Coming soon for Uni Bremen student teachers: Practicum in Namibia
It sounds a bit like the dream version of a student's life and yet it is soon to become reality. At the beginning of 2024, three prospective primary school teachers currently in the master's programme at the University of Bremen will be able to do their practical semester in Namibia. There they will gain teaching experience at a primary school in the capital Windhoek through the accompanying study programme at the University of Namibia’s (UNAM) School of Education.
Such study-practice placements are a key component of the DAAD project Lehrramtsstudium International (Teacher Training International) under the direction of professors Yasemin Karakaşoğlu and Natascha Korff from the Faculty of Pedagogy and Educational Sciences, in cooperation with the International Office. Kirsten Beta, project coordinator and staff member at the International Office, recently travelled to Windhoek to coordinate the pilot’s programme’s framework conditions at UNAM, the participating schools and Namibia’s Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture.
Academic cooperation between the University of Bremen and Namibia in the field of education began long before the country's independence in 1989. The Namibia Project at Uni Bremen, initiated by international law expert Professor Manfred Hinz and in collaboration with the SWAPO liberation movement, developed new textbooks in the 1980s in preparation for independence. Since then, there has been a long-standing cooperation between Faculty 12 and the School of Education at UNAM. After joint research activities, teaching cooperation and a summer school last year, the focus is now on establishing sustainable student exchanges in teacher education to open up more opportunities for comparative international perspectives on school and education systems. The study-practice placement in Windhoek is to begin in 2024. Then on a regular basis, two to three Uni Bremen students will move to Namibia for their practical semester and conversely, Namibian students will come to Uni Bremen for study courses and practicums in Bremen schools. For 2024, three scholarships for the practical semester in Namibia have been awarded through the DAAD’s Lehramtsstudium International project.