Child and Youth Welfare: Research and Teaching Across Borders

The growing body of knowledge in child and youth welfare is becoming more transnational and calls for broadening the perspectives with which it is studied and reflected upon. TACHYwe (Transnational Academic Careers in Child... [ view full abstract ]

The growing body of knowledge in child and youth welfare is becoming more transnational and calls for broadening the perspectives with which it is studied and reflected upon. TACHYwe (Transnational Academic Careers in Child and Youth Welfare) is a TEMPUS project funded by the European Commission that supports the internationalization of higher education in both the EU partner institutions as well as those in the partner neighbour states. This international project aims at enhancing child and youth welfare research and education across borders. Our team includes members from ten universities and research centres from Germany, Ireland, Italy, Israel and Russia. Together we developed, implemented and evaluated international curricula and exchanges that are based on reflections of students and staff on these experiences.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the tight web of cooperation woven between the team members: on the one hand faculty members from different countries are designing together curricula and parallel teaching courses that are relevant to their students. On the other hand, advanced level students (PhD candidates and Master) gained insight into research and practice in the other countries. Both student and staff exchanges lead to sustainable connections between researchers at all levels resulting in joint papers, projects and contributions to the academic discourse. Additionally, we discuss current insights of the research and teaching processes initiated by this innovative project, as well as elucidating benefits and pitfalls of such transnational research perspectives. Finally, we provide practical guidelines for developing and implementing similar projects.