As part of the "Studying Dis/ability" project, an excursion of first-year students from the "Speciální Pedagogiky" (TU Liberec) and "Heilpädagogik/Inclusion Studies" (HSZG) degree programs took place at the Pecka vacation camp (Czech Republic) from 17-19 October 2017. This joint project was made possible because the Bachelor's degree course "Speciální Pedagogiky" - in addition to the previous part-time part-time course - has also been accredited as a full degree course since the winter semester 2017/18. A total of 49 first-semester students (24 from Liberec, 25 from Görlitz) took part.
The excursion was organized by the Czech university lecturers Dr. Hana Joklíková, Dr. Zuzana Palounkova and Jan Jihlavec, the Görlitz third-semester students Sonja Jähnig, Ronja Beyer, Veronika Manitz, Anna Höppner and Jana Nittmann and Prof. Dr. Petra Fuchs and Prof. Dr. Ingolf Prosetzky. During the stay, introductory games and a series of self-awareness workshops were held to better understand different impairments and "disabilities", as well as keynote speeches on the topic of disability and inclusion. In addition, information events were held on the respective study structure.
In the course of the excursion, the understanding of accessibility as a prerequisite for the participation of people with different impairments was sharpened. At the same time, it became clear that the language and cultural barriers between the students were greater than initially assumed. In the joint evaluation of the excursion, the desire to overcome these barriers in the future was articulated. To this end, an exchange program was agreed for the coming months. The lecturers will each hold a course at the partner university, and at student level an invitation to visit the Görlitz Christmas market with subsequent private accommodation in student shared flats is planned.
The excursion was financially supported by the German-Czech Future Fund(www.fondbudoucnosti.cz/de).
Contact:
Prof. Dr. Ingolf Prosetzky
Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences
Faculty of Social Sciences
Chair of Curative Education/Inclusion Studies
Furtstr. 2
D-02826 Görlitz
Tel: +49(0)3581 374 4287
ingolf.prosetzky@hszg.de