My name is Britt Rødal Vikhagen and I run the enterprise Språknøkler. Over the past five years, I have helped teachers and adult education centres across the country access adapted materials and professional resources for their teaching, which was the motivation behind the entire Språknøkler project when I started a blog and bought a domain in January 2020.

At the time, I was working as a teacher in adult education in Oslo, and my colleagues and I spent a great deal of time every single day creating our own teaching materials, simply because there was very little available that was adapted or designed for our adult students learning Norwegian as a second language. The desire to save other teachers from spending that time making materials themselves became the motivation for sharing resources for free through a blog.

What started as a blog and a domain is, six years later, Norway's largest enterprise for teachers in adult education, and my full-time job!

Since its founding in January 2020, Språknøkler has worked to spread knowledge, materials, and professional support to teachers in adult education centres across the country. Through two digital membership portals, a podcast, handbooks for Fagbokforlaget, and professional development days and training packages for schools and regions, Språknøkler has become Norway's largest enterprise for teachers in adult education. In 2025, Språknøkler was a finalist for the Diversity Prize at the HER Awards; in 2024, a semi-finalist in Visa She's Next; and over 900 teachers from across the country have taken part in courses with Språknøkler. This means Språknøkler is becoming more than just an enterprise: It is starting to look like a national movement centred on working with values in encounters with adult refugees learning Norwegian as a second language.

In 2026, that movement got a new name: Meaningful Encounters.

The goal is for all teachers in adult education to know where to go to find adapted teaching materials for adults learning Norwegian as a second language, and for leaders in adult education to know where to find relevant professional development for their staff, so they can create Meaningful Encounters in the classroom. But working to strengthen the education adult refugees receive is not enough to solve today's challenges in the field of integration. We must think holistically, and above all radically differently, if we are to help more people into work and into living good lives in a new country as adults. That is why Meaningful Encounters is a concept that encompasses adult education, but also work and volunteering.

Because how do we actually want society, work, and education to look in the future for the people who live and work there? How can we use the values of psychological safety, belonging, and recognition as tools in practical measures for increased life mastery, and thereby create positive ripple effects in areas such as sick leave, employment, and the next generation? That is what Meaningful Encounters explores.

The days of values being nothing more than nice words gathered on a wall at a seminar are over. Values are the foundation for ALL practice at Språknøkler, and now I help schools, workplaces, and voluntary organisations achieve the same. As an alternative to today's integration practice (and policy), Språknøkler puts people at the centre and works on long-term solutions that benefit both the individual and society. That is sustainability in practice! That is why Språknøkler works with values-driven initiatives in education, work, and everyday life, for social sustainability and to create dignified lives for refugees and immigrants.

For a more values-based integration practice, where the key to integration lies in Meaningful Encounters between people in education, work, and everyday life 🔑

A little background:

I live in Berger, outside Svelvik in Norway, in an old workers' cottage from the 1800s, together with my husband — a freelance actor and playwright — and our 8-year-old daughter.

My foundational training is as a primary school teacher. I have a master's degree in second language didactics (Western Norway University of Applied Sciences) and further qualifications in language proficiency testing and assessment (University of Bergen) and second language learning for adults (University of Bergen). My master's project examined the impact of integration policy on the purpose of adult education (you can read the thesis here: https://hdl.handle.net/11250/5279196) and forms the foundation of the Meaningful Encounters project, together with tools from Tranformational Leadership for Sustainability (TLFS) and Monica Sharma's work on Conscious Full Spectrum Responses (CFSR). 

I have also spent ten years working in schools, covering early literacy and special Norwegian instruction in primary school, students in literacy classes, Norwegian language courses and primary education for adults, and foundational reading and writing for young people.

My job today is running Språknøkler, which involves:

• Managing the membership portals Språknøkler-portalen and Tekstbanken.
• Delivering courses and talks for teachers, adult education centres, and at conferences around the country.
• Recording the Språknøkler-podcast and writing professional blog posts on spraknokler.no.
• Writing handbooks for adult education published by Fagbokforlaget: Skrivenøkler (2023) and Lesenøkler (2024).
• Working with values-driven initiatives through the Meaningful Encounters model, in collaboration with schools, voluntary organisations, and workplaces.
• Delivering professional development packages over time with adult education centres around the country.
• Raising knowledge and awareness around adult education, integration, diversity, and inclusion in practice.
• Further developing the Meaningful Encounters concept for increased social sustainability.

My work supports my passion for social justice, equity and life quality for all, and firmly believing in the power of ripple effects. 

"All of us have the potential to make a significant difference in the world. It is a choice" - Monica Sharma.