The Future Makers – Professional Teachers Promoting Pedagogical Change

Abstract

This article collection consists of writings of international teachers, who have participated in the international teacher education programmes or teacher exchange of the School of Professional Teacher Education of Häme University of Applied Sciences (HAMK), later referred to as HAMK. The authors are the alumni of the first Finnish-Brazilian VET Teachers for the Future -Professional Certificate Programme organized in 2014 – 2015 and the Bolashak Programme for the teachers of Kazakhstan 2014. The first pilot of The VET Teachers for the Future Programme was eight months long and implemented both in Finland and Brazil. There were 27 teachers in the pilot group, 14 studied in Häme University of Applied Sciences (HAMK) and 13 in Tampere University of Applied Sciences (TAMK). The contents of the programme included for example competence-based education, innovative learning methods, digitalization, co-operation with the world of work and regional development in Brazil. There have been three student cohorts in the programme since 2014 and over 100 upper secondary, vocational and higher education teachers from Brazil. The Bolashak programme was a nine-month continuing education programme for upper secondary teachers which was implemented in Finland. The programme included two parts: English language training using the CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) method and innovative pedagogy research internship, with periods of job shadowing and practice in Finnish schools. Altogether 21 upper secondary teachers participated in the training. In addition, one of the authors participated in an international teacher exchange of the School of Professional Teacher Education from Göttingen University in 2015. The contents of the exchange were educational experiences of Finland and competence-based education. Also Finnish teachers and teacher educators from HAMK have contributed to the articles. The editors of the collection are Essi Ryymin, Brian Joyce and Marja Laurikainen, all from the School of Professional Teacher Education.