Venka Simovska

Research fields

Interdisciplinary research at the interesction of psychology, social theory, educational theory and health promotion sciences. More specificaly: Discourses and practices related to wellbeing in schools; Wellbeing and subjectification; the paradigm of Health (Wellbeing) Promoting Schools; (Post)Critical educational theory; Participatory and action-focused learning processes; (Dis)Engagement of children and young people; Transformation processes on the trajectories from policy to school practices; Qualitative, mixed and plural method research approaches: case study, interview, observation. Trans-epistemologies, interpretive and (post)critical research paradigms.

Academic Boards and Committees 

Denmark

• National PhD Council for Educational Research (Ph.d.-rådet for uddannelsesforskning) (member, international expert). Ministry of Higher Education and Science
• Advisory Board of the National Initiative to Strengthen Sexuality Education in Primary and Lower Secondary Schools in Denmark (SSF) [National indsats for styrkelse af sundheds- og seksualundervisning og familiekundskab i folkeskolen] (member, quality assurance). Ministry of Children and Education, the Board for Education and Quality 
• Research Review Panel of the Danish School of Education (DPU), Arts, AU (chair)

International

• Senior Fellow for the EERA Emerging Reseacrhers Network
• Co-Convenor of Research on Health and Wellbeing Education in Schools Network within the European Educational Research Association (EERA) (network founder and chair 2011-2017)
• International Panel of Experts, Research Centre for Child Studies, University of Minho, Institute of Education, Braga, Portugal
• Editorial Advisory Board for Health Education (Emerald Journal) (member)

Awards

Emerald Literati Club Awards for Excellence:

• 2015: Outstanding Reviewer
• 2011: Outstanding Reviewer
• 2005: Outstanding Journal Aricle

Doctoral  and postdoctoral research supervision

Main supervisor - Ida Ebdrup, Postdoc (2024-2026). DFF funded project "Paradoxes of learning to be Well: Re-examining the Curriculisation of Wellbeing in Schools" (funded by DFF)

Main supervisor - Nina Langer Primdahl "Sexuality education in primary and lower secondary schools" (funded by the National PhD Concil for Educational Research 2023)

Main Supervisor - Nana Ernst Toldam "Sexual wellbeing, sexual subjectification, and sexuality education: Exploring young people’s perspectives of sexual wellbeing and the role of sexuality education in Danish upper secondary school" (funded by Arts Graduate School Open Call 2023)

Project collaborator - Nis Langer Primdahl, DFF funded International Postoc (Cambridge University and Aarhus University, 2023-2025) "Temporal Dimensions of Mental Health Promotion in Schools: Theorizing the Educational Objectification of Time"

Main supervisor - Denis Francesconi, Postdoc (2018-2020). Horizon 2020, Marie Sklodowska-Curie Postdoc scholarship "School for Quality of Life. Policy, practice and theory for a quality of life approach in European school systems"

Main supervisor - Nis Langer Primdahl, PhD student (2018-2022): Temporal Norms and the Question of Suspension: Rethinking the Educational Teleology of School-based Mindfulness. AU Graduate School of Arts, Open Call Scholarship. 

Main supervisor - Lone Lindegaard Nordin, Postdoc (2013-2016): "Research on Schools for Health and Sustainability", AU IDEAS Pilot Centre, funded by AUFF (Aarhus University Research Fund).

Main supervisor - Katrine Dahl Madsen, Postdoc (2013-2016):  "Research on Schools for Health and Sustainability", AU IDEAS Pilot Centre, funded by AUFF (Aarhus University Research Fund)

Main supervisor - Line Anne Roien, PhD student (2015-2018): Sexuality, Subjectivity and Society: The role of school-based sexuality education. AU Graduate School of Arts Open Call Scholarship

Main supervisor: Irene Torres PhD student (2014-2017): Opportunities for school-based health promotion in farming communities of Ecuador: A health-promoting school perspective.  Aarhus University.

Main supervior: Lone Lindegaard Nordin PhD student (2000-2013): Fra Politik til praksis - (From Policy to Practice - Implementation of municipal health promotion projects in schools with focus on healthy eating, physical activity and action competence: Teachers' perspectives). Aarhus University. 

Main Supervisor: Helle Schnor 2012 PhD: Håndtering af kronisk sygdom i et hverddagslivs- og sundhedspædagogisk perspektiv: Et kvalitativt studie af hvorden mennesker med hjertesvigt lærer at håndtere hverdagen med kronisk sygdom. Aarhus Universittet. (Managing chronic illness - an everydaylife and health educational perspective:  Qualitative studye on how people with a heart failure learn to manage their everyday lives). Aarhus University.

Main supervisor: Rachael Kaki Nymai 2010 (PhD) Teachers' competence and pupils' participation in HIV/AIDS education in schools: A participatory action research in Kitui district, Kenya. A PhD study and research collaboration between DPU, Kenyatta University, Kenya, and the Centre for Health Research and Development, Department of Veterinary Pathobiology, Faculty of Life Sciences University of Copenhagen.