The future of teacher training is international

03/17/2026

"Teachers together for change": this was the motto of the 5th GoTEd+ Week organised by the Professional School of Education (PSE). The guests and speakers had travelled from 14 countries around the world for the event.

The audience at the Professional School of Education's GoTEd+ Week was international. (Image: PSE)

When lecturers from Ghana, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Kenya, Namibia, Poland, Sweden, Spain, Sri Lanka, the Czech Republic, Turkey, Ukraine, the USA and Germany meet in Würzburg, it is about much more than academic exchange. The 5th GoTEd+ Week of the Professional School of Education brought together more international guests than ever before at Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg (JMU) from 23 to 26 February 2026. Under the motto "Teachers together for change", the focus was on the question of how teacher education can respond to global socio-ecological challenges.

Internationalisation is more than mobility

Hans-Stefan Siller spoke as a representative of the PSE Executive Board and the person responsible for internationalisation at the PSE. He pointed out the important role of international exchange for teacher training and emphasised the importance of the DAAD-funded project for international cooperation: "In teacher training, internationalisation is far more than just mobility or an additional programme item," said Siller.

Internationalisation also means practising a change of perspective, developing opportunities for comparison and understanding diversity as a resource, said Siller. Looking at other teaching systems offers the opportunity to try out subject-specific and didactic concepts in different contexts and to anchor global topics in such a way that they become understandable, discussable and relevant to action in the classroom.

Teachers are bridge builders

Doris Fischer, in her role as Vice President for Internationalisation, had previously welcomed the participants to the Winter School of the GoTEd+ project. With regard to the following speaker, Nataliia Lazebna from Ukraine, Fischer emphasised the importance of mutual exchange and how well the scientist is now integrated at JMU.

Nataliia Lazebna kicked off the four-day meeting with her keynote speech "Resilient wanderer: A teacher's global journey". Drawing on her experiences in both Ukraine and Germany, she showed how multilingualism, art and digital learning spaces can promote resilience - especially in times of war, flight and social fragmentation. Her message was that teachers play a central role as cultural and social bridge builders.

A look at the USA and Sri Lanka

Cheryl McCarthy and Edwidge Bryant (Flagler College, USA) focussed on so-called Title I schools in the United States. "Title I" is a nationwide funding programme in the USA. It provides additional funding for schools in which a particularly large number of children come from financially disadvantaged households. The aim is to improve educational opportunities and reduce performance gaps. In their presentation, McCarthy and Bryant illustrated how much educational equity depends on political conditions, especially the current ones in Florida, and presented successful mentoring programmes that strengthen disadvantaged children in the long term.

Prabath Ekanayake (University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka) broadened the global perspective: his project "Teachers together for change" qualifies teachers in gender-sensitive pedagogy in order to open up better educational opportunities, especially for girls in structurally weak regions of Sri Lanka.

Professional judgement remains indispensable

The second day of GoTEd+ Week focussed more on research and methodology. Arnon Hershkovitz is an expert in computational thinking at Tel Aviv University in Israel. He showed how data-based decision-making processes can support education at different levels. At the same time, he made it clear that professional judgement and ethical responsibility remain indispensable.

In the short presentations, the perspective shifted to literature and languages: Kateryna Lut (Ukraine) presented how Eco-Literature combines ecological sensitivity and language learning, while José Luis Estrada-Chichón and Francisco Zayas Martínez (Spain) presented co-operative reading aloud as a way to reflective, inclusive interculturality in foreign language teaching.

Finally, at the "Networking for Research" event, the participants discussed publication strategies, multilingualism, international research stays and AI in teacher training at four themed tables - intensively, practically and at eye level.

Visit to the Waldorf School

The event concluded with a visit to the Freie Waldorfschule Würzburg. The international guests were given an insight into the Waldorf educational concept, observed lessons and talked to teachers and pupils. One lecturer from overseas was particularly impressed: "You can truly feel how education here addresses the whole child - head, heart, and hands." The children also met the guests with great curiosity and openness.

The Winter School of the GoTEd+ project offers a platform where international colleagues can network with each other and initiate further projects. As part of the GoTEd+ project, the online lecture series of the network "Modellprojekte Lehramt.International in Bayern" will take place again in the summer semester of 2026 - with contributions from the participating partner universities.