Kari Gustafson

Everyone learns, everywhere, all the time. We learn our lesson, the ropes, or a thing or two. We learn our place and we live and learn.

Learning is not always straightforward; instead we slip from side to side in a process of becoming: part of a class, a group, part of a workplace or of society. Or, alternatively, the opposite can be true, and we learn resistance to and defiance of these categories.

I became interested in learning after I moved from Alaska to Denmark as an exchange student at Copenhagen University. I discovered the education of the ”social pedagogue,” and realized that was what I'd always wanted to do with my life - but had just never known it existed. Luckily, the Danish government and educational system were gracious enough to allow me to stay and pursue my newfound dream rather than returning to the US.

During and after my pedagogue education, I worked primarily with persons who often experienced extreme social exclusion: homelessness, substance abuse, and psychiatric disability. After staying at home with my delightfully sideways children for a few years, I went back to school and got my master's in educational psychology at Aarhus University. This time, I focused on another group of sideways learners: those with autism spectrum diagnoses.

Studying in a combination of American and Danish educational settings, working as a pedagog, and raising children in an environment that is quite different than that of my own childhood has provided innumerable opportunities to think about learning, pedagogy, and Danish and Scandinavian philosophies. I have now come full circle, and am currently teaching American university students studying abroad in Copenhagen.

They have made me aware of the many (and varied) ideas there are to embrace, reject, challenge, champion and agonize over in this multitude of perspectives. My goal is to inspire, provoked, delight or outrage into new ways of thinking about issues of learning, development. And, hopefully, to interest you enough to engage in the discussion!