In light of globalization, migration, and flight, the educational mission of German schools has expanded. Educators face the challenge of successfully dealing with cultural and linguistic diversity. A climate of mutual tolerance, appreciation, and support is to be fostered in classrooms and schoolyards. “The development of these competences is part of educational work. International experiences and intercultural competences of teachers themselves play a decisive role in this,” says Dr. Manuela Hackel, Advisor for the Internationalization of Teacher Training at the University of Potsdam.
New opportunities in this area are created thanks to the recently concluded cooperation agreement with the Rahn Schools in Cairo, which will offer internships for University of Potsdam students in teacher training programs. In return, Potsdam offers visit programs and workshops on university orientation for the Egyptian school students in the upper grade levels. A first joint project is scheduled to take place before the end of this school year: The Rahn Schools Cairo will participate in an international and interdisciplinary project week at Leibniz Gymnasium in Potsdam, which will take place from June 27 to July 1, 2022, and will be coordinated by the Center for Teacher Training and Education Research and organized by teaching degree students and the subject didactics departments of the University of Potsdam.
Rahn Schools Cairo were founded in 2014 as a privately funded German school. The children and adolescents there are taught on the basis of the Brandenburg curriculum at both the primary and secondary level and can take the international Abitur (higher education entrance qualification) in German. The school’s main focus is on music and the arts, as well as on intercultural education. It even has its own music school, whose students regularly participate in the Chopin Competition in Cairo. Other school locations of the funding organization Rahn Education exist in Brandenburg, Berlin, other German federal states, as well as abroad in Kaliningrad, Zielona Góra, and Zurich. Rahn Education and the University of Potsdam have had a close partnership in the field of knowledge and technology transfer for several years.
Contact: Dr. Manuela Hackel, Advisor for Internationalization of Teacher Education
Phone: +49 331 977-256010
E-mail: mhackeluuni-potsdampde
Media information 13-04-2022 / No. 035