The call for proposals was open for collaboration in Africa, China, and India. The call invited academic and teaching staff, doctoral and post-doc researchers, as well as students from all faculties at the University of Helsinki to submit proposals seeking to:
- co-create research-based solutions to global education challenges,
- increase meaningful and mutual partnerships between Finnish HEIs and their partners in African countries, in China and in India, and
- inspire and initiate attractive internationalisation measures in Finnish higher education institutions.
GINTL wants to contribute towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goal 4: “Ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all”. The GINTL Call for Proposals is now open to initiate, enhance and strengthen collaboration in teaching, learning and teacher education with African, Chinese and Indian higher education institutions.
The GINTL member institutions decide about funding internally. At the University of Helsinki, GINTL is coordinated at the Faculty of Educational Sciences of the University of Helsinki, and the funding was opened for all University of Helsinki faculties.
Through this call, four projects were granted seed funding. All these projects support GINTL goals as well as the overall University of Helsinki internationalisation goals. There were more applications than could be awarded.
We thank all applicants!
The call can be viewed here (University of Helsinki intranet):
Applications granted seed funding
- “Learning of transversal competencies in science teacher education in Finland and China”
Jari Lavonen | University of Helsinki, Faculty of Educational Sciences - “Generating better practices in education through international partnerships in doctoral education”
Hanna Posti-Ahokas | University of Helsinki, Faculty of Educational Sciences - “Somali teacher education development expands” (STRIDE)
Kaisa Hahl | University of Helsinki, Faculty of Educational Sciences - “Encountering local theories of cross-curricular course in the making – building partnership between Finland, Taiwan, and China to engage local schooling changes for sustainability”
Hongda Lin | University of Helsinki, Faculty of Educational Sciences
Project descriptions
Learning of transversal competencies in science teacher education in Finland and China
The aim of the initiative is to strengthen collaboration in research on future teacher education, with an emphasis on the teaching and learning of transversal competencies and the efficacy of educational reforms. The participating institutions include the University of Helsinki and University of Jyväskylä, Beijing Normal University (at Zhuhai), other Chinese universities such as South China Normal University and the University of Macau.
Reforming education for the twenty-first century has become an essential topic globally. Teacher preparation and the development of knowledge and attitudes are pivotal factors in attaining the goals of these reforms. As part of this initiative, lectures on “teaching for the future” will be organized. A systematic inquiry as main part will be conducted to assess future science teachers’ knowledge and attitudes towards educational reforms for teaching and learning of transformal competences. The findings will be utilized to provide suggestions for the development of student teacher programs.
Principal investigator
Jari Lavonen
University of Helsinki,
Faculty of Educational Sciences
Involved higher education institutions
- University of Helsinki
- University Jyväskylä
- Beijing Normal University at Zhuhai
- South China Normal University
- University of Macau
- Beijing Normal University at Beijing
Generating better practices in education through international partnerships in doctoral education
The project builds upon four doctoral dissertations that are being completed in 2024 to synthesise and publicise their key findings on education development and to understand the conditions for completing doctoral degrees in international partnerships. The dissertations cover topics critical to education development in Eritrea: Enhancing student learning through learner-centred interactive pedagogy and dialogic teaching in Eritrean secondary school, the conditions of language education in Eritrea and their ramifications for overall students’ educational achievement, differentiated instruction in Eritrean elementary and middle schools; and professional development of teacher educators.
Connecting individual research projects to the broader frames such as context-relevance of education and international partnerships, and internationalization and decoloniality in higher education, this collaboration between doctoral researchers and supervisors results in synthesis of research findings to inform development of education in Eritrea and improving conditions for doctoral education in Finland-Africa partnerships.
Principal investigator
Hanna Posti-Ahokas
University of Helsinki,
Faculty of Educational Sciences
Involved higher education institutions
- University of Helsinki
- University of Jyväskylä
- University of Oulu
- Asmara College of Education
- Eötvös Loránd University (through dual affiliation of one of the doctoral researchers)
Somali teacher education development expands (STRIDE)
In previous projects our efforts have focused on long-distance collaboration to develop teacher educator competences in the University of Helsinki (UH), Somali National University (SNU), and East African University (EAU) (a new partner who joined our latest project). This project takes us a step further with expanding collaboration to Kenya and finally organizing a face-to-face workshop among the stakeholders in Nairobi, Kenya. Project partners from Finland, two universities in Somalia, and a new partner from Kenya will join a 4-day workshop that:
- Enables us a more thorough discussion and understanding of the needs and situational requirements of the Somalian cultural and educational context while building networking within the African partners.
- The project provides a forum to work on and enhance teacher educator competences in relation to tools and tasks suitable for seminar working.
- All partners will be equipped with new knowledge and skills to be shared and utilized in their home universities and the GINTL network.
Principal investigator
Kaisa Hahl
University of Helsinki,
Faculty of Educational Sciences
Involved higher education institutions
- University of Helsinki
- University of Eastern Finland
- Somali National University
- East Africa University
- Strathmore University
Encountering local theories of cross-curricular course in the making – building partnership between Finland, Taiwan, and China to engage local schooling changes for sustainability
To enhance sustainable development, learning beyond traditional schooling is essential. Cross-curricular course allows students to connect personal experiences, real world, and school-lessons in learning. The curriculum model underlining learning beyond school has been adopted to many countries. Current implementations of cross-curricular model nevertheless show discords with established schooling arrangements. The basic idea of our initiative is that education for sustainable development requires alternatives of cross-curricular course which could be found through sharing experiences and practices of exemplar cases in different regions.
Implementing the initiative will produce firstly selected cases to be analysed in Finland, China, and Taiwan (step 1), then data informing characteristics of selected cases (step 2), and methods of using data to engage local actors (step 3), followed by planning a collaborative project to work with local networks (step 4).
The collaboration to sharing practices of cross-curricular course stimulate conscious changes toward quality education and sustainable development.
Principal investigator
Hongda Lin
University of Helsinki,
Faculty of Educational Sciences
Involved higher education institutions
- University of Helsinki
- University of Eastern Finland
- Capital Normal University
- National Taiwan Normal University
