Academics from Bishop Grosseteste University’s (BGU) Well-being and Workload in Education RKEU group have been awarded 178,000 euro of Erasmus+ funding to research and develop the well-being of initial teacher education students.
The group from BGU, who will be leading this international project, consists of Dr. Emma Clarke, Dr. Phil Wood, Shaun Thompson and Aimee Quickfall. They will be working with colleagues at the University of Eastern Finland and Kobenhavns Professionshojskole, University of Copenhagen. Aimee, who is Head of Programmes for Primary and Early Years at BGU, commented that:
“It is great to be working with our Finnish and Danish colleagues again on a topic that is dear to all of us – the continued success and happiness of our teacher trainees.”
The aim of the project is to produce a package of resources for ITE students, school mentors and university staff, including ‘well-being toolkits’ that will be tailored to Finnish, Danish and UK contexts. Shaun, who is Regional Partnership Lead at BGU explained this:
“It is really important to consider different education systems and also the different people that need support with well-being. If a student struggles with their well-being during their training, mentors and university tutors also need resources to support their trainee in their context; on placement, in tutorials, at a distance and in person.”
The project will run for three years and include events in all three countries to share findings with students, school mentors and initial teacher educators. Emma pointed out:
“The project has a real activist aim – we want to improve the experiences of teacher trainees as widely as we can.”
To that end, the project outcomes will include a website with free to access online resources, blogs and advice, as well as the toolkits for supporting trainee well-being. Phil explained that:
“Although the toolkits and resources will be based on research carried out at BGU, UEF and Copenhagen, there will be useful materials and findings for teacher trainees, mentors and tutors in other contexts and countries.”
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