Kristin Vindhol Evensen

Norwegian version of this page Department of Teacher Education and Outdoor Studies

Associate Professor

Email: kristinve@nih.no
Phone: +4723262264
Mobile phone: +4790591285

Press photo

Research

Qualitative methods, phenomenology of perception, phenomenology of practice, embodiment, queer-theory, crip-theory, disability studies, intellectual disabilities, severe and multiple disabilities

Teaching

Pedagogy, inclusive physical education, supervision for bachelor- and master thesis, physical education and sports for persons with disabilities, perspectives on disabilities and interaction, embodied learning

Short biography

Kristin Vindhol Evensen in an assoicate professor at the Department of Teacher Education and Outdoor Studies.

Evensen is a kindergarden teacher from Oslo Meteropolitan University, has a minor degree in adapted physical activity from the Norwegian school of sport sciences, a masters degree in special needs education from the University of Oslo and a PhD in sport sciences from the Norwegian school of sport sciences. Evensen has alternated between practical pedagogical work in schools and kindergardens and higher education, and have special interest in how body and movement are foundational for communication when persons have intellectual disabilities. Her professional fundament builds on acknowledging that subjective movements are foundational when humans relate to each other.

Evensen, Kristin Vindhol (2023). The Rights of the Child When Symbolic Language is Out of Reach. In Beckett, Angharad & Callus, Anne-Marie (Ed.), The Routledge international handbook of children's rights and disability. Routledge. ISSN 9780367521530. p. 265–280.
Evensen, Kristin Vindhol (2023). Spesialpedagogikk og kropper i bevegelse, Bevegelsesfellesskap i oppveksten : kritiske perspektiver på inkludering og mangfold. Fagbokforlaget. ISSN 9788245041415. p. 347–363. doi: 10.55669/oa230118.
Bentzen, Marte & Evensen, Kristin Vindhol (2021). “I bow down in awe of them…”: Sports awards for Paralympic athletes and Olympic athletes. Scandinavian Sport Studies Forum. ISSN 2000-088X. 12, p. 59–84. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
Paralympic athletes receive less media attention than Olympic athletes. Further, Olympic athletes are honoured for athletic achievements, whereas Paralympic athletes have been described as victims, suffering or heroic. Following researchers who have approached normativity and compulsory able-bodiedness in the light of hegemony and sub-hegemony, the current study explores whether sports media are sluggish when presenting athletes with disabilities, or if the picture is a more nuanced one. The context studied was the Norwegian Sports Awards (2001–2018). All introductions to the awards of the following categories were transcribed: Best male athlete, best female athlete, best Paralympian (2002–2012)/best male Paralympian and best female Paralympian (2013–2018). A six-step reflexive inductive thematic analysis was used to analyse the data (Braun & Clarke, 2019). The results indicated that the introduction of elite athletes with disabilities had some prominent hallmarks. Athletes with disabilities (‘they’) are different from those living without disabilities (‘us’). Athletes with disabilities are inspiring. Achievements of athletes with disabilities are placed in the shade, while disabilities are placed to the fore. An overall hegemony shows when best male and best female athlete are introduced: Female athletes are, to a large degree, described as developing and joked about in sexual manners, whereas male athletes are world-leading. This study provides the opportunity to learn from examples that balance the recognition of elite athletes with disabilities experiencing challenges in daily living with recognition of their athletic achievements. Thus, we suggest that this study adds nuance to the previous research within this context.
Evensen, Kristin Vindhol (2021). Children with Severe, Multiple Disabilities. In Ødegaard, Elin Eriksen & Borgen, Jorunn Spord (Ed.), Childhood Cultures in Transformation 30 Years of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in Action towards Sustainability . Brill|Sense. ISSN 978-90-04-44566-6. p. 54–73. doi: 10.1163/9789004445666_004. Show summary
This book investigates and uncover paradoxes and ambivalences that are actualised when seeking to make the right choices in the best interests of the child. The 1989 United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child established a milestone for the 20th century. Many of these ideas still stand, but time calls for new reflections, empirical descriptions and knowledge as provided in this book. Special attention is directed to the conceptualisation of children and childhood cultures, the missing voices of infants and fragile children, as well as transformations during times of globalisation and change. All chapters contribute to understand and discuss aspects of societal demands and cultural conditions for modern-day children age 0–18, accompanied by pointers to their future. Contributors are: Eli Kristin Aadland, Wenche Bjorbækmo, Jorunn Spord Borgen, Gunn Helene Engelsrud, Kristin Vindhol Evensen, Eldbjørg Fossgard, Liv Torunn Grindheim, Asle Holthe, Liisa Karlsson, Stinne Gunder Strøm Krogager, Jonatan Leer, Ida Marie Lyså, Elin Eriksen Ødegaard, Czarecah Tuppil Oropilla, Susanne Højlund Pedersen, Anja Maria Pesch, Karen Klitgaard Povlsen, Gro Rugseth, Pauline von Bonsdorff, Hege Wergedahl and Susanne C. Ylönen.
Bjorbærkmo, Wenche Schrøder; Evensen, Kristin Vindhol; Groven, Karen Synne; Rugseth, Gro & Standal, Øyvind Førland (2018). Phenomenology of Professional Practices in Education and Health Care: An Empirical Investigation. Phenomenology & Practice. ISSN 1913-4711. 12(1), p. 18–30. doi: 10.29173/pandpr29355. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
In this article a group of professionals working in education and health care explore professional practices and interactions from a phenomenological perspective, drawing on Max van Manen’s conceptualization of the phenomenology of practice and his knowledge interest in understanding and furthering sensitive, caring professional practice. Posing the question what is the meaning of interaction in encounters within education and health care, we look at practice experiences drawn from close observations and interviews during research concerning special needs education, physiotherapy and weight loss programs. Three anecdotes are offered as a way to ‘show,’ rather than interpret, the processes involved. Each anecdote is followed by reflections in which we draw on van Manen’s notion of pathic knowledge and Nancy’s ideas about co-existence to develop phenomenological insights about temporal, embodied and relational qualities of the phenomenon of interaction in professional practice. Such interaction seems to involve continuous negotiation. It emerges as a process of exchange, a movement back and forth between supporting and letting oneself be supported; between confronting and being confronted; between pushing and being pushed. Moments of active engagement give way to periods of waiting for the other to act. The experience is one of continuous back and forth movement in the relational space in-between.
Evensen, Kristin Vindhol; Ytterhus, Borgunn & Standal, Øyvind Førland (2017). “He is not crying for real”: severe, multiple disabilities and embodied constraint in two special-needs education units. Society, Health & Vulnerability. ISSN 2002-1518. 8(1). doi: 10.1080/20021518.2017.1387474. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
Students with severe and multiple disabilities are, according to official Norwegian policies, to be included in ordinary school settings. Yet usually their schooldays are organized differently from those of their non-disabled peers. In this paper the authors aim (1) to identify how embodied meaning unfolds when students with severe and multiple disabilities are fastened in assistive technical devices and (2) to identify how staff respond when students make gestures. Applying the phenomenological philosophy and the phenomenological methodology the authors acknowledge movement as fundamental for the students’ possibilities to express their perspective. Their empirical material describes how possibilities for making gestures are severely limited when students are fastened in devices. To shed light on the staff’s recognition and response as fundamental for interactions when students are under embodied constraint, they have applied Goffman’s interactionism.
Evensen, Kristin Vindhol & Standal, Øyvind Førland (2017). “I Guess that the Greatest Freedom ...”: A Phenomenology of Spaces and Severe Multiple Disabilities . Indo-Pacific Journal of Phenomenology. ISSN 2079-7222. 17(2). doi: 10.1080/20797222.2017.1356628. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
This paper expresses wonder about how bodies in motion can lead towards an understanding of lived meaning in silent lifeworlds. In such lifeworlds, expressions are without words, pre-symbolic, and thus embodied. To address the wonder, phenomenological philosophy and phenomenological methodology were employed to frame an approach that acknowledges lives with disabilities as qualitatively different from, and yet not inferior to, nor less imbued with meaning than, lives without.
Evensen, Kristin Vindhol; Standal, Øyvind Førland & Ytterhus, Borgunn (2017). Golden Paper, a Chain and a Bag: A Phenomenology of Queer Things in a Special Needs Education Unit. Phenomenology & Practice. ISSN 1913-4711. 11(2), p. 60–69. doi: 10.29173/pandpr29351. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
Children naturally play with things in both expected and unexpected ways. A stick, a spoon, or a chain of pearls may each seem to contain a goldmine of possibilities for the individual child. Every child encounters an object according to their own predilections and abilities. Some children, due to severe and multiple disabilities, are restricted in their possibilities to approach certain things. In this paper, we explore the existential meaning of “queer things” as a way to understand how two children with disabilities reach out to objects in an educational space, where they relate to themselves, to things, as well as to others.

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Wilhelmsen, Terese; Berg, Ellen; Evensen, Kristin Vindhol; Solstad, Gerd Marie & Thorjussen, Ingfrid M. (2023). Bevegelsesfellesskap i oppveksten : kritiske perspektiver på inkludering og mangfold. Fagbokforlaget. ISBN 9788245041415. 413 p.

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Evensen, Kristin Vindhol & Berg, Ellen (2022). Kakao og kveldsmat smaker best etter trening. Er verkeleg idrett betre enn andre fritidsaktivitetar?
Evensen, Kristin Vindhol & Berg, Ellen (2022). Idrett er ikkje betre enn andre fritidsaktivitetar. Bergens Tidende, Debattsider.
Ødegaard, Elin Eriksen; Borgen, Jorunn Spord; Oropilla, Czarecah Tuppil; Pesch, Anja Maria; Grindheim, Liv Torunn & Wergedahl, Hege [Show all 12 contributors for this article] (2021). Book Launch - Celebrating 'Childhood Cultures in Transformation - 30 Years of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in Action towards Sustainability'. Show summary
The UNCRC was declared in 1989 and reflect ideas of children and childhoods and the world views at the time it was drafted (1979–1989). Many of these ideas and world views still stand, but time calls for new reflections, empirical descriptions and knowledge as provided in this book.
Evensen, Kristin Vindhol & Bentzen, Marte (2020). Idrettsgallaen som inspirasjonsporno. Forskersonen.no.
Bentzen, Marte & Evensen, Kristin Vindhol (2019). I'm bending in the dust. An analyses of the Norwegian Sports Awards .
Bentzen, Marte & Evensen, Kristin Vindhol (2018). Paraidretten på Galla.
Evensen, Kristin Vindhol (2018). Kropp, bevegelse og kompleks, alvorlig funksjonshemming.
Evensen, Kristin Vindhol (2018). Kropp, bevegelse og kompleks, alvorlig funksjonshemming.
Evensen, Kristin Vindhol (2018). Kroppens fenomenologi – en løfterik tilnærming til før-symbolske perspektiver?
Evensen, Kristin Vindhol (2017). Gymmen er for alle.
Evensen, Kristin Vindhol (2017). Barn med multifunksjonshemming som forskningsdeltakere: Hvorfor, hvordan, hva og hva nå?
Evensen, Kristin Vindhol (2017). Hvordan vises kroppslig mening når elever med multifunksjonshemming utfolder seg aktivt i rom?
Evensen, Kristin Vindhol & Bentzen, Marte (2017). Gå nært for å se det større? Perspektiver og spennvidde innen forskning om funksjonshemming (Key-note).
Evensen, Kristin Vindhol (2017). What is the pedagogical meaning of active spatiality of situations when students have severe, multiple disabilities?
Evensen, Kristin Vindhol (2016). Students with severe, multiple Impairments and embodied Meaning A Phenomenological Study of Everyday Life in a special needs Education Unit.
Evensen, Kristin Vindhol (2016). Han gråter ikke ordentlig. Multifunksjonshemming og kroppslig mening.
Evensen, Kristin Vindhol (2016). Vekselvirkning.
Evensen, Kristin Vindhol (2016). Bevegelse på egne premisser. Mennesker med utviklingshemming - i bevegelse.
Standal, Øyvind Førland & Evensen, Kristin Vindhol (2015). Håndbok. Bevegelsesgruppe for barn og unge med autisme.
Evensen, Kristin Vindhol (2015). Elever med multifunksjonshemming – pedagogisk subjekt eller medisinsk objekt i kroppsøvingsfaget?
Evensen, Kristin Vindhol (2015). What interactions between students and teachers promote embodied learning of students with multiple disability?
Evensen, Kristin Vindhol (2014). Elever med utviklingshemning i kroppsøvingsfaget – en innholdsanalyse.
Evensen, Kristin Vindhol (2014). Students with intellectual disabilities and their experiences in physical education- a preliminary presentation of a qualitative study.
Evensen, Kristin Vindhol (2013). Et case-studie av elever med utviklingshemning og deres erfaringer av deltagelse i kroppsøving.
Evensen, Kristin Vindhol (2018). Give me a thousand gestures. Embodied meaning and severe, multiple disabilities in segregated special needs education. Norges idrettshøgskole. ISSN 978-82-502-0547-5.

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Published Oct. 17, 2023 1:11 PM - Last modified Mar. 5, 2024 1:38 PM