- Ph.D., Friedrich-Schiller University of Jena (2009-2012)
- Professor, Nord University (2017-2025)
- Professor II, OsloMet (2022-2024)
- Deputy Full Professor, University of Münster (2015-2017)
- Substitute Professor, Vechta University (2013-2014)
- Full-time Senior Lecturer, Paderborn University (2012-2013)
- Full-time Lecturer, Hildesheim University (2007-2012)
- Stipendiary Lectureship, University of Duisburg-Essen (2000-2007)
Teacher Education; Children’s Literature; Young Adult Fiction; Interculturality; Creative Writing; Deep Reading; Global Issues; Critical Literacy; Visual Literacy; Drama Methodology
Janice Bland (Dr phil., University of Jena, 2012) is Professor of English Education at Nord University, Norway, where she prepares student teachers for the teaching of English language and literature at primary and secondary school. In addition, Janice is Professor II at OsloMet. Her research interests are concerned with promoting creativity and criticality in English language education. In teacher education she specializes in children’s literature from picturebooks to young adult fiction, creative writing, visual literacy, information literacy and global issues, intercultural learning as well as scripted and unscripted drama.
Professor Bland is editor-in-chief of the diamond open access journal Children’s Literature in English Language Education (CLELE). She has authored two monographs and three edited volumes. Her latest book is Compelling Stories for English Language Learners — Creativity, Interculturality and Critical Literacy (Bloomsbury Academic, 2022).
Professor Bland leads the project English Language and Literature – In-depth Learning (ELLiL), which pioneers a new model for teaching practice, promoting the agency and creativity of student teachers in English teaching and learning through literature. The ELLiL project is the main inspiration and sponsor of the Bodø 2024 international conference: Reading for in-depth English Learning: Texts in and beyond the classroom, Nord University. She also leads the Nord Research Group for Children’s Literature in ELT (CLELT).
Professor Bland has been plenary speaker in Turkey, Germany, Greece, UAE, UK, Italy, Portugal, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, Norway, Finland and Japan.
Professor Bland has supervised circa 30 master’s theses in Germany and examined doctoral candidates in India and Norway.
David Valente is her current doctoral candidate at Nord University, who researches the development of interculturality via children’s literature. She teaches on the five-year master programme and in-service teacher education.
Books – Authored and Edited
Bland, J. 2022. Compelling Stories for English Language Learners: Creativity, Interculturality and Critical Literacy. London: Bloomsbury Academic.
Bland, J. (ed.) 2018. Using Literature in English Language Education Challenging Reading for 8-18 Year Olds. London: Bloomsbury Academic.
Bland, J. (ed.) 2015. Teaching English to Young Learners. Critical Issues in Language Teaching with 3-12 Year Olds. London: Bloomsbury Academic.
Bland, J. 2013. Children’s Literature and Learner Empowerment. Children and Teenagers in English Language Education. London: Bloomsbury Academic.
Bland, J.; Lütge, C. (eds) 2012. Children’s Literature in Second Language Education. London: Bloomsbury Academic.
Articles in Peer-Reviewed Journals (selection)
Bland, J. 2022. Editorial: English Language and Literature Pedagogy: Teacher Education Matters. Children’s Literature in English Language Education. 10/1, i-v.
Bland, J. 2022. Literary apprenticeships for young readers and writers. Forskning om undervisning och lärande. 10/1, 140-142.
Bland, J. 2020. Sharing critical perspectives in ELT with The Hunger Games. Education and Society. 38/1, 39-55.
Bland, J. 2019. Teaching English to Young Learners: More Teacher Education and More Children’s Literature! Children’s Literature in English Language Education. 7/2, 79-103.
Bland, J. 2018. Brian Selznick’s The Invention of Hugo Cabret as a mentor text for deep reading in ELT. Anglistik: International Journal of English Studies. Focus on Teaching Multimodality and Multiliteracy. 29/1, 41-53.
Bland, J. 2016. English Language Education and Ideological Issues: Picturebooks and Diversity. Children’s Literature in English Language Education. 4/2, 41-64.
Bland, J. 2015. Pictures, images and deep reading. Children’s Literature in English Language Education. 3/2, 24-36.
Krashen, S. & Bland, J. 2014. Compelling Comprehensible Input, Academic Language and School Libraries. Children’s Literature in English Language Education. 2/2, 1-12.
Bland, J. & Strotmann, A. 2014. The Hunger Games trilogy: An ecocritical reading. Children’s Literature in English Language Education. 2/1, 22-43.
Chapters in Edited Volumes (selection)
Bland, J. (2024) Critical interculturality in English language education – gaslighting, myths, and learning from literature. In Dervin, F. (ed.), The Routledge Handbook of Critical Interculturality in Communication and Education. Routledge.
Bland, J. 2023. Deep reading for in-depth learning. In M. M. Echevarría (ed.), Rehumanizing the Language Curriculum. New York: Peter Lang. 81-99.
Bland, J. 2022. Deep reading and in-depth learning in English language education. In M. Dypedahl (ed.), Moving English Language Teaching Forward. Oslo: Cappelen Damm Akademisk. 17-44.
Bland, J. 2022. Picturebooks that challenge the young English language learner. In A. M. Ommundsen, G. Haaland & B. Kümmerling-Meibauer (eds), Exploring Challenging Picturebooks in Education. International Perspectives on Language and Literature Learning. London: Routledge. 122-142.
Bland, J. 2020. Using literature for intercultural learning in English language education. In M. Dypedahl & R. Lund (eds), Teaching and Learning English Interculturally. Oslo: Cappelen Damm Akademisk. 69-89.
Bland, J. 2018. Learning through literature. In S. Garton & F. Copland (eds), Routledge Handbook of Teaching English to Young Learners. Oxford: Routledge. 269-287.
Bland, J. 2018. Introduction: The challenge of literature. In J. Bland (ed.), Using Literature in English Language Education. Challenging Reading for 8-18 Year Olds. London: Bloomsbury Academic. 1-22.
Bland, J. 2018. Playscript and screenplay: Creativity with J. K. Rowling’s Wizarding World. In J. Bland (ed.), Using Literature in English Language Education. Challenging Reading for 8-18 Year Olds. London: Bloomsbury Academic. 41-61.
Bland, J. 2018. Popular culture head on: Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games. In J. Bland (ed.), Using Literature in English Language Education. Challenging Reading for 8-18 Year Olds. London: Bloomsbury Academic. 175-192.
Bland, J. 2018. Annotated Bibliography: Literary Texts Recommended for Children and Young Adults in ELT. In J. Bland (ed.), Using Literature in English Language Education. Challenging Reading for 8-18 Year Olds. London: Bloomsbury Academic. 277-300.
Bland, J. 2017. Radical children’s literature in English education: Escaping Disney with dialogic fairy tales. In B. Schaff, J. Schlegel & C. Surkamp (eds), The Institution of English Literature. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. 231-256.
Bland, J. 2015. Introduction. In J. Bland (ed.), Teaching English to Young Learners. Critical Issues in Language Teaching with 3-12 Year Olds. London: Bloomsbury Academic. 1-11.
Bland, J. 2015. Grammar templates for the future with poetry for children. In J. Bland (ed.), Teaching English to Young Learners. Critical Issues in Language Teaching with 3-12 Year Olds. London: Bloomsbury Academic. 147-166.
Bland, J. 2015. Oral storytelling in the primary English classroom. In J. Bland (ed.), Teaching English to Young Learners. Critical Issues in Language Teaching with 3-12 Year Olds. London: Bloomsbury Academic. 183-198.
Bland, J. 2015. Drama with young learners. In J. Bland (ed.), Teaching English to Young Learners. Critical Issues in Language Teaching with 3-12 Year Olds. London: Bloomsbury Academic. 219-238.
Bland, J. 2015. From a global language to global citizenship: Stories for tolerance and worldmindedness. In C. Lütge (ed.), Global Education. Perspectives for English Language Teaching. Münster: LIT. 129-153.
Bland, J. 2014. Slipping back in time: King of Shadows as playscript. In M. Eisenmann & C. Lütge (eds), Shakespeare in the EFL Classroom. Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag Winter. 335-350.
Bland, J. 2014. Ecocritical sensitivity with multimodal texts in the EFL/ESL literature classroom. In R. Bartosch & S. Grimm (eds), Teaching Environments. Ecocritical Encounters. Frankfurt/Main: Lang. 75-96.
Bland, J. 2014. Interactive Theatre with student teachers and young learners: Enhancing EFL learning across institutional divisions in Germany. In S. Rich (ed.), International Perspectives on Teaching English to Young Leaners. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. 156-174.
Bland, J. 2013. Introduction. In J. Bland & C. Lütge (eds), Children’s Literature in Second Language Education. London: Bloomsbury Academic. 1-11.
Book reviews
Bland, J. 2022. Joe Winston: Performative Language Teaching in Early Education: Language Learning Through Drama and the Arts for Children 3–7, Bloomsbury Academic, 2022. In Children’s Literature in English Language Education. 10/1, 99-102.
Bland, J. 2016. Maria Nikolajeva: Reading for Learning. Cognitive approaches to children’s literature. John Benjamins, 2014. Children’s Literature in English Language Education. 4/2, 89-93.
Bland, J. 2016. Christian Ludwig and Frank Pointner (eds): Teaching Comics in the Foreign Language Classroom. WVT-Handbücher zur Literatur- und Kulturdidaktik, Band 4, 2013. In Literaturwissenschaftliches Jahrbuch 57, 265-269.
Bland, J. 2016. Patricia Paugh, Tricia Kress and Robert Lake (eds): Teaching towards Democracy with Postmodern and Popular Culture Texts. Sense Publishers, 2014. In International Research Society for Children’s Literature: Reviews.
Research Groups and Strands:
- Leader, Nord University Research Group for Children’s Literature in ELT (CLELT)
- Research Strand Coordinator, Early Foreign Language Reading, ELL-ReN, The AILA Research Network in Early Language Learning (3–12 years)
Society and Professional Memberships:
- International Research Society for Children’s Literature (IRSCL)
- Deutsche Gesellschaft für Fremdsprachenforschung (DGFF)
- AILA Research Network in Literature in Language Learning and Teaching (LiLLT-ReN)
- The C Group
Projects:
In the News:
- Nord University – Reading in different languages is good for the brain
- RANA NO – Utvikler lærerutdanningen med internasjonal kompetanse
Selected Plenaries and Presentations:
- Invited speaker, University of Padua Online Conference 2020, Fostering Dialogue, Teaching Children’s Literature at University
- Plenary at XII. ELT Conference 2020, Ankara, Turkey, Multimodal texts for multisensory learning
- LiLT featured speaker at JALT 2019, Nagoya, Japan and Tottori, Japan
- Keynote speaker, Universidade Nova de Lisboa 2016, Communication, Culture and Creativity in the EFL Classroom
- Invited speaker, Oxford University 2014, Children’s Literature Oxford Colloquium, CLOC, Story as patterned cognitive play explored in Brian Selznick’s graphic narrative: The Invention of Hugo Cabret
