The long-standing partnership between the University of Passau and Muskingum University in Ohio, USA, has already been opened up for teacher training in the past – now, with representatives of the Chair of Educational Science – namely Kathrin Plank and Jonas Scharfenberg – and as part of the global.trex programme, a sustainable establishment for joint research work and for ‘students exchange’ has been achieved.  Together with the Vice President for Internationalisation, this has laid another important foundation for the internationalisation of teacher education at the University of Passau. Students have reason to be pleased: from now on, another door to the world is open to them.

Accompanied by Valerie Smith (Director of Cultural Engagement & Inclusion), further goals for cooperation were discussed in an exchange with Provost Jennifer Dugan, Vice President Shelley Szalay, and representatives of the Department of Education, the Impact Center and the World Language Center, in order to lay the appropriate groundwork for revising the contractual framework and further developing reciprocal mobility formats.

In addition to guest lectures and a workshop with local students, the stay was also used to engage with visiting students from Passau and to observe their internships at schools. In New Concord, the education researchers also had the opportunity to gain a significant insight into the inclusive concept of the partner higher education institution by participating in a student accessibility tour.

Following a visit to Nara University of Education in Japan in the spring of this year, representatives of the teacher training program have now made a return visit. On July 15 and 16 of this year, Yuta Nagumo was warmly welcomed to the University of Passau. Mr Nagumo, who works at the International Strategy Center of the Nara National Institute of Higher Education and Research, visited the university in order to strengthen the existing cooperation between the two institutions in the long term and to discuss further collaboration.

One focus of the visit was to concretize the planning already initiated in Japan in March for a Spring and Autumn School for student teachers from the University of Passau at Nara University of Education, which is to take place for the first time in 2025. During the visit, potential teaching formats and participation in a research project were discussed alongside possible joint application activities. 

How is the educational space of schools changing due to the increasing availability of artificial intelligence in our everyday lives, what does this mean for the understanding of teachers' roles and fields of action, and what requirements for sustainable teacher training can be derived from this? These and other questions were the focus of Dr. Ariella Levenberg's visit in July 2024. The Israeli colleague was warmly welcomed to campus by colleagues from teacher education at the University of Passau on the initiative of the Chair of Educational Science with a focus on diversity research and educational spaces in middle childhood. The Chair, headed by Vice President Christina Hansen, has maintained a lively cooperation with the Gordon College of Education in Haifa for many years. 

In addition to a visit to the Active Learning Lab and a tour of the Didactic Innovation Labs (DILAB) led by Christian Müller, the guest also had the opportunity to meet with the Chair and Vice President for International Affairs, Europe and Diversity, Prof. Dr. Christina Hansen, the Managing Directors of the Centre for Teacher Education (ZLF), Anneliese Fraser and Matthias Fuchs, as well as representatives of the Digitalization Hub of the University, the Invitation to Teacher Training Centre (ZLF). in Christina Hansen, the managing directors of the Centre for Teacher Education (ZLF), Anneliese Fraser and Matthias Fuchs, as well as representatives of the university's digitalization hub, the inviting chair and the ZLF's Internationalization department to discuss current challenges in teacher education from a global perspective. In particular, the importance of democratic learning in the post-digital age, the further development of digital learning spaces and the corresponding professionalization of teachers were discussed, as well as possibilities for further joint research and teaching formats.  

Following the initial initiation in autumn 2023, a stay in Kobe and Nara was made possible as part of the global.trex project in order to specify mobility programs for Bavarian and Japanese student teachers and to explore joint research interests within the field of Teacher Education. 

Prof. Dr. Christina Hansen (Vice President for International Affairs and Diversity, Head of the Chair of Educational Science) and Dr. Kathrin Eveline Plank (Deputy Head of the ZLF Internationalization Department) accepted the invitations from Nara University of Education in Southern Honshu and the Kobe University in central Japan. 

In Nara, the guests from Passau had the opportunity to discuss the general potential of a partnership between the institutions with Prof. Maeda Koji (VP for International Relations and Regional Partnerships), Prof. Dr. Yoshimura Masahito (General Director), Prof. Dr. Yoriko Hashizaki and Yuta Nagumo (Senior Lecturers). Furthermore the scientists exchanged professional interests in the field of comparative educational research and talked about possible funding programs. As one result, specific mobility formats (e.g. a spring school for Passau students in Nara) have already been specified.

The Vice President's invitation to Kobe University by Dean Prof. Dr. Fumiko Fujinami (Graduate School of Intercultural Studies & Faculty of Global Human Sciences) and Prof. Dr. Hirotaka Inouye (Graduate School of Intercultural Studies) was also used to discuss potential areas of cooperation in the field of Teacher Education, inter alia in the context of foreign language training. The idea of an onboarding program at the Kobe Campus for Passau students completing their internship in Kobe is now to be further developed. 

In addition to observing other internship options, the contractual and organizational framework conditions for the internship program starting in late summer 2024 were prepared together with Alex Inman, principal of the German International School Kobe (DISK).

The University of Passau has defined internationalisation as a central element of its profile.  It can build on existing measures and the commitment of its members.In addition, incentives should be created to actively participate in the fulfilment of this strategic core task. The University of Passau has been honouring university members who have made a special contribution to the internationalisation of the university once a year since 2013. This is in line with the internationalisation strategy, which focuses on sustainable forms of cooperation that increase the university's international visibility.

The prize amount is

    1,000 euros.

Dr Kathrin Evelyn Plank, Academic Councillor at the Chair of Educational Science, has been working for years to establish and consolidate international partnerships and networks, develop and acquire mobility and exchange programmes for students and staff, design support services, advisory and information formats, and acquire third-party funding. Her commitment has significantly increased the participation of Passau's student teachers in international formats. The award was presented by Prof Dr Werner Gamerith.

In addition to visiting various universities - Osaka University, Kyoto University of Foreign Studies, Hyogo University of Teacher Education Kobe and Kobe University - Prof. Dr. Christina Hansen also had the opportunity to attend meetings at the Goethe-Institut Osaka.

The stay was used to initiate and consolidate contractual framework conditions for international exchange and to explore specific mobility options for student teachers, staff and researchers, including the possibility of an internship at the DSK International School in Osaka.

In addition, potential participation opportunities in the international comparative study InVers were discussed with colleagues from the aforementioned universities. The focus was also on discussions about further fields of research that would enable sustainable cooperation between the countries, institutions and colleagues in connection with international teacher education.

The two members of the Passau Chair of Educational Science with a focus on diversity research and educational spaces of middle childhood, headed by Vice President Christina Hansen, were able to accept an invitation from Masaryk University in Brno in October 2023.

Together with colleagues Ivana Juzová and Lucie Procházková, the stay was used to consolidate and further differentiate the existing cooperation between the two institutions.

In addition to a guest lecture and several workshops for international and Czech students, a number of strategic meetings were planned. Among other things, the second mobility phase in the BIP cooperation project between the two universities was planned and conceptual work on ongoing application procedures was further advanced.