Dear Nightingale friends,
Welcome back to a new semester and a new Nightingale year.
This semester we are really looking forward to go back to a new normal, at least with physical meetings between the mentors and mentees. During the Covid we have noticed partners ability to adapt to the situation and let mentors and mentees meet on-line, which as mentioned before has been a great challenge but when we now look back, this was the best we could have done – to be creative and not loose contact. The most important is: mentees can rely on their mentors and they know they care about them and they did not leave them even when the Covid restrictions was there!
Now we are very much looking forward to also meet all of you which soon will be possible at the:
CONFERENCE AND NETWORK MEETING IN LILLEHAMMER, NORWAY, THE 24th – 25th OF FEBRUARY 2022
Lillehammer 2022 are waiting for us!
The theme will be: Reflect, re-think, and re-story in supervision
At this network meeting we will discuss how supervision can help our mentors to create new narratives and a better understanding of their own action. Mentoring should not only become learning by doing, but also learning by reflective doing.
We will discuss and listen to partners experiences of supervision, from different perspective and we have invited an interesting Keynote speaker.
There will also bee three or four presentations with different examples of supervision delivered.
You can read more about the Network Meeting at the page: Lillehammer 2022
The blog with more details will soon be available with details about the fee, the hotels and the agenda etc.
Partners presentations
Nightingale Karlstad started in the autumn of 2016. It is a collaboration between municipality of Karlstad and Karlstad University that finances 50% each.
So far, 103 students and 294 students in primary school have participated. All students, regardless of education, can apply to become a mentor.
The next round starts in October 2021.
There are three schools in Karlstad municipality that participate. This round 90 students in primary school want to be part of the Nightingale, so now recruitment of about 35 mentors is ongoing.
Each mentor gets 1-3 students in primary school with whom to do different activities. Some of the activities take place in groups, where all mentors participate, some take place on their own with their group. Examples of activities are visiting the university, having coffee together (Swedish ”fika”), playing games, various sport activities, cooking, baking, discussing life issues, studies and opportunities as an adult.
The benefits of being in a group is many! Among other things the students in primary school get to know more friends, do fun activities in their free time, share the positive activities together with classmates and take this back to school, into the classroom. They get to see each other in other contexts, learn to respect each other, agree to decide with their mentor what activities they should do during the 8 months they are part of Nightingale.
All activities are financed of the project the students do not receive any compensation in addition to the costs of activities, they contribute their time because they want to make a difference for other people..
Last round we had to switch from physical meetings to digital meetings to the ongoing pandemic for a couple of months. The need to meet physical was clearly great and when students and their mentors got to meet again and do activities together, the happiness was great!
Quatations from some children/youth:
”You get to do things with new people who are a little older than us and see how it is to study at the university”
”It is important that it does not cost anything. Get away from everyday life, get to do something out of the ordinary.
Mentors: ”Students in primary school show great interest in in education and career paths.”
”They are very proud and happy to be part of the project.”
Teachers :”The students have been looking forward to it. For some, it has been extra important as they may otherwise lack a social network.”
”I think this project has developed some students very much.”
//Best regards Petra Johansson, project manager Nigtingale Karlstad, Karlstad University
Other News
For your attention:
Our Nightingale Mentoring Network is listed in the Yearbook of International Organizations (UIA) open year book. (The organization is an independent, not-for-profit research institute founded in 1907 to promote and facilitate the work of international associations)
All our Nightingale conferences “Events” over the year since the Network started in the year 2010 and our aims, the history etc., everything is mentioned and listed here.
Click here to read more
Research
We have very productive partners in our Network so don´t forget to sometime look into the page “About” and click on “Nightingale research and evaluations” where you can find interesting research from our partners, there is a new one from Spain, for example.
There is also an English translation abstract of Peter Stammerjohanns text:
The Processes of Bildung in pedagogical contact zones. Crises as potential for Bildung within the framework of the organization of intercultural tandems.
We have also our own You Tube Nightingale channel with film, interviews etc.
Nightingale Mentor – Näktergalen
If you have anything you want to upload, please contact Carina.