One of my research interest is teachers’ professional identity. Moreover, I’m interested in questions about teaching and learning in the educational system of Swedish for immigrant (SFI).
My doctoral dissertation concentrated on what it means being and becoming a teacher for adults with little previous education, i.e. learners who do not yet have developed their basic literacy. The study deals with how the teachers’ professional identity is formed in regard to the different professional communities they belong to.
At present, I participate in a research program about migration, learning and social inclusion. Among other things we seek to analyse what immigrants’ participation in different types of language education for adults. Some of the questions are what effects this participation has and how the educational practices facilitate the migrants inclusion, both at the labour market and in a more general sense. The trajectories of inclusion is an essential notion to understand how language education contributes to the immigrants inclusion in the Swedish society.
Apart from doing research, I am also involved in teaching, particularly at the Folk High School Teacher Program, and the Master Program of Adult Learning and Global Change. Moreover, I am in charge of in-service courses for teachers working within the folk high school.
Helena Colliander
Postdoc
What does it mean to be and develop as a teacher of Literacy Education and Second Language Learning for Adults (LESLLA)? These are questions which I address in my research.
