معرفی
Helena Reierstam is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Education, Stockholm University, where she is actively involved in research and teaching. She is a member of the International and Comparative Education Research (ICER) group and serves as the project coordinator in Sweden for the international Erasmus+ COALITION project on student-centered inclusive pedagogies (2022-2025). Her work spans multiple educational contexts, from school-level teaching to higher education policy development.
Dr. Reierstam's research focuses on the complex intersection of language and content assessment in multilingual educational settings. Her primary interests include assessment practices, multilingualism, language policy, syllabus design, academic literacy, and English medium instruction (EMI) and CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning), all examined through an international comparative lens. She has conducted extensive research on how teachers assess subject matter knowledge when students are simultaneously learning the language of instruction, particularly in CLIL contexts and with newly arrived immigrant students.
Her recent publications and presentations reveal a strong trend toward examining the challenges of maintaining assessment comparability in increasingly diverse educational environments. Her current research project (2025-2027), 'Higher education in the crossfire?', specifically addresses examinations and relevant competencies in times of generative AI and widening participation in higher education. This work builds on her 2020 dissertation, 'Assessment in Multilingual Schools,' which examined teachers' assessment beliefs and practices among language learners in CLIL and migrant education contexts.
At Stockholm University, Dr. Reierstam teaches at the Centre for the Advancement of University Teaching, offering courses in assessment for vocational teachers, Communication, leadership and health, the principal program, and the International master program in International and Comparative Education. She has supervised student theses and provided in-service training for student teachers. She also hosts 'PeP Talk,' a program where faculty discuss various pedagogical issues in higher education.
Dr. Reierstam brings extensive practical experience to her academic work, having taught and developed curriculum at various school levels in Sweden and the USA, served as director of education at the Swedish National Agency for Education where she was responsible for national tests in English as a foreign language, and contributed to national frameworks for high-stakes testing. Her expertise is regularly sought through workshops and lectures on assessment in contexts with second language learners.
