Comparative studies on teacher education

With Katarzyna Kärkkäinen, I published a co-authored paper on the system of Finnish teacher education in the Hungarian journal Pedagógusképzés ['Teacher Education']. The publication is part of a special issue of the journal which presents the main features of teacher education systems in different countries: Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, the UK and Singapore. Beyond presenting the administrative structure, each paper in the special issue highlights good pedagogical practices, current challenges and innovative initiatives which contribute to the renewal of the system.

With regards to good practices, we highlighted two trends: (i) the renewal of teachers' peer mentoring system and (ii) new projects and study programs preparing teachers to work in multilingual groups. In Jyväskylä, I teach in such a program called LAMP – Language Aware Multilingual Pedagogy (in Finnish: KiMo – Kielitietoisuutta ja monikielisyyttä tukeva pedagogiikka) which was launched in Fall 2018. I have co-developed the program from the very beginning, Fall 2017, and have been teaching in it.

The comparative study of teacher education is interesting: currently, with my co-authors Kristiina Skinnari (University of Jyväskylä), Elisa Repo and Niina Kekki (University of Turku) I finalize a manuscript for a volume Preparing Teachers to Work with Multilingual Learners: International Perspectives which is contracted with Multilingual Matters. In that, several examples and inspiring solutions are discussed from Europe and beyond.

Szabó, T. P., & Kärkkäinen, K. (2018). A finn tanárképzési rendszer [The system of Finnish teacher education]. Pedagógusképzés, 17 (1–4), 169–190. Retrieved from
https://issuu.com/hegedsjudit/docs/2018_1_4szam