CSU/ Nord early childhood collaboration

This evening we had another meeting regarding the CSU/ Nord EC collaboration. The great news is that the Memorandum of Understanding has been signed between the two universities.
We have three streams of interest relating to early childhood and discussed collapsing the final two groups:

• Children voices - Coordinator - Elisabeth Bjørnestad (Nord)
• Online learning for ECE ITE and MEd - Coordinators-Leanne Gibbs (CSU) and Martin Per Samuelsson (Nord)
• Quality assurance, regulation and qualifications - Coordinator-Kelly Tribolet (CSU)

The breakout group for the Children's Voices group were invited to share the work they are doing. Professor Karl Victor Magne Johansson described their children's voices research undertaken with five different early childhood centres listening to stories children are telling in different settings in order to create drafts for picture books. The picture books are translated into the Sami language. The images for the picture books have been drawn or photographed by the children or have used the children's words to create AI images. What a fascinating project.

Nord/ CSU Early Childhood Education Group

Tonight we had a meeting with the Nord/Charles Sturt University Early Childhood Education Group working towards a memorandum of understanding between the universities. 

There are three sub-groups:

• Children's Voices (Leads: Elisabeth Bjornestad)
  
• Online Learning for Early Childhood Education/ITE and Med (Lead: Leanne Gibbs/Martin Per Samuelsson)
• Quality Assurance, Regulation and Qualifications (Leads: Kelly Tribolet/Belinda Downey)

The Children's Voices group shared the following projects and would like to have a seminar where people share their work

• Nord University is working with Malta on a project about children's voices + a philosophical approach regarding children's hut building in Sweden/Norway and New Zealand.
  
• CSU is running the Early Childhood Voices Conference (ECV2024) next week and are working with the World Health Organization on a project about children's voices. 

Children's Voices Group

 

Nord University and CSU collaboration

Today was the Nord University and CSU collaboration meeting with CSU coordinators led by Susanne Francisco. The MOU is in its final stages

"The MOU has been developed based on a shared philosophy that building a sustainable and productive working collaboration takes time. It relies on development of interpersonal relationships leading to trusting and sustainable collaborations."

Here are the six groups as part of the MOU:

1. Indigenous Studies - Holly Randall-Moon
   
2. Professional Learning - Susanne Francisco
3. Rural Education - James Deehan
   
4. Early Childhood Education - Leanne Gibbs
   
5. Creativity in Education
6. Children’s Voices: Researching children’s speech, communication and culture - Sharynne McLeod
   

Here is an update on our group "Children’s Voices: Researching children’s speech, communication and culture"

• Leaders - Kathrin Olsen and Karianne Berg/ Sharynne McLeod and Kate Crowe
  
• Meetings during 2024 – 13 March, 10 May, 8 October, 30 October

We are planning a range of initiatives including 

1. Collaborating with the Nord team in their research supporting children who speak the Sami language (Nord University: Language of the Heart project with the Sámi community 
2. Visits from Nord PhD students to CSU in 2025 
3. Collaborative conferences and seminars including: Early Childhood Voices Conference (ECV2024)

Meeting with Nord University

This evening I had another meeting with Katrin Olsen and members of Nord University to advance conversations about a work plan and the Memorandum of Understanding with CSU. We are planning a range of initiatives including collaborating with the Nord team in their research supporting children who speak the Sami language, visits from Nord PhD students to CSU in 2025, and collaborative seminars. Our many synergies continue to grow: https://speakingmylanguages.blogspot.com/search/label/Nord%20University

Nord University - Visit to CSU and conversations about the future

We have been honoured to have visitors from Nord University (https://www.nord.no/en) at Charles Sturt University in Bathurst over the past three weeks. Susanne Francisco has coordinated the visit of 

• Professor Wenche Rønning and 
• Associate Professor Kathrin Olsen 

from Fakultet for lærerutdanning og kunst- og kulturfag [Faculty of Teacher Education and Arts and Culture]. We look forward to working on a Memorandum of Understanding between the two universities.

Dr Susanne Francisco, Prof Wenche Rønning, A/Prof Kathrin Olsen,
Dr Kate Smithers, Prof Sharynne McLeod and Dr Leanne Gibbs

Kathrin and Sharynne saw 9 kangaroos near CSU.

 

Visiting the University of Iceland

Dr Kate Crowe is both an Adjunct Associate Professor at Charles Sturt University and Adjunct at The University of Iceland. It was good to see where she spends a lot of time each day.

We are working on creating a Memorandum of Understanding between Charles Sturt University and the University of Iceland https://english.hi.is/university/partner_universities