Åsa is not resting on her laurels

Åsa Morberg, Associate Professor and former Head of Faculty at the University of Gävle, has been appointed the first Swedish president of the European organisation ATEE, whose aim is to improve the quality of teacher education in Europe.

Åsa Morberg has been appointed president of ATEE, Association for Teacher Education in Europe, a three-year assignment, from 2016 to 2019. The organisation was formed when the EU was founded and promotes collaboration within European teacher education.

The assignment involves close collaboration within the EU parliament, a responsible and enjoyable assignment for Åsa Morberg.

What drives you, Åsa?

My interest in working for the creation of good schools and good teacher education and the will to have an influence on issues I believe in. Besides, I get to experience such a lot of amazing, progressive and interesting aspects through undertaking this assignment.

I have colleagues and friends throughout the world to whom I can travel and meet. I am going to Brussels shortly and then to Orlando in February and so on. I also get the opportunity to influence the development of teacher education both in Europe and globally.

In what way do you hope to be able to influence teacher education?

In a very concrete way via my different assignments tasks, for example supporting the development of teacher education in emergent EU member states. I have recently been to Croatia and given support to the institutions of teacher education.

It is incredibly enjoyable and my experiences are very relevant. Croatia is very good at taking care of immigrants so we also have a lot to learn from them.

What is the significance of this international collaboration?

It means a great deal, the problems vary, but one can nevertheless learn from each other, even if the cultural and economic differences are great.

In Africa teacher educators wonder how they can get kerosene for the lamps so that the children can learn to read, the problems in other richer countries are more subtle.

We can look at our own country and our own problems. I have recently been appointed a board member of WFATE, which is an international network, where the world’s richest countries support educational development in the poorer countries.

How do you see things developing in the future?

The way I see it the school crisis and the problems of teacher education are in some ways the same all over the world. Through this collaboration we try to distinguish patterns and learn from each other.

Is there something that connects successful school systems? Can others learn fom this and make progress themselves? I see it like that. We are debating a school crisis in Sweden, in the United States they talk about a societal crisis.

Threats and strengths?

• Today poverty is the greatest threat to the educational system.
• The strengths are the constructive collaboration and the new opportunities to analyse critically on-going social phenomena in a globalised world.

I am enormously privileged to be able to take part in and contribute to all this. I am basically an optimist and believe in possibilities.

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ATEE is a European non-profit making organisation, whose aim is to improve the quality of teacher education in Europe and support teachers at all levels including the professional development of teacher educators.

The organisation was created at the same time as the formation of the EU. The organisation has its headquarters in Brussels and works closely with the EU parliament.

WFATE (World Federation of Associations of Teacher Education) has the aim of supporting global collaboration within teacher education. WFATE works towards providing schooling for every child in the world as a means towards eliminating poverty; children can develop opportunities for a successful life with improved health, economic independence and the possibility to influence democracy

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For further information:
Åsa Morberg, Associate Professor of Pedagogy
Tel: 070- 359 8523
 

Text: Douglas Öhrbom
Photo: Ove Wall