The Department of English Studies, Faculty of Arts, University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice is set to welcome delegates from four other European universities to an intensive study programme as part of the Teachers of English for Future Europe. (TEFE) initiative. The programme will run from the 19th to the 28th September and will see 45 delegates composed of student teachers, teacher trainers and educators who come together to explore how both the Czech Republic is working towards both mobility and employability of future teachers of English through the internalisation of teaching practice.
The programme is funded via the European Union Erasmus + Strategic Partnership Programme and the successful project application (€285,199) was led by staff from the Faculty of Arts, South Bohemia. Mgr. Helena Lohrová, Ph.D. one of the project leaders commented, “This is a really exciting and proud moment for the university to be involved in such an auspicious project. Colleagues from Germany, Poland, Slovakia, Spain will join us in person, and the UK will contribute virtually to explore how the internationalisation of teaching practice can impact on both teacher mobility and employability for new teachers of English. It has been a challenging first year due to Covid and tested our technical skills to the limit as all work was carried out remotely online in a virtual setting. Everyone has worked really hard to make this study programme happen. All delegates are duel vaccinated and undertaking a strict testing regime, meeting all EU and Czech protocols to ensure the safety of all who are involved in the programme. Finally, building on our new technology skills we have made the decision to deliver a parallel virtual conference to widen the participation of other teachers and students”.
The welcome address on Monday 20/09 will be presented by Vice-rector for International Relations, doc. PaedDr. Radka Závodská, Ph.D., and doc. PhDr. Ondřej Pešek, Ph.D., Dean of the School of Arts. This will be followed by a keynote speech delivered by Ing. Veronika Schmidtová of the Ministry of Education and Sports of the Czech Republic on the internationalisation of Czech higher education. In the afternoon, the participants will also be welcomed by the Deputy Mayor, Ing. Viktor VOJTKO, Ph.D., during their visit to the Town Hall.
On Friday 24/09 another guest speaker, doc. Natalia Orlova, CSc., will address the ISP01 event regarding the theme of developing English teachers’ competences in an international context, giving a talk on “The framework of integrating EPOSTL into student-teacher education”.
As part of the Intensive Study Programme, delegates will attend a mix of lectures and workshops focusing on internationalisation, mobility and employability. All partners will be discussing how these key strategies are enacted in their home universities and in how these can be replicated in the partner institutions.
In addition, delegates will work to develop and use the web-based collaborative platform (COIL) which they will use to continue working with their peer groups and contributing to the overall direction of the project. This platform will also facilitate interaction and joint working with virtual participants.
A key input will be to provide participants with a set of self-evaluation and analytical tools to help students understand and implement the approaches needed to develop their own professional skills as teachers.
Above all, delegates will have the unique opportunity to attend English classes at partner schools in České Budějovice. There they will observe Czech teachers in action and reflect on this in a series of planned workshops.
The participants will also experience the beauty of the region by visiting the state castle in Český Krumlov and taste the famous České Budějovice beer.
The experience gained will certainly be valued not only in the preparation of the project outputs, but especially in the future professional life of the ISP01 student participants.
