Lead of the UArctic TN on Teacher Education, Professor Tuija Turunen met with the Arctic Council’s co-leads in Inari 21.-22. of Sep where she presented the SDWG project on Teacher Education for Diversity and Equality in the Arctic and its progress and evolvement.
One of the objectives of the Arctic Council’s Sustainable Development Working Group (SDWG) project on Teacher Education is the establishment of a network of teachers, teacher educators, teacher students, policy makers, and researchers in the Circumpolar North. Also, this project aims to widen perspectives on shared practices and challenges across the Arctic, and promoting sustainable and prosperous future of the Arctic.
Fall colours in Inari.
As Professor Turunen presented, the SDWG-project has been made public with a press release, newsletters and regularly updated websites of the thematic network www.ulapland.fi/uatn. Since spring 2017, open access online seminars have been recorded, and are publicly available on the website. Publication of ‘Education in the North’ special issue titled Teacher Education in the Arctic is proceeding according to the schedule, and will be published in May 2018. Preparations for a research on diversity and education in the north have been started with a publication planned for March 2019. The project has been presented in several international conferences, such as ICASS (International Arctic Social Sciences) Conference in Umeå Sweden on June. Symposium ‘Teacher Education of the Arctic region: Diversity and Identity in the North’ will be held in Rovaniemi in November 2017.
Pekka Shemeikka, the SDWG-project chairman during the Finnish chairmanship of the Arctic Council 2017-2019.