A purposeful visit to Islamic University paid by a decent Norwegian delegation has set the plan for MSc programme at IUG& HU.
A Master programme in “Developing the Teacher Education in Pedagogy for Early Childhood Education and Early Elementary School in Palestine and Norway-MSc” has been established with a triangle cooperation of the University of South-Eastern Norway-HSN, Islamic University-Gaza and Hebron University. This programme is funded by The Norwegian Programme for Capacity Development in Higher Education and Research for Development (NORHED), and done under the auspices of the University of South-Eastern Norway.
“We realized that Kindergarten was an important area to be focused on. For many children they are suffering from the siege, so we tried to establish a Master degree in kindergarten teacher education focusing on their problems,” assured the main coordinator of NorPal project Ass. Prof. Oyvind Wistrom in an interview at the IUG President Office.
The 2019-2023 project zooms in developing teaching, academic mobility and conducting collaborative research with the University of South-Eastern Norway in the field of Early Childhood Education and Elementary school (year 4-9) in Palestine and in Norway.
Through the MA Programme, the three partners will conduct a transparent and long-term cooperation of student and staff exchange that would pave the way for future joint development of knowledge, mobility and research. In addition, building the capacity of academics through mutual exchange between Norway and Palestine and through credit-awarding courses, joint workshops and seminars in selected topics in the MSc or other relevant subject fields. Moreover, establish international comparative research groups in the areas of pedagogical leadership & counselling, human rights, democracy and citizenship, sustainable development; in addition to early childhood development, special needs, health and life mastery.
When she was asked about her expectations of the project, Deputy Coordinator for this NorPal confidently added: I’ve been meeting with persons from IUG via Skype, and they are highly qualified people so I have highly expectations to develop pedagogy for young children and develop Master degree and students.
As part of the distinguished visit, the delegation has toured many places in Islamic University. They were received first by the IUG President in his office and Foreign Affairs Deanship and the teamwork professors Prof. Nazmi Almasri, NorPal main coordinator, Prof. Sanaa Abu-Dagga, co-coordinator and Miss Azza AlSahhar, project administrator, in addition to professors from Education Faculty.
Then they went to Irada Center for rehabilitation of disabled people then to IUG Museum, where they got to know thoroughly about IUG History.
The delegation members were very impressed by the services and training at Irada Center. The project Coordinator Prof. Oyvind Wistrom happily said, “I’m so happy to see how the Islamic University has been rebuilt since I came here first time”.
