DAAD-program "Lehramt.International"595,000 Euros for the Internationalization of Teacher Training at Universität Hamburg

26 November 2020, by Dilbar Ernazarova

Photo: Freepik/jcomp

The Faculty of Education has acquired funding from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) for a new project. The Diversity Contexts in Teacher Education (DiCoT) project will expand the internationalization of teacher education. Find out more about this project in the press release (German only) sent out by University of Hamburg today.

University of Hamburg was also successful in the second funding round of the DAAD program Lehramt.International. DiCoT will receive around €600,000 over the coming 4 years. The project focuses on the internationalization of the orientation teaching placement in the teacher training degrees.

The orientation teaching placement module is a standard feature of the new teacher training degrees, which started in Winter Semester 2020/21. The module consists of a preparatory seminar, a 4-week teaching placement at a school, an accompanying course, and a final examination. On the basis of the anti-bias approach, students develop diversity skills for their professional careers. Above all, students are sensitized to bias, stereotyping, discrimination, and inhumane beliefs and attitudes such as racism.

The DAAD-funded DiCoT project aims to internationalize this new module by further expanding the network of international partner universities and by having the partner universities refer the Hamburg students to schools in the respective area for the teaching placement. The partner universities also lend organizational support for students’ stay abroad and oversee the school teaching placement.

Students completing their teaching placement in Germany take part in an accompanying seminar, whereas students abroad use the new e-portfolio online service to reflect on their experiences. DiCoT has also planned for ancillary research in order to examine the effects of the project.

Univ.-Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Dieter Lenzen, president of Universität Hamburg, expressed his delight at receiving the funding: “For the future of teacher training in Europe and beyond—especially in Germany and Hamburg—internationalizing the education of trainee teachers is of great importance. Only this approach will enable us to overcome provincialism, narrow-mindedness, and racism.”

Prof. Dr. Eva Arnold, dean of the Faculty of Education and head of the Zentrum für Lehrerbildung Hamburg (ZLH) said: “The faculty’s management staff is delighted that our colleagues were successful once again with a DAAD application for the internationalization of teacher education. The DAAD’s decision demonstrates that the faculty’s international contacts are stable and well positioned.”

The project is a joint initiative of the Faculty of Education and the ZLH and is headed by Prof. Dr. Sara Fürstenau (Faculty of Education), Prof. Dr. Telse Iwers (Faculty of Education), Dr. Britta Schmidt (ZLH), and Dr. Myriam Hummel (Faculty of Education and Department of International Affairs). Universität Hamburg was the only university to be successful in both funding phases of the program. The project will commence in January 2021. At the project’s launch, the partner universities will be Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil), Université de Strasbourg (France), University of Education Winneba (Ghana), Universidad de Alcalá and Universidad de Almería (Spain), and Indiana University (USA). Further partner institutions should follow during the project’s 4-year duration.