A Palestinian delegation from the Islamic University of Gaza and Hebron University including academics and master’s students – During the period from 4-10 September 2022, visited the University of South-Eastern Norway (USN) as a part of the activities of a project “Early Childhood Education Development in Palestine”, which carried out in partnership with USN and Hebron University. The delegation is represented by the coordinator of the project Prof. Nazmi Almasri, the Dean of the Faculty of Education Prof. Ibrahim Alastal, and Prof. Sanaa Abu Daqqa, besides a number of academics and master’s students in ECE at Hebron University.
The visit schedule included many activities such as holding meetings with the project team to discuss administrative details, in addition, to discuss research groups, preparing and publishing joint research, visiting some schools and kindergartens in Norway, and meetings with scholarship students at USN.
During the visit, a meeting was held with the Vice President of the USN to discuss prospects for cooperation in international projects such as Erasmus+ for student and academic exchange and to discuss prospects for future cooperation to build on the results of the current project.
As the delegation visited some kindergartens and schools, the visit focused on observation and meeting with early childhood experts in kindergartens and primary schools trying to share experiences and benefited from their best practices in improving the childhood sector in Palestine.
The visit also included a number of meetings with Ph.D. & MA scholarship students from the Islamic University of Gaza and Hebron University in pedagogy and human rights and with MA students via Zoom.
These meetings emphasize the importance of scientific and research communication between graduate students in the three universities through holding regular joint meetings via Zoom, and discussing mechanisms for developing the Early Childhood Master’s Program and enriching scientific lectures.
The delegation participated in workshops and seminars on the development of early childhood education, in addition to delivering a lecture to master’s students in Pedagogy at the University of South-Eastern Norway. Where Prof. Dr. Ibrahim Al-Astal, Dean of the Faculty of Education, presented a lecture entitled “The Reality of Early Childhood Education in Palestine – Prospects and Challenges”.
The fruitful visit ended with several outcomes: two Ph.D. researchers from the University of South-Eastern Norway will visit IUG in October and they will participate in workshops and lectures in ECE. The team agreed on doing regular meetings with all MA students at three universities to exchange experiences about ECE, conducting group research.
They also discussed the preparations for the international conference on early childhood education, which is expected to be held in April 2023, and applying to Erasmus+ for students and academic exchange. Moreover, discuss the travel of the MA students in ECE at the Islamic University of Gaza to University of South-Eastern Norway (USN) in March 2023.