In 2023, the Council Conclusions on the contribution of education and training to strengthening common European values and democratic citizenship acknowledged, among other things, that eTwinning and the European School Education Platform contribute to the reinforcement of common European values and EU democratic citizenship. 

Focusing on initial teacher education (ITE), eTwinning for future teachers supports collaboration between ITE providers and schools, which has proven to be crucial for integrating diversity into the educational practices of ITE programs (European Commission, 2017). In addition, a dedicated study on the impact of eTwinning in ITE highlights eTwinning’s contributions to fostering a sense of citizenship at both national and European levels by promoting student teachers’ intercultural, multilingual and interpersonal competences in multinational and diverse learning environments (European Commission, 2023).

Nevertheless, certain barriers have been identified in Member States with regards to teachers’ intercultural and democratic competence development (European Commission, 2020), including a lack of:

• adequate educational policies and legal frameworks;
• policies for including obligatory intercultural education in ITE;
• professional development opportunities for teaching intercultural and democratic competences;
• methods for developing intercultural and democratic competences in ITE;
• peer-learning, networks, working groups in school, experiential learning; collaboration, the challenging assumptions and learning communities.

In this context, the current conference aims to showcase concrete practices that address these barriers and provide innovative solutions to promote citizenship education and European values in ITE. The conference will feature a range of sessions, including keynote speeches, panel discussions and workshops that will:

• present good practices from teacher educators that have successfully incorporated citizenship education and European values in their eTwinning projects;
• offer insights into enhancing intercultural and democratic competences in the ITE curriculum;
• introduce various innovative methods for promoting citizenship education and European values via eTwinning;
• emphasise the role of international cooperation in enhancing ITE via shared learning and the development of common European values.

In this 3-day conference, you will:  

• examine the role of eTwinning for future teachers in promoting citizenship education and European values in the context of ITE.

• explore innovative pedagogical approaches to integrating eTwinning into teacher education curricula to enhance future teachers’ competences.

• discuss the challenges and opportunities of integrating eTwinning projects into university courses and initial teacher training programs.

• identify good practices in eTwinning projects that have effectively promoted European values among future teachers and teacher educators.

• foster peer learning, collaboration and networking for implementing impactful eTwinning projects in ITE among teacher educators.

Join us on 30 November at 09:30 CET and click here to watch the last day of the eTwinning ITE Conference 2024 live.