Renewed partnership in Germany expands opportunities for IU School of Education students and faculty

Associate Professor Tina O’Neal, left, of the School of Education at IUPUI, engages UHH colleagues in exploring and discussing culturally responsive pedagogy in special education. The discussion was based on her grant project, “Improving Teacher Success in Urban Settings: Integrating Culturally Responsive Pedagogy and Trauma-Informed Education in Teacher Prep Programs.” Professor Faridah Pawan is also pictured to the right.

The IU School of Education has extended a long-standing relationship with the Universität Hamburg (UHH) to develop a long-term engagement plan in research, teaching and service at the level of student, staff and faculty exchanges, as well as collaborative teaching and research.

Indiana University and the Universität Hamburg (UHH) have been engaged in exchanges since 1977. Recently, the two universities renewed their engagement and signed a partnership agreement for the period covering November 1, 2020, to October 31, 2025. This partnership has developed a long-term engagement plan in research, teaching and service at the level of student, staff and faculty exchanges, as well as collaborative teaching and research.

With this partnership, new opportunities are beginning to take root. Earlier this year, six UHH preservice teachers traveled to Bloomington for four-week placements in local elementary and secondary schools with the goal of broadening their understanding of teaching and learning through an international lens. The German teacher candidates lived in local homestays, engaged in School of Education events and activities and participated in a field trip to Indianapolis where they visited The PATH School and the Indiana Statehouse. Their experiences were organized by Global Gateway for Teachers, led by Director Laura Stachowski, who in turn sent student Clara Valentine, the first School of Education student to visit Hamburg as part of Global Gateway, for an eight-week immersion experience in both school and community contexts.

This partnership has already demonstrated the tremendous potential of authentic, school-based ‘immersion’ experiences to develop participants’ intercultural skillset and expanded worldview.

Laura Stachowski

“This partnership has already demonstrated the tremendous potential of authentic, school-based ‘immersion’ experiences to develop participants’ intercultural skillset and expanded worldview,” said Stachowski. “Not only the German preservice teachers and Clara benefitted from their school placements in Bloomington and Hamburg, respectively, but also the pupils in their elementary and secondary classrooms who had the opportunity to learn from their visitors about other cultures, languages and ways of living, examining the differences while discovering how many commonalities we all share.”

Upon invitation from UHH, School of Education Dean Stacy Morrone and Stachowski undertook a return visit and presented at UHH’s Internationalization of Teacher Education Conference in March. 

“Participating in the conference provided an opportunity for an exciting exchange of research and pedagogical practices from colleagues around the world,” said Dean Morrone. “Being able to visit Brecht Schule Hamburg on Clara’s first day also made clear the powerful learning experiences that are possible through the Global Gateway for Teachers program.”

In early June, three School of Education faculty members were at the Faculty of Education at UHH. Maurice Shirley, Tina O’Neal and Marcus Croom engaged in presentations and dialogues with UHH’s colleagues on topics of diversity, equity and inclusion. Shirley focused on equity for critical student populations in higher education while O’Neal and Croom, respectively, focused on culturally responsive pedagogy, trauma-informed and racial literacies in teacher education. Croom also gave a lecture based on his book entitled, “Real Talk in Higher Education, Too? How to discuss race, racism, and politics in the 21st century American Schools.”

“This renewed university partnership between IU and UHH has become a new pathway for my work to engage PK-12 and higher education issues internationally. My experiences in Germany have begun to suggest that my contributions here in the U.S. would also add value there, even after considering the important contextual differences between the U.S. and Germany,” Croom said. “As I said in my book and in my UHH lecture, human beings living in racialized societies and learning in racialized schooling deserve real talk about this ongoing, interinfluencing, consequential reality. Do we expect primary and secondary education, whether in America or Germany, to rise to this challenge without higher education? I hope not. My conclusion is that public issues and curricular issues should be addressed with veracity in higher education as well as PK-12, to the benefit of both and for the advancement of all at this point in racialized human history.”

The professors were part of the “Meeting of the Minds” series organized jointly by Faridah Pawan, Professor and Faculty Fellow in Global and International Engagement, and Myriam Hummel, Head of the International Office at UHH’s Faculty of Education.

 "Both of our institutions see internationalization as an important part of preparing teachers to develop intercultural competence as part of their readiness to teach in diverse classrooms,” said Pawan. “It’s anticipated that there will be more engagements in the near future, given the shared interests and collaborative possibilities emerging from the visits.”