Newsletter - May 2023
Welcome to ITTS News in May 2023. In the first months of the year we have been very busy with finalising our materials, publications, local events and the preparation of our final conference in Mytilene, Greece.
Now we are looking forward to the publication of our results and we are excited about our final international workshop conference on 27th May 2023 in Mytilene, Greece.
Coming soon: the release of the materials and publications of our work
Over the last months we have been working at fullspeed on the finalisation of our materials. This has resulted in quite extensive products, which we will present in detail in a final project newsletter in June/July 2023. This much is already spoiled today:
From the results of our research in the seven project countries and the quantitative study, we have published two edited volumes with Waxmann publisher, one in German and one in English. The results of the different approaches to the field are summarised and results are derived from them.
A variety of materials have been produced for international teachers to support their professional re-entry and to contribute to their empowerment, such as written help for finding the right words and phrases, scenario methods or reflection material.
A comprehensive guide “Welcoming international teachers at school – A guide for mentors, principals and the school community” has been produced (in an English and a German edition). Target groups are school principals, mentors and school staff. In addition to an introduction to the importance of international teachers for schools and information on school development in a migration society, each guide contains 13 working materials to facilitate the arrival of the new international teachers at school.
Finally, we have compiled and produced a number of materials for teacher training and in-service training that are intended to support the goal of a school of diversity.
Final preparations: our final conference in Greece
Our final workshop conference will take place in Mytilene and our project partner, the University of the Aegean, will kindly host it.
The ITTS workshop conference aims to support the professional integration of international teachers by providing, exploring and discussing materials, guidelines and methods for teachers, mentors and principals. The focus is on discussing content and sharing experiences using different creative formats. Under the title “How to promote professionalintegration of international teachers and the cultural diversity in schools”, we are organising interesting panels and several workshops on different topics. Find more information under the following link: https://itts-europe.org/files/ITTS-Final-Conference-Main-Programme-and-Workshops-290423.pdf
We look forward to reporting on the conference and its results in our next issue.
Local ITTS events: Slovenia and Poland
On 20th and 21st January 2023, the Slovenian team organised two multiplier events. The key findings of ITTS in general and especially the research results on the situation of international teachers in Slovenia were presented and discussed. Furthermore, the participants were able to talk about their experiences with international teachers. During a working phase, the participants tested some of the reflection materials that had been created for school staff, especially mentors and principals, to reflect on how to support international teachers in schools.
In our latest blog post, the Polish partners inform about their events to disseminate knowledge gained from ITTS. They have managed to establish a partnership with the Teachers’ Training Centre in Słupsk to be able to spread results from ITTS throughout the whole country. To do this, they organised network meetings for teachers and a dissemination meeting with school administrators and principals with their partner. Finally, they presented the research findings at the International Scientific Conference and are also planning to publish an article at the Journal of the Teacher’s Training Centre.
Last Transnational Project Meeting in Greece
Our next and last TPM will take place in Mytilene on 25th and 26th May. The meeting will focus on two activities: we will sift through all the materials created in the project and try out some of them. As a whole project group, we will get an overview of which materials have been finalised and which still need the finishing touches. In addition, we will discuss our dissemination activities of the last months and our experiences with them. The other big topic on our agenda will be the final preparation of our workshop conference. The workshop teams will go through the planned workshop procedures and we will do a dress rehearsal of the ITTS project presentations at the beginning of the conference.