Diversity Contexts in Teacher Education (DiCoT)

Project Description

DiCoT (Diversity Contexts in Teacher Education ) was originally developed as a joint initiative of the Faculty of Education and the Center for Teacher Education Hamburg and has now been continued and further developed since January 2025 as part of the new DAAD-funded project INTER (International Experience and Reflection in Teacher Education) by Prof. Dr. Telse Iwers (academic director), Lena Borlinghaus-ter Veer (administrative director) and Hilla Franken (project management).

DiCoT aims to internationalize the orientation internship module in the teacher training courses by linking internships abroad and Internationalization@Home.

Preparatory Seminar

The diversity approach, which overcomes a simple understanding of cultural affiliation and focuses on different lines of difference that are relevant in educational contexts, is fundamental to the content of the work. A group of university lecturers from the faculty were trained in the anti-bias approach as part of the project. Building on this, an innovative concept was developed and institutionalized for the preparatory seminar for prospective teachers provided for in the module. In the seminars, students are sensitized to bias, stereotyping, discrimination and inhuman orientations such as racism.

Orientation Internship Abroad

The existing network of partner universities is being expanded in order to realize the orientation internship abroad and to be able to offer students further international locations for their internship. The internship at a foreign school offers students the opportunity to gain their own experience of difference in a school context, to reflect on this on the basis of the anti-bias approach and thus to develop professional reflection skills.

Student teachers can apply for the Lehramt.international scholarship from the DAAD for internships lasting six weeks or more.

e-DO! as an Accompanying Seminar

As part of the project, the e-DiCoT Organizer! (e-DO!) is being developed as part of the project to accompany the reflection of the students' everyday international internship with regard to professionalization in the teaching profession and to supplement the module's content focus with the diversity and anti-bias approach. The e-DO! replaces the accompanying course for the school placement for those students who complete their orientation placement abroad.

Partner Institutions

Universidad de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires, Argentina
Griffith University, Australia
Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Brasil 
University of Education Winneba (UEW), Ghana
Indiana University (IU), USA
University of North Carolina Greensboro (UNC), USA (departures for the U.S. currently on hold)
Ho Chi Minh City University of Education (HCMUE), Vietnam

Results of the First Project Term (2021-2024)

Accompanying research

The project was accompanied by academic research based on a qualitative-reconstructive approach. Project members contributed to the 19th IMISCOE annual conference "Migration and Time. Temporalities of Mobility, Governance and Resistence“ and the DGfE conference of the ”School Research and Didactics" commission. You can find reports on both presentations here.

Establishment of an Alumni:ae network

An alumni:ae network was set up during the course of the project with the aim of internationalizing teacher training across all phases. The aim is to maintain the interest of alumni:ae in the topics of internationality and interculturality and to show them opportunities for implementation in their professional practice.

Funding

The DiCoT project was funded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) with funds from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). Since January 2025, the project has been continued and further developed as part of the DAAD-funded INTER project.