Early childhood teacher education in Scandinavia is strictly governed by national goals and directions. It is therefore challenging to meet the increasingly growing demand for student mobility and exchange. The project Reflective Practice through Lived Diversity in Cultural Environments (ReLiveD) will explore pedagogical practices for how students, teachers, and researchers can collaborate within the conditions of the Scandinavian ECEC-teacher training and develop structures for how student mobility can be carried out in this context. It involves ECEC-training programs in four different universities: Södertörn University in Sweden, Nord University in Norway, The Sámi University of Applied Sciences in Norway, and Helsinki university in Finland.Furthermore, Scandinavian early childhood education and care (ECEC) is characterised by cultural diversity where minority groups, indigenous people, and majority cultures meet. There are also various environmental conditions, both within and in-between nations, places, and institutions, strongly connected to different foundational values. Thus, both values and pedagogical practices in relation to diversity will come to vary from one place to another. The ReLiveD-project will approach diversity, as a way to develop reflective practices concerning fundamental values in pedagogical work in cultural environments. ECEC-students are preparing to work within a context of diversity, where specific cultural environments and values exists, and they are expected to work in such a manner that allow all children to be seen, heard and treated with respect. The ReLiveD-project will help ECEC-students (along with our teachers and institutions) develop the means, tools, and strategies to do this. By having them experience and explore different ‘lived experiences’ in different, specific cultural environments and physical places, they can develop reflective pedagogical practices concerning diversity. The main aim of this three-year Erasmus+ project is thus to develop practices and structures for student mobility and to develop practices for how to cultivate reflective pedagogical practices concerning diversity (both on an individual level and on an institutional level). This makes ECEC-students, ECEC-teachers, and ECEC-teacher educations, the main target groups. The project will follow a three-phase methodology, organized after each academic year. There will be a constant monitoring and evaluation of the different phases to ensure that the project objectives are achieved: Phase 1: a) Needs assessment, to produce an overview the courses and course modules in the different ECEC-programs and identify how they can be adjusted in order to create opportunities and activities for teacher and student mobility; b) Create new courses and course modules with space for teacher and student mobility in-between the participating universities, online as well as physical, and piloting these courses and modules. Phase 2: Evaluating the experiences from the pilots in phase 1 and making adjustments in accordance with them. Phase 3: a) Developing institutional structures for minor praxis exchanges where students can develop their professional skills by working with ECEC-centers (Pre-schools and kindergartens) at other (participating) universities; b) Conducting evaluations and analysis where the students work closely with teachers/researchers at the different universities to develop their final thesis; c) Conducting analysis of the outcomes of the ReLiveD-project where the participating teachers and researchers consider the impacts and possible further development of the project. Teaching activities and several intellectual outputs are ongoing throughout these different phases.

Context/Background: The Enquiring Classroom (TEC) was developed in order to progress inclusive and pluralistic pedagogical approaches to addressing pressing contemporary questions in relation to democracy, values, identity, integration, religions, beliefs and (forced) migration in educational settings. Whilst a number of approaches address individual issues like citizenship or racism or religion, the TEC project aimed to create pluralistic pedagogies to support teachers in facilitating engagement with a wide range of contemporary questions, supported by a clear philosophy of education. These approaches were designed be incorporated either into existing curricula through a permeated approach or discrete thematic pedagogical interventions. Four key issues drove this in 2016: 1. Forced migration and education of children who were refugees and asylum seekers; 2. Shifts towards more securitised approaches to education that risked shutting down spaces for discussion; 3. The need for educational spaces to invite reflection and dialogue about values, religions and beliefs in the European context; 4. The demand amongst educators for facilitation skills and capacity building in particular in relation to engaging with difficult or challenging topics in schools. The choice of Greece, Ireland, and Sweden was informed by divergent responses and experiences to the refugee crisis, to the question of migration, and to the role of religion in society. Objectives: The primary objective was to build capacity with educators by creating genuinely inclusive pedagogical strategies and training in facilitation to foster a wide range of educational experiences and foreground the voice of young people. This innovative, comprehensive, and pluralistic approach to enquiry based learning aimed to support facilitation of meaningful, open, responsible, and respectful discussion and debate about complex ethical, social, political and religious issues in classrooms. Its novelty stems from creative integration of best practice in philosophy for/with children, living and lived values exercises, experiential and sensory learning, dialogical and interpretative approaches to education about religions, beliefs and ethics, and creative arts-based methodologies, including encounters with contemporary art practice. As the project progressed it became clear that experiencing the methodologies also offered important frameworks for reflection and dialogue amongst educators, activists and youth workers. This involved deepening capacity to engage with and explore questions by fostering skills of active listening, dialogue and (ethical) imagination, ensuring that any 'difficult conversations' that arose in classrooms would be supported by a firm foundation in epistemic skills and virtues associated with communities of enquiry. Key to achieving these objectives was the articulation of a conceptual framework and rationale for this approach to education. Number and profile of participating organisations: Developing these exercises in collaboration with teachers and policymakers was an essential part of this process and was built into the logic of the project design. In each country, we worked with primary and secondary schools, with NGOs and with national policymakers. We have detailed these in our reports (see TEC on-line poster presentation, information leaflet and website) as the number and diversity of those involved were significant and exceeded expectations. Description of undertaken main activities: TEC design was scaffolded in order to build towards the construction of the The Enquiring Classroom Handbook.The first stage of the project involved articulating a thorough conceptual framework, informed by and responsive to existing literature, research and pedagogical practices that could provide the parameters for the project (IO1). This was refined over the course of the project as it became clear that the pedagogical dimensions of the project and the conceptual underpinnings were reciprocally informed. The project involved the delivery of 8 training school modules in Ireland, Greece, and Sweden and 2 summer schools in Athens, Greece in which creative pedagogies were generated, tested and evaluated by key stakeholders (IO2). The project was also disseminated through workshops, conference presentations and trainings. This culminated in the presentation of the TEC Handbook (IO3) at the final dissemination event at the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin. Results and impact attained: The production of The Enquiring Classroom Handbook (IO3) was the primary substantive output of the project. This is accompanied by the Conceptual Framework (IO1) that explains the rationale and vision for the project. There has been significant international interest in the Handbook and Framework from a range of stakeholders from teachers to policymakers to youth workers, as well as academics.

"The project ""Romani studies at Universities in Europe: Development and Innovations"" (2019-2021) aims to stimulate, develop and conduct education in Romani studies at international level and to significantly promote the internationalisation of this work at main European universities teaching Romani Studies. The goal is to increase the visibility of Romani studies in higher education, in the society and internationally; as well as to consolidate activities in Romani studies at higher education institutions by means of collaboration and increasing efficiency by seeking synergies among actors. The project is based on exchange of methods, knowledges and good practices among the academic staff in the field of Romani studies during their training events. The project will produce key educational materials in teaching Romani language as well as in all key areas of Romani Studies and create a common multidisciplinary course focused on Romani studies, which will be tested during the project. Two books of texts in the field will be produced (a textbook and a thematic collection based on project training events). Another intellectual outputs will be two Massive Open On-line Courses (MOOC) focused on Romani and Romani Studies. All these intellectual outputs and mainly MOOCs will constitute innovative and sustainable tools of the project, with a very wide reach-out. Staff and student exchange will contribute to the internationalization of Romani Studies at partner universities and provide the students with access to the Europe's best expertise in Romani Studies. The outputs will be disseminated at two Multiplier Events in Prague and Stockholm and throughout the project runtime e.g. in university teaching.The project will create sustainable and innovative forms of cooperation between main European academic institutions teaching Romani Studies. This project will be carried out by a consortium comprising Södertörn University (Stockholm), Charles University (Prague), University of Helsinki (Finland) and Central European University (Budapest)."

The STEP project aims to enhance the scientific capacity and innovation of the consortium partners, with a principal focus on the Instituto Politécnico de Bragança (IPB, Portugal), and to raise its research profile in the field of Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) throughout the cross-fertilisation with the Social Sciences and Humanities, in particular by introducing in the STEM domain the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) principles, that have considerable potential in terms of solving the global challenges for wellbeing and the quality of life. The 4 internationally research-intensive leading partners in the project will accompany and guide IPB. Resources and competencies will be shared and advanced across strategic plans for improving and empowering the IPBs capacity-building focus areas. The activities targeting the researchers and administrative and managerial staff will strengthen the scientific excellence, innovation capacity (non-academia/academia collaboration), and skills for research communication and societal acceptance (social sciences and humanities, SSH involvement, in the STEM area). Activities for researchers will include mobility rounds, master classes, training, industry and SSH mentoring, attendance at conferences and workshops. This project will lead to an increased number of high-impact articles, research grants, EU projects, service contracts to the international and non-academic sectors (respectful of the EDI principles), new research topics and wide-scale impact. The Twinning Programme will gradually shift focus from research to innovation-driven implementation of the promising research outcomes. Altogether, the EU-funded STEP project will help the IPB become a regional actor for EDI/STEM innovation studies.

CONTEXTThe 2030 Agenda states 17 sustainable development goals which are integrated, indivisible and balance the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development (UN, 2015). Such integration of the goals and the three dimensions requires a systemic approach (Stafford-Smith et al., 2017). Sustainability issues show the characteristics of complex systems, as they are part of the continuously changing, self-organising, interdependent and adaptive systems in our world. Essential for a complex system is that the response of a combination of factors cannot be inferred from the response of each individual factor (van Mil et al., 2014).The Cosy project focuses its intervention on providing undergraduate students with opportunities to learn about complex systems, as well as providing short courses to lifelong learners active in agencies engaged in the 2030 Agenda. This will, in turn, benefit the organizations employing these students, and hopefully, improve the contributions to the 2030 Agenda and the sustainable development goals.OBJECTIVESThe objectives of Cosy proposal are:-Strengthen the collaboration among academic institutions, starting from the project partners and provide them with a clearer picture of the range of opportunities between the universal and the particular, regardless if the differences lie in academic subjects and settings or in national and local cultural situations. -Achieve an in-depth investigation of current practices of complex systems thinking in the partner countries and institutions within their respective academic subjects, and identify similarities and differences that might be related to the national and local contexts. -Provide academic lecturers and managerial staff with knowledge, skills and tools for adapting their educational activities with a specific focus on sustainable development by integrating complex systemic thinking (in curricula, courses, lectures, exercises and seminars, and in modes of examination)-Provide undergraduate students with competences on complex systems thinking as a basis for sustainability action and make them employable in organizations interested to meet the sustainable development goals.RESULTS and OUTPUTSThe Cosy project expects to reach the following results:-It will enhance undergraduate students opportunities to master complex systems thinking, and, thus, improve their employability in occupations that engage in sustainability issues. -provide university lecturers and decision-makers improved abilities to support students learning on complex systems thinking-promote and enhances collaborative approaches between lecturers from different disciplines and enhanced dialogue in the education process that are fundamental for the improvement of education of complex systems thinking.-improve academic teaching staff in conducting lectures, seminars, using digital learning support and provide the students with learning tasks for applying complex systems thinking on real-life sustainability challenges. -provide lecturers with new approaches for setting up educational goals that cover learning on complex systems as regards knowledge, skills and values and redefine assessment criteria to cover holistic approaches. For the purpose the Cosy project will produce 3 intellectual Outputs:-An Inventory on complex systems implementation in academic training (IO1) that will raise awareness academic decision-makers and lecturers on the importance of planning and implementing complex systems teaching through an interdisciplinary approach and motivate them to implement degrees, curricula and courses on the matter to improve the employability of undergraduate students. The inventory will provide motivation and guidance for designing new courses specialized on complex systems thinking as well as for the integration of systems thinking through interdisciplinary approaches in existing courses. The inventory will provide ideas on the formulation of curricula and syllabus, as well as templates for lectures, seminars and student tasks, and suggest readings and online resources.-A Toolkit for implementing an interdisciplinary approach to sustainable development teaching (IO2) providing Higher education lecturers with methods and operative teaching sources to be used in their lessons to teach Sustainable Development related issues according to interdisciplinary approaches. The Intellectual Output contents consist of a set of media-based teaching tools focused on Sustainable Development issues addressed to a multidisciplinary approach involving both scientific and humanistic courses. -A Joint Curriculum in Sustainable Development (IO3) engaging Higher education decision-makers, experts and lecturers in defining a shared complex systems and system thinking based interdisciplinary learning path and related curriculum in Sustainable Development and build on them to reach agreements on Double and Joint Degrees.