Project Activities

2023 activities

Participation in the ESCAPE Symposium, 25.4.2023

On 25 April 2023, the VOICES team members, and in particular Natallia B. Hanssen and Marina Prilutskaya took part online in the ESCAPE Symposium “Plurilingual Pedagogies and Digital Technologies to support learning in STEM,” organized by the Toronto University and the OISE in partnership with the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. The presenters and participants were involved in vivid discussions of experiences from the Escape projects and the practices of using the Binogi platform with animated educational videos and quizzes created from the central content of the curriculum. The VOICES project warmly thanks the organizers for this event!

Webinar on intercultural competence for teachers, 28.3.2023

Nord logotyp

On 28 March 2023, the VOICES team members contributed to conducting a free webinar on intercultural competence at Nord University. The webinar was addressed for teachers who want to polish their skills in intercultural competence to apply them in teaching pupils from other cultures, those speaking other languages that Norwegian and Sami as mother tongues.

Associate professor Marina Yurievna Prilutskaya (on the left) told about intercultural competence as a concept. University lecturer Ragna Hovig Ødegaardshaugen (on the right) shared examples of what one can do, what one should do, and what to avoid meeting students with Norwegian as a second language. These are Ragna’s own experiences from working in a secondary school at Stovner in Oslo.

M.A. seminar on intercultural competence, 16.3.2023

Conducting interviews with teachers in Northern Norway within the VOICES project was also beneficial for teacher education students who are involved in the project. Our students decided to write their M.A. dissertations based on the data collected with the project. 16 March 2023 our Research team from Norway and Finland held a session where the drafts of the M.A. thesis were discussed. Congratulations, dear students, with drafting excellent works!

2022 activities

International Advisory Board Meeting, 11.4.2022

On Monday 11 April 2022, our International Advisory Board gathered for an online meeting. The VOICES participants presented their visions of project milestones and activities and got insights from our esteemed experts – Emmanuel Acquah (Åbo Akademi University), Emmanuell Le Pichon-Vorstman (University of Toronto), and Antoinette Gagne (University of Toronto). The further implementation steps are set up, and our VOICES continue!

Data collection started, May, 2022

In May 2022, VOICES began collecting data. This phase of data collection recruits teacher education students, school principals, teachers providing primary education to migrant and minority pupils, minority and majority language pupils their parents, as well as members of minority-focused NGOs in Northern Norway to complete surveys and interviews!

Steering Committee and International Advisory Board meeting at Åbo Akademi University – November 2022

On 11-12 November 2022 Åbo Akademi University welcomed project collaborators Natallia Hanssen and Marina Prilutskaya of Nord University as well as Emanuelle Aquach of Åbo Akademi’s Minority Research Profile during a joint Steering Committee and International Advisory Board meeting. This was a productive and fascinating discussion of the draft programme for our forthcoming course on teacher intercultural competence!

Promulgating project findings during HERE inaugural conference (University of Nottingham, 22-23 November 2022)

During 22-23 November 2022 our VOICES were listened to by the participants of the Hub for European Refugee Education (HERE) inaugural conference which was chaired by Professor Joanna McIntyre at the University of Nottingham. The presentation “Substantive Equality of Refugee Pupils in Education Acts of Finland and Norway” reported on the results of needs & gaps review in national laws and policy documents during Parallel Session 2: Equality and Inclusion.

HEE, Venue

HERE venue

Presentation by Joanna McIntyre

Conference programme – congratulations, VOICES!