Second transnational meeting of the EMstep project in Oslo, Norway

The second transnational meeting within the project 2023-2-TR01-KA220-SCH-000170568 ‘Empowering Middle School Teachers for Social Inclusion through Observation-based Professional Development‘ was held in Oslo, Norway in the period 1-3 April 2025. It was attended by representatives of all project partners: EGE University (Izmir, Turkey), Me We Istituto di ricerca innovativa srl ​​(Florence, Italy), Academia, izobrazevanje in druge storitve d.o.o. (Maribor, Slovenia),  D. A. Tsenov Academy of Economics (Svishtov, Bulgaria), Universidade do Porto (Porto, Portugal), and the hosts from the Oslo Metropolitan University. On behalf of the Academy (TAE), the participants were Head Assist. Prof. Yuliyan Gospodinov, PhD - Project Manager for TAE and Researcher, and Head Assist. Prof. Nadezhda Veselinova, PhD - Researcher. The meeting was broadcasted online, which allowed the participation of more members of the international team, including TAE (Assoc. Prof. Mihail Chipriyanov, PhD, Assoc. Prof. Nikolay Ninov, PhD, Assoc. Prof. Hristo Sirashki, PhD, Head Assist. Prof. Iskren Tairov, PhD, and Snezhanka Angelova).

The three days of the meeting were filled with an intensive work program, which included thematic sessions on reporting on the progress of the project implementation and the preparation of the first interim report, updates on the created Digital Learning Platform (DLP) https://emstep.eu/, conducting pilot studies in the six countries on the use of the DLP, training school leadership teams to work with the platform modules, organizing the upcoming workshop for leadership teams in Florence, conducting diagnostic observations of teachers, surveys among teachers and pupils, preparing observations of pupils' work in classrooms with a focus on social inclusion, as well as communication and dissemination activities.

According to the previously agreed agenda, each partner had thematic sessions to present, and all together actively participated in the subsequent discussions and deliberations. TAE presented the topics of organizing the upcoming training of teachers on working with the Digital Learning Platform and the workshop for leadership teams, as well as obtaining feedback from teachers and revising the classroom observation tools developed under the project.

In addition to the program, meetings were held with Assoc. Prof. Vibeke Bjarnø, PhD - Head of the Department of Primary and Secondary Teacher Education, Faculty of Education and International Studies, as well as Assoc. Prof. Hege Knudsmoen, PhD - Academic International Coordinator.

The second transnational meeting ended with an evaluation session during which each participant shared their impressions, followed by a visit to a local school, a conversation with the principal,and observation of teachers work with pupils of different nationalities.