musikkstudioproduksjon."
  • Oksana Stelmakh "Bærekraftig estetikk i kunst og håndverksfaget: Forståelser av bærekraftig estetisk kvalitet og verdi i læreprosessen"
At the PhD Program in pedagogical resources and learning processes in kindergarten and school:

 

  • Mona Nicolaysen and Marie Skeie in the same project: "Barnehagens arbeidsmåter for å fremme barns ytringer i Norge og Palestina."

 

Completed research projects and disputations

Publications

Group leader

Members

PhD candidates

Associated members