EDiTE Scenario – The first PhD candidates
Annika[1] is 25 years old and obtained a Magister degree in educational sciences at the University of Vienna (Austria) in 2012. For her diploma thesis she studied subjective interpretations of teacher-pupil relations, both theoretically and by conducting a qualitative field study in a Viennese school for secondary education. Since 2013 she works as a senior lecturer at the Department for Teacher Education and School Research at the University of Innsbruck (Austria). She is still enrolled at the University of Vienna for her doctoral studies since her supervisor encouraged her to continue and broaden her studies in form of a dissertation project, but distance and workload have thus far held her from really continuing her research work. Through working at the University of Innsbruck she knows the project learning as experience led by the dean of the School of Education, Prof. Michael Schratz, and has heard from the newly established EDiTE doctoral programme in several official meetings at the Department for Teacher Education and School Research. Since her position is temporary until the end of summer term 2015, she has a career pathway conversation with Prof. Schratz after Christmas vacation 2014/2015. He points out the possibility to commence her doctoral studies within the first cycle of the EDiTE project as her theoretical profile would match the learning as experience research project. Annika decides to take part in the first EDiTE winter school, in February 2015, in Innsbruck, and take her final decision whether conducting her doctoral research in Innsbruck or Vienna afterwards. She submitted her application documents to UIBK's office of student affairs which checks their eligibility and confirms the fulfilment of all requirements. The EDiTE selection committee ranks Annika's application among the best and submits them to the EDiTE consortium for final verification.
Mario is 38 years old and a teacher for the subjects English (foreign language; lengua extranjera) and Social Studies /Geography/ History (ciencias sociales geografía e historia) at a secondary school in Barcelona (Spain), since he finished his studies at the University of Madrid (Spain) in 2002. After his election as employee representative he got more and more into working with the school's rectorate, conducting administrative tasks like division of teaching hours and dealing with concerns of his colleagues. Parallel to his teaching occupation he attends a continuous teacher education course for school management in the winter semester of 2014/2015. By the end of the course the instructor hands out a compendium of university further education courses and degree programmes concerning the topic school management and teacher professionalization, which contains information on the new EDiTE doctoral programme. Mario has already been thinking of going abroad for a few years, and as he goes through the course compendium he comes across the EDiTE homepage. Browsing the different research projects provided by the participating universities the idea is born to apply for the doctoral programme at the University of Lisbon and work on a doctoral thesis concerning communities of practice to empower teacher change, supervised by Luís Tinoca, Ph.D. After career planning discussions with the headmaster of his school, who holds out the prospect of educational leave in case of successful admission, he submits his application documents to the University of Lisbon in April 2015. By the end of May 2015 he gets confirmation and an invitation to the EDiTE summer school, organized by Prof. Romita Iucu from the University in Bucharest (Romania), in June 2015.
Mario and Annika both begin their studies at the University of Lisbon, respectively the University of Innsbruck, within EDiTE's first cycle in October 2015.
Annika decides in her first year to include a European perspective in her research. During her term abroad at the University of Lower Silesia (ULS, Poland) she is working within the changing school cultures project and examines how cultural framing influences teacher-pupil relationships. She conducts field studies at the Austrian Scientific Secondary School Au and the Polish Secondary School No. XII. Prof. Małgorzata Sekulowicz from ULS supports Annika in her research work as her co-supervisor. They got to know each other while EDiTE's first summer school where Prof. Sekulowicz gave a lecture on the anthropology of learning environments. They held contact since then through various online meetings to prepare Annika's stay at ULS. Furthermore Annika's dissertation project is funded by a PhD scholarship which she received from the University of Innsbruck due to her excellent academic success. Annika uses this money primarily to finance her semester in Poland. Her original affiliation has brought the University of Vienna very close to the EDiTE project and her former supervisor has become an active participant within the EDiTE knowledge portal, and he shares his expertise during a presentation at the first EDiTE Virtual Joint Seminar. Annika also initiates a track concerning the methodology of trans-national school field studies for the Virtual Joint Seminar, moderating the academic discussion with the other EDiTE PhD students that are logged in to the seminar, from all partner universities.
Mario analyses for his dissertation project how national educational policies affect individual school management and teacher professionalization and how they correspond with European directives. In Portugal he works closely with the National Education Council to examine the complex interactions between national politicians and this independent agency on one hand, and the reaction of politicians and schools to the expert recommendations on the other hand. He is employed at the University of Lisbon as a graduate student and is teaching introductory seminars on undergraduate level. This position is funded with financial resources from the Horizon 2020 project. Due to his experiences as employee representative, Mario was elected as EDiTE student representative, and now is involved in the EDiTE Supervisory Board, working on issues of matching the individual research projects and professional development of doctoral students with the requirements of the practical sector of teacher education. Via the EDiTE online platform he holds contact with his fellow students, offers consultation and processes student complaints or improvement proposals. In the course of his mobility semester at Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest (Hungary), he especially takes the perspective of teacher educators into account and publishes his first paper in Association of Teacher Educators' peer reviewed journal, in close collaboration with his co-supervisor Prof. Gábor Halász. Many conversations with affiliated teacher educators help him to adapt his research interest to be more practically relevant. In EDiTE's Virtual Joint seminar 2017 Mario gives a presentation on how national teacher education policies can initiate individual school programmes for enhancing teacher effectiveness.
After graduation Annika works and teaches again at the University of Innsbruck and works on her habilitation (post-doctoral degree in Austria). Mario gets to know an ENTEP-affiliated educational politician from Spain during the research and networking conference of the EDiTE doctoral programme. He is subsequently employed at the federal education ministry in Spain as a consultant concerning teacher education legislation and their future implementation, worked out on the base of European directives.
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[1] The scenario, incl. names and curriculum
vitae of the potential PhD students, is fictional. The described research
projects, names of supervisors, and EDiTE programme description, however, are
based on the outcomes of the EDiTE project (2012-2014).