Lillehammer University College, Norway
Lillehammer University College (LUC) is one of the leading higher education institutions in Norway in the field of lifelong learning and service innovation. LUC has a long national and international track record of developing resources for adult education providers. LUC participates in several international networks and is also widely recognised for its work in adult education research and evaluation. Centre for Lifelong Learning has 20 employees. CLL offers open courses and study programmes, commissioned teaching, conferences and seminars. CLL includes a production unit which makes learning materials (video, audiovisual presentations, web pages, games and other interactive productions etc.) and e-learning solutions (including LMS, MOOCs). The centre also undertakes research and evaluation in these areas.
Professor Stephen Dobson, Dean and Head of School of Education, University of South Australia. Dobson was born in Zambia (1963), grew up in England and has previously lived for many years in Norway. Prior to entering higher education he worked for thirteen years with refugees as a community worker. His research and teaching interests include assessment, professional development, refugee studies, bildung, inclusion and classroom studies. He has published one collection of poetry. He is guest professor at the Centre for Life Long Learning, Lillehammer University College, Norway. Dobson is fluent in Scandinavian languages and a member of the Teacher Education Expert Standing Committee for the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL).
Brit Svoen is project manager at Centre for Lifelong Learning, Lillehammer University College (LUC), head of the Digital Learning Resources group, and member of the research group “Media, Technology and Lifelong Learning”. Her background is in Informatics and Media Education, and she has extensive experience in developing audiovisual learning resources, as well as on-line and campus-based programmes. Before Svoen joined Lillehammer University College, she worked for 10 years in the business sector with ICT and multimedia and 5 years as an assistant professor. Brit Svoen is the coordinator for the Advenus research project, and was also LUC’s project manager for the predecessor LIBE project.
Lars Teppan Johansen is a project manager with focus on graphic design, web, video, interactive and rich media. Lars began working at Lillehammer University College ( LUC) in October 2007 and has a diverse background within ICT with developing websites, video, photo, audio, animations, prints and interactive media. Lars is keen to adopt new technology into educational models.
John Torstad is office manager at Centre for Livelong Learning, Lillehammer University College (LUC). His background is from the Tourism and Travel industry and in developing and coordinating new courses at LUC for adults needing further education. John has more than 20 years of experience as a project manager and office manager at LUC. His responsibility in these project is accounting and reporting.
Anne Mette Bjørgen is associate professor at the Dept of Pedagogics, Faculty of Education and Social work at Lillehammer University College (LUC). She teaches Media education and Educational research methods. She is member of the research group “Media, Technology and Lifelong Learning” and is participant in the Research Centre “Child and youth competence development” (http://hil.no/eng/research_areas/child_and_youth_competence_development_ph_d.)
Anne Mette has previously worked as project manager at Centre for Lifelong Learning (LUC) as head of the Research group and for media educational matters in the flexible learning programs. She has extensive experience in developing and evaluating flexible learning programs online and campus-based. Anne Mette`s educational background is within the fields of Pedagogy (PhD), Media and communication studies and Sociology. She participates in the Advenus research project and she participated in the LIBE project.
LUMSA University was founded in Rome in 1939 and it is characterized by its openness to the idea of universal human citizenship. LUMSA is one of the most important non-state universities of central Italy, with about 9000 students and 800 teachers and professors; it has three Faculties situated in neighbouring locations, and other branches operating in Palermo and Taranto. The university is located in the historic centre of Rome and in one of the most beautiful and historically rich areas of the whole city. It thus provides its students with the opportunity to avail themselves of the advantages that Rome has to offer. In particular, LUMSA strives to promote an overall education of the person and for this reason, the university devotes especial care to its students and their professional and human education through the employment of constant services of direction and tutoring, and of procedures designed to give full expression to their right to be engaged in study. LUMSA University offers four main subject areas of teaching and research activities: Economics, Humanities, Languages and Law.
Professor Gabriella Agrusti, PhD, teaches Multimedia learning, Educational research methods and Assessment in Education at LUMSA University (Italy). She is a member of the Joint management committee that runs the IEA-ICCS 2016 study on civic and citizenship education in 28 countries in the world. She was senior scientific advisor for the coordination to Lifelong Learning Program KA3 – ICT Multilateral projects, with LIBE – Supporting Lifelong Learning with Inquiry-based Education project (24 months). LIBE project is aimed at design and develop Open Educational Resources for the reconstruction of transversal basic skills (literacy, numeracy, problem solving) in young low educational achievers in Europe). Recent publications include:
G. Agrusti, Marta Pinto, João Caramelo, Susana Coimbra, Stephen Dobson, Brit Svoen, Alex Pulovassilis, George Magoulas, Bernard Veldkamp, Maaike Heitnik, Francesco Agrusti, LIBE e-booklet for educators and teachers, http://libeproject.it/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/LIBE-eBooklet.pdf, DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.1.2383.592512/2015
G. Agrusti, F Corradi, “Teachers’ perceptions and conceptualizations of low educational achievers: A self-fulfilling prophecy of disengagement for future NEETs”, The Qualitative Report, 20(8), 2015, pp. 1313-1328 (ISSN 1052-0147). Retrieved from http://www.nova.edu/ssss/QR/QR20/8/agrusti8.pdf
Valeria Damiani has a PhD in Education, is currently research fellow at Roma Tre University and is member of the research group for the Erasmus+ projects at LUMSA University, Rome. Her research interests include citizenship education, education for global citizenship, teaching and assessing key/ transversal competences and e-learning.
Cittadinanza e identità. Educazione alla cittadinanza globale e identità multiple in studenti di terza media. (2016); Large-scale assessments and educational policies in Italy (2016);
Searching for quality in open educational resources (OERs): an Italian case study (2016, with Gabriella Agrusti).
Elisa Muscillo, Psychologist, psychotherapist, expert in forensic psychiatry and child development, and PhD student in educational sciences. She has always been interested in educational psychology, particularly in risk factors and linguistic skills.
Vincenzo Schirripa is research fellow at LUMSA University (Italy). He teaches History of Childhood and Educational Institutions and Children’s Literature. His early studies concern the history of scout movement, non-violent education and pacifism in contemporary Italy. He also has experience as a freelancer in social workers and teachers training on citizenship education and social issues. Relevant publications include:
2006. Schirripa, Giovani sulla frontiera. Guide e scout cattolici nell’Italia repubblicana (1943-1974), Studium, Roma 2006.
2007. Schirripa, Borgo di Dio. La Sicilia di Danilo Dolci (1952-1956), Franco Angeli, Milano 2010.
2008. Baglio, V. Schirripa, “Tutti a Comiso”. La lotta contro gli euromissili in Italia, 1981-1983, in “Italia contemporanea”, 276, 2014, pp. 448-475.
Professor Paola Trabalzini is Associate Professor at LUMSA. She teaches Pedagogical anthropology. She focused her research on the analysis of Montessori pedagogy and education to peace. Her contribution to the project will be related to cultural mediation in learning processes with multicultural groups of learners.
The Association Community Development Institute (CDI) is a sustainable civil society organization that works on building a democratic integrated and multiethnic society through strengthening the capacities of individuals, organizations and institutions. CDI’s experience is based on twenty (20) years work within the community addressing citizens issues and needs and helping in overcoming the challenges. CDI was registered in 2003 as continuation of the work of Youth Information Center that was established in 1996. CDI is focused on the following strategic aims: civil society and democracy development, improvement of quality and standard of living, as well as on institutional and programatic strengthening of the organization.
The variety of different programs, projects and activities that CDI have implemented in geographic area of more than forty (40) municipalities covering more than a half of the population of Republic of Macedonia have positioned the Community Development Institute among the leading Civil Society Organizations (CSO) on a national level. CDI is member of several national and international networks: Coalition of youth organization SEGA, Let’s do it Macedonia!, People’s technique, Y-peer network, Association of Democracy Agencies (ALDA), European Civic Forum, UNITED Against Racism, Coalition for RECOM, PHILIA-Association of multi-ethnic cities of Southeast Europe.
Sreten Koceski is the founder and executive director at Community Development Institute. For more than 20 years, Koceski, MBA, has been involved as a trainer and consultant in the work of local, national, international and intergovernmental and non-profit organisations. Currently he holds the position executive director at the Community Development Institute – Tetovo (www.irz.org.mk), a non-governmental organization established in 1995. Sreten Koceski`s primary focus past 15 years is non-formal education and continuing professional development of the employees in non-governmental organisations, educators and youth workers. He has been involved as a project coordinator and trainer on various EU funded programs for non-formal education, improvement of the inter-ethnic relations and community development, by providing support and training to the civil society organizations, members of the municipal committees for inter-community relations, journalists, and members of the municipal administration. Sreten Koceski is author of several publications, research analyses, policy papers and documentary movies related to inter-ethnic relations and confidence building measures.
Jelena Peroska is a program coordinator in CDI and she’s been involved in the NGO sector for 5 years. She has volunteering experience in several organizations and also working experience on projects on different topics. The areas that she expresses interest in are adult education and lifelong learning, research and analysis and gender mainstreaming. She also has experience in conducting research and writing policy papers. She has been working on several EU funded projects as a project coordinator or trainer/researcher. She has been involved in several consultation processes organized by public institutions and other stakeholders for adult education policies in Macedonia, so she has good knowledge about the adult education legislation in Republic of Macedonia.
The University of Porto, founded in 1911, it’s the second largest university in Portugal and the highest ranked Portuguese university in the Academic Ranking of World Universities (QS World University Ranking 2015/2016), among the 150 best universities of Europe and the world top 400. It has approximately 32,500 undergraduate and postgraduate students, 2,300 academic staff and 1,500 administrative staff. UPORTO provides an exceptional number of courses, covering the whole range of disciplines. It is made up of 14 faculties and a business school, along with 16 libraries and 14 museums distributed over 3 campuses. Currently, UPORTO is involved in 784 projects, from which 465 are nationally funded projects with a focus on S&T research. Internationalisation is also one of the strategic pillars of U.PORTO, allowing the development of existing collaborations, as well as the establishment of innovative cooperation activities.
João Caramelo, Assistant Professor at Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences of University of Porto. Holds a PhD in Sciences of Education – Adult Education and Community Development. Between 2013 and 2015, chaired the CIIE’s research group “Innovation, Creativity and Local Development in Education” and integrated the Board of Directors. Has experience in in-service teachers training on formative assessment. His research and publications regard institutional evaluation, learning and literacy, adult education, non-formal and informal education, local development and community work.
Susana Coimbra, Assistant Professor at Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences of University of Porto (FPCEUP). Holds a PhD in Psychology – Self-efficacy and resilience during transition to adulthood, focusing on gender and SES differences. Co-coordinates the implementation of a mentoring system at the FPCEUP, aiming to improve academic integration among disadvantaged students. Her research and publications regard self-efficacy in adults and adult education, discrimination of young adults, social competences of young adults.
Ana Costa, Research Assistant at Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences of University of Porto. She is currently attending the PhD in Psychology focusing on the role of professionals towards an effective integration and active civic participation of refugees in Portugal. She worked for the last 8 years at APDES coordinating and collaborating in national and European research and intervention projects working with vulnerable communities (drug users in party settings, national and migrant sex workers).
Marta Pinto, Post-doctoral researcher at University of Porto. Holds a PhD in Multimedia in Education, focusing on the use of ICT in teaching and learning practices in Higher Education and information visualization. She is a member of the research group CIIE. Her research and publications are in the areas of e-learning in Higher Education, Adult Education, Online courses for young adults and Technology Enhanced Learning. She is also involved in research about the use of Serious Games in Higher Education. With experience in participating in national and international granted research projects.
| Cecilia De Chiara | Fondazione Centro Astalli, Italy |
| Kiril Ristovski | Educator, Macedonia |
| Zarko Vuruna | Technician, Macedonia |
| Mauricio Riquelme | Board member of INLO, the national organisation for refugees in Norway |
| Fernando C. Pereira | Member of the Portuguese Refugee Council |