VoiceS - Integrated competences for European Teachers. Giving voice(s) to professionalism and citizenship in school networking.
What is a European Teacher?
Froukje Bakker (VoiceS Advisory Board)
In order to find a common response to this question, a group of eleven teacher training institutes participated in a Comenius LLL project called: Focus on Awareness and Culture for International Teachers (Face-it, 2009). Within the project, 27 teachers and professors at teacher training institutes from different disciplines developed together a framework and a model for a European teacher. These teachers also developed teaching materials for teacher training students. The Face-it project, 134362-LLP-1-2007-1-NL-COMENIUS-CMP was carried out from November 2007 till November 2009. The products of the project have been integrated into the curricula of most of the partner institutes and the Face-it project was given a high ranking by the evaluation experts of the EU. Thanks to the Face-it project a strong and promising relationship developed between the 11 teacher training institutes and the idea of a network to strengthen the cooperation and extend it to new countries and new partner institutes began to grow. The involvement of both primary and secondary schools was considered to be the necessary, first step to establishing a network of European teachers.
The 'European teacher' materials had to be re-designed for experienced teachers and in-service courses had to be organized around the four European Teacher topics: European Diversity, European Identity, European Citizenship and European Professionalism.
'European Teacher' model
The teachers who participated on the in-service courses really helped to link the theoretical model with the practical situation in the schools. Both their own reflections and the more general ones showed how a co-operation could take place, important in showing how best collaboration and content might be decided upon.
In the ETSize project (2010.2013) we redesigned materials for teachers and organized four in-service courses: European Citizenship, European Identity, European Diversity and European Professionalism, to both encourage teachers to improve their international competences and to offer them a challenging learning environment for international activities along with the possibility to participate in a future network.
The VoiceS European Teachers Network is a follow up of these project and this e-book is the outcome of the in-service course held at Graz: VoiceS - Integrated competences for European Teachers. Giving voice(s) to professionalism and citizenship in school networking, in 2014
Theoretical basis and background to become a European Teacher
In 2007, we started the project based on an article from Michael Schratz, professor at the research department of the University of Innsbruck. In 2004, Schratz wrote an article about the competences of a European Teacher. At that time, several teacher-training institutes in Europe had been thinking about re-designing their curriculum around competences for teachers in place of goals. Michael Schratz mentioned the following qualifications of a European teacher:
- „European identity: A European teacher has certain values which show that he or she is not just a national teacher but one who teaches “beyond” their particular national curriculum. Such a teacher would see himself/herself as someone with roots in one particular country, but at the same time as belonging to a greater European whole. This co-existence of national identity and transnational awareness provides a valuable perspective on questions of heterogeneity. Diversity within unity is therefore a key aspect of a developed European identity.
- European knowledge: A European teacher has some knowledge of other European education systems and, possibly, of educational policy matters at the EU level. He/she values his/her own education system and sees it in relation to other ones. He/she has knowledge of European and world affairs. A European teacher is aware of European history (histories) and of their influence on contemporary European society.
- European multiculturalism: A European teacher engages with the multicultural nature of European society. He/she has a positive relationship with his/her own culture and is open towards other cultures. He/she knows how to behave in other cultures in a non-dominant way. He/she works with heterogeneous groups, seeing heterogeneity as valuable and respects difference. He/she copes with the challenges of the multicultural aspects of a knowledge society, and works to promote equality of opportunity for all.
- European language competence: A European teacher speaks more than one European language, albeit with differing levels of competence. He/she experiences other languages in initial and further teacher education and is able to teach subjects in languages other than his/her first language. He/she spends some time in a country with a language different from his/her first language, and also communicates in a number of languages with colleagues and people from abroad.
- European professionalism: A European teacher has an education that enables him/her to teach in any European country. He/she has a “European” approach to subject areas in his/her teaching and links up cross-curricular themes from a European perspective. He/she exchanges curricular content and methodologies with colleagues from other European countries. He/she pays attention to and learns from different teaching and learning traditions. He/she uses examples of research from other countries to understand and explain professional issues and teaches accordingly. Teacher education is now working towards a new professionalism with a European perspective, no longer restricting teaching practice to national boundaries. Many teaching subjects already build on the rich history of a European tradition, and this can be usefully exploited. Joint programmes and degrees offered by educational institutions in European countries can enhance the development of European professionalism, as can many of the opportunities offered by modern technology including social media.
- European citizenship: A European teacher behaves like a “European citizen”. He/she shows solidarity with citizens in other European countries and shares values such as respect for human rights, democracy and freedom. His/her critical teaching fosters autonomous, responsible and active citizens of a Europe of tomorrow. Aspects of the school curriculum have the potential to develop a new teaching area called 'European Studies', which would enhance this process“.
- European quality measures: If a European teacher exists, then there must be a way of comparing the formal features of the different teacher education systems in Europe. Suggestions include from formal assessment of systems to informal exchanges and cross-cultural visits. The Bologna process is an important step towards harmonizing academic and accreditation issues.
All the competences mentioned above are part of the European teacher model. In practice some overlapping occurs between the four areas.
Refernces
Schratz, Michael. “WHAT IS A ‘EUROPEAN TEACHER’?” In ENTEP - The First Ten Years After Bologna. Bucureşti: Editura Universitǎţii din BucureŞti, 2010.
Schratz, Michael. “WHAT IS A ‘EUROPEAN TEACHER’? A Discussion Paper European Network on Teacher Education Policies (ENTEP).,” n.d. http://www.see-educoop.net/education_in/pdf/workshop/tesee/dokumenti/european-teacher.pdf.