R/EQUAL

In times of increased migration since 2015, Europe has become a central destination for a high number of migrants and refugees worldwide. Sweden, Germany and Austria are the main target countries for many recently immigrated people from conflict and war zones. Within this group also teachers have come to Europe. The possibilities to acknowledge the qualifications of these highly skilled migrants vary according to the respective national migration policy and the structures of teacher education. Most of these internationally educated academics cannot work as teachers in the host country without further qualification.

R/EQUAL focuses on international networking and the exchange of expertise in the field of higher education activities concerning (recently) immigrated and refugee teachers in Europe. R/EQUAL supports existing programmes at the Universities Stockholm, Vienna, Cologne and the University of Education Weingarten by collaborating on a European level. At the same time, the collected expertise for running a programme in the future is provided for other Higher Education institutions in Europe. On this account open-access-modules will be developed:

• a theoretical framework analysis comparing the legal-administrative conditions for access of (recently) immigrated teachers in the partner countries, based on a document analysis (in English),
• a manual on language learning in multilingual contexts in higher education, based on an analysis of group interviews with participants and lecturers from the four partner programmes (in German, English and Swedish),
• a method toolbox for teaching in programmes to address the issue of heterogeneity in schools, taking into account European anti-discrimination policies (in English, German and Swedish),
• a digital library on international teacher migration and theory of teacher professionalisation in English, German and Swedish as well as own research in R/EQUAL (group interviews) on experiences within professionalisation processes (in German, English and Swedish),
• a general guideline for the use of the R/EQUAL materials as well as recommendations for the implementation in programmes for (newly) immigrated and refugee teachers in Europe (in German, English and Swedish).

R/EQUAL follows a participatory approach that involves the (recently) immigrated and refugee teachers in the exchange and development of the materials provided. The chosen participatory approach will be analysed within the project in a mixed-method design based on group interviews and an online survey of participants and alumni of the four R/EQUAL partner programmes.