INTERJOM promotes mobility of Mexican and Spanish students as a strategy for incorporating the international and intercultural dimensions in the mission and substantive functions of training institutions for teachers of basic education, facilitating alignment with their educational policies and practices with those of other higher education institutions.
The INTERJOM project seeks to improve the initial training of teachers and the quality of their professional practice through exchange programmes between students of Mexican and Spanish teacher training establishments with the aim of raising the academic standard of future teachers as well as perfecting their practical experience in allowing them to get to know another country, culture and educational system.
The exchange programme at the UAH is based on teaching practice understood as a way of putting theory into action. The programme is based on a conception which today means being a teacher, from previous works by Zeichner (1987) and the most recent work by Korthagen and collaborators (2001). Specifically, we are seeking to carry out teaching practice based on the following principles: “learning from experience”, “reasoned relationship between theory and practice”, and therefore, “rotation between action and reflection”.
These plans are set out in a conception of cooperation and help for development based , in our case, on the promotion of an education of quality and enrichment of people and the communities to which they belong. It is a question of raising sensitivity of the university community and schools to cooperation and solidarity with disadvantaged communities, while developing critical knowledge of the situation.
The participating universities, in alphabetical order, that are involved in the project as units of independent action are mainly Spanish: University of Alcalá, University of Castilla-La Mancha (Cuencas Campus , Toledo Campus), University of Málaga, University of Murcia and the University of Oviedo. Their Mexican counterparts are: Bilingual and Intercultural School of Oaxaca, School of Puebla, School of Mexico City, School of Chiapas, School of Yucatán, School of Veracruz.