During the first week of October, the corridors of our Faculty of Education echoed with several different languages, from Portuguese, through Hungarian or Albanian, to the common integrating language, which was English. Under the auspices of the International Office of Faculty of Education, Palacký University, the 7th annual event called "International Week" was organized; in other words, a meeting of representatives of some of our partner universities from different parts of Europe.
We welcomed colleagues from the United Kingdom, Ireland, Poland, Slovakia, Serbia, Albania, Hungary, and Portugal, 30 participants in total. This was the highest number of participants in the history of the organization of this event. As part of the varied program that was prepared, the participants got acquainted not only with the structure and mission of our faculty, but also with our entire university and, through an interactive cultural-historical walk, with the city of Olomouc itself. The participants had the opportunity to visit the university kindergarten and learn basic information about Czech pre-primary education, as well as get an insight into the practical teaching of primary education at the International School in Olomouc. A very positive reaction was brought by the visit to "Digidoupě" (Digiden), where the visitors received a thorough explanation about the use of various information and communication technologies in teaching, which was given with his own enthusiasm by Kamil Kopecký, the head of the Digiden, with the assistance of Lukáš Kubala.
The main goal of International Week is the presentation of foreign institutions, their study programs, and opportunities for foreign student mobility, which was accessible for students and academic staff of our faculty in the premises of the small auditorium. The lecture block also included academic seminars and lectures by our foreign guests, who covered a broad range of topics, from geometry to visual arts in education, children's literature, neuro-pedagogy, and corpus linguistics. The International Fair, an event during which each institution was represented by its own "stall", where it individually provided additional information and contacts to those interested, was also held here.
We believe that these interesting activities convinced and motivated students to decide to study abroad in the future.
Many thanks go to colleagues from the Department of Primary and Pre-Primary Pedagogy and the Institute of Foreign Languages for their help in organizing the program, as well as to the assisting students, Dalimila Macáková and Matěj Šerák, without whose help this event would not be possible at all.
In conclusion, from the atmosphere that prevailed throughout the week, as well as from the photos taken and the reflections of the participants themselves, we can proudly state that the 7th year of "IW", as we familiarly refer to International Week, was extremely successful.
We are already looking forward to the next year, likely taking place again in the first week of October 2023 – you are all invited!