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“Grateful to work on sustainability”

Eva in front of the blackboard in the classroom.
“Throughout my professional life I have been interested in teaching, perhaps because I am a teacher's child”, says Eva Liedholm Johnson, winner of the KTH Pedagogical Prize. Photo: Magnus Glans
Published Dec 12, 2023

Eva Liedholm Johnson receives KTH's Pedagogical Prize 2023 for her persistent work on integrating sustainability and gender equality in the Civil Engineering and Urban Management programme.
“For me, pedagogy is about finding ways to teach that give students an opportunity to continue learning and developing throughout their lives.”

The prize winner says that she was surprised and very happy about the award and explains how grateful it is to work with sustainability and gender equality at KTH. That there is a great commitment among teachers and students.

“I really appreciate all the collaborations with colleagues. It is fantastic to see the drive to develop KTH's programmes and give our students tools and approaches to tackle current and future unknown challenges. Our students must be able to help drive and participate in the transition to a more sustainable society.”

Already in 2020

Liedholm Johnson  is a teacher, researcher, and newly appointed Director of First and Second Cycle Education at the ABE School, where she is responsible for courses on land rights and changes in property division. She was previously manager for the Civil Engineering and Urban Management programme which already in 2020 reached level 3 in the CDIO standard for sustainable development.

A graduate of KTH Royal Institute of Technology, she returned in 1996 after many years working elsewhere. The Soviet Union had fallen and KTH was commissioned by SIDA to set up a Land Management programme focusing on the privatisation of land rights.

“I taught an unusual group of students, and the programme was later expanded to several countries in the Balkans and East Africa. In Kazakhstan, for example, I have also helped to build higher education programmes with a focus on sustainability.”

“Historical context”

Among important components in teaching, she mentions conditions for dialogue and sensitivity to the student group. Learning should be at the centre and therefore the course structure sometimes needs to be changed and developed as different learning activities are more or less suitable depending on the subject.

“Learning is a continuous process, and it is about conveying curiosity about new and unknown things and putting them in a historical context.”

In her new role as Director of First and Second Cycle Education, she will coordinate the quality work and is tasked with integrating sustainable development, gender equality, diversity and equal opportunities into the programmes.

“Very useful”

“I feel that my previous experience is very useful here. It is also fun to have the opportunity to share the development work that has been done with new colleagues both at ABE and at other schools at KTH and to continue to drive the work forward.”

Will the Pedagogical Prize be a motor for you?
“Yes, it is of course fun that what I have done together with other colleagues, within and outside the ABE school, to develop the civil engineering programme in civil engineering is appreciated and acknowledged. It gives energy to continue the work that I now do at a more general level.”

Text: Lars Öhman

Nomination

“Eva Liedholm Johnson has, with a positive, responsive and inclusive approach, worked persistently, long-term and strategically to integrate sustainability and gender equality in the Civil Engineering and Urban Management Programme . She has also worked with a long-term and comprehensive work on the programme as a whole. Her co-creative work has been crucial for the Civil Engineering and Urban Management Programme to reach level 3 in the CDIO standard for sustainable development already in 2020 – i.e. KTH's sustainability goal for education to be achieved by 2025.

Eva Liedholm Johnson's work on mainstreaming sustainability and gender equality does not stop there; she has continued with development projects for further mainstreaming sustainability and so that all students after graduation will be able to drive and participate in the transition to sustainable development and a gender-equal and climate-neutral society. Eva Liedholm Johnson also has the ambition to share the experiences and methods that the Civil Engineering and Urban Management Programme has worked with, to her colleagues throughout KTH who are responsible for the programme and undergraduate education.

We hope that the Pedagogical Prize can be a driving force for Eva Liedholm Johnson's new role as Director of First and Second Cycle Education and that her experience will be a source of inspiration at KTH and for the benefit of the development of engineering education nationally and internationally.”

* Read more about the Pedagogical Prize  and see previous winners