项目介绍

2026年9月17日

Applicants are invited for a three to four-year full-time position as PhD Research Fellow in Special Needs Education, based at the Department of Special Needs Education, Faculty of Educational Sciences, University of Oslo.

We invite applications for doctoral projects within the broad field of counselling in special needs education. Counselling is a central component of special needs education and contributes to promoting participation, inclusion, learning, and well-being among children, young people, and adults with special educational needs. Research in this field encompasses collaboration among individuals with special educational needs, families, educators, and professionals across educational, health, and welfare services, and addresses relational, communicative, ethical, organizational, and evidence-informed aspects of counselling practice. 

For this position, we particularly encourage applications with a quantitative empirical orientation. Relevant projects may make use of large-scale survey data, administrative or register-based data, repeated cross-sectional or longitudinal designs, evaluation studies, or combinations of these. Applicants should demonstrate methodological rigour and propose statistical methods appropriate to the research questions and data. Mixed-methods, qualitative, participatory, design-based, or intervention components are also welcome where they strengthen the overall project. Relevant data sources include Ungdata, HBSC (Health Behaviour in School-aged Children), other large-scale survey data, and administrative or register-based data. For example, Ungdata provides opportunities to investigate changes over time in adolescents’ school well-being, school belonging, teacher and peer relationships, psychosocial difficulties, and future educational expectations, and how these factors relate to support needs, counselling, early identification, and preventive work in schools and local services.

Relevant doctoral projects may address, but are not limited to: 

• Communication, interaction, and counselling processes in special needs education 
• Counselling to support inclusive education, participation, and equitable educational 
  opportunities
• Family – professional partnerships and parent counselling
• School well-being, school belonging, teacher and peer relationships, mental health, and 
  educational aspirations among children and adolescents
• The interplay between school experiences, psychosocial difficulties, social background, and 
  counselling-related support needs
• Interdisciplinary and interagency collaboration
• Counselling within schools, kindergartens, and the Educational and Psychological Counselling 
  Service (PPT)
• Professional judgement, ethical decision-making, and relational competence
• Implementation, evaluation, and improvement of counselling practices and support systems
• Digital and technology-supported counselling and supervision

We welcome innovative and methodologically rigorous projects that advance knowledge and practice in counselling within special needs education.  

The successful applicant will become part of an active and collaborative research environment and is expected to participate in one of the Department’s research groups.