Dr. Eva Janebová and Jana Ter-Akopow Čemusová visited the University of Minnesota in the middle of July and arranged meetings about several projects which are going on.
One of the two most important breakthroughs was in the pilot project of Professional Learning Community: Together towards excellence in teaching between the University of Minnesota and Palacký University. As you may already know from the previous article, the project brings opportunities to exchange expertise and teaching experience cross-universities among so-called partners, the academics from the same or similar field.
Professional Learning Community (hereafter referred to as PLC) works with transdisciplinary groups of diverse stakeholders (academics, non-academics, students) in a collaborative and intercultural approach, that allows continuous professional development of international teaching skills. Providing the PLC with action research methodology and instruments that interconnect education, research, and innovation, academics can work collaboratively on their educational interventions, in recurring cycles of collective inquiry and action research, and reflect on their trajectory to innovation.
Documenting the experiences and learnings of the participants in the pilot PLC, they are going to disseminate these through webinars, publications, extensive partner networks, multiplier events and other activities so that other higher education institutions (hereafter referred to as HEIs) may use the PLC. They may also involve university decision makers to create sustainable ways of capacity building of HEIs in internationalization of curriculum and developing and implementing strategies that reward and incentivize excellence in teaching through internationalization of curriculum.
Eva and Jana met with their American colleagues who are together a leading team o PLC – dr. Christopher Johnstone and dr. Gayle Woodruff. They are working on the structure of the PLC meetings, setting goals and objectives for each session. All participants will receive information and timeline of the meetings in the middle of September. If you are interested in joining the PLC, please contact IEI: Jana Ter-Akopow Čemusová, jana.cemusova@upol.cz.
Besides PLC, during the UMN visit, Jana and Eva met other academics and discussed possible future collaborations. Such a meeting was with Yulia Kartoshkina, who is working in Global Programs & Strategy Alliance. “We would like to design an on-line course on neuroscience, well-being in intercultural education context,” Jana said.
Another visit was at the School of Nursing. The aim was to meet with the colleagues who are involved in the PLC. The UP counterpart in the PLC is doc. Petra Mandysová, the leader in the Centre for International Studies and Internationalization at the Faculty of Health Sciences. The cooperation between the faculty and Minnesota nursery school looks very promising.
The School of Nursing; Source: Jana Ter-Akopow Čemusová
Another promising cooperation has started with Kelly Meyer, who works as a School Partnerships Coordinator in College of Education & Human Development (CEHD). She is involved in the PLC and with her PLC partner, dr. Provázková Stolinská from the Faculty of Education UP, they discussed possibilities of further cooperation when Kelly visited UP this June.
The second important breakthrough happened in cooperation with Czech and Slovak Sokol Minnesota. Eva and Jana met the president of Sokol, Dave Stepan, who visited the Czech Republic this spring, and Patricia Slaber, who is a coordinator for Czech language courses. Eva sees those meetings very fruitful and promising for deepening the cooperation, which started in autumn 2021 during her visit to the University of Minnesota with Vít Procházka, the Vice-Rector for Communication and Staff-Student Relationship.
Sokolovna in Minnesota; Source: Jana Ter-Akopow Čemusová
The cooperation with Czech and Slovak Sokol got further in the Czech language course. Lenka Nosková, a Ph.D. candidate at UP, and a group of volunteer students from the Faculty of Education UP lead Czech conversations for children and teenagers at Sokol. Dave and Patricia are interested in leading an online Czech course for adults in autumn 2022. In the IEI team, there is a profound lecturer Jana Odevzdaná, who had a lot of experience teaching Czech to foreigners. Jana and Lenka are now planning the curriculum of the course.
The great ending of Jana and Eva’s visit of Minnesota was meeting with Marit Lee Kucera, Honorary Consul of the Czech Republic for Minnesota, Iowa, North Dakota, and South Dakota. Ms. Kucera expressed her persisting interest in the cooperation with Palacký University.
The IEI team is very excited about cooperation and projects leading towards being a more internationally and interculturally open university. With all the meetings, Jana appreciated that even though it was mid-summer, all the people were willing to have meetings and work on the projects. “I feel their genuine interest, it was very encouraging.”