International exchanges to improve research skills
In the bachelor Social Work there is a historical lack of attention to research methods and the core of the profession lies in acting on a micro level. Social Work does not have a clear academic counterpart. All this makes ‘research in education’ in the bachelor Social Work challenging and urgent. Therefore, the main aim of this project MyCity-YourCity was to improve students and lecturers research skills, curiosity and macro level skills. This was done by letting students participate in small scale international exchanges.
Other aims of the project were to:
- experiment with internationalization@home by partnering online with professors and their students in other cities.
- let students get an international comparative perspective on social issues.
- create an international research collaboration between first year bachelor students.
- ad creativity and horizon broadening aspects to research in educational programs.
- collect real data and make a contribution to a large international comparative data set.
- establish a long-term and structural collaboration, enabling exchange of expertise, staff and students.
- offer opportunities for international comparative research and publications by students and researchers.
Research in each city and sharing results online
In the project MyCity-YourCity students from the cities New York, Amsterdam and Antwerp conducted research on shared themes such as sense of belonging and local democracy. These broad themes seem to fit most institutions.
The students administered a common bilingual quantitative survey in each city, which created a comparative dataset for cross-site analysis. Statistical experts at involved institutions analyzed the comparative dataset and discussed the results with students.
This quantitative dataset was supplemented with site-specific qualitative data that students collected under supervision of their professors. For example, students carried out interviews.
Subsequently, students from each city shared their results and findings online with students from other cities. Students also presented their research on a poster suitable for a showcase. In those posters a comparative element between cities must be incorporated.
Point by point the following actions were carried out in developing and implementing this project. These can also be seen as tips for other teachers who wish to replicate the project.
- Adjusting the existing and piloted bilingual questionnaire to involve staff’s preferences and topics.
- Making arrangements around one or more online meetings between students and staff members of different institutions.
- Making adjustments to courses involved in this project: instructing students to take out the survey, discuss results, instruct them to collaborate online with international counterparts (optional), discuss comparisons.
- Exchange findings and student posters.
- Analyze data with an international group of researchers.
- Finally, it is preferable to create a student friendly online exchange platform and to inform staff. Unfortunately, within this project the creation of an online platform was too expensive.
Data and Internationalization@home biggest yields
A main challenge during the project was covid. Due to the severity of the covid-crisis in New York, John Jay College could not be involved anymore. Also, the planned visits to New York could not happen. However, the project team did manage to carry out some elements of MyCity-YourCity in Amsterdam and Antwerp. They collaborated online. For example, students performed the survey online and shared results online by videos.
This made sure that the results of the project still were:
- The data itself, which was collected by students and are used by students and staff for further analysis and publication.
- The innovation as described above around internationalization@home and research in education. Students, lecturers and researchers did improve their online international collaborative abilities.
Continuation in curricula and grant proposal
The results of this project will be continued in the involved institutions. This means that Antwerp and Amsterdam are committed to keep collaborating and making MyCity-YourCity an integrated part of their curriculum. In both schools the managing directors support MyCity-YourCity and facilitate staff to be able to integrate MyCity-YourCity in their curricula. Also there has been active sharing of course material between Antwerp and Amsterdam which strengthened the programs in both cities.
Besides sharing results within the institutions, the project team also shared results outside their institutions. They presented on different conferences and networks. This led to new partners and a new Erasmus+ proposal built around the basic idea of MyCity-YourCity. With the grant the project team wants to expand and refine MyCity-YourCity in a new project called LOCUS. The project team has been able to involve the cities Madrid, Oslo and Tallinn in the application. New York is an associated partner in this.
Gebruikte literatuur
- Altbach, P. G., & Knight, J. (2007). The internationalization of higher education: Motivations and realities. Journal of studies in international education, 11(3-4), 290-305. https://doi.org/10.1177/1028315307303542
- Beelen, J., & Jones, E. (2015). Redefining internationalization at home. In The European higher education area (pp. 59-72). Springer, Cham. 10.1007/978-3-319-20877-0_5
- MacLeod, J., Yang, H. H., & Xu, J. (2016, July). Collaborative Online International Learning: A Case Study between USA and Thailand. In 2016 International Symposium on Educational Technology (ISET) (pp. 106-110). IEEE.
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