We wanted the teachers and school leaders who participated in the project to: - be more reflected towards their own and others' teaching practice - gain insight into other schools assessment practices - discover a variety of forms of teacher-student collaboration - get new perspectives on pedagogical leadership - examine how teachers and school management can gain results together - achieve up to date skills within their disciplines - be more motivated and knowledgeable staff that can spread good practice in their own school and in the county as a whole - achieving an interest in international cooperation We expected that this would lead to a general increased awareness and openness about teaching and other relevant topics at each school. We also believed it could have a positive effect towards internationalisation and that it might lead to increased international activity by the schools involved. Ultimately this would benefit the pupils. Having motivated, dedicated, skilled, knowledgeable and updated teachers was the best starting point for pupils to learn more, to have more pupils complete upper secondary education and a high quality of the teaching, which were all among the main strategic goals we were working towards in upper secondary education in Akershus.
The background for this project was an initiative in Akershus county called "Den gode akershusskolen (Dga)". In brief Dga was about improving students' skills through a professionalisation of all levels of upper secondary education. One of the main intitiatives was the "professionalisation of teachers' through incorporating common core competencies and common attitudes" in the upper secondary schools of Akershus county. To "have a culture of sharing of good practice" and to be "able to reflect upon their own teaching" were among the core competencies expected of the teachers in the Akershus schools. We believed that promoting teachers and staff mobility activities would be meaninful contribution to achieve these goals. The project was a continuation of four similar projects from the period 2015- 2018. The original plan involved 49 school leaders and teachers specialised in different subjects from 8 of the 34 upper secondary schools in Akershus on staff mobility activities in various European countries. The activities should have mainly consisted of job shadowing at a partner school and participation in structured courses. The outburst of the covid-19 pandemic altered these ambitions.