Diversity in early childhood education

How can international exchange promote the professionalisation of diversity among students of the Faculty of Education?

Project

International exchange in professional practice is a powerful learning environment that will aid the development of our future professionals. This project gives the necessary impetus to their growth by facilitating meetings between international students and professionals in a metropolitan setting.

PROJECT AIMS

Internationalisation plays a modest role in the teaching given by the Faculty of Education and is not a standard part of Urban Education. Previous exchanges between professional organisations have shown that they foster new insight among professionals, who can then translate them into their work right away. This project gives the necessary impetus to professional exchange by facilitating meetings between Dutch and German students and professionals in the The Hague, Rotterdam-Schiedam and Berlin areas.

Through these meetings, students learn about growing up and education in a metropolitan and European context. This project can also help improve the image of childcare, and interprofessional cooperation between PABO (teacher training college for primary education) and Pedagogy can promote future initiatives.

PROJECT RESULTS

By merging literature, fostering peer learning with students and novice professionals and reflecting on working in a metropolitan environment, we are creating a powerful, hybrid form of learning.

The project consists of several parts. First, we will organise an international exchange with FEU students, before investigating how this exchange affected students’ professionalisation and the image of working in childcare and primary education. The project will develop a (transferable) model for the internationalisation of education to improve current study trips. Furthermore, a scientific article will be written for an (inter)national journal and a handover will take place to the municipalities of Amsterdam and Rotterdam and to the childcare sector, paying specific attention to the image of working in the pre- and/or early childhood period.

PROJECT PARTNERS

The project will be carried out by Ruben Fukkink, Odette Spee and Marte van den Hoed in cooperation with childcare organisation DAK and KomKids and Serv Vinders (affiliated with ChildCare International, among others).