“Fostering citizenship education through eTwinning for future teachers” – European conference for intital teacher education 2024 in Budapest
On 28 – 30 November 2024, teacher educators from all over Europe gathered in Budapest for the European Conference for the implementation of eTwinning in initial teacher education. Nominated for special commitment and innovative projects, Madeleine Flötotto represented Germany as part of the 3-person national delegation and presented her work.
In eTwinning networking sessions, the SummerSchool-Project „The National within the International: Exploring what it means to be a teacher in Europe” in cooperation with HOWEST University Belgium, conducted as part of FAU Teacher Education International, attracted wide international interest. The hybrid format with virtual and physical exchange within the European educational space regarding questions of citizenship education within teacher education, merging the perspectives of all three phases of teacher education in joint teacher workshops created and conducted by student teachers in the project, was deemed exceptionally innovative – there were already requests for a repetition and extension of the project with new partners from France and Ukraine.
As newcomer-expert, Madeleine Flötotto was asked to speak in the panel discussion on “Fostering citizenship education through eTwinning for future teachers”. Her contribution highlighted the great potential of the eTwinning platform as experimental safe space for future teachers to explore value education and civil courage in an international context and within a professional network of teachers. The necessity of integrating eTwinning for Future Teachers within educational studies, interdisciplinarily across all school types, as it is currently practiced at FAU, was pinpointed by the Italian delegation as of the most crucial objectives for future development in eTwinning for Future Teachers all across Europe.
On 22-24 May 2025 there will be an eTwinning conference in Nürnberg with a key note by Prof. Rakhkochkine and a workshop by Madeleine Flötotto with student teachers from FAU. More information will follow.