GLOBAL TEACHER EDUCATION

GLOBAL TEACHER EDUCATION

Background
Most countries have experienced growing diversities in recent decades as a result of migration. In the five participating countries, Iceland, Norway, Crete/Greece, Spain and Israel, schools at all levels include diverse student groups as a result of migration as well as historical minorities. All school levels are facing complex challenges as well as opportunities in responding to growing diversities. In this context, many teachers claim that they lack training and high burnout rates are reported among teachers (OECD, 2018).
While the four participating European countries; Iceland, Norway, Crete/Greece and Spain have experienced increasing immigration in recent decades resulting in the diversification of their populations, the fifth participating country; Israel has a long history of the coexistence of diverse populations which will benefit all partners in the project. In addition, the three Southern Mediterranean participating countries, Crete/Greece, Spain and Israel have experienced immigration and emigration, resulting in diaspora communities and experience with promoting heritage languages.
The GatherED project addresses the needs for knowledge and training for teachers working in diverse multilingual contexts. It aims to enhance diversity competence and digital responsibility in teacher education (Arvanitas, 2008), particularly increasing knowledge and understanding of diversity and global education in multilingual and multicultural teacher education contexts. The overarching aim of the Global Teacher Education project is focusing on diversity and increased awareness of aspects related to global citizenship.
Since the early 2000s the Council of Europe has advocated new approaches towards cultural and linguistic diversity which are based on the implementation of plurilingual and intercultural education (European Commission, 2018). Plurilingual and intercultural education is not a new methodology for language teaching but rather an overarching educational project which gives access to all pupils – especially those likely to encounter most difficulty at school – to equity and quality of education (Beacco et al. 2016). It has two aims: to facilitate the acquisition of linguistic and intercultural abilities and to promote personal development, so that individuals can realise their full potential: this involves ‘’encouraging them to respect and accept diversity of languages and cultures in a multilingual and multicultural society, and helping to make them aware of the extent of their own competences and development potential.’’ (Beacco et al. 2016:15). It is also considered as an important asset for any citizen as competence in more than one languages (even partial) and awareness and respect for diversity are key features in learning to live in a democratic society.
These aims and competences are in line with the three dimensions of Global Citizenship Education (UNESCO, 2015, p.15), which are as follows:
• cognitive: to acquire knowledge and understanding of local, national and global issues and the interconnectedness and interdependency of different countries and populations
• socio-emotional: to have a sense of belonging to a common humanity, sharing values and responsibilities, empathy, solidarity and respect for differences and diversity
• behavioural: to act affectively and responsibly at local, national and global levels for a more peaceful and sustainable world.
The GatherED project builds on these dimensions in developing Open Education Resources to enhance diversity competence and digital responsibility in teacher education.

Objectives
The objectives of the project are to respond to the need for teacher competence for diversity, digital responsibility and global citizenship and to develop tools and methodologies to support teachers, including online training and toolkit. The project aims to increase teachers’ and student teachers’ competencies and expand, learning from experiences in the five participating countries.

Activities
The project includes two workshops on developing teachers ́ competence for inclusion in diverse multilingual and multicultural educational contexts, Multiplier Events to pilot and disseminate these workshops to larger groups of student teachers and practicing teachers in all the participating countries, a toolkit for teachers and an online Edx course on sustainable global citizenship education.

All partners will contribute and cooperate throughout the project through physical and online meetings, in the workshops, developing the workshops and in dissemination in the multiplier events. The general approach and methodology of the project will follow a socio-cultural view of learning (Hawkins, 2004) which focuses on engaging participants in critical, reflective practices in order to develop their agency as professionals.

Impact
The main results expected during the project and on its completion are the development of Open Education Resources that can be implemented in teacher education in the five partner countries, on online open access EdX course as well as a toolkit for teachers. Target groups to be addressed are in-service teachers, pre-service teachers (student teachers) and in-service/practicing teachers. Research rightly points out that schools and teachers are very important to equalise and compensate for social differences in school achievements. Carrying out this project on diversity and global citizenship transnationally is essential for understanding the challenges and opportunities in teaching practices across the participating countries. Moreover, it will create opportunities to impact policies and curricula at local levels and the integration of global citizenship practices in teacher education and schools in order to increase teachers’ capacity to meet European requirements for competent youth and children.

Teachers in the five participating countries have much in common. Although the five participating countries differ in terms of their histories and diversities, the five partner teacher education institutions all face the challenges of educating teachers for diversities. Each partner institution will have a strategic role in the project, sharing and building on their experiences of educating teachers for diversities. The benefits of including these five higher education institutions in this project will be that each institution contributes from their unique experiences to this project. In addition, the mobility of faculty members, as well as students as well as online participation will provide platforms for experiencing diversity in an international context. For example, Oranim College in Israel has a long experience of working with numerous minority groups and is constantly grappling with how it's diverse students and faculty members integrate as a community. The University of Oslo, the University of Iceland and the University of Crete have experiences of working with migrant and refugee populations, so that despite the linguistic, cultural and religious differences, the partner countries have much in common as well as much to learn from one another. The University of Granada (UGR) is participating with its campus in the city of Ceuta, which is a Spanish territory on the north coast of Africa, separated by the Spanish peninsula by the Gibraltar crossing. Consequently, Ceuta is one of the hotspots of irregular migration in Europe and the city itself is a multilingual, multicultural environment given its history and proximity to Morocco. Besides, the UGR has a long-standing tradition in multicultural and international exchanges, as well as postgraduate studies on diversity. This transnational project serves as a model for participants working in two continents – Africa, Asia and Europe. This project serves as a model for participants working in Asia and Europe.

The Partners:

HASKOLI ISLANDS, Iceland - Coordinator

ORANIM ACADEMIC COLLEGE OF EDUCATION - THE KIBBUTZ MOVEMENT, Israel
PANEPISTIMIO KRITIS, Greece
UNIVERSIDAD DE GRANADA, Spain
UNIVERSITETET I OSLO, Norway