The EDITE Project: Developing a European Doctorate in Teacher Education
Author(s):
Ana Paula Curado (presenting / submitting)
Conference:
ECER 2014
Network:
10. Teacher Education Research
Format:
Paper

Session Information

10 SES 10 A, Beyond Teacher Education: Doctorates and Enrichment

Paper Session

Time:
2014-09-04
15:30-17:00
Room:
B217 Sala de Aulas
Chair:
Shosh Leshem

Contribution

This paper presents the methodology and results of EDITE, a Erasmus funded project (2012-2014) whose core objective was the development and implementation of a European Doctorate in Teacher Education. Five Universities worked out a joint curriculum: University of Innsbruck, Austria (coordinator); Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary; University of Lower Silesia, Wrocław, Poland; University of Lisbon, Portugal; and University of Bucharest, Romania. The European Network on Teacher Education Policies (ENTEP) acted as an advisory board representing the broader academic and policy perspectives of 27 countries.

Consultation processes – which formed part of the internal quality monitoring and exploitation strategy of the Project – ensured openness towards key actors of schools and policy, doctoral students, and the national and international scientific community.

Five major achievements can be reported:

1) The EDiTE Curriculum Framework outlines the aims and structure of the doctoral curriculum, its values and general principles, mobility aspects, the target group and related qualification profile, competences, module specifications, the research orientation of the programme and quality assurance procedures.

2) The Joint Seminars on the “State of the art of research in teacher education” and "Teacher education policies in Europe" supported the implementation of the EDiTE programme and reflected a high level of interest on the part of participants.

3) A national and European consultation process with stakeholders from the field of teacher education was implemented to inform the joint curriculum development and identify important exploitation aspects. It was concluded that, while overall trust is placed in the EDiTE consortium for its expertise to implement the curriculum, challenges are mainly seen as resulting from multiculturalism and differences in teacher education systems.

4) The EDiTE Knowledge Portal was developed as resource basis for future students and researchers.

5) The development of a piloting procedure (EDITE Winter and Summer doctoral schools) for pre-testing curriculum components and mobility strategies.

The progress of the project and curriculum development process is documented on the EDiTE website (www.edite.eu).

 This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This document reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

 

Method

The project implementation, from October 2012 to September 2014 followed three interrelated phases: i) mapping the field of teacher education; 2) designing a doctoral curriculum; 3) agreement and recognition of the curriculum structures.This process formed the basis for the future joint doctoral programme. The partners’ academic expertise covered all areas of teacher education research. The European Network on Teacher Education Policies (ENTEP) was crucial in the foundation of this project, since it aimed at building a European dimension in teacher education doctoral programmes. Decision-making processes were established in order to guarantee achievement of the planned key milestones and deliverables, while simultaneously allowing for the indispensable degree of academic freedom. A well defined division of roles and responsibilities between consortium members was established to assure good cooperation. The project was based on each partner’s intrinsic activities and at the same time, through consultation processes, open towards a network of teacher education academics and professionals. The consultations created opportunities for the identification of stakeholder views, thus grounding their commitment towards the project and program aims.

Expected Outcomes

The major achievement of the EDITE project is the development of a joint doctoral curriculum in teacher education. The EDiTE Curriculum Framework & Module Content was designed on the basis of a substantial technical consistency analysis, and including the aims and goals of the doctoral curriculum, its values and general principles, a shared concept of teaching and teacher education (Cochran Smith, 2005, 2008; Darling-Hammond, 2005; Schulman, 2004), "European teacher" (Schratz, 2010) mobility aspects, the definition of the target groups and related qualification profiles, competences' specifications for research in TE, the curriculum structure and module specifications and the research orientation. Additionally, the basic requirements for the admission procedures, credit accumulation and recognition, student assessment and dissertation were outlined. Moreover, a glossary was produced, to support the common understanding among consortium members, across different institutional and cultural backgrounds. A joint degree will be the ‘result’ of this joint programme, a study programme developed and/or provided jointly by two or more higher education institutions, possibly also in cooperation with other institutions. The joint diploma will be issued in addition to the national diplomas provided by each institution.

References

Cochran-Smith, M. e Zeichner, K.(2005). Studying Teacher Education. The Report of AERA Panel. Washington: AERA Cochran-Smith, M. et al. (2008). Handbook of Research on Teacher Education. Enduring Questions in Changing Contexts. New York: Routledge. Darling-Hammond, L. (2006). CONSTRUCTING 21st-CENTURY TEACHER EDUCATION. Journal of Teacher Education, Vol. 57, No. X, Month 2006 1-15. European Commission Directorate-General for Research and Innovation (2011): Report of Mapping Exercise on Doctoral Training in Europe "Towards a common approach", 27 June 2011 (final). Retrieved from http://ec.europa.eu/euraxess/pdf/research_policies/Report_of_Mapping_Exercise_on_Doc toral_Training_FINAL.pdf European University Association. EUA. (2007). Doctoral Programmes in Europe’s Universities: Achievements and Challenges. Brussels: EUA. Retrieved from http://www.eua.be/typo3conf/ext/bzb_securelink/pushFile.php?cuid=400&file=fileadmin/us er_upload/files/Publications/Doctoral_Programmes_in_Europe_s_Universities.pdf Gassner, O; Kerger, L & Schratz, M. (Eds) (2010). The ten first years after Bologna. Bucureşti: Editura Universitǎţii din BucureŞti. MacBeath, J. (2012). Future of Teaching Profession. Cambridge: University of Cambridge, Education International Research Institute Schratz, M. (2010). What is a European Teacher. In: Gassner, Ormar; Kerger, Lucien; Schratz, Michael (Hg.): The first ten years after Bologna. Bucureşti: Editura Universitǎţii din BucureŞti. Shulman, L. (2004b; initially published in 1998). Theory, practice, and the education of professionals. In L. Shulman (ed. S. Wilson). The wisdom of practice – essays on teaching, learning, and learning to teach. San Francisco: Jossey Bass, pp. 521-544. http://www.edite.eu

Author Information

Ana Paula Curado (presenting / submitting)
University of Lisbon
Rectorate
Carcavelos

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