Niels Larsen, his associates and board of trustees is committed to producing high-quality research, including reports, issue briefs, working papers, and technical notes. The publications are subject to peer review, and are held to traditional “academic” standards of excellence, such as objectivity and rigor.
Kijani Institute also ensures that all of the publications are timely, fit for audience, and rooted in a strategic plan for achieving positive change in the world. If you notice an error in one of our publications or have concerns about the quality of our research, please contact us on:info@kijani-institute.org/niladk5@gmail.com
“Det gir mening nu”. (2018) In: Med vinger og rødder.
1 Vinger – r_dder- ,2 vinger – r_dder-, 3 Vinger – r_dder-, 4 Vinger – r_dder-, 5 Vinger – r_dder-, 6 Vinger – r_dder-
SKOLERNE I OURE. SPORT AND PERFORMING ARTS 2018.
About the cultural meeting between Danish and Kenyan school partners (2018). The article from Niels Larsen, is focusing on how young students approaches partners from Africa – mainly Kenyan partners, when they first express their pre-understanding and pre-concepts on Africa in General and young students in Kenya specifically.
Young learners express their surprises when they found out how development in Africa is progressing within the last 10-15 years. The young generation is still interested in supporting the development aid and support to the African continent, and the article explores especially tree types of approaches among young students: One group who is open and enthusiastic in relation to explore new cultures. The second group is the more insecure, but they are curious about meeting a new culture. The last group of young students can be directly negative and indifferent about other cultures.
TRAINING OF TRAINERS IN TOGO (2017). DANISH SCHOOL OF EDUCATION. AARHUS UNIVERSITY. DENMARK.
Together with researcher Frans Ørsted Andersen, Niels Larsen did that research in Togo September 2017. The research is made among 100 participants who went to a learning camp in the northern part of Togo. Most of the participants where teachers at different vocational training centers in Kara. The research investigated the different learning experiences from workshops where the teachers learned about different topics:
• Learning and Teachers Role,
• Visible Learning,
• Entrepreneurship,
• Accelerated Learning,
• 7 Personal Traits,
• Full Engagement
A mixed methods research included different questionnaires and field study methods like interviews and observations.
The main results shows that learner center teaching and focus own students own capacity, self-esteem and competences will have the best learning output.
This is what one of the teachers told the researchers after the event:
“…speaking of difficulties I think this is at several levels given so on the infrastructure side you can see buildings in poor condition, which makes it difficult for us by exercising our classes, for example, the classroom roof almost non-existent, which means that when it rains you stop the courses and also the lack of teaching materials for our learners but on the learners’ side either it is a requested job that the learner has not done what is a difficulty that is delaying the course, and also when you are delivering the course, for example in French that does spoken, you notice students talking to each other and when you designate someone to continue reading it does not end up it’s a difficulty, you find that you are explaining the learner pretending to follow you and when you ask a question she does not find you are then forced to stop and fill that absence before returning to the same level as the others which delay the normal course of the lesson which can irritate the teacher I am therefore in relation to the difficulties they are observed on two levels in relation to the learners and the infrastructures.
In some classes the numbers are good but other classes are missing, you can see that in a given specialty they may be seven, whereas somewhere they are 20 or 25 students so it depends on a specialty at another, this is due to the lack of information that people do not have about vocational training”.
Unges Læring, deltagelse og identitet i Ghana (2009). Kognition & Pædagogik. Tidskrift om gode læringsmiljøer. Nr. 73 September 2009. 19 årgang.(side 64 – 74) [English: Youth: Learning, participation and Identity in Ghana]
Even though the Youth get a formal examination, they are so dependent on their informal learning skills and often this are their only way of surviving. The article describes three cases of informal learning: a music group in Tamale, a car repair garage in Accra and a young footballers club in a slum area in Accra.
Marathonmanden og den dansende kohyrde (originally: 1984) in Jordens Folk. Etnografisk tidskrift. Nr. 1. juni 2013, 48. årgang (pp26- 32) [English: The Marathon man and the Dancing herds boy]
The article is about a marathon runner in Tanzania living in Arusha and a boy looking after his family’s cows in the Sukuma area. The article makes a critical view of imported Sports as well as traditional games and activities in Tanzania
Internationalt udsyn. Samlæring mellem unge i en foranderlig verden (2014) in: Foreninger for fremtiden. Dansk Ungdoms Fælles. København. (163 – 183).[English: International perception: Co-learning between Youth in a Changing World].
This research articles discuss and describe the Danish Youth Councils´ collaboration between different international Youth NGOs around the World. The concept of co-learning is introduced and underlines the need for learning not about the developing countries, but learning together with other youth through authentic dialogues, social Media and software for example Skype.
ICT-based, cross-cultural communication – a methodological perspective (2014)
Niels Larsen, Maria Bruselius-Jensen, Dina Danielsen, Rachael Nyamai, James Otiende, Jens Aagaard-Hansen
International Journal of Education and Development – using Information and Communication Technology. (http://ijedict.dec.uwi.edu/)
This article discusses how cross-cultural communication based on information and communication technologies (ICT) may be used in participatory health promotion as well as in education in general. The analysis draws on experiences from a health education research project with grade 6 pupils in Nairobi (Kenya) and Copenhagen (Denmark) addressing the topic of physical activity in everyday life.
The article outlines a sequence of educational events (the Cross-Cultural Communication (3C) model) comprising of letter exchange, recording as well as film exchange and last but not least Skype communication sessions interchanging with reflection sessions in the classes.
The educational rationale for using cross-cultural communication is that meeting the unfamiliar (different children, cultures, schools and contexts) leads to curiosity and reflection about one’s own situation; and subsequently that reflectivity builds action competence. In the present case study, the 3C model was used as a means of health promotion, but the approach may be used in relation to almost any topic.
The 3C model is discussed in relation to theories of co-learning, knowledge guiding and sharing and participation. The article discusses methodological potentials and challenges.