Intensive course 2017

Comparative Aspects of Social Justice Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in Education in Baltic-Nordic Countries, CASEDI

NNTE (Network for Teacher Education) partners in Scandinavia and the Baltic countries have successfully cooperated since 2009.This has led to a further development of a new intensive course: Comparative Aspects of Social Justice Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in Education in Baltic-Nordic Countries, CASEDI.

The theme of the course

The theme of the course will focus on one of today’s important issues, increased diversity in society, partly a result of the high number of refugees and a challenge for schools to ensure equity and quality in education in all countries, according to the context of the Incheon Declaration of Education (2015). The course includes theoretical aspects and practical aspects (visits to schools and educational institutions and pupil/teacher interaction; for details see attached program).

Aim

Development of students’ new knowledge, understanding and competence of managing diversity in education with a focus on social justice and equal rights in a democratic society from a comparative perspective.

Objectives

Acquire deeper knowledge, understanding and competence of identifying and managing diversity in schools by exploring and sharing appropriate methods of teaching and learning, cooperating and collaborating with different stakeholders. Provide opportunity for students to compare educational systems, schools and social justice situations in the Nordic-Baltic countries. Provide opportunity for students to study and cooperate in an international environment, application of these skills to different school contexts. Create an inclusive culture and environment within the course and thus promotion of the overall development of teacher trainees’ professional identity in democratic societies. Expected learning outcomes. Student’s increased knowledge and understanding of:

social justice in different educational settings
methods of identifying and managing diversity and leadership
educational social justice in Nordic-Baltic countries

Students should be able to:

put into practice the experiences of using Impact on educational different forms and methods to create inclusive culture and environment in educational settings
communicate and cooperate more freely in an international environment (face-to-face, technology-enhanced learning) and apply these skills to different school contexts
demonstrate professional identity as teachers in democratic societies
reflect didactically and be prepared for teaching and learning in a time where transformative capabilities will be necessary for teachers and future generations

Impact on educational and relational settings

Direct

Knowledge and experience of current issues in social justice, diversity; inclusion and equity will prepare students for identifying and managing diverse situations and being agents of change in education and society

Indirect

More appropriate learning environment for pupils in different settings; Qualified support from teachers for parents for solving problems on equity and social justice; Creating awareness of communities to identify such problems Innovative aspects: Social justice as didactical challenge; managing and identification of diversity in education with focus on equity and social justice; the methods used are built on collaborative learning, combination of theory and practice, blended learning, including ICT tools. School visits are important means to balance theory and practice, providing material for field studies within a Nordic and a Baltic country (SE and LV). This is a 5-ECTS course recognised by all participating institutions and can be included in the students’ degree (e.g. optional or compulsory courses; written projects; practice).2. Organisation and implementation (max 4000 characters):4 students and 1 teacher participate from each country. Lecturers take an active part in organising, developing and hosting the course. Students represent various fields of teacher education. Collaborative methods include panel discussions, group works and co-teaching. Group processes, as content and active learning, will involve all participants. Each lecturer has an area of expertise (cf. attached program), related to the course topic, but co-teaching models will be implemented to share and contribute to other teachers’ topics. The 5-ECTS course is completed through blended learning during five virtual weeks framed by two weeks on site in two different countries. This framework is aimed at improving knowledge of the social justice situation in the Baltic-Nordic region. Students will visit schools or other educational settings in one Baltic and one Nordic country and gain practical experience of the social justice situation in schools. They will have chances to meet experts in the field and thereafter share their experience and knowledge with each other. Students will work in international groups focusing on the groups’ own learning process. Students have to prepare a workshop in an international group. The workshops deal with topics related to social justice as, for example, multicultural education, gender issues, anti-oppressive education, refugee-education, differentiation, diversity, equality, and equity. Each group will plan and carry out a workshop for a defined group of learners, present their didactic considerations related to theories and best practices according to the aims of their topic. The students’ tasks include planning, performing, and evaluating their workshop, as well as participating as learners in other workshops and providing feedback to others. CASEDI aims at challenging the traditional understanding of why, what, who and how one can learn.

The course is organised in three parts

Part 1

(Latvia University, LV, week 39): Introduction to course content, goals and organisation, social learning activities and structures setting the scene for social justice among the participants, and also school visits.

Part 2

Online learning (weeks 40-44): Group work with online communication, and evaluation at the end of Part 2. Students will discuss the outcomes of Part 1 and develop further their own workshop plans and implementation of their chosen topic. To facilitate the online period a platform (Moodle) is provided, as well as three online assignments to advance the progress of the workshops. The students may include other interactive web-tools. The lecturers will supervise and engage in discussion sand provide feedback to students.

Part 3

(Uppsala University, SE, week 45): Students’ workshops, school visits, evaluation and assessment. Students’ tasks: reading an article before the course; presentation of the educational system of their own country before the course; preparing and organizing a workshop; attending all activities; supporting and promoting peer learning, portfolio; evaluations; Teachers’ tasks: Group work; organizing the working groups and social learning activities; Panel discussion; supervision (face-to-face and online period) and provide feedback to the students throughout the course. Evaluation of learning outcomes:- formative assessment is provided continuously throughout the two weeks and online learning period as feedback from teachers- self-assessment (students) takes place in informal discussions between students and teachers- peer-assessment during group work and after presentations- summative assessment (pass/fail) includes: a) the presentation of the workshop and b) a portfolio (including teaching plan/material, didactical reflections) to meet criteria for the learning outcomes Dissemination will be carried out during the whole project. The results and the experiences of the course will be shared among the partner institutions. In the dissemination process students will: share knowledge gained by attending the lectures and experiences of social learning; pedagogical and didactical aspects of learning in Nordic and Baltic countries; deepen their understanding and be introduced to the comparative aspects “What are the differences and the similarities between these countries?” through experience and knowledge gained during the school visits; share the provided material during the course with others in their home institutions and classes, for example group work process, inclusion, social justice; upload to an Internet platform, for example NNTE web page, Institutional web pages, Facebook, Wiki, etc. together with teachers and coordinator share experiences with peers and encourage student exchange, as well as an understanding of Baltic-Nordic societies (e.g. presentation of experiences in classrooms, student meetings); bring awareness of the course topic to schools – during and after the course – and implement it in schools as a result of the visits to schools in Nordic and Baltic countries during the course. In the dissemination process lecturers will: share experiences of the CASEDI course in their home institutions with students and faculty; ensure that the course also provides benefits for a life-long learning process for participating lecturers; produce and distribute course material which consists of lectures, research publications and course syllabus.

The institutional dissemination process

The international coordinator at the home institution will support dissemination in all possible ways; the network's web page provides access for everybody to all material produced during the course.
a) Lecturers’ material on the main topics of CASEDI course.
b) Students’ course portfolio during all courses including the whole period: first week, in between 5 weeks, the second week.
c) The bibliography for additional readings.
d) Evaluations, procedures and product;

Each project partner will be responsible for local dissemination activities:
a) each participating partner will share the link of the Nordplus web page on their home institutional websites,
b) will share short informational knowledge about the whole project idea and the expected results; close cooperation between partner institutions as a setting for the possibility of developing further educational programs recognised by the participating institutions. This will serve as a model when integrating an exchange within educational programmes at the home institution as well as between institutions/partner based on knowledge of each other’s educational context (cf."mobility windows" for international strategy); using established local, national and international channels during the course.