- Promoting internationalisation at home
- Focus on visiting lecturers
- Summer schools at the Pedagogical University of Freiburg
- Challenges and obstacles
- Student voices
- Further information & contacts
Focus on visiting lecturers
As part of our ‘L!NT – Lehramt International’ project we are promoting a range of i@h measures. Our priority consists of organising visiting lectureships, where each year we fund a year-long teaching stay for a lecturer at a project partner university. The aim is to promote networking and discussions with colleagues and the students in other countries, and also to acquire intercultural, methodological and subject-specific skills which the lecturer can bring into their own teaching after completing their stay.
Our teaching and research collaborations so far, following the stays we have funded, show how sustainable these activities can be.
Summer schools at the Pedagogical University of Freiburg
In addition to visiting lectureships at partner universities, the project also provides for a seminar course taught by visiting lecturers at the Pedagogical University of Freiburg. The course is offered in tandem with a course taught by one of our own lecturers and is fully integrated into the curriculum programme so as to ensure that PH Freiburg students take part.
Preparation and follow-up
We also encourage students from our partner university to take the seminar course so it takes on the form of a summer school at the same time. Several virtual meetings involving students take place in advance to prepare them for meeting face-to-face, with the two lecturers leading the sessions.
The working period in Freiburg includes seminar meetings, talks by visiting speakers, workshops and school practice visits. The programme provides various additional sessions which involve students who are not taking the seminar course.
A virtual follow-up and evaluation session allows students to reflect on what they have experienced after they return to their home institutions.
Challenges and obstacles
Feedback from these sessions and detailed consideration of the possibility of repeating the summer school have made it clear how instructive and valuable the participants feel this format to be.
However, they also demonstrate the level of resourcing needed for activities of this kind. The wide range of activities require intensive planning along with a great deal of engagement and time. These include organising and coordinating the school shadowing visits and teaching units at school, along with responding to questions in the context of different time zones, semester times and payment timeframes.
Where times did overlap, we were helped in our case by individual arrangements, recorded content and asynchronous editing opportunities. We used cash payments to avoid fees and delays associated with transactions outside the SEPA area. In addition, we were able to overcome bureaucratic obstacles thanks to planning in good time and working closely with the departments involved.
With regard to the sustainability of the formats we have developed, we are disseminating and publishing the content that has been created and ensuring that responsibility is spread across a wide range of individuals.
Student voices
I’m so grateful for the contact with other students as I got to know many different didactic approaches which are valuable to me personally. The summer school was great fun and I got to make contacts with many people from outside Germany, which I am delighted about.Julia, Pedagogical University of Freiburg student
The summer school allowed us to gain real experience in a very multilingual environment. We got to meet a different educational context and reflect on our teaching practice.Florence, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières student
I had the best time on this trip! I am thankful for the perspectives I gained on education, culture, language, and so many other topics. It was so interesting hearing about the similarities and differences, not only between our education system and Germany’s but also the systems in Switzerland etc. and to be able to discuss ideas and issues with the other university students! I really hope that I can return there someday!Eisley, University of South Dakota student
Further information & contacts
Kontakt
- Project Lead: Dr Verena Bodenbender: verena.bodenbender@ph-freiburg.de
- Project Coordinator: Nilanthi Ohlms: nilanthi.ohlms@ph-freiburg.de