These questions and many more were the focus of a one week international summer school initiated by University of Potsdam‘s Center for Teacher Education and Educational Research. The summer school participants included 54 student teachers coming from nine different countries sent by international partner institutions who are all project partners within the DAAD-funded project “UP Network for Sustainable Teacher Education“. The students worked and collaborated in four subject-specific and partly interdisciplinary Study Groups and developed teaching ideas, scenarios and learning materials for teaching the Sustainable Development Goals. They were guided and supported by an international team of lecturers: 15 international researchers from Australia, Austria, Belgium, Colombia, the Czech Republic, England, France, India, the Netherlands and the USA were invited to collaborate with their Potsdam colleagues in Chemistry Education (Prof. Dr. Amitabh Banerji, Dr. Michele Brott), English Language Education (Prof. Dr. Britta Freitag-Hild, Dr. Irene Heidt, Ceren Kocaman, Dr. Hannah Ruhm), French and Spanish (Prof. Dr. Kathleen Plötner, supported by Florian Nowotny), Music Education (Prof. Dr. Isolde Malmberg) and Inclusive Pedagogy (Prof. Dr. Linda Juang).
The purpose of this academic collaboration and exchange was to develop student teachers‘ intercultural competences through international dialogue and to support their subject-specific and interdisciplinary competences in the area of Education for Sustainable Education. In addition, the exchange also aimed at establishing and supporting further ties with the project partners who will continue to network and collaborate with the University of Potsdam over the next few years. Prof. Dr. Britta Freitag-Hild, who heads the project, says, “This interdisciplinary and international collaboration was extremely valuable and motivating both for our students and for all lecturers, and it can be seen as a model for how we can integrate education for sustainable development and global citizenship into teacher education at universities: Being able to share diverse views, experiences and contexts enabled us all to look at challenges in our environment and in schools from diverse perspectives.“ Furthermore, the project coordinator Stefanie Goertz adds, "I was particularly pleased about the high number of participants from the University of Potsdam and their engagement, which contributed significantly to making the international participants feel welcome. By integrating international and intercultural dimensions into the Potsdam teacher training program, the Summer School has thus also been able to make a significant contribution to 'Internationalization at Home'."
These travel journal entries provide an insight into the participants‘ impressions during the summer school: (Link einfügen)
Further information about the summer school:
Interview with Prof. Dr. Britta Freitag-Hild: https://www.uni-potsdam.de/en/headlines-and-featured-stories/detail/2022-08-24-education-for-sustainable-development-international-summer-school-for-future-teachers
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/Cg4OnNcj6BD/
DAAD-Project: https://www.uni-potsdam.de/de/zelb/forschung-und-entwicklung/daad-projekt