Diversity Contexts in Teacher Education

The project is intended to internationalize the orientation internship module in the teacher training degrees by integrating Introductory Internships abroad and Internationalization@Home.

Preparatory seminar

The focus on diversity is essential, as it transcends a simplistic notion of cultural belonging and shifts attention to differences relevant to various educational contexts. As part of the project, a group of teaching staff in the faculty will gain qualifications in anti-bias training. They will then develop, test, review, optimize, and establish across the institution an innovative concept for the module’s preparatory seminar for prospective teachers. Seminars will sensitize students to bias, stereotyping, discrimination, and inhumane beliefs and attitudes such as racism.

Introductory Internship abroad

To provide teacher training degree students with the opportunity for an Introductory Internship abroad (German only), the University’s current network of partner universities will be extended for the Introductory Internship. The Introductory Internships abroad gives students an opportunity to recall their own experiences of differences at school as a basis for reflection on the anti-bias approach, thereby fostering their professional self-reflection skills. 

e-DO! as complementary seminar

This project will also involve the creation of the e-DiCoT Organizer! (e-DO!) to record students’ reflections on their daily international life and to further support the diversity and anti-bias focus. The e-DO! will replace the course that accompanies the school internship for those students who complete their orientation internship abroad.

Alumni network

An alumni network (German only) will be established as part of a multi-phase internationalization process for teacher education, with the goal of maintaining interest in internationalization and intercultural issues of teacher education in the alumni community and providing opportunities for practical implementation.

Complementary research

Academic support based on a qualitative-reconstructive approach will help further the project.

The project at a glance

This project is a joint initiative of the Faculty of Education (EW) and Hamburg Center for Teacher Education (ZLH) and is led by Prof. Dr. Sara Fürstenau (EW), Prof. Dr. Telse Iwers (EW), Dr. Britta Schmidt (ZLH) und Dr. Myriam Hummel (EW and Department for International Affairs).

Project team

Dr. Javier Carnicer, Carolina Colmenares Díaz, Helena Dedecek Gertz, Prof. Dr. Sara Fürstenau, Dr. Myriam Hummel, Elisa La, Prof. Dr. Telse Iwers, Simone Plöger, Dr. Britta Schmidt, and Nadezda Strunk

Student Assistants: Billie Wiedener and Isabelle Küster

Partner universities

Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Brazil
Université de Strasbourg (UNISTRA), France
University of Education Winneba (UEW), Ghana
Universidad de Alcalá (UAH), Spain
Universidad de Almería (UAL), Spain
Indiana University (IU), USA

Funding

This project is funded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) from funds provided by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).