Tone Pernille Østern

Tone Pernille Østern is a Professor in Arts Education with a focus on Dance at the Department for Teacher Education, NTNU since 2015. She also holds a Visiting Professorship in Dance Education in Contemporary Contexts at Stockholm University of the Arts since 2020. She earned her Dr. of Arts in Dance from the Theatre Academy at the University of the Arts Helsinki. Her roles include Programme Leader for the Master in Education (2022–25), Head of Forum for Equity, Inclusion and Diversity (2022), and creative leader of the Inclusive Dance Company since 2000. She has led major research projects, such as Mind the Gap (2024–26) and STEAM-undervisning i förskolan (2022–26).

Her research interests center on participatory arts, choreographic processes, bodily learning, inclusive pedagogies, and the performativity of research. Key methodologies include a/r/tography and Educational Design Research. She has supervised numerous master’s and PhD candidates, including recent theses by Frida Lundberg Jansson (Stockholm University of the Arts) and Lise Marie Haga (NTNU).

Østern’s creative work bridges art and education, exemplified by her leadership in the Inclusive Dance Company and collaborations like the Different Bodies Lab documentary. She has also contributed to policy analysis, such as the report Artist - an available profession? (2023) on artists with disabilities in Norway.