Stockholm university
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Anna DanielssonProfessor

About me

I am Professor of Science Education at the Department of Teaching and Learning and Head of the Science Education Section. My research interests are centred around issues related to gender, identity and power in the context of teaching and learning science and technology. 

Teaching

Anna teaches on all levels, from undergraduate education to postgraduate education. Her current teaching concerns physics education, socio-scientific issues, and social and societal perspectives on science and mathematics education. She supervises advanced level student theses. Currently, she supervises four PhD students (three of them as main supervisor). She is also involved in the Center for the Advancement of University teaching, where she teaches on courses about PhD supervision.

Research

Anna Danielsson is Professor of Science Education at the Department of Teaching and Learning and Head of the Science Education Section. She is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy’s standing committee on education. During 2019-2024 she was member of The Swedish Young Academy, an interdisciplinary academy for a selection of the most prominent younger researchers in Sweden. She serves as an associate editor for Journal of Research in Science Teaching.

Anna’s research explores issues of gender and identity in the context of teaching and learning science, with a particular interest in higher education physics. She regularly presents her research to a variety of diffrent audiences, such as academic conferences (keynote from the GeDiMIRT conference at Lund University here) and politicians and policy makers (presentation, in Swedish, from a seminar about the Swedish STEM-strategy here).

In the ongoing project IMMPACT (lead by Paola Valero) physics and mathematics students’ trajectories to and through higher education are explored, with particular attention to identity and materiality. Currently, Anna leads the graduate school RelMaS2 (Relevancing mathematics and science education, cohort 2) with nine PhD students at the universities in Stockholm, Uppsala, and Malmö. She supervises PhD students working with affect and physics education, academic resilience, history education, and pre-school science.

Anna’s earlier research has concerned the gendering of primary student teachers’ relationship to science, group work in physics, engineering students’ identity work, and science faculty as teacher educators. All projects have been funded by the Swedish Research Council. The research has been published in international journals such as International Journal of Science Education, Research in Science Education, Cultural Studies of Science Education, and Physical Review Physics Education Research. Together with Allison Gonsalves (McGill University) and Lucy Avraamidou (University of Groningen) Anna has a chapter about gender in the most recent edition of Handbook of Research on Science Education.

Together with Anne-Sofie Nyström (Uppsala University), Maria Berge (Umeå University), and Anders Johansson (Chalmers University of Technology), Anna is one of the founders of the non-profit association Love Science, which aims to engage a broader range of young people in science. The association was awarded Uppsala University’s Attractive Innovation Project award (2025) for its work with a story-based method to capture and express young people’s interest in science.

Anna holds a PhD in physics specializing in physics education research from Uppsala University (2009) and a MSc in physics, also from Uppsala University (2004). From 2010-2012, Anna held a postdoctoral fellowship (funded by the Swedish Research Council) at the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge. In 2012 she returned to Uppsala University to take up a position as senior lecturer at the Department of Education. During the academic year of 2016/17 she held a post as Reader in Science Education at King's College London. She was a visiting professor at King’s College 2017-2019. In January 2018 she was promoted to Professor in Curriculum Studies (didaktik) at Uppsala University.

Selection of new publications

Nyström, A. S., Johansson, A., Danielsson, A. T., & Gonsalves, A. J. (2024). Resonating with physics: physics students’ stories about existential and affective relations to science in and beyond formal learning spaces. International Journal of Science Education, Part B, 1-16.

Johansson, A., Nyström, A. S., Gonsalves, A. J., & Danielsson, A. T. (2023). Performing legitimate choice narratives in physics: possibilities for under-represented physics students. Cultural Studies of Science Education, 18(4), 1255-1283.

Danielsson, A. T., King, H., Godec, S., & Nyström, A. S. (2023). The identity turn in science education research: A critical review of methodologies in a consolidating field. Cultural Studies of Science Education, 18(3), 695-754.

Danielsson, A., Avraamidou, L. & Gonsalves, A. Gender Matters: Building on the Past, Recognizing the Present, and Looking Toward the Future. Invited contribution to Handbook of Research on Science Education Volume III (eds. Lederman, N. Zeidler, D., & Lederman, J.).

Research projects

Anna currently participates in the project:

In(ex)clusion in higher education mathematics and physics: Identity enactment in educaitonal trajectories and scientific practices

Participants: Prof. Paola Valero (PI, Stockholm University), Dr Lisa Österling (Stockholm University), Dr Maria Berge (Umeå University), Nhu Truong (Stockholm University) and Bruna Nunes (Stockholm University).

Previously Anna has participated in the projects:

The unlikely scientists: Exploring what has enabled students from under-represented groups to continue to higher education science studies

Funded by the Swedish Research Council: 2019-2023

Participants: Prof. Anna Danielsson (Uppsala University), Dr Anne-Sofie Nyström (Uppsala University), Dr Anders Johansson (Chalmers) och Dr Allison Gonsalves (McGill University). 

Publications:

Nyström, A. S., Johansson, A., Danielsson, A. T., & Gonsalves, A. J. (2024). Resonating with physics: physics students’ stories about existential and affective relations to science in and beyond formal learning spaces. International Journal of Science Education, Part B, 1-16.

Johansson, A., Nyström, A.-S., Gonsalves, A. & Danielsson, A. (2023) Performing legitimate choice narratives in physics: possibilities for under-represented physics students. Cultural Studies in Science Education, 18, 1255-1283. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11422-023-10201-3

Gonsalves, A., Danielsson, A., Avraamidou, L., Nyström, A.-S. & Esquivel, R. (2023) Using story-based methodologies to explore physics identities: How do moments add up to a life in physics? Physical Review Physics Education Research, 19.  https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.19.020106

Danielsson, A., Johansson, A., Nyström, A.-S. & Gonsalves, A. (2023) Young peoples’ online science practices as a gateway to higher education STEM. Research in Science Education, 53, 759-770. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11165-023-10100-1

Danielsson, A., King, H., Godec, S. & Nyström, A.-S. (2023) The identity turn in science education research: A review of a consolidating field. Cultural Studies in Science Education, 18, 695-754. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11422-022-10130-7

Gonsalves, A.J., Danielsson, A.T., Johansson, A. & Nyström, A.-S. (2022) Other spaces for young people’s identity work in physics: “non-traditional” students’ engagement in out-of-school activities. Physical Review – Physics Education Research, 18(2). https://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.18.020118

Remoulding Engineering: Knowledge and Identity Perspectives on Project Work in Engineering Education

Funded by the Swedish Research Council: 2015-2017

Participants: Dr Maria Berge, PI (Umeå University), Dr Anna Danielsson (Uppsala University), Dr Eva Silfver (Umeå University), and Prof. Åke Ingerman (Gothenburg University).

Publications:

Danielsson, A. & Berge, M. Using video-diaries in educational research exploring identity: Affordances and constraints. Online First International Journal of Qualitative Methods. https://doi.org/10.1177/1609406920973541

Gonsalves, A., Silfver, E., Danielsson, A. & Berge, M. (2019). “It’s not my dream, actually”: Students’ identity work across figured worlds of construction engineering in Sweden. International Journal of STEM Education, 6(13). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40594-019-0165-4

Berge, M., Silfver, E. & Danielsson, A. (2019) In search of the new engineer: Gender and social class in information about engineering educations. European Journal of Engineering Education, 44(5), 650-665. DOI https://doi.org/10.1080/03043797.2018.1523133

Danielsson, A., Gonsalves, A., Silfver, E. & Berge, M. (2019) The pride and joy of engineering: The Identity Work of Male Working-Class Engineering Students. Engineering Studies, 11(3), 172-195. DOI https://doi.org/10.1080/19378629.2019.1663859

In the borderland between academic disciplines and school science - Science faculty as teacher educators

Funded by the Swedish Research Council: 2015-2018

Participants: Dr Kristina Andersson, PI (Uppsala University), Dr Anna Danielsson (Uppsala University), Dr Maja Elmgren (Uppsala University), Dr Susanne Engström (KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Dr Annica Gullberg (Uppsala University), Prof. Cathrine Hasse (University of Aarhus), Dr Anita Hussénius (Uppsala University), and Prof. Kathryn Scantlebury (University of Delaware).

Publications:

Danielsson, A., Engström, S., Norström, P. & Andersson, K. (in press). The making of contemporary physicists: Figured worlds in the university quantum mechanics classroom. Online First Research in Science Education. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11165-019-09914-9

Power, knowledge and identity in science and technology classrooms: Teachers' enactments of disciplinary discourses as establishing inclusion and exclusion 

Funded by the Swedish Research Council: 2013-2015

Participants: Dr Maria Berge (Umeå University), Dr Anna Danielsson, PI (Uppsala University), Prof. Åke Ingerman (Gothenburg University), Dr Malena Lidar (Uppsala University) and Prof. Leif Östman (Uppsala University)

Publications:

Berge, M., Lidar, M. & Danielsson, A. (2020). Storylines in the physics teaching content of an upper secondary school classroom. Research in Science and Technological Education, 38, 63-83. https://doi.org/10.1080/02635143.2019.1593128

Lidar, M., Berge, M. & Danielsson, A. (2020). What is construed as relevant knowledge in physics teaching? Similarities and differences in how knowledge and power are staged in three lower secondary classrooms. Research in Science Education, 50, 1167-1186. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11165-018-9727-6

Danielsson, A., Berge, M. & Lidar, M. (2018) Knowledge and power in the technology classroom: a framework for studying teachers and students in action. Cultural Studies of Science Education, 13(1), 163-184.

Mendick, H., Berge, M. & Danielsson, A. (2017). A critique of the STEM pipeline: Young people’s identities in Sweden and science education policy. British Journal of Educational Studies, 65(4), 481-497.

Challenging science teacher education: Gender awareness in constructing knowledge of science and science teaching

Funded by the Swedish Research Council: 2011-2013

Participants: Dr. Kristina Andersson (Uppsala University), Dr. Anna Danielsson (Uppsala University), Dr. Anita Hussénius, PI (Uppsala University), Dr. Annica Gullberg (University of Gävle and Uppsala University) and Prof. Kathryn Scantlebury (University of Delaware).

Publications:

Andersson, K., Gullberg, A., Danielsson, A., Scantlebury, K. & Hussénius, A. (2020). Chafing borderlands: Obstacles for science teaching and learning in teacher education. Cultural Studies of Science Education, 15, 433-452. DOI : 10.1007/s11422-019-09934-x

Gullberg, A., Andersson, K., Danielsson, A., Scantlebury, K. & Hussénius, A. (2018) Pre-service teachers' views of the child - Reproducing or challenging gender stereotypes in science in preschool Research in Science Education, 48(4), 691-715.

Danielsson, A., Andersson, K., Gullberg, A & Hussénius, A. (2018). Naturvetenskap för yngre barn – vilket kunskapsinnehåll (o)synliggörs i lärarstudenters beskrivningar av sin framtida undervisning. Högre Utbildning, 8(1), 1-13.

Danielsson, A.T., Andersson, K., Gullberg, A., Hussénius, A. & Scantlebury, K. (2016) “In biology class we would just sit indoors…”: Experiences of insideness and outsideness in the places student teachers’ associate with science. Cultural Studies of Science Education, 11(4), 1115-1134.

Hussénius, A.T., Andersson, K., Danielsson, A. & Gullberg, A. (2014) Ämnesinnehåll och genusmedvetenhet i samspel för en mer inkluderande naturvetenskap. Högre utbildning, 4(2), 109-125.

Caring for physics? Gender perspectives on primary school student teachers’ constitutions of identities as teachers of science in the tension between ‘feminine’ primary teaching and ‘masculine’ physics

Postdoctoral fellowship, funded by the Swedish Research Council: 2010-2012.

Publications:

Danielsson, A. & Warwick, P. (2015). Gee’s Discourse analysis as a way of approaching the constitution of primary science teacher identities. Studying Science Teacher Identity: Theoretical Perspectives, Methodological Approaches and Empirical Findings, ed. Lucy Avraamidou, Sense Publishers.

Danielsson, A.T. & Warwick, P. (2014). “’You have to give them some science facts’: Primary school student teachers' early negotiations of teacher identities in the intersections between discourses about science teaching and about primary teaching”. Research in Science Education, 44(2), 289-305. DOI: 10.1007/s11165-013-9383-9

Danielsson, A.T. (2013). Science for whom? Case studies of two male primary school student teachers’ constructions of themselves as teachers of science. Nordic Studies in Science Education, 9(2), 145-155.

Danielsson, A.T. & Warwick, P. (2013). ‘All we did was things like forces and motion…’ : multiple Discourses in the development of primary science teachers. International Journal of Science Education, 36(1), 103-128.

Learning in groups: a multidisciplinary perspective on creating and participating in discursive spaces of learning

Funded by the Swedish Research Council 2006-2008.

PI: Prof. Åke Ingerman.

Publications:

Berge, M. & Danielsson, A.T. (2013). Solving problems in learning science at universities: Characterizing the interactions in a group in terms of storylines. Research in science education, 43(3), 1177-1196.

Berge, M., Danielsson, A.T. & Ingerman, Å. (2012). Different stories of group work: Exploring problem solving in engineering education. Nordic Studies in Science Education, 8(1), 3-16.

Research projects

FUSE - The unexpected scientists

The FUSE project examines different paths that students can take to apply for a degree in physics. The focus is on students from under-represented groups, such as women and people from families with non-academic backgrounds.

Photo: Jens Olof Lasthein

Publications

A selection from Stockholm University publication database

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