Welcome to this English version of my homepage.

I am professor at School of Education , University of Iceland and Associate Fellow in the School of Health and Social Studies, University of Warwick, England.
I am currently leading the research project Children's perspectives on domestic violence funded by The Icelandic Research Fund. We seek partcipants in an interview study.My teaching areas are qualitative research methodology, child protection, children's rights and children´s social conditions from the perspectives of social work and sociology. I am also working on a study on the development of teacher education institutions.

I am member of a Nordic network researching Children exposed to domestic violence.

I am chair of the Centre of Childhood and Youth Studies at the School of Education and a former chair and founding member of of the Icelandic Social Work Research Association (founded in 2002).  http://stofnanir.hi.is/baer/

Also board member of the The Research Institute of Ármann Snævarr on Family Affairs.

I am a board member of Barnaheill Save the Children Iceland.

Main research interests relate to the area of childhood and childhood studies, child care and child protection. I am now especially focused on researching children´s own views of different social aspects of their lives.

Main research in progress is the research project Children's Perspectives on Violence in the Home.

Recent research has been in the area of child foster care, children´s concerns and social conditions. In 2004 I finished a study called Children's and young people's experiences of long term foster care. The study was initiated and partially financed by the Child Protection Agency in Iceland. I made an effort to conduct it in the spirit of participatory research. A book presenting findings in Icelandic was published in 2004, an abstract in Icelandic and English. An article in English was published in the Jn. of Child and Youth Care Work, Vol 19, 2004, pp. 146 - 158. As well as several articles and book chapters for different audiences in Icelandic.

A project was the Traditions and Transitions of Teacher Education study conducted in cooperation with professor M. Allyson Macdonald, Director of MA/PhD studies at IUE, Gunnar Börkur Jónasson, M.Ed. and research teams in Sweden and Canada. Two articles by me and Macdonald (see below) were published in a special issue of the Jn of Research Teacher Education Univ. of Umea, Sweden, No. 3 - 4, 2003, eds. Sandra Acker and Gaby Weiner,.

Writings about child care and child protection for students and professionals. The text in current preliminary version is being useful for teaching.

The term "child protection case". was a project I headed inn a group comparing definitions of the term child protection case and child welfare cases in neighbouring countries (Nordic countries and England/Wales) to Iceland. The work resulted in a report in Icelandic, main results not showing any major differences in definitions applied between countries but some differences in age groups targeted and shaping of legislation.

I have earlier researched the development and professionalization of child care and child protection services here in Iceland and also ten-year olds competence and social conditions in five of the Nordic countries together with Nordic colleagues a project headed by Elisabeth Backe-Hansen, currently at NOVA in Oslo . My writings include gender aspects of employment and career and cooperative practices in child care from the perspectives of mothers and children. For both areas see list of publications below. I have worked in feminist movements and projects over the years and look upon gender issues as vital to understanding of any involvement.