Focus Areas
PKS concentrates its research and activities around three key thematic areas:
Professional Development
A central question in this area is how professional identity develops through education, practical experience, and working life. This focus area also explores how professional values, norms, and practices are formed and how they continue to evolve in response to societal needs and changes.
Professional Qualification, Knowledge, and Learning
The group studies qualification processes within professional education and practice, emphasizing the relationship between theory, practice, and lifelong learning. Research in this area investigates how professional knowledge is developed and how learning can be strengthened through research-based methods and collaboration between education and professional practice.
Interprofessional and Comparative Perspectives
In an increasingly complex welfare state, collaboration across professions is crucial to meeting societal needs in a holistic way. PKS explores how different professions interact in practice, which factors promote or hinder collaboration, and how interprofessional models can contribute to improved coordination and more sustainable services.In addition, comparative studies of professions—both nationally and internationally—shed light on similarities and differences in professional roles, education, and practice.These perspectives provide deeper insight into how professional cultures and forms of collaboration develop in different contexts, and how experiences can be shared and applied across professions and national boundaries.
Research Methods and Approaches
The research group employs a wide range of methodological approaches—from qualitative methods such as case studies, ethnography, and narrative analysis, to quantitative methods including surveys and experimental designs.
These are complemented by longitudinal and mixed-method studies to provide a comprehensive understanding of professional qualification and development.
Close collaboration with practitioners and educational institutions ensures that the group’s research is both practically relevant and theoretically robust.
Research Activities
PKS engages in a broad range of scholarly and collaborative activities, including:
- Conducting empirical research projects
- Providing peer feedback on research papers, project proposals, and conference presentations
- Organizing seminars, workshops, and networking events for knowledge exchange and methodological development
- Publishing scientific articles, reports, and popular science texts
- Participating in national and international conferences
- Supervising master’s and Ph.D. students
- Preparing applications for externally funded research projects
- Collaborating with professional practice fields to develop research-based knowledge relevant to education and working life
Strategic Foundation
PKS is strategically anchored in Østfold University College’s commitment to practice-oriented and interdisciplinary research.
The group contributes to the institution’s goal of being a regionally relevant and research-intensive university college with significant societal impact.
PKS also supports the college’s focus area Digitalization and Society, by exploring how professions evolve in response to an increasingly digitalized working environment.