International Conference: language education for sustainable development

Abrahamse, Augusta u. a. (2015). A Virtual Educational Exchange: A North–South Virtually Shared Class on Sustainable Development. In: Journal of Studies in International Education, SAGE Publications Inc1 (2015), 2, S. 140–159.
Lenkaitis, Chesla Ann (2022). Integrating the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals into a teacher preparation program: Developing content for virtual exchanges. In: Hilliker, Shannon M. (Hrsg.). Second Language Teaching and Learning through Virtual Exchange. De Gruyter, S. 209–224.
O’Dowd, Robert ; Werner, Sina (2024). The First Steps of Blended Mobility in European Higher Education: A Survey of Blended Intensive Programmes. In: Journal of Studies in International Education, SAGE Publications Inc (2024).

Prof. Dr. Thomas Raith is a professor at the department of English, University of Education (Pädagogische Hochschule), Freiburg, Germany. Research Areas: digital media use and teacher education, task-based language teaching, cultural studies and diversity in foreign language teaching, teacher education and teacher development

Katarzyna Radke is a senior lecturer of English and an internationalization coordinator at the Foreign Language Teaching Center of Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland. Her interests lie in Internationalization at home and the use of English as a lingua franca for intercultural collaboration through Virtual Exchange.

Charo Lopez Contreras - Florida Universitària (València - Spain) has been teaching English as a foreign language for about 20 in secondary and upper-secondary schools. She currently teaches English for TEFL in the degree of Primary Education at Florida Universitària (València - Spain) and is writing her PhD thesis in the field of Telecollaboration and Virtual Exchanges.

In our contribution, we will present research on an ERASMUS+ Blended Intensive Programme (BIP), conducted in spring 2024, involving students from Germany, Lithuania, Poland, and Spain with the goal to support SDG Target 4.7 teacher competences. Although there has been research on the effectiveness of BIP projects in European Higher Education (O’Dowd ; Werner 2024) and in the field of SDG and language education with virtual exchange projects (Lenkaitis 2022; Abrahamse et al. 2015), the concept of blended learning projects for SDG teacher education is quite new to the field. Over five weeks of virtual collaboration, students worked in international teams to explore how UN SDG Target 4.7 is addressed in their countries and finally met for one week in Poznań, Poland, to present their final products to an academic audience and to teach SDG 4.7 content in schools.

We used a mixed-methods approach, including pre- and post-project surveys and qualitative analyses of participants' online collaborations, final project products, and reflective portfolios. The research question was whether we can find indicators for SDG competence development of the participants, initiated by the collaboration in the BIP project.

Initial findings indicated diverse levels of prior knowledge and teaching competence among participants due to different national contexts and study programs. Despite this, motivation to develop SDG competences was high. Post-project surveys revealed that students rated their development as global citizens highly. However, assessments of their SDG teaching skills were varied. The in-person phase in Poland was deemed crucial for learning success. A more detailed analysis of learning products and reflective portfolios will be highlighted in our presentation to triangulate them with the questionnaire results.

In conclusion, despite the complexity of the blended learning program and the diverse backgrounds of participants, the results indicate positive development in SDG competences, particularly in personal SDG awareness.