From October 9 to 11, the "Partners in Mobility" project invited international guests to its final conference "Teaching across Europe" at the Europa-Universität Flensburg. Staff and students from partner universities in Finland (Jyväskylän yliopisto), Sweden (Linköpings Universitet), Denmark (University College Syddanmark) and Hungary (Eötvös Loránd Tudományegyetem) as well as from Flensburg came together to promote internationalization in teacher training.

The participants of the Concluding Conference from Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Hungary alongside the hosts of EUF. ©Maren Borchers

The conference is part of the final phase of the "Partners in Mobility" project, the second funding phase of which will be completed at the end of 2024. The project, which has been supporting international mobility in teacher training since August 2019, is part of the "Lehramt.International" funding line of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) with a funding volume of €770,000. This made it possible to promote the internationalization of prospective teachers at EUF in cooperation with four partners from Europe. Participants from all five universities have now come together again to discuss the results of the last five years and to explore further joint cooperation opportunities for the future.

Internationalization in teacher training worldwide

A diverse program awaited the conference guests in Flensburg, offering various opportunities for international exchange on internationalization strategies in teacher training. Topics of discussion included internationalization offers for various stages of teacher training and teacher training in different countries, inclusion in schools and internships abroad.

As always, the students were also actively involved as "Partners in Mobility" and shared their findings in plenary sessions after visiting German schools in Flensburg. The conference participants from the partner universities were particularly enthusiastic about the media library at the Center for Teacher Education.

The obstacles to international mobility in teacher training remained an important topic, which the project has been researching and working on reducing since 2019.

International experience: added value for teacher training

The aim of the project is to encourage prospective teachers to gain experience abroad and thus strengthen their interdisciplinary skills. In view of the growing heterogeneity of school classes, the acquisition of skills such as intercultural competence, multilingualism sensitivity, diversity and inclusion as well as media education is proving to be particularly important. The consensus among the participants is clear: much of this can be gained through their own experience abroad. For this reason, the possibilities for continued cooperation beyond the end of the project were also an important topic during the conference. All participants were interested in working together in the future.

Internationalization will continue to be a joint project in the future

The "Partners in Mobility" project can look back on a successful period in which obstacles were reduced and mobility formats were better adapted to the needs of students, as a study conducted as part of the project shows. The past conference has not only inspired the team at EUF to continue working on internationalization strategies in the teaching profession - the international partners also remain in exchange in order to continuously promote the mobility of (prospective) teachers.

An important milestone in this ongoing collaboration as "Partners in Mobility" is the publication of an anthology. This will be published in 2025 under the title "Internationalizing Teacher Education. Concepts, Approaches and Research" published as gold open access by Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht Verlag in the Wissenschaft und Lehrerbildung series and brings together conceptual approaches, practical examples and research contributions from Lehramt.International projects around the world.

Related links

• More information on the "Partners in Mobility" project
• Briefly summarized: Paths abroad in the teacher training program
• The International Center of EUF provides information on the international mobility and short stays in teacher training programs
• Activities in the project