Research-tandem: an incredible opportunity for international mobility to improve students¡¯ research skills

About the project

The project is based on three pillars: international teamwork, cultural responsiveness and fast publication track building.

A pair of students (one from the host country and one from the guest country) work on a joint master's thesis with two co-supervisors.

Both sides are exposed to the experience of ¡°defamiliarization¡± and need to re-examine their cultural beliefs and premises, which have been taken for granted in their usual practices. The encounter provides an opportunity for a form of epistemological triangulation, opening to deeper analysis.

Students will also have to produce an international joint article from their thesis.

The project aims

• To educate a future generation of ?scholars without borders?;
• To foster mutual learning between Global South and Global North, East and West;
• To develop an ecological approach to higher education: local edu-systems to solve the universal human problem of teaching/learning.

About the mobility

Research-tandem is a twinning program that involves an international mobility of three months for the preparation of the master's thesis through collaboration between students of two different countries.

The students go through a phase of preparation, a phase of three months data collection in the host country and a phase of joint writing. Finally, they participate in one week ¡°accelerator¡± seminar to write a scientific article.

The preparation starts during third semester and the mobility takes place during the fourth semester.

The pair is composed by:

• Host: the student of the incoming country, who act as local informant and cultural mediator. The host will receive and work together with the guest student to collect data in the local field.
• Guest: the student who is travelling to the other country, who bring is different perspective on the local phenomena. The guest will receive a mobility grant during the three months stay in the host university.

The partner institutions

• Early Childhood Education Department, Faculty of Education, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China 
• Department of Sociology, University of Kerala, India 
• Postgraduate Program in Psychology, Federal University of Bahia, Salvador de Bahia, Brazil 
• Department of Special Needs Education, University of Oslo, Norway

Students can express a preference for one of the universities, but the final decision will depend on the availability and the thesis projects.

Who can participate

Students from the partner institutions. Subject to availability of suitable candidates, each institution will in total offer eight (8) places during the period of the agreement 2021-25. 

How to join

Student who want to apply shall prepare a short statement about their idea, the country they would like to collaborate (but this can be changed during the selection process) and they must prove that they are fulfilling all the requirements for the MA thesis.

The language of instruction will be English. 

Students from India, China and Brazil should apply through their home university. 

Application deadlines

• 15^th of September- outgoing students from UiO: Login - S?knadsweb (fsweb.no)
• 15^th of October- incoming students to UiO: Online nomination service for partner universities - University of Oslo (uio.no)
• 15^th of November- outgoing students from UiO: apply for additional grant.

Step by step information for applicants from UiO

• In the second semester of the master program you will be invited to an info meeting about this tandem mobility.
• You submit the required documents in your third semester by September 15^th
• If you are among the selected students, you enter a special MOS group during the third semester (within SPED4090 and SNE4390 courses) for preparing the project proposal, find your match tandem partner in the other country, meet your supervisors, and be prepared to the intercultural experience.
• At the end of your third semester you are assigned a tandem partner, a supervisor at UiO and a supervisor in the other university.
• If you want to be host, you start taking contact with the place where you are going to collect data.
• If you want to be guest, you start preparing the documents to travel.
• On the fourth semester, from January/February to March/April you experience the research-tandem with your partner student.
• After the research-tandem period you will participate in an ¡°accelerator¡± seminar of five (5) days, with other students to develop your article.
• In June you submit your own Master thesis.
• In August, the research-tandem and the supervisors submit an article to an international peer-reviewed journal.

Whom to contact

For academic questions: Project leader and professor Luca Tateo

For practical questions: Higher Executive Officer 

If you are interested in other's research-tandem student experiences, you can read the book Social ecology of a Chinese kindergarten: where culture grows.

Research-tandems is financed by the Norwegian Directorate for Higher Education and Skills