Mälardalen University (MDU) is looking for PhD candidates in Didactics

Mälardalen University (MDU) is Sweden's newest university. With our vision to be a progressive and collaborative university where we shape a sustainable future together, we aim to make a real difference.

Would you like to contribute to our development?

Together, we contribute to a more sustainable future through knowledge and innovation. We believe that new knowledge and perspectives are best created and achieved in collaboration with others - colleagues, students, industry, and the public sector both nationally and internationally.

At the Academy of Education, Culture, and Communication (UKK), our students primarily study programs in teacher education, but programs and courses are also offered in language and communication, mathematics/applied mathematics, physics, music, and opera, as well as the preparatory education technical foundation year. MDU's research focus on educational science and mathematics is part of the academy. Our work is conducted in collaboration with the surrounding community and international partners.

Employment Information

• Employment type: Fixed-term employment starting 2025-09-01 or by agreement
• Extent: Full-time
• Number of positions: 4-5
• Application deadline: 2025-05-05
• Location: Västerås
• Academy/unit/section: Academy of Education, Culture, and Communication

Access to doctoral education and basic eligibility requirements are regulated in the Higher Education Ordinance Chapter 7, Sections 34–41. Read more here: https://www.mdu.se/utbildning/forskarutbildning (https://www.mdu.se/utbildning/forskarutbildning). A full-time doctoral position is linked to the education period, which corresponds to four years.

Job Responsibilities

The Academy of Education, Culture, and Communication (UKK) is seeking four to five PhD candidates in Didactics for the newly established graduate school, Practices and Technologies of Teaching.

Research in the field of didactics addresses questions about education, teaching, and learning. Didactics encompasses questions about content, various educational contexts, and how content is legitimized, i.e., who has the power over the selection processes of teaching. Furthermore, scientific didactics investigates the forms (methods and models) of teaching and learning, as well as its actors (teachers and students/children) and their interrelations.

The graduate school is linked to a practice environment for teacher education, where teacher students are given the opportunity to experiment, explore, and train (subject) didactic knowledge and skills using various technologies and modalities. By technologies and modalities, we refer to the resources, techniques, and expressions of teaching, both digital (e.g., creating a podcast, using AI in teaching, developing teaching materials) and analog (e.g., methodology, aesthetic expressions, teachers' classroom communication). The practice environment is under construction, and the graduate school will study and participate in the development work. The practice environment will play a central role in teacher education at MDU as well as for schools and preschools connected to teacher education.

As a PhD candidate in the graduate school, you will also belong to one of the academy's four research directions (https://www.mdu.se/forskning/forskningsinriktningar/utbildningsvetenskap-och-matematik): Children and Youth in School and Society (BUSS), Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Technology with Subject Didactics (MNT), Social Sciences Didactics and Pedagogical Practices (SODEP), and Language and Literature Studies and Subject Didactics (SOLD).

Dissertation Projects

The dissertation projects within the graduate school should address the themes of the graduate school, practices and technologies of teaching, and be linked to research fields relevant to one of the research environments mentioned above. This theme can be favorably related to prioritized research areas within the educational science research environment at MDU, such as:

• Didactic questions related to any of the school subjects Swedish, Swedish as a second language, English, Mathematics, Technology, Social Science subjects, and Natural Science subjects
• Teachers' and preschool teachers' competence to meet children and youth in need of special support
• Teachers' and preschool teachers' work and pedagogical leadership
• Pedagogical professions and teacher education
• Classroom interaction
• Didactics of aesthetic subjects, interdisciplinary activities between different aesthetic expressions
• Questions of democracy, sustainability, and justice from both a local and global perspective (global citizenship, global humanities)

Eligibility Requirements

For basic eligibility for doctoral education, one of the following is required:

• Degree at an advanced level
• At least 240 higher education credits, of which at least 60 at an advanced level
• Otherwise, acquired equivalent knowledge in Sweden or abroad.

As a specific eligibility requirement for admission to doctoral studies in didactics, a degree with studies of at least 60 higher education credits with educational scientific relevance and an independent project corresponding to 15 higher education credits with educational scientific relevance is required. The applicant must have completed an approved thesis/independent project/paper of at least 15 higher education credits at the advanced level (or equivalent) during their undergraduate education. Specific eligibility is also granted to those who have otherwise acquired substantially equivalent knowledge within or outside the country.

You must have good oral and written communication skills in Swedish and English at the level required to perform regular tasks in research, teaching, and administration.

Assessment Criteria

A fundamental assessment criterion is the ability to benefit from education at the doctoral level.

For this position, particular emphasis will be placed on the applicant's preliminary dissertation plan and previously completed independent works (especially theses at the advanced level) regarding independence, methodological clarity and theoretical awareness, analytical and stylistic stringency, as well as a critical approach.

This advertisement is abbreviated. To see the full advertisement, go to https://www.mdu.se/om-mdu/jobba-med-oss/lediga-jobb (https://www.mdu.se/om-mdu/jobba-med-oss/lediga-jobb)

Application

You can submit your application by clicking the “Apply” button below.

As an applicant, you are responsible for ensuring that your application is complete in accordance with the advertisement and received by the university no later than the application deadline.

Welcome with your application!

Union Representatives:

Saco-S saco-s@mdu.se (mailto:saco-s@mdu.se)
Susanne Meijer ST-OFR/S, tel: 021-10 14 89

We kindly request no contact from salespeople regarding advertisements. We have made our strategic choices for this recruitment.