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Tillsammans - Yhdessä!
Tillsammans - Yhdessä!
Start date: Jun 1, 2016,
End date: May 31, 2018
PROJECT
FINISHED
Background:Since 2011 the international team of Turku Education Division has been responsible for the international affairs within the educational division. The international activities of daycare centers and preschools are a subject for development. The international team has now together with early childhood education department taking the first steps in developing international operations. According to the strategic policy, all the schools and day care centers should have equal opportunities to internationalization, regardless e.g. language or international skills. Reason for the absence of international activities may also be fear of bureaucracy and lack of knowledge.Objectives:The objective of this project is to support day care centers which are on the verge of internationalization.The point is to start without any prior international experience and develop courage and skills to start international operations independently. The first step is to offer teachers job shadowing in Europe. In this project the chosen projectleader will together with the international team take care of the project management and help with practical matters. The objective will be reached step by step. We start with accumulating the international experience of the kindergarden teachers and leaders. Participating in job shadowing abroad gives participators self-confidence to cope with foreign partners. It also gives personal contacts which help to create further cooperation with schools and educators abroad. The attitude towards internationalization is good but is often concidered difficult, teachers have doubts about their language and project skills. The more experiences of international mobilities kidergardens get the more positive and interested they are in developing own projects.Target group:The target group is early childhood educators and leaders who will attend job shadowing in Europe. Majority of the mobilities concern kindergarden teachers, but also kindergarden leaders are welcome to participate. It is cricial that the leaders have postive experiences and attitudes for international cooperation in order to develop international projects. The aim is to improve international skills of all teachers, not just language teachers.Activities:May 2016: Informing the principals of the project fundingAugust 2016: Arranging a breafing to the kindergarden leadersSeptember/october 2016: Informing the staff of the schools about the application procedure, applications and processingNovember 2016: Choice of the mobility staff and informing all the applicantsDecember 2016: Pre-departure orientation for all staff planning their mobilitiesJanuary-october 2017: Travel arrangements, implementation of the mobilities and feedback conversationsNovember 2017:Joint dissemination seminarSpring 2018: Reporting, last mobilitiesMethodology:The project leader together with the international team of the Education Division will coordinate this project. They take care of the practical travel arrangements, handle the project management, run the pre-departure orientation and organize the dissemination seminar. The kindergartenteachers will have to contact the job shadowing institution themselves, and communicate with the contactperson to discuss the coming job shodowing week. During the job shadowing the the participating educators search for new possible partners and make the report after.Results and impact:As a result of this project the daycare centers in Turku, as well children, will get international skills equally. Participants get new ideas for their work. Their language skills improve and they are more willing to use them. Educators get new international friends and connections which help them to build relationships to foreign schools. Educators will get new viewpoints in things, such as digital skills, inclusive teaching, functionality, multiculturalism and cooperation with families.The day care centers will be inspired to internationalization when the educatorss after their mobilities tell about their experiences and spread the enthusiasm to their non-mobile colleagues and children. The children will benefit from their educators whose attitudes towards internationalization are positive.In the long term the day care involved with this project will participate in international projects, maintain relationships with their foreign partners and disseminate international knowledge through the whole day care center.