More than €620,000Third Grant for Internationalization of Teacher Training

20 November 2024, by Anna Priebe

Photo: University of Hamburg / von Wieding

Funding will be used for existing and new in-person and digital courses.

Another University of Hamburg project succeeded in the third round of the German Academic Exchange Service’s (DAAD) Lehramt.International program. INTER will further develop 2 previous projects and strengthen topics such as interculturality and diversity in teacher training.

The new project International Experience and Reflection in Teacher Education (INTER), acquired by Dr. Myriam Hummel and Prof. Dr. Telse Iwers from the Faculty of Education, aims to bundle the large number of existing internationalization offers in comprehensive teacher training programs.

Many of these have evolved from the previous DAAD-funded projects Tricontinental Teacher Training (TTT) and Diversity Contexts in Teacher Education (DiCoT). Both projects focused on the internationalization and theory-driven reflection of internship experiences DiCoT during introductory internships within the bachelor’s program and the Tricontinental Teacher Training internship components within the master’s program.

Offers across entire degree programs

Also, new internationalization formats are to be developed within the INTER framework. Next to established courses, this will enable students to integrate ethnic and cultural diversity topics from the first minute of their bachelor’s program to the last minute of their master’s with the option to make this a focus of their studies.

Among other things, our faculty will thus offer a visiting lectureship every summer semester: Lecturers from our international partner universities will enrich teaching at the University of Hamburg with English-language, international courses. There will also be scholarship opportunities for stays abroad as part of master’s theses.

“All offers focus strongly on reflecting international experience. We want students to actively and sustainably engage in topics such as colonialism and postcolonialism, diversity, antibias, and transcultural sensitivity,” says Dr. Myriam Hummel, head of the section for internationalization at the Faculty of Education and also one of two coordinators of INTER—just granted €624,000 in funding from January 2025 to December 2029.

Important preparation for everyday work

“The seminars, internships and exchange formats take place in Hamburg as well as at numerous partner universities and schools abroad. Existing digital seminars with an international focus will also be further developed,” says Prof. Dr. Telse Iwers. As an educational science professor, she investigates mindfulness, cognitive processes in stereotyping, and the resolution of inner conflicts in an international context.

With a wide range of related offers in the teacher training curriculum they not only aim to support the prospective teachers’ personal development: “We want to prepare them in the best possible way to become professionals that not only meet the demands of cultural and linguistic diversity in the classroom, but will make it flourish and put it to good use,” says Hummel.