Education for sustainable development and the glocal teacher - an international collaborate project within ECE between China and Norway

The aim of this self-organized symposium is to discuss how an international program (UTFORSK) within kindergarten teacher education can contribute to education for sustainable development. The key concern in this international... [ view full abstract ]

The aim of this self-organized symposium is to discuss how an international program (UTFORSK) within kindergarten teacher education can contribute to education for sustainable development. The key concern in this international program is to strengthen the capacity for social and cultural sustainability through participation and dialogue in educational exchange activities. International education in higher education is a mean to acknowledge the importance of thinking in terms of inter-linked systems and to recognize the ways in which people, places, and things are connected across space and time.

The UTFORSK program is a collaboration between Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, Beijing Normal University and East China Normal University. Participants in the program include students, teacher educators/researchers and kindergarten teachers. Activities implied in the program are student and teacher mobility, kindergarten staff mobility, research groups and educational activities on undergraduate and postgraduate level.

The symposium will illuminate different projects and activities that will strengthen the relations between researchers, students and kindergarten staff in both countries.

1. Introduction by Associate professor Åsta Birkeland

2. The glocal teacher - Curriculum reform, kindergarten teacher empowerment and development by Professor Jiang Yong, East China Normal University and postgraduate students Zheng Chuchu and Wang Yifang.

3.     Sustainable development - A comparative study of early childhood curriculum documents focused on education for sustainability in China and Norway by Dr. Li Minyi, Associate professor Åsta Birkeland and postgraduate student Xu Jingyi

1. Norway-China kindergarten network – Building a network through drama education by Associate professor Åsta Birkeland and Siv Ødemotland