NAVADA Research Team

Mia Husted is the professional leader of the NAVADA project. Mia’s main responsibility is to ensure coherence between the various research efforts of NAVADA and that the project reaches its desired goals.

In her research, Mia is interested in discovering how to create new pathways to sustainable development in collaboration with the practical field—pedagogical leaders and staff, parents and children, and the local environment and community. The road toward research in green sustainability has crossed a research field of social sustainability, focusing on working environments, combating stress, and work-life balance. In her most recent research, Mia increasingly focuses on how resources and knowledge of the natural sciences can be used sustainably, in an ecological sense. However, both subject areas are about sustainable life and work.

Mia joined the research team on January 1, 2023.

Nanna takes part in the research team as a facilitator and observer with regard to the development of play and learning environments for science education in the NAVADA institutions. Moreover, Nanna is especially responsible for developing and preparing the qualitative research methods that are part of the project.

In her research, Nanna has worked on sustainability at daycare institutions and other parts of the educational system, but recently, she has been occupied with nature and science in daycare institutions with a particular focus on children’s various possibilities of participation and their sociocultural backgrounds.

Nanna joined the research team on January 1, 2023.

Read more about Nanna in UC Knowledge

Tejs takes part in the research team as a facilitator and observer with regard to the development of play and learning environments for science education in the NAVADA institutions. Tejs is a coordinator of the Nature and Sustainability profile in the Early Childhood and Social Education program, University College Copenhagen . He has contributed to the development of nature- and science-educational training courses in the project Pedagogies for Sustainability . Tejs is especially interested in how engaging with nature can act as a pivot for sustainable transition, and recently, he has been occupied with “Wild Pedagogies” as an approach to nature education and education in general. Tejs contributes to NAVADA with a particular focus on outdoor life and sustainability as a sensuous approach to nature education.

Tejs joined the research team on January 1, 2023.

Katrine takes part in the research team as a facilitator and observer with regard to the development of play and learning environments for science education in the NAVADA institutions. Moreover, Katrine is especially responsible for developing a questionnaire for the participating daycare professionals, regarding their qualifications, interests, and experiences of the project.

Katrine’s research builds on the broader concept of sustainability and the interfaces between environmental, social, and economical perspectives on sustainable development. In recent years, she has focused especially on sustainability in the field of early childhood education and developed courses on sustainability for students of early childhood education.

Katrine joined the research team on January 1, 2023.

Within NAVADA, Signe’s task is to investigate how to follow the development of children’s scientific education in play and learning environments. This is possible either by measuring certain effects or by selecting and adapting existing measuring methods, which daycare professionals can use as supporting tools in their practice. The measuring methods may, for example, target the children, the daycare professionals themselves, or the play and learning environments.

Signe has transitioned from a scientific background as a biologist into early childhood education, working both as a nature educator at daycare institutions and as a researcher within early childhood education. In her research, she mainly focuses on projects that combine quantitative methods with investigations of pedagogical practice. She brings this exact professional focus to her work on measuring methods within the NAVADA project.

Signe joined the research team on January 1, 2023.

Karen contributes to the NAVADA project by undertaking one of two PhD projects. Karen’s PhD project is a qualitative study focusing on the STEM qualifications of daycare professionals. Through ethnographic fieldwork in the NAVADA institutions, Karen investigates what competencies and professional skills daycare professionals leverage when developing science-educational play and learning environments in institutions.

Karen is an associate professor of natural sciences and has lectured on nature, outdoor life, science, and sustainability at the Early Childhood and Social Education program for twenty-five years. She also teaches science education to daycare professionals, gives talks and workshops, and has participated in research and development projects regarding science education, connections to practice, and the development of training courses focusing on STEM, science, and sustainability. In 2021, she was awarded the Novo Nordisk Foundation Prize for Science Childhood Educators.

Karen joined the research team on January 1, 2023.

Michael takes part in the research team as a facilitator and observer with regard to the development of play and learning environments for science education in the NAVADA institutions.

Moreover, Michael is particularly responsible for developing a diploma program in science education, providing daycare institutions with access to a science certification.

Michael was originally trained as a school psychologist with a special focus on educational neuroscience and special education in mathematics for children with general learning disabilities. He is currently employed at the section of further education at University College Copenhagen, where he teaches practitioners science education with a particular focus on mathematical attention. This is the special competence he brings to the NAVADA project.

Michael joined the research team on January 1, 2023.

Birgitte takes part in the research team as a facilitator and observer with regard to the development of play and learning environments for science education in the NAVADA institutions.

Birgitte teaches at the Nature and Sustainability profile of the Early Childhood and Social Education program. She has contributed to the development of courses in nature education as part of the project Pedagogies for Sustainability. Having focused academically on science didactics and science education within other projects, such as follow-up research for the municipality of Copenhagen, Birgitte pays special attention to the science didactics of NAVADA.

Birgitte joined the research team on September 1, 2023.

Anja takes part in the research team as a facilitator and observer with regard to the development of play and learning environments for science education in the NAVADA institutions.

Anja has progressed from quantitative research on climate change and air pollution to also work on more qualitative research in the field of early childhood education. Anja teaches the course Nature and Outdoor Life at the Early Childhood and Social Education program on Bornholm and contributes to NAVADA with her intimate knowledge of practice on Bornholm, leveraging her role as a lecturer of practice and as a nature guide. Anja is interested in slow pedagogies as a response to the hasty everyday life of our times and as a means for science education, wild pedagogies, and the general well-being and development of children to take place in the everyday life of children within daycare institutions.

Anja joined the research team on January 1, 2024.

Within NAVADA, Nina’s task is to investigate how to follow the development of children’s scientific education in play and learning environments, either by using validated methods to record changes before and after the intervention , or by using measuring methods that daycare professionals can actively use as supporting tools in their practice, as a means to gain insight about the impact of the intervention on their work.

The measuring methods may, for example, target the children, the daycare professionals themselves, or the play and learning environments.

Nina is interested in how measurements at daycare institutions can be used in a meaningful way, so that children and professionals receive feedback about their strengths and areas for development. Nina has worked on measuring methods for over twenty years and wrote her dissertation on the measuring of well-being and learning in Danish daycare institutions.

Nina joined the research team on January 1, 2023.

Søren contributes to the NAVADA project by undertaking one of two PhD projects. Søren’s PhD project includes ethnographic fieldwork with a focus on mathematical-spatial practice in the play and learning environments at daycare institutions. Through field-walking and various types of interviews, Søren investigates how mathematical attention is practiced in everyday life, focusing on the children’s formation of experiences. Mathematical attention has been part of the legally mandated curricular theme  “Nature, outdoor life, and science” since 2018, but little research has been done on the topic in Denmark, making the project somewhat pioneering.

Since 2014, Søren has been associate professor of Early Childhood Education at the Early Childhood and Social Education program, University College Copenhagen, with a particular focus on nature, outdoor life, sustainability, science, and mathematical attention. Previously, Søren has been employed within all pedagogical areas as a nature and outdoor educator with an educational background within Early Childhood Education, Ballerup College, 2001. In 2013, Søren obtained an MA in Early Childhood Education with special focus on  place-based learning in Danish outdoor schools.

In 2022, Søren was awarded the Novo Nordisk Foundation Prize for Science Childhood Educators.

Søren joined the research team on January 1, 2023.

Pernille is the coordinator of NAVADA and supports the researchers in terms of planning, fieldwork, budgets, etc.

Pernille came to the project from a position as research administrator at Aarhus University Hospital/Aarhus University, and she also has research experience in the field of adult education, professionalization, and professional identity.

Pernille joined the research team on December 1, 2023.