Network for educational research on the social development in multicultural pre/school settings, NCM-RU10098, Nordic-Russian Cooperation Program, 2012-2015

The main goal of this interdisciplinary collaboration is to establish a network
that exchanges knowledge on educating social and educational professionals
in the area of multicultural and bilingual learning. In focus are the didactic skills
necessary for promoting multilanguage acquisition. As mediating framework,
the partners draw on concepts from educational research building on the
Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) tradition. This tradition was founded
in Russia and is widely used for educational training in the Nordic countries.
In order to establish a sustainable network, we propose a collaboration
on three levels: On the Higher Education level, researchers from various
disciplines exchange knowledge on practical experiences with multicultural
education. This is complemented by a close, international collaboration with
the practitioners/professionals in different settings, especially preschool and
adult education. Collaboration with practitioners/professionals is central for
further developing the theoretical-conceptual framework. Mutual learning
processes between researchers and practitioners/professionals across the
participating countries are thus a succinct feature of this collaboration.
Nordic aspects of cooperation
Nordic countries have a long tradition of working with Cultural Historical
Activity Theory (CHAT) on university level. The tradition was founded in
Russia and is further developed at both Russian and Nordic Higher Education
institutions. On the level of implementing the theory in educational practice
and collaborating didactically with educational institutions, however, Russia
offers a wide array of best practice examples, which are missing in the Nordic
countries. A Nordic perspective on putting CHAT into educational practice can
highly profit from establishing a strong network with Russian institutions, while
the Russian partner institutions profit from Nordic research on multilingual
education.