Design School Kolding hereby invite proposals for a PhD research project that focuses on materials and spaces in children’s transitions from kindergarten to school.
The PhD project is a part of the research project Playing Transitions, funded by The Independent Research Foundation Denmark. Playing Transitions rethinks the role of play in children’s transition from daycare to school through design experiments with pedagogically framed play activities. The project reframes transition as a matter of actively co-developing and negotiating children’s play communities. For such play communities to emerge, children’s sense of participation and belonging in school must be nurtured with support from pedagogical professionals. Playing Transitions contributes with novel theoretical understanding of transitions, methods for how research may collaborate with professionals and transition designs to apply in pedagogical practice. This is obtained by combining knowledge from transition research and play theory with socio-cultural and new materialist perspectives, and by operationalizing this through design-based research and several play design experiments in collaboration with pedagogues, teachers, and children.
The empirical context for the PhD project will be shared with the project Playing Transitions.
The PhD methodology will be based on some of the following:
The PhD student will be part of the Design for Play lab. Design School Kolding and will be collaborating closely with University College South.
The PhD student will also collaborate with Western Norway University of Applied Sciences Bergen (Norway) and Monash University (Australia)
The proposed PhD project must follow the general rules for the doctoral program.
For the application to be considered, the PhD research project description of 4-6 pages must address all points listed below and have all mentioned materials enclosed:
The applicant must further have a fluent oral and written English communication skills.
The application and materials must be in English or Danish. Our school has the policy that if we employ a person unfamiliar with the Danish language, then the person is obliged to develop skills to communicate in Danish society within three years.
Please apply through Design School Kolding’s recruitment system which you find on the advertisement at the school’s website.
After the application deadline, a shortlist of the most promising applications will be made, which will then be assessed. When the committee has finished its review procedure, each shortlisted applicant will receive an assessment of his or her application.
We welcome both national and international applications. Design School Kolding wishes to reflect its surrounding community and encourages anyone to apply for the position, irrespective of personal background.
The application deadline is August 15, 2024, and the assessment will happen shortly thereafter.
The position is to be filled by November 2024 or as soon as possible thereafter.
For further information, please contact secretary of research and development Christina Stind Rosendahl, phone +45 91 33 30 04 or mail: csr@dskd.dk or project leaders of the Playing Transitions and Head of Research LAB Design for Play, Professor Helle Marie Skovbjerg skovbjerg@dskd.dk or Docent Ane Bjerre Odgaard, UCSyd, abod@ucsyd.dk
Also, please read the Design School Kolding Research Strategy or pay a visit to the school website: www.designskolenkolding.dk
Design School Kolding is an independent institution under the auspices of the Ministry of Higher Education and Science. We offer high quality BA, MA and PhD Degree programs with teaching based on innovative practice and research in close collaboration with the business community. We also offer continuing education courses and consultancy services. Our BA program comprises four study programs, Communication Design, Industrial Design, Fashion & Textile Design, and Accessory Design, including interdisciplinary courses within methods, aesthetics, design history, the history of science as well as form studies. Our MA program is an international, cross-disciplinary program that supports and challenges the above-mentioned design fields and allows students to specialize in one of three programmes: Design for Play, Design for Planet and Design for People. Areas in which we also dedicate our research and development activities.
Design School Kolding has approximately 100 fulltime employees. The school offers a dynamic work environment with dedicated colleagues from many different backgrounds. The atmosphere enriches daily work and brings life to the old factory building, which is constantly changing to suit the school’s needs.
With three overall strategic areas of social design, sustainability and design, and design for Play, Design School Kolding is dedicated to improving the world through design. This also means that Design School Kolding has a strong focus on creating an education that is relevant and aimed towards future employability. Another way of strengthening the education is by having research aimed towards the programmes, as well as towards the strategic areas. The research thus supports and develops the teaching while ensuring that there is cross-pollination between research and teaching with the researchers often using the student projects as data for their research. We offer a dynamic, internationally oriented education and research environment with close collaborations with external actors and research environments.
As a leading design university, Design School Kolding is in continuous development to be at the forefront of the expectations for future designers, including increased focus on digital competencies. The school is education and research accredited and has a positive institutional accreditation. The latter means that the school officially lives up to the requirements of offering good and relevant education in an environment that promotes openness and dialogue.
Also, please read the Design School Kolding Research Strategy or pay a visit to the school's website.