Transnational Pedagogical Expeditions. Contesting Knowledge through Formative Research in Teacher Education

This contribution is based on a long-standing academic partnership in teacher training between a public university in Colombia and one in Switzerland. In the frame of this partnership, we have developed a critical approach to a ‘planetary learning’ that promotes cross-border teaching, learning and research, as well as student mobility between the Global North and South. International student mobility between the Global North and South, is even less common in teacher education than in other faculties. This is partly because many teacher education students come from less privileged backgrounds and often cannot afford international mobility.

To address these limitations, we have developed the approach of Transnational Pedagogical Expeditions to foster student mobility between the two national contexts. The approach is based on the experiences of Colombia’s National Pedagogical Movement (NPM) in the early 2000s. The approach involves formative research through pedagogical expeditions within and between Colombia and Switzerland. The expeditions are part of a preparatory course taught collaboratively at both partnering universities. Based on the concept of the ‘teacher as researcher’ developed by Colombia’s NPM, binational tandems of teacher education students and in service-teachers are trained and accompanied by researchers of both universities to conduct ethnographic research together in both national contexts, in a spiral process of observation, irritation, reflection, and analysis.

In our presentation we expose how our approach of a ‘planetary learning’ is conceptualized and how it seeks to challenge knowledge hierarchies and decolonise the curriculum in teacher education in both nation-states. Based on our empirical data we will discuss the potentialities and challenges of this approach.