Aiming to strengthen intercultural competence and critical awareness
With membership in the network, there will be even better opportunities for exchange and collaboration with other teacher education institutions in Europe, both for students and staff at Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences.
In early June 2024, the Faculty of Education presented its application to join the Comenius Association network, and the faculty was accepted as a member the same week. The network consists of over 30 universities and colleges from 21 countries in Europe. All member institutions offer various types of teacher education programmes – from kindergarten education to secondary school education.
The aim of the network's efforts is to strengthen intercultural competence and critical awareness in the teacher educations through student and staff mobility.
“We aim to strengthen the intercultural competence in training European teachers and educators with the idea that they will, in turn, cultivate this competence in the future.” (Comenius Association)
International weeks and practice periods in schools and kindergartens
The institutions that are members of the network offer international weeks specifically tailored for teacher education students, as well as shorter or longer practice periods in schools and kindergartens. They also offer modules and subjects that span for parts of or the entire semester or academic year, international weeks for staff with various themes, and other. All offers are in English.
The Faculty of Education already offers modules in English that are attractive to international students who wish to come to us, such as Education for Diversity and Sustainable Living (EDSL). Additionally, the faculty can offer practice periods at our partner schools and kindergartens. The faculty will also develop international weeks for both incoming students and staff from the teacher education institutions in the network.
The Comenius network – named after one of the founders of pedagogy
The network that the faculty has joined is called the Comenius Association. The network is named after Comenius, a Czech philosopher of education who is considered one of the founders of pedagogical science. Among other works, Comenius wrote the renowned "Didactica Magna" (Great Didactic). The name Comenius therefore describes the member institutions well: they are dedicated to training teachers to excel in the art of teaching – through intercultural competence.
The teaching profession exists in every country worldwide, providing an excellent foundation for collaboration between teacher education programmes across countries. For the Faculty of Education, membership in the network is one of many important factors in the quality of the study and making teacher education programmes more attractive. We now hope that both students and staff will be able to benefit from the network and the activities offered there.
Contact us
- gunhild.alstad@inn.no
- Phone
- +47 62 51 77 75