Supporting Pre-service Teachers' Civic Competence as a Strategy for Internationalisation in the Digital Era

Abstract

Higher education institutions worldwide show an interest in enhancing their internationalisation initiatives by integrating innovative teaching approaches into formal curricula. A main concern is to ensure that preservice teachers enter future classrooms with a high level of civic competence. The aim of this study was to investigate the challenges and opportunities confronted within a professional development programme designed to promote pre-service teachers' competencies for democratic culture. The professional development programme was a three-year Erasmus+ KA2 programme involving the development of teacher training modules inspired by and aimed at developing competencies from the Reference Framework of Competencies for Democratic Culture. Its objective was to integrate digital resources within practicum-based learning modules based on democratic citizenship values. Following the implementation of the programme, a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) was conducted to gather data on the programme's potential to support pre-service teachers' civic competencies. The SWOT analysis was completed by ten teacher educators from five different university departments located in two metropolitan cities in central and northern Greece. Thematic analyses were used at a case and group level. The results showed that the online affordances of the programme, combined with each department's practicum-based learning modules, could effectively support the development of pre-service teachers' civic competencies, provided that resources were adapted with a human-centred sensitivity to the specificities of each context. In alignment with worldwide teacher education trends, we advocate for the implementation of similar programmes in the future as a participatory internationalisation at home strategy for supporting teacher online collaboration and peer learning.

Alternate abstract:

Visokošolske ustanove po vsem svetu kažejo zanimanje za krepitev svojih pobud za internacionalizacijo z vključevanjem inovativnih učnih pristopov v formalne učne načrte. Glavna skrb je zagotoviti, da bodo bodoči učitelji vstopili v svoje bodoče razrede z visoko stopnjo državljanskih kompetenc. Namen te študije je bil raziskati izzive in priložnosti, ki se pojavljajo v sklopu programa profesionalnega razvoja, namenjenega spodbujanju kompetenc bodočih učiteljev za demokratično kulturo. Program profesionalnega razvoja je bil triletni program Erasmus+ KA2, ki je vključeval razvoj modulov za usposabljanje učiteljev po zgledu Referenčnega okvira kompetenc za demokratično kulturo in je bil namenjen razvoju kompetenc iz omenjenega okvira. Njegov cilj je bil v na praksi temelječe učne module vključiti digitalne vire, ki temeljijo na demokratičnih državljanskih vrednotah. Po izvedbi programa je bila izvedena analiza SWOT (prednosti, slabosti, priložnosti in grožnje), da bi zbrali podatke o potencialu programa za podporo državljanskih kompetenc bodočih učiteljev. K analizi SWOT je prispevalo deset izobraževalcev učiteljev s petih različnih univerzitetnih oddelkov iz dveh velemest v osrednji in severni Grčiji. Tematske analize so bile uporabljene na ravni posameznih primerov in skupin. Rezultati so pokazali, da lahko spletne možnosti programa v kombinaciji z na praksi temelječimi učnimi moduli vsakega oddelka učinkovito podprejo razvoj državljanskih kompetenc bodočih učiteljev, če so viri prilagojeni z občutljivostjo za posebnosti posameznega konteksta, usmerjeno na človeka. Skladno s svetovnimi trendi izobraževanja učiteljev se zavzemamo za izvajanje podobnih programov v prihodnosti kot strategije »participativne internacionalizacije doma« za podporo spletnemu sodelovanju in vrstniškemu učenju učiteljev.