Internationalisation concept
“In their professional environment, teachers are increasingly required to deal with heterogeneous learning groups characterised by cultural diversity – a task that they are better able to master if they have acquired intercultural skills during their training. The internationalisation of teacher training is therefore increasingly coming into focus.” (HRK 2018, p. 3)
For this reason, the project ‘International Orientation of Primary School Education and Didactics’ at the Institute for Primary School Research at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg aims to strengthen international and intercultural aspects in primary school teacher training programmes.
In order to achieve this goal, an overall concept is being implemented that focuses on internationalisation in research and teaching for lecturers and students and implements various components that are being considered in the current debate on the internationalisation of teacher training. In addition to the traditional components of mobility (study visits and internships), internationalisation at home (integration of international and intercultural aspects into the curricula, English-language courses, virtual formats) is increasingly coming into focus. (HRK 2018, p. 3)
This results in a concept of internationalisation for the Institute for Primary School Research, which is illustrated in the following table using various aspects as examples. The activities listed only provide the structural, subordinate framework. More important, however, are the specific topics and issues with regard to international and intercultural aspects in research and teaching that can be made fruitful for primary school education and didactics through the activities listed.
| Institute for Primary School Research at the FAU | ||
| Development, expansion and stabilisation of the international orientation of primary school education and didactics at institute level | ||
| Students | Lecturers | |
| Physical mobility | Outgoing | |
| Erasmus+ semester abroad and uncomplicated recognition of academic achievements
(stable number of outgoing students to long-established partner universities) |
Participation in international conferences, also within the framework of international teacher training networks, such as ETEN | |
| Internships abroad for students in cooperation with the FAU Internship Office and uncomplicated recognition of academic achievements | Participation in training courses as part of Erasmus+ Staffweeks and Staff Training Mobilities
|
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| Short-term excursions, e.g. to the International Students’ Researcher Conference as part of seminars in primary school education | Participation in Erasmus+ Teaching Mobilities to gain international teaching experience at long-established partner universities | |
| Incoming | ||
| Admission and supervision of Erasmus+ guest students with stable numbers of incomming students from the long-established partner universities | Inncomming DAAD – Guest Lectureships
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|
| Incomming guest lecturers via teaching assignments | ||
| Incomming Erasmus+ guest lectureships | ||
| Internationalisation at home |
Research | |
| Joint Research COIL BA / admission thesis (in preparation) | Accompanying research on virtual mobility courses | |
| Accompanying research for the International Teaching Qualification project: ‘International dimensions in primary school teaching degree programmes’
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| Teaching | ||
| English-language courses with an international focus to increase the attractiveness of FAU for incoming students | ||
| Virtual Exchange courses with an international focus to enable German students to gain international and intercultural experience at home | ||
| Events | ||
| International Teacher Training Week | ||
| Projects | ||
| FAU Teacher Training International | ||
In the following, some selected examples of the international orientation of primary school education and didactics at the Institute for Primary School Research in Nuremberg are described in more detail without any claim to completeness.
Physical Mobility
Physical mobility is implemented for students and teaching staff via various programmes.
In addition to an internship or studies abroad, students can also take part in shorter excursions, such as the International Students’ Researcher Conference in Riga, as part of their courses and thus gain international and intercultural experience.
Teachers are supported to take part in international conferences, themed Erasmus+ Staff Weeks/Staff Training Mobilities and Teaching Mobilities and further training courses, such as the Valiant Project ‘Virtual Exchange on Diversity and Inclusion in our Primary Classrooms’.
The Institute for Primary School Research also organises mobilities for colleagues from partner universities. Thanks to the successful acquisition of a DAAD guest lectureship by Dr Krisztina Kovacs, international aspects of elementary education and inclusion could be incorporated into research and teaching at the Institute of Primary Education Research.
In addition to teaching assignments, other short-term mobilities of lecturers who come to the Institute for Primary School Research enrich the teaching programme and offer points of contact for joint research activities. As part of an incomming Erasmus+ teaching mobility of Dr Naomi Shmuel from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, a joint seminar on ‘Diversity in the Primary Classroom’ was held with Dr Günter Renner. This also linked face-to-face teaching with an established virtual exchange offering, Soliya‘s Online Facilitated Dialogue.
Internationalisation at home in research
Accompanying research ‘Teaching and Learning in Primary Education in International Comparison’
The course ‘Teaching and Learning in Primary Education in International Comparison’ (see below) is continuously evaluated and further developed. Selected instruments that were also used in the EVALUATE project (Evaluating the Impact of Virtual Exchange on Initial Teacher Education) are used in a classic pretest-posttest design.
Overall, the students have shown an increase in competence in the following variables:
- TPACK
- Intercultural communicative competence.
From the lecturers’ perspective, the most important results of the EVALUATE project have been confirmed:
- Virtual exchange acts as a driver for innovation and international learning in the university classroom
- Virtual exchange is a complex learning activity that requires both integration into a formal educational framework and guidance from teachers.
- The success of virtual exchange depends on the personal relationship between teachers and participants.
Internationalisation at home in teaching
International and intercultural experiences are particularly relevant for student teachers in their profession (multicultural student body, internationalisation of curricula and school organisation). Teacher training with an international focus should therefore impart the following competences: Competences for teaching in multicultural classes, foreign language competence, reflective competence of own systems and approaches, international orientation (Wernisch 2017, pp. 8-9). Many of these personal and general competences can be acquired through stays abroad (Baedorf 2015, pp. 40-44). However, there are numerous obstacles for student teachers to realise a stay abroad (Baedorf 2015, pp. 45-47; Wernisch 2017, pp. 9-11, Wernisch 2016, pp. 275-302, DAAD 2019, pp. 92-94), which is why the mobility figures for student teachers and especially for students studying to teach at primary schools in Germany are comparatively low (DAAD 2019, p. 93). Therefore, in addition to the traditional forms of studying abroad and short-term stays abroad for internships, internationalisation at home is becoming increasingly important. This involves the integration of international and intercultural aspects in terms of content and methodology through to virtual exchanges.
In teaching, aspects of primary school pedagogy and didactics are thematised in an international comparison in courses taught in English, such as the ‘Seminar Primary Education across Europe’. On the one hand, this is a thematic extension for students at FAU and, on the other, an opportunity for students who come to us from abroad to attend internationally orientated courses in English, which increases the attractiveness of FAU for international students, which in turn helps to establish and expand international cooperation with other universities.
Virtual exchange courses are also offered at the Institute for Primary School Research. For example, students from the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg and the University of Latvia work together on various topics as part of the virtual seminar ‘Teaching and Learning in Primary Education in International Comparison’. The course provides an overview of primary school in international comparison. In addition to the educational systems, the students examine the basics of teaching and learning as well as performance measurement in primary schools. The focus is on online collaboration in small groups of usually 6 students (3 from Germany and 3 from Latvia); students work together on tasks and consider their country-specific perspective in discussions. They work on tasks and gain experience from working in an international team while reflecting on similarities and differences within the education systems. The project offers the opportunity to gain international experience through virtual exchange and thus expand intercultural, digital and language skills (The Evaluate Group 2019, pp. 25-62). The course ‘Teaching and Learning in Primary Education in International Comparison’ is a good practice example of innovative e-learning at FAU and was also selected for the Frames Project as an example of the integration of virtual exchange into university teaching and was awarded the Teaching Prize of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of FAU 2023.
In addition to these internationalisation activities, there is the opportunity to participate in the regular International Teaching Week, which takes place as part of the FAU Teaching International project.
Bibliography
- Baedorf, Dominik (2015). Empirische Befunde zur Internationalisierung der LehrerInnenbildung. In: Meike Krike & Louisia Kürten (Hrsg.):Internationalisierung der LehrerInnenbildung (S. 32-56). Waxmann-Verlag.
- Baroni, Alice; Dooly, Melinda; Garcés García, Pilar; Guth, Sarah; Hauck, Mirjam; Helm, Francesca; Lewis, Tim; Mueller-Hartmann, Andreas; O’Dowd, Robert; Rienties, Bart; Rogaten, Jekaterina.(2019). Evaluating the impact of virtual exchange on initial teacher education: a European policy experiment. Research-publishing.net. https://doi.org/10.14705/rpnet.2019.29.9782490057337
- DAAD/DZHW (2019).Wissenschaft weltoffen. Daten und Fakten zur Internationalität von Studium und Forschung in Deutschland. Wbv Media Bielefeld.
- Hochschulrektorenkonferenz(Hrsg.) (2018). Internationalisierung zu Hause in der Lehrerbildung.
- Wernisch,Diana (2016). Internationalization and Student Mobility in Teacher Education: Internationalization Models, Diffusion Barriers and Recommendations for Policy and Higher Education Institutions (Doctoral thesis, University of Freiburg, Germany). Retrieved from https://phfr.bsz-bw.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/651
- Wernisch, Diana (2017). Diskrepanz zwischen Interesse und Realisation von Auslandsaufenthalten im Lehramtsstudium – In: ZEP:Zeitschrift für internationale Bildungsforschung und Entwicklungspädagogik, 40 (4), S. 8-12.