„This podcast series explores key issues in programme development, pedagogy, education policy, systemic challenges, and social and cultural dynamics, drawing on the lived experiences of our students and teachers,“ says Susan Elizabeth Gollifer, Assistant Professor at the School of Education.
In the first episode, the three founding members; Professor Hanna Ragnarsdóttir, Professor Allyson Macdonald, and Professor Ólafur Páll Jónsson, reflect on their motivations for launching an internationally oriented university programme in 2008 at the University of Iceland’s School of Education. „They delve into the importance of institutional support, interdisciplinary collaboration, and the role of persistence and commitment in sustaining innovative approaches in higher education“.
The Department of International Studies in Education (DISE) started in 2008 as a programme taught in English with less than 20 students. The initial aim of the programme was to provide access to higher education for students living in Iceland who did not have Icelandic as their first language. „Now with over two hundred BA and MA students from over thirty countries, our department provides a space to promote cross-cultural learning through participatory pedagogy with the aim of cultivating critical minds in the field of comparative and international education.“
The DISE podcast series was developed to provide a window into the department's history, philosophy and educational approach and impact. In this first series, the focus is on the experiences of the people who have participated in the department since its inception. Episode One starts with Sue Gollifer, DISE co-chair, and Ernest Boakye Yiadom, DISE student representative, interviewing three of the founders of the 2008 programme.
You can listen to the first episode here.
The photos accompanying this text were taken during the student introductory session at the start of the 2025/2026 academic year, coinciding with the first year the School of Education is housed in the Saga building.
