Africa
GINTL Research Seminar 2.0 – Emerging research in the global education landscape
Africa, China, India, GlobalRegistration required
Main topic: Conferences and workshops
Are you a master’s degree student with an ongoing or finished master’s thesis work? Is your thesis topic related to international education development, educational partnerships, or internationalisation? If yes, you are most welcome to present your research at the “GINTL Research Seminar 2.0 – Emerging research in global education landscape!”
Seminar on participative action research: A practical and collaborative approach to addressing discourses in education
Africa, China, India, GlobalRegistration required
Main topic: Event series
GINTL India is organising a seminar on participative action research on 30 January 2024. The seminar is relevant for researchers, educators, and others who are interested in understanding the theoretical principles of the research method and gaining a hands-on experience on the same. Join us to hear the experts share their experiences of using the methodology in both Global North and Global South context. They will also be facilitating a workshop on conducting participative action research.
Education for Emergencies (E4E) – Climate change pedagogy (CCP)
Pedagogical Leadership Study and Training for ECD Managers in the Rural Areas of South Africa
The purpose of the research project is to develop an international hybrid training for leadership in early childhood education in international collaboration with universities and organizations from different countries (University of Helsinki and University of Jyväskylä from Finland, ADA University from Azerbaijan, University of South Africa and University of Pretoria from South Africa and German Youth Institute from Germany). The objective of the project is to provide training and assistance to ECD managers involved in Early Childhood Development (ECD) in South Africa. The training program is designed and based on the research conducted during the initial phase of the project. With the research, we aim to provide understanding about professional development of ECD managers through training. Knowledge will be shared with scientific articles and utilized with planning the future training.
Remembering ancestral knowledges and plants: Intergenerational participatory research and community practice for food literacy and justice
The main objective is to implement intergenerational action learning about food literacy, justice and sovereignty with organisations embedded in local communities and contribute to building the agroecology and food justice movement. A range of integrated and interlinked activities support this aim, including analysis of food policy and enabling dialogue to support participation with university collaboration in existing African and Finnish food justice forums, networks, campaigns and policy processes. The plan is to create intergenerational food literacy curriculum in collaboration with community groups and university partners that can contribute to food justice through improved understanding and access to healthy whole foods. Initial community engagement was undertaken in two sites in South Africa in 2022. The main activities in 2023, include article writing, documentation, communication, participation in conferences and organizing a hybrid webinar series. The webinars series Telling our stories brings together academics, civil society organisations and activists and enables different actors, working with food across Sub-Saharan Arica and beyond, to form important connection. Four events between September and November 2023 promote harnessing creative contextual participation and situated action by providing opportunities to hear from activists, community groups, non-government organisations and universities about their work and collaborations. The first two events, Community responses to food crisis and food politics and Regenerating local food systems through school, community and higher education partnerships, have been well received with participants from many countries and lively discussion. Recordings of webinars are being used in contexts without easy access to electricity and internet.
Youth mobility from Finland and Portugal to the Global South: Policies, practices, and perceived impacts on global citizenship dispositions and on the host contexts
This study analyses the impact of temporary youth mobilities to the Global South countries in participants’ own global citizenship dispositions on the local host context. It analyses policies, practices and perceptions of participants in two countries with different historical and political paths, and cultural and societal characteristics–Portugal and Finland. In addition, the study will also analyse the perceptions of the hosts of such mobilities and their local impacts. Overall, the study aims to: a) Identify and analyse the existing policies and practices of youth temporary mobilities to the Global South countries in Portugal and in Finland and contextualise these within the larger international mobility recommendations and guidelines from, for example, European Union and UNESCO; b) understand the impacts of these mobilities in the individuals’ global citizenship dispositions and in the host contexts c) produce recommendations to improve these mobilities' policies and practices, granting equity in benefits for mobile youngsters and host contexts.
Partership and cooperation with Johannesburg University for learning and teaching resulting in Elias Pekkola nominated associate professorship
As part of the GINTL activities, the University of Tampere has established academic relations with the University of Johannesburg. This partnership has resulted in two research applications (one for an EU project and one for the Academy of Finland). In addition to research collaboration, GINTL funding (as a means of work time allocation) has been used to establish teaching collaboration. This collaboration is intended to be two-directional. First, the University of Tampere will support the development of higher education programs at the Ali Mazrui Centre for Higher Education Studies at the University of Johannesburg. Meanwhile, two teachers from the institute have been participating in the development of the content of the study module "Systems Transition 2" (MARIH07) offered by Tampere University as part of its international curriculum. Eventually, two teachers will travel to Tampere to teach on the transition of African higher education systems. Tampere University has been a partner in the Master in Research and Innovation in Higher Education (MARIHE), an Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degree, for several years. The master's degree program's teaching has also been used as course content for Ph.D. studies for (African) Ph.D. candidates studying in Tampere. As a concrete illustration of institutional collaboration, Elias Pekkola has been appointed as a "research associate" at the Ali Mazrui Centre for Higher Education Studies at the University of Johannesburg.
Developing an network between Finland and Portuguese-speaking African countries
As part of GINTL activities, TAU has begun a pioneering project of building a network and partnerships between Finland and Portuguese-speaking African countries (PALOP). The final goal of this new network and research project is to provide new contributions to the development of learning, teaching and curricula. This initiative aims at increasing Finnish research collaboration in Africa. Also known as the Lusophone Africa, the PALOP are less represented in international networks, despite official agreements with the European Union. They are also rarely included in Finnish African cooperation activities. GINTL funding (as means of worktime allocation) has been used to network building and management. This included reviews of past and current collaborative initiatives between Finnish and PALOP Universities, based on UniPID InfoBank, and research about these countries based on Elizabeth Eta’s study (GINTL Africa coordination). Partners identification included several meetings and e-mail exchanges with Finnish Counsellors of Education in Angola, South Africa and Mozambique. The contacts established by TAU go behind the PALOP area, as can be seen in the partnerships for two research applications (DeCoEd and 2EdCo). The PALOP network includes institutions and experts from Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau and Mozambique. Contacts in São Tomé and Príncipe and Equatorial Guinea are pending because they are yet to be considered a priority in European and Finnish cooperation activities.
Building a research-action project between Tampere University, Higher Education Institute of Education Sciences of Huíla (Angola), University Eduardo Mondlane (Mozambique) and University Eduardo Mondlane (Mozambique) on school dropout
This pioneering project was born last year together with the PALOP network. The idea was to continue an international research project awarded by the Global Education Network Europe (GENE), European Research Association, where Vera Centeno was leading a cross-curriculum analysis of grades 7-9 of Finnish textbooks, focusing on how textbooks messages convey issues of sustainability (GENE Project). But this idea changed with the consolidation of the consortium this year. The African partners raised school dropout as a major concern. In 2023, we have been working on finding common interests and building a shared research approach and objectives among the consortium partners. Looking for synergies between TAU-led GINTL projects, the new research focus will be on malnutrition and special needs as cause for school dropout. Ongoing background research about the situation in Angola and Mozambique is expected to be achieved this year. This will be the basis for a TAU-led consortium action-research project with the three PALOP partners. We anticipate funding application(s) and publications. GINTL funding (as a means of work time allocation) has been used to establish this collaboration, including consortium building and management, research project leadership and coordination, external funding preparation.
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Together, we can spark cycles of learning for better education.
