On 28th September, the University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice said goodbye to the 47 educationalists, teachers and student teachers who for nine days were participating in TEFE Intensive Study Programme. The Teachers of English for Future Europe (TEFE) is an EU Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership project of which the successful project application was led by staff from the Institute of English Studies, Faculty of Arts, University of South Bohemia. In 2020, the project was awarded a grant of 285,199 EUR.
The aim of the TEFE Intensive Study Programme was three-pronged in
- Looking to establish long-term relationships across the partner universities to enable the creation of high-quality English language teaching practice placements.
- Enable student teachers to experience internationalisation at its most intense and enable educators to draw up a blueprint of how to replicate this in EU partner universities.
- Continuing to equip students with the competences, skills, attitudes and values needed for them to develop a professional teacher identity and the ability to work anywhere in the EU.
The work of the last 9 days has informed the internationalisation and employability frameworks that the TEFE partners are developing jointly, and which will be one of the key legacies of the programme.
It would have been impossible to undertake a project of this scope and complexity without the support and involvement of a number of local teaching institutions who provided the opportunities for TEFE participants to observe live teaching in the classroom.
We wish to thank
Gymnázium Česká:
Mgr. Věra Regulová
Mgr. Pavla Figurová
Mgr. Žaneta Jirsová
Simona Koubová (Student Teacher)
Biskupské gymnázium J. N Neumanna:
Mgr. Markéta Djoa Musková
Mgr. Marko Jandrić
Mgr. Magdalena Vlčková
Monika Pieglová (Student Teacher)
Aneta Šmídová (Student Teacher)
Konzervatoř České Budějovice:
PhDr. Petr Dvořák, Ph.D.
Monika Benáková (Student Teacher)
VOŠ, SPŠ automobilní a technická České Budějovice:
Mgr. Michaela Brtnová
Mgr. Petra Bydžovská
Mgr. Gabriela Marková
Mgr. Dita Westra
Dr Helena Lohrová, the main project organiser of the University of South Bohemia observed, “this was the first of three planned Intensive Study Programmes. We have learned so much and it will be a model and a source of experience for future study programmes within TEFE. Feedback has proved invaluable for all of the TEFE team members, reinforcing our original vision of teachers of English for a future Europe”.
Dr Alena Prošková – one of the University of South Bohemia TEFE project leaders – added, “It was inspiring to see the transformation of the project as an initial idea on paper to a living reality in the classroom. The students were wonderful and the ways in which they absorbed the learning from their experiences was impressive”.
Perhaps we should allow a few of the students to have their say regarding their TEFE experience here in České Budějovice. And there many more reviews which we will place on the TEFE website.
“Being part of the TEFE project has been an enriching experience for my future career as an English teacher because it has showed me the importance of internationalisation within the educational dimension. Moreover, it has been a marvellous affair to get to meet a big group of people from different EU countries and share our experiences and thoughts about education. Finally, I reckon that it is a great opportunity for an EU education student and I feel so lucky to have been part of this event.” Uxue Muro Public University of Navarre, Spain.
“We are only strong when we are united. The idea of TEFE is to bring us all together and opens up a discussion about Future Europe. Teachers shape young minds of future generations and teachers of English in particular should support internationalisation as the main factor of success on both personal and global level.”
Kacper Palkowski Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland.
“I believe we as future teachers make a difference in our society. In this regard TEFE has let us experience the diversity of Europe and enriched our perspective on the variety of English teaching across the continent. We have gained a new perspective on our own techniques and views. Furthermore, we have also shared the unique aspects of our educational systems, needs and the intricacies of teaching English. TEFE has allowed us to experience the European spirit. We will all bring a part of TEFE back with us to our universities and classrooms”.
Margareta Caroline Wagener, University of Passau, Germany.
Finally, the Intensive Study Programme in České Budějovice must not be viewed as an end in itself but rather the beginning of year 2 of the TEFE project. The current students as part of the TEFE Ambassadors network have in their trans-national groups planned a short project which they will deliver over the next 3 months. They will use the www.tefe.online COIL platform, a tool developed by the project, to facilitate communication and ongoing collaboration on the web. We look forward to finding out what our TEFE pioneers create.
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