Anna-Karin Högfeldt

Anna-Karin Högfeldt works at the department of Learning in engineering sciences as the head of unit at Learning in STEM. She is a teacher, educational developer, and carries out research studies on local and international levels. The main aim with her work is to support academics at KTH to enhance education on all levels, to meet the needs of education transformation for the changing needs in society.

Since 2006, Högfeldt and her colleagues have developed a broad palette of pedagogical development support, from academic development courses [here is an overview of the courses] to well-visited networks and collaborative arenas for academics at KTH in their roles as program directors, directors of studies as well as ‘common teachers’ [see all arenas here]. Several of these arenas are also designed as open spaces where academics, students and administrative staff can meet and discuss cross-border questions. In 2018 Högfeldt received the KTH pedagogical reward, partly for these developments.

Högfeldt’s research studies are action and practice based, meaning that she is involved in implementation and development projects of courses and collaborative spaces, which are evaluated and improved continuously. These projects are both on local as well as international levels, within N5T (Nordic Five Tech), EIT (European Institute of Technology) and in collaborative projects with two universities in Tanzania (UDSM and DIT).

Högfeldt was one of the work package leaders of a STINT funded pilot project, to implement challenge-driven education initiatives as KTH, UDSM and DIT (Tanzania). This pilot was launched in two phases, with the implementation on PhD/MSc level in 2017, and on BSc level in 2018. The success of the pilot project led to the realization of the KTH Global Development Hub [see more here].

Summary of research and development projects:
● Nordic Five Tech (N5T) project, 2010-2016, with the aim of understanding the conditions for educational leadership from the program directors’ perspective.
Publication: Högfeldt, A. K., Malmi, L., Kinnunen, P., Jerbrant, A., Strömberg, E., Berglund, A., & Villadsen, J. (2018). Leading the teacher team—balancing between formal and informal power in program leadership. Tertiary Education and Management, 24(1), 49-65.
● Participatory action research project to implement Challenge-driven education, KTH, University of Dar es Salam and Dar es Salam Institute of Technology project, 2016-2019.
Publication: Högfeldt, A. K., Rosén, A., Mwase, C., Lantz, A., Gumaelius, L., Shayo, E., ... & Mvungi, N. (2019). Mutual capacity building through north-south collaboration using challenge-driven education. Sustainability, 11(24), 7236.
● Developing the landscape for academics’ involvement and participation in engineering education transformation, KTH 2011-2021.
Högfeldt, A. K., Gumaelius, L., Berglund, P., Kari, L., Pears, A., & Kann, V. (2022). Leadership, support and organisation for academics’ participation in engineering education change for sustainable development.European Journal of Engineering Education, 1-27.