Professionalisation through Internationalisation in Teacher Education. The International Project (IPC) as an Example for "Internationalization@home"

Kurzfassung/Abstract

Professionalisation is a key factor in teacher education and can add towards educating quality teachers. Internationalisation can foster this process, especially in today’s increasingly diversified teaching environment. Being confronted with other education systems, ideas on pedagogy, educational values and traditions can provoke (future) teachers to reflect on their own approaches and beliefs and provide them with a wide range of inspirations on how to handle new and unexpected changes in their future classrooms. Taking Goodwin’s five knowledge domains – personal, contextual, pedagogical, sociological and social knowledge – plus an additional sixth domain – innovative knowledge – as a theoretical framework, this paper analyses how the internationalisation of teacher education can support the process of professionalisation. This theoretical analysis is exemplified by using an "Internationalization@home" project coordinated by Prof. Dr. Klaudia Schultheis at the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt as a case study. It highlights how internationalisation can be integrated into teacher education programs and shows that such an international project can lead to increased knowledge in the six knowledge domains.