Outbound Staff Mobility, Linnaeus University, Sweden

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dc.contributor.authorBwire, Adelheid Marie
dc.date.accessioned2023-05-30T08:41:12Z
dc.date.available2023-05-30T08:41:12Z
dc.date.issued2023-01
dc.descriptionOutbound Staff Mobility, Linnaeus University, Sweden Conference Held on 16th to 3th January 2023 at Linnaeus University, Swedenen_US
dc.description.abstractThis was a second mobility activity to Linnaeus University, but this time, hosted at Kalmar Campus. The mobility programme aims at increasing the competence of staff in how administration, teaching and learning may differ in diverse academic environments, and become better prepared to work and teach in the multicultural HEI. The programme took place in Department of Didactics and Teachers Practice, Linnaeus University from 16th to 3th January 2023. This involved attending a conference, meetings with colleague faculty and International Office staff at Linnaeus University in both Kalmar and Kalmar campuses. Among other activities I participated in were an International Conference on “Teacher Education for Democracy and Well Being”. Together with my colleagues, Dr. Mary Nasibi and Dr. Florence Miima, we presented a Conference paper on “Teaching Democracy: The Role of Different Actors in Sweden and Kenya”. The aim of the paper was to contribute to the development of teachers’ education to foster democratic values & democratic society and contribute to increased knowledge for a future project on how teachers’ education fosters democratic values. This presentation generated a rich discussion and a comparison with the Swedish System. We therefore intend to carry on this proposal as a full blown collaborative research. The conference was opened by the Pro-Vice Chancellor who spoke on the Role of teachers, students and family in democratising education. The three keynote speakers were Professor Mikael Person from the University of Gothenberg. His speech addressed “Education for Democracy”. The other Keynote speaker was Professor Jack Lukkers, a Sexologist from Malmo University, who spoke on “Sex the right way – Youth, Sexuality and Swedish Contemporary view on Sexuality”. The third one was Professor Disa Bergnehr, who spoke on “School Health Services, Health Promotion and Risk Prevention”. A quick summary of the Conference: School's role in democracy in focus of international conference Schools are expected to play a crucial role in the formation of a democratic society, and to educate democratic citizens. But how does it do this and how should teacher education work to promote this work? This question was the focus of the Teacher Education for Democracy and Wellbeing conference, which brought together some 40 teacher educators from ten countries at Linnaeus University over two days in January. “Schools are an important stakeholder in building a stable democracy. This means that we in teacher education must educate future teachers about these issues," says Charlotte Silander, associate professor of political science at Linnaeus University, Sweden, and one of the organisers of the conference. “We need to learn more about how to train students to work on issues such as democracy, tolerance and diversity in teacher education.” The conference aims to provide an opportunity for those working in teacher education at different universities and in different countries to meet and exchange experiences. “There is a great need for international cooperation in teacher education. This is one way to contribute to that,” says Charlotte Silander. The issue of the importance of education for democratic citizenship was the focus of Mikael Persson, Professor of Political Science at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, who was one of the keynote speakers at the conference. “Yes, education matters. The highly educated participate in politics and vote in political elections at a higher rate. But that may not be the decisive factor," says Mikael Persson, adding: “School cannot solve everything. We must have realistic expectations of what it can achieve.” Mikael Persson concludes with some tips on how teachers can create a climate that promotes democratic values in schools: “There needs to be an open classroom climate, where different opinions can be heard and social and political issues are discussed," says Mikael Persson. “It's good to use new media and different teaching methods, in combination with traditional teaching. Evaluate continuously, and use the teaching methods that suit the class in question.” Disa Bergnehr, Professor of Education at Linnaeus University, Sweden, was the second keynote speaker. She talked about how school health services can provide care and support in low achieving schools. In conjunction with the conference, the Europan university EUniWell hosted a meeting for the EUniWell Teacher Education Arena. Representatives from the Universities of Florence, Cologne, Murcia and Linnaeus met on site in Kalmar, while representatives from the others participated in the online meeting. The conference was organised by Charlotte Silander and Mattias Lundin from the Faculty of Social Sciences at Linnaeus University, in the form of Knowledge Environment Linnaeus: Education in Change. Photo at Linnaeus, Kalmar Campus: Globalisation of Education: EUniWell Alliance: We also held a meeting with Linnaeus EUniWell Alliance participants (Lena Kulmala, Kristina Hellberg and Kerstin Hansson) on a possible virtual collaboration. Also in attendance were staff from the International Office (Administrative Director of Teacher Education, Susan and Jessica). The meeting centred on Globalisation of Education, Teaching/Approaching Difficult/Sensitive Subjects (such as Sexuality), Dealing with Digital tools and Equality in School. We shared many intercultural perspectives on these subjects and also had a chance to know each other better and generate new networks for future projects. A talk on the Swedish Education System: We also had a sharing with Jessica (Teacher Training Office) who described the Swedish Education System. We learnt about Teacher Certification for pre-school and secondary school teachers. Teacher education takes between 2 and 5 years. All teacher trainees do Teaching Practice for 5 – 10 weeks. It was noted that just like in Kenya, there has been a decline in teacher population over time. As a result of this collaboration meeting, we agreed to have virtual collaborations on topical issues for example Sexuality, Parental Engagement through a STAFF TRAINING MOBILTY with Linnaeus also sending students to KU for TEACHER PRACTICE. Collaboration on student exchange - Teacher Trainees in KU for Teacher Practice Other meetings we had were with faculty in Teacher Education and from the International Office. With the latter, we discussed (with Jessica Sundstrom and Alexandra Holtie) the feasibility of collaboration on student exchange - receiving LNU Teacher Trainees in KU for Teacher Practice. This was left pending as LNU looks into ways of recruiting their students into the programme as KU does the same. The Departmental Chairman and Project leader, Dr. Marguerite O’Connor will continue to explore this possibility through Dr. Charlotte Silander. Research and teaching collaboration Meeting with Dr. Charlotte Silander (Faculty and Director of Internationalisation) and Kerstin Hansson: among the areas we discussed for research and teaching collaboration were: Sexuality Literacy; Language barriers students experience, language and Identity, Teaching Digital aspects of Language, Teaching language and culture, Effective use of Social media. From this meeting, we agreed on having a virtual collaboration between LNU, a French University and KU students on “Sexuality Literacy” and on “Digitisation” through virtual seminars (Zoom links to be created). There will be three seminars in March and April 2023 with the first one coming on the 6th March and the other two on 4 th and 5th of April 2023. Tele-colaboration (Virtual Exchange) Collaboration with faculty from Language Education and Applied Linguistics: we discussed with Christopher Allen the possibility on collaborating both through faculty exchange and virtual exchange and we look forward to writing a proposal to apply for a KA1 Mobility funding. However, we agreed to immediately set up tele - collaboration via a Virtual Exchange with Master of Education (Applied Linguistics) students. Dr. Florence Miima and I will attend Chris Allen’s “ICT for Language Teachers – Digital Literacies” classes on 20th and on “Language Teaching Skills for Young Learners” on 22nd of February 2023. He will also attend our virtual classes on dates yet to be decided on. This can then be followed by a physical mobility (for which we need to develop a proposal)en_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://ir-library.ku.ac.ke/handle/123456789/25487
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.subjectFaculty mobilityen_US
dc.subjectLinnaeus Universityen_US
dc.subjectcollaborationen_US
dc.subjectEuropean universitiesen_US
dc.subjectregional and international networksen_US
dc.subjectacademic environmentsen_US
dc.titleOutbound Staff Mobility, Linnaeus University, Swedenen_US
dc.typeTechnical Reporten_US
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