DIALOGUES PROJECT FUNDED BY THE EUROPEAN UNION
EXPERIENCES FROM PHD STUDENTS ON THE ERUSMUS+ DIALOGUES PROJECT 2025
17th September 2025
It has been two weeks since the six Ph.D. students arrived in Norway for the blended mobility ERUSMUS+ DIALOGUES PROJECT by the EUROPEAN UNION in partnership with the University of Iceland, Chalimbana University, University of Zambia, Inland University, and Oslo Met. We started off from Lusaka, Zambia, on 28th August 2025, my birthday month! Wow! What a way to end a month. Yes, so we travelled from Lusaka to Doha aboard Qatar Airlines, the best airline in the world. The experience was amazing, and we were looking forward to arriving in Norway. We were both excited and expectant. We boarded for the last leg of the trip from Doha to Oslo the following day, 29th August 2025. We arrived in Norway at around 14 hours. We were welcomed at the airport by Emeritus Professor Anne Danbolt and Professor Jonas Iversen. It was so heartwarming and reassuring that we were really at the right destination.
That evening, we were treated to a wonderful dinner at the Egon restaurant. We were really hungry and tired. The meal was great, accompanied by great conversations!
We have started our academic journey. Our orientation meeting took place on Monday. We also had a meeting with the school’s dean. We were oriented in the different programmes that the school runs.
The next day, Tuesday, 2nd September, we had a 6-hour session on qualitative research methods. It was very informative and interactive that we did not even realise how the 6 hours had elapsed.
On Wednesday, 3rd September, we had another lecture on ethnography. Same duration as the Monday one. Informative and practical. We had an experience of gathering data from different locations in the town around the university area. It was both educational and exciting to observe different aspects of human behaviour, environment, ambience and aesthetics.
We have since attended an online PhD midline evaluation on Virtual Reality (VR). It was a very different approach from the way a PhD presentation is done in Zambia. We learnt new strategies and best practices.
On Monday, 15th September 2025, we had a conference on digitalisation and inclusion. An amazing and engaging presentation on AI, epistemic injustice, teacher education, and VR assimilations.
On 22nd September, all six PhD candidates presented their proposals during a joint supervision meeting to a physical audience of Professors at Inland University. Among them, Prof. Hanna Rognarsdottir from the University of Iceland. Other supervisors from Zambia joined the meeting online who included Claire Mwiinga, PhD, from Chalimbana University, and Muzata, PhD, from the University of Zambia. It was very nice to have Emeritus Prof. Anne Marit in attendance.
29th September, 2025
Today marks exactly one month since the 6 PhD students from Zambia arrived in Norway. The experience has been both amazing and educational. We have since completed the taught part of the qualitative research method in education. We analysed different journal articles and presented our analysis to the rest of the class and the two lecturers on the course. Prof. Marte Monsen and Prof. Guru Borden Steien.
As September comes to a close, we look forward to October and the quantitative course with enthusiasm!.
Language, Literacy and Learning in Multilingual Classrooms 