Expertise in demand - symposium and networking in New Zealand and Australia

Prof.in Dr.in Nicole Tigges(Opens in a new tab) , Professor of Education at the Faculty of Applied Social Studies and an expert in school social work, represented the faculty in faraway New Zealand with a series of four lectures and established valuable new networks in the process.

At the annual symposium of the Australian and New Zealand Social Work and Welfare Education and Research Association(ANZSWWER(Opens in a new tab) ), which was held under the motto Social Change and Social Justice, Professor Tigges gave lectures on the following topics together with Australian colleagues from the partner universities University of New England(Opens in a new tab)  in Armidale and University of Western Australia(Opens in a new tab)  in Perth:

• Innovative Educational Practices Challenging Inequality in Australia and Germany (Tigges, Young, Hendrick)
• Revolutionizing Social Work Education: Critical and Counter Oppressive Pedagogy for Collaborative and Co-Designed Student-Staff Teaching and Learning (Tigges, Young, Hedrick, Lee)
• International School Social Work: Mental Health and Wellbeing in Schools (Tigges, Lund, Kovac)
• School Social Work Practice around the World (Tigges, Maclure)

Following the symposium, Professor Tigges was invited by the Australian Network of School Social Work(Opens in a new tab)  to work at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology(Opens in a new tab) . There, she is supporting the establishment of a national network for the professionalization of school social work. Together with her colleagues, she is developing an international textbook on cross-professional collaboration in schools.

Nicole Tigges has been professionally networked with Australia since 2006 and has already spent two longer teaching and research stays at the University of New England. In the meantime, Australian colleagues have also found a permanent place in bilingual teaching in the Faculty of Applied Social Studies and regularly contribute valuable critical perspectives that are greatly appreciated by the students.

In the future, student mobility to both countries is to be further expanded in order to promote international exchange and cooperation.