Public Defence: Lisabeth Carson

Lisabeth Carson will defend her PhD degree in pedagogical resources and learning processes in kindergarten and school. The thesis investigates how student teachers enact agency through their self-produced podcast.

18 Aug

Practical information

  • Date: 18 August 2026
  • Time: 10.00 - 15.00
  • Location: Drammen, Auditorium A5508
  • Download calendar file
  • Organizer: Faculty of Humanities, Sports and Educational Science

    • Link to digital participation.

    Meeting ID: 620 9472 2498

    Password: 180826

    Programme

    10.00: Trial lecture

    12.00: Public defence: "A student-created podcast. Dialogic space for enactment of agency in teacher education"

    Assessment committee

    • First opponent: Professor Jimmy Jaldermark, Mittuniversitetet, Sweden
    • Second opponent: Professor Hilde Wågsås Afdal, Østfold University of Applied Sciences
    • Administrator: Associate professor Anne Marie Landmark, University of South-Eastern Norway

    Supervisors

    • Main supervisor: Professor Magnus Hontvedt, University of South-Eastern Norway
    • Co-supervisor: Professor emeritus Andreas Lund, University of Oslo

    Chair of the public defence: Head of department Anika Aakerøy Jordbru, University of South-Eastern Norway

Any questions?

Lisabeth Carson is defending her thesis for the degree philosophiae doctor (PhD) at the University of South-Eastern Norway. Doktorgradskandidat

The doctoral work has been carried out at the Faculty of Humanities, Sports and Educational Science.

You are invited to follow the trial lecture and the public defence.

Summary

The thesis explores student teachers’ enactment of agency in and through a student-created podcast, and how this podcast activity afforded new possibilities for professional development and the co-construction of professional practices in teacher education.

Based on three internationally published articles, the thesis explores student teachers’ interactions with peers, teacher educators, and members of a wider professional community in and through a student-created podcast.

The first article shows how the podcast emerged as a dialogic space that afforded student teacher agency. This study points to the potential to educate student teachers with a professionalism not restricted to merely executing current educational policies but also to influencing and transforming them.

The second article investigates interactions between student teachers and professionals from the educational technology industry, demonstrating how the podcast became an arena for professional development. This article shows how enacting agency is a multivoiced and relational process, highlighting the student-created podcast as an extended dialogic space for developing inter-professional expertise in teacher education.

The third article shows how teacher educators used the podcast to co-construct the teacher education program together with their students. This article shows the importances of positioning student teachers and student educators as partners and cultivating dialogic spaces for supporting enactment of agency and co-construction of professional practices in teacher education.

Together, the articles contribute knowledge about how dialogic spaces emerge and are maintained, and how such spaces can support enactment of agency and co-construction of professional practices in teacher education. 

The thesis poses three implications for teacher education First, the need for acknowledging that enactment of agency can be an unpredictable process that takes many forms when supporting student agency in teacher education. Second, the importance of creating and maintaining spaces for dialogue drawing on cultural artefacts that are compatible with the students’ capacities, purposes, and local context. Third, recognizing student teachers and teacher educators as partners when aiming to support enactment of agency and co-construction of professional practices in teacher education.