PLiCS Trip to Poland

On 7th April a group of ten BEd students from Stranmillis and St. Mary’s University Colleges with two lecturers, Dr Anita Gracie and Dr Gerard McCann, met for the first time and headed off to Poland for a week-long intensive course in Internationalisation and Diversity.

This course involved learning about how our partner universities, Krakow and Krosno, facilitate international programmes for multicultural groups of students and how they use technology to collaborate with university classes across the world. The students had the opportunity to participate in one of these classes with East Carolina University via videoconference link where they discussed whether English will remain the global language in the future, and what form of English should be taught to students to best facilitate global communication.

The students and staff also heard about local Polish Easter traditions and then did some traditional craft activities such as decorating eggs with découpage, yarn-wrapping and sequins. They were able to share some traditional Belfast fudge with the international students as we all worked together – this went down a treat!

Another aspect of this course was going on field-trips to sites of historical interest. The group visited Auschwitz and reflected on how this place was an emotional and sobering reminder of what happened when people failed to see the common humanity and inherent worth of every single person on earth. They also also visited Lancut (pronounced Winesoot…?) Castle, where they marvelled at the lavish extravagance of the interior decoration of this ‘mini-Versailles’. On the last day of the trip they had the opportunity to learn about glassmaking – the primary industry of the town of Krosno where they had been based for the last four days.

One of the main benefits of this programme was the opportunity for the students to really get to know one another and to learn together about how diversity and globalisation is shaping the university experience for students all over the world and indeed, how technology and internationalisation are shaping how the world communicates – Professional Learning for a Changing Society in action!