Teaching Across Europe: Internationalizing Teacher Education
The goal of the "Partners in Mobility" project is to advance internationalization in teacher education. In collaboration with four European partner institutions, Europa-Universität Flensburg has actively promoted international opportunities for future educators. Students and staff from partner universities in Finland (Jyväskylän yliopisto), Sweden (Linköpings Universitet), Denmark (University College Syddanmark), and Hungary (Eötvös Loránd Tudományegyetem) gathered for the concluding conference, "Teaching across Europe," held on the Flensburg campus. Together, participants reviewed the project’s results over the past five years and explored future perspectives for collaboration.
The conference marked the final phase of "Partners in Mobility," which concludes its second funding period at the end of 2024. Since its launch in August 2019, the project has supported teacher education mobility abroad as part of the DAAD funding line "Lehramt.International," with a total budget of €770,000.
A Global Approach to Teacher Education
The conference offered a diverse program that fostered exchange and fresh perspectives on internationalizing teacher education. Topics included internationalization strategies across different phases of teacher training, integrating inclusion in schools, and the value of international internships as transformative experiences.
Students also played an active role, sharing their impressions from school visits in Flensburg and sparking lively discussions during the plenary session. One particular highlight for international participants was the resource-rich Media Library of the EUF Center for Teacher Education.
Reducing barriers to mobility in teacher education remained a central theme—an issue that the project has been addressing intensively since 2019.
International Experience: An Added Value for Teacher Education
The primary aim of "Partners in Mobility" is to encourage future teachers to pursue international experiences, thereby enhancing their cross-disciplinary competencies. With increasingly diverse classrooms, skills such as intercultural competence, multilingual awareness, sensitivity to diversity and inclusion, and media literacy are becoming ever more critical. The conference underscored that international experiences provide invaluable opportunities to develop these abilities.
Opportunities for further collaboration were a key focus of the event, with all participants expressing strong interest in continuing to work together.
Internationalization: A Shared Commitment for the Future
The "Partners in Mobility" project reflects a successful effort to tailor mobility programs to students’ needs and to overcome existing barriers, as confirmed by a supporting study. The conference inspired the EUF team to continue developing internationalization strategies for teacher education, while the international partners remain committed to fostering long-term mobility opportunities for future educators.
A major milestone in this collaboration will be the publication of a collective volume in 2025. Titled "Internationalising Teacher Education: Concepts, Approaches, and Research," this Gold Open Access publication by Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht will compile conceptual frameworks, practical examples, and research contributions from Lehramt.International projects worldwide.
Further links
- More information about Partners in Mobility
- Quick overview (in German) of mobility options for teacher education students: "Wege ins Ausland im Lehramtstudium"
- Opportunities to go abroad presented by the EUF International Center
- Project activities (German only)