The closing conference in Lusaka in Zambia marked the end of the NORPART project "Literacy Education in Multilingual Settings" (LEMS), which started in 2017.
"We have some research fellows left still so there will be an exchange in 2023 as well, but we are not cutting our ties completely even if the project has formally ended. We are in the process of applying to be allowed to continue and further develop the collaboration," says project manager Anne Marit Vesteraas Danbolt of INN University.
The conference in Lusaka was attended by former students who have been on exchange as part of the PhD programme PROFF or the master's programme MIKS, and staff at both institutions – the University of Zambia (UNZA) and INN University.
In addition, talented keynote speakers were brought in from Canada and South Africa.
Achieved a great amount
Since its inception in 2017, LEMS has had clear objectives.
Among other things, the project was supposed to increase the quality of the master's and PhD programmes at the two educational institutions through cooperation in teaching and research.
Another clear goal was to increase the exchange of students and researchers between the institutions.
In addition, new research-based knowledge about reading and writing in multilingual contexts, good routines for international exchange and cooperation were to be developed, and teacher education at INN University was to receive new international boosts through study stays in Zambia.
All this has been achieved.
– What has this collaboration meant for INN University?
"This project has meant a lot. We have achieved increased internationalisation, a greater global outlook, new opportunities for overseas studies and practical experiential learning for our student teachers," says Vesteraas Danbolt.
Many have taken part
An important result of the LEMS project is that the Faculty of Education has established practical experiential learning at a school in Lusaka for fourth-year primary school teacher students as a permanent scheme. In the long term, it is hoped that this can provide a basis for interesting master's theses.
Through the project, joint research data has also been collected which will provide the basis for more publications and academic papers in the future.
There is a strong desire to maintain the good and long-term relationship with the School of Education at the University of Zambia, and partners are therefore working on applications to provide more opportunities for further collaboration.
The numbers speak for themselves after six years of exchange.
- Eleven PhD students from UNZA have taken courses in INN University's doctoral program Teaching and Teacher Education (PROFF)
- 15 master's students have taken courses from MIKS or primary school teacher training.
- Six teaching students have been on exchange to the University of Zambia, and three primary school teacher students have had practical experiential learning at a primary school in Lusaka. In March, INN University will send eight new primary school teacher students there.
"We have established a permanent agreement on foreign internships for primary school teacher students at a primary and secondary school in Lusaka. This is completely new for INN University, and could not have happened without this project," says Anne Marit Vesteraas Danbolt.
In addition to all this, the project, in collaboration with colleagues at the School of Education, has developed a website with texts for reading training in the regional languages of Zambia, Storybooks Zambia. This will be completed in the spring of 2023.
This article was translated from Norwegian by Noorit Larsen.