Anne Edwards is also associated to University of Oslo and has been awarded a doctorial honoris causa at University of Helsinki. She is a former President of the British Educational Research Association, and was among other things a member of the ESRC’s Research Grants Board between 2003 and has been the head of a number of projects on educational research.

For the last ten years Anne has been researching the work of professionals in education and the welfare professions. This research programme has included studies of the challenges faced by professionals when working on complex societal problems. Her analyses have generated new conceptual framings for understanding expertise and collaboration. Central concepts are: relational expertise, relational agency and common knowledge. In this talk she will discuss these ideas and focus on common knowledge to explain the importance of professional motives to its construction and to describe how it is used to take forward professional work. The session will conclude with a discussion of the implications for professionalism.

Contact: Pernille Rosenbæk, pern@dpu.dk