Weekly Roundup
Better leadership for teacher careers: a new report for policymakers
The new report “Education and Training 2020 Working Group on Schools”, shows the ways of improving teacher development and careers through different forms of leadership. The ET2020 Working Group on Schools explore how to attract teachers to the profession and then how they can evolve during their career. The report shows that the progress can be made by taking into account the need of the individual through practical approaches (e.g.evaluation) and the conditions (e.g. external providers of professional development). It also acknowledges that different forms of leadership are influential in teacher’s career, such as experts who support continued development in teaching and those that structure and support the different roles, opportunities and progression of teachers in school.
Find the full report here.
EPIC publishes policy memo on leave arrangements for non-traditional families
The right to maternity, paternity and parental leave is well established in many European Union Member States, but it’s still just oriented to traditional, nuclear families. That’s why the Europen Platform for Investing in Children (EPIC) has published a memo focusing on parental leave for adoptive families, same-sex parents and “reconstituted” families (with step-parents or step-child). Results of this memo show that almost all Member States make provision for adoptive families, but for same-sex and reconstituted families access to parental leave is more difficult. Only a minority of Member States allows a partner of a legal parent to take parental leave and for same-sex couples, leave depends almost entirely on their legal rights to become parents.
Find more here.
Leadership and citizen skills played out in a game
During the EAEA Grundtvig Award 2019, the first-ever Ukrainian multiplayer co-op strategy board game “World of Communities” was introduced. The game closely models real-life and decision-making, conflict-resolution and community development. It is aimed to improve three types of skills: life skills (e.g. leadership), learning skills (e.g.critical thinking) and civic skills (e.g. financial literacy). The main purposes are to create an educational tool for developing skills and to develop a national network of facilitators who use games and gamification in the field of community development and adult education. Nataliia Harasivka, the project manager, explained in an interview for EAEA, that between 10 to 15 game engagements can lead to successful results.
Read the whole interview here.
It’s all about the skills in Norway!
The latest Norwegian employer skills survey showed that companies with a high skills profile engage fewer persons with a low attachment to the labour market than companies demanding low-skilled workers. Precisely, it showed that during the last year among Norwegian companies 15 % recruited persons with a long absence, 19% have recruited persons without accomplished upper secondary education, 25% have recruited persons with low Norwegian skills and 25% have recruited persons over 50 age years old. Sectors that have recruited many persons with little formal education or with a long absence from working are transport and storage, accommodation and food service and retail and primary sectors.
See more here.
Swedish students explain why they want to become teachers
European Journal of Teacher Education published a study of students from three Swedish teacher education programmes about student perceptions of the teaching profession early in their education and their motives for teachers career. Using a qualitative method on 259 students, the study investigated the idea of multiple motives for career choice and the link to student teachers’ evolving pedagogical identity. The results of this study indicate the value of organising teacher education programmes drawing on multiple motives, which is expected to contribute positively to the completion of teacher education and teacher retention in the future profession.
Read the whole publication here.
Walter Dickie Leadership Bursary now open for applications
Walter Dickie Leadership Bursary aims to help leaders in the third sector to develop their entrepreneurial leadership skills. Each year the Bursary awards the best applicant with a £2,500 to support an individual in Wales to become a better entrepreneurial leader. This could be someone who works in a social enterprise with an idea of how to develop their trading activity or a leader in the third sector who wants to generate income from trading for the first time. The applicants are encouraged to come up with interesting ideas to support their own development as an entrepreneurial leader. The money could be, for instance, used for a particular course of study, funding a visit overseas or basically anything that the beneficiary feels will move them and their organisation forward. The application deadline is 18 October.
Learn more here.
The EESC Civil Society Prize is looking for gender equality activists
The European Economic and Social Committee is rewarding excellence in civil society initiatives. This year’s topic is “More women in Europe’s society and economy”. If you are involved in an innovative initiative which aims to raise awareness of gender equality in the EU, then you are eligible to apply to this year’s Civil Society Prize. It is open to civil society organisations which are officially registered within the European Union and acting at local, national, regional or European level. One winner will receive 14,000 Euros and four more winners will get 9,000 Euros each. The deadline for submitting applications is 6 September.
Apply for the Prize here.
Games in School 2019 – Call for Teachers
European Schoolnet is looking for up to 7 teachers who took part in one of the previous versions of the Games in Schools course (2014, 2015 or 2016 course) for its Games in Schools 2019 Editorial Board. The new, updated version of Games in School (GiS) MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) will explore the opportunities and challenges of game-based learning in schools. Participants will develop a lesson plan around Games in Schools as part of the course and they will be able to nominate their lesson plans for publication in the new version of the Games in Schools Handbook. Criteria for application: proficient knowledge in English, participation in one of the previous edition of GiS MOOC, experience in working with games in pedagogical context and previous experience in the curation of materials/lesson plans. The deadline for submitting an application is 25 August.
Find more here.
Prepared by Iva Badanjak
