NVS invests in the educational leaders of tomorrow

The Future Education Leaders course, a programme to highlight and develop the skills of Karolinska Institutet’s (KI) educational leaders, concluded on 10 October. Participants held a poster presentation in Aula Medica and KI PRIME recipient Brian Hodges closed the course with a lecture.

Participating from the Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society (NVS) were Sofia Vikström and Ann-Helen Patomella, senior lectures at the Division of Occupational Therapy and Anna Pettersson, lecturer at the Division of Physiotherapy. All three are utterly positive about the course.

“The content of the course has proved instructive and I have had the opportunity to meet others in similar positions to myself, allowing me to build a personal network,” Ann-Helen Patomella says.

“This has been a thought-provoking and influential course during which I have come to a new understanding of how formal and informal forms of control interact and affect the university. I have also gained tools for reflective practice related to leadership and change management,” Anna Pettersson says.

“The course offers the opportunity to explore both practical leadership skills as well as fact-based knowledge in the subject. One will leave the course with a greater understanding of KI as a knowledge-generating organisation,” Sofia Vikström explains.

“A matter of promoting the development of leadership and pedagogy.”

NVS is responsible for approximately 40 percentage of education within KI. More leaders in NVS’s educational organisation participating in this and other similar initiatives is an important element of the department’s investment in the area.

“For us, naturally it is a matter to promote the development of leadership and pedagogy. That we now have more co-workers taking the Future Education Leaders course can only strengthen the organisation further and ensure that we are able to continue at the forefront of educating tomorrow’s healthcare staff and academics,” says Lena Nilsson Wikmar, chair of the educational committee and responsible for education at undergraduate and advanced level at NVS.

Together with Eric Asaba, Head of the Division of Occupational Therapy and Maria Hagströmer, Head of the Division of Physiotherapy, Lena Nilsson Wikmar also participated in the course closing in Aula Medica.

“We were able to enjoy presentations of many interesting projects,” Lena Nilsson Wikmar says.

This was the second time that the course has been held and NVS now has a total of seven co-workers participating.

The project was initiated by KI’s Board of Higher Education with the overall aim of ensuring the future supply of pedagogically and scientifically qualified educational leaders within the teaching organisation.

“We have two core activities at KI, research and education, and it is therefore self-evident that those who choose to become educators must be offered the opportunity to occupy leading positions. Specific skills are required of educational leaders,” says Annika Östman Wernerson, Dean of Higher Education.