UNF faculty foster global partnerships and explore teacher education practices in the Netherlands

November 4, 2025

This October, faculty and staff from the Silverfield College of Education and Human Services, together with representatives from local school districts, traveled to Zwolle, Netherlands, to participate in a professional learning exchange at VIAA University of Applied Sciences. The visit was part of the ongoing Cross-Atlantic Collaboration on Teacher Education, a partnership designed to strengthen ties between universities and schools through shared research, clinical experiences and community engagement.

During the visit, the delegation, Dr. Christian Winterbottom, Dr. Rachelle Curcio, Dr. Wendy Baker, Dr. Jamey Burns, Roshanda Jones, and Dr. Jennifer Shepard, engaged with faculty and staff at VIAA University, exploring innovative practices in teacher preparation and visiting multiple schools and partner districts across the Netherlands.

“The exchange offered valuable insight into how schools and universities can work together to design high-impact clinical experiences,” said Dr. Christian Winterbottom, Silverfield department chair for Teaching, Learning and Curriculum. “It reaffirmed the importance of collaboration in creating meaningful learning environments for future educators.”

Discussions throughout the week focused on opportunities for faculty and staff exchanges, collaborative approaches to school-university partnerships and strategies for embedding community engagement within teacher education. Conversations with Dutch educators, parents and students deepened participants’ understanding of how preparation models can empower teachers to meet the needs of diverse learners.

Building on this momentum, the collaboration will continue through the development of the Prep-Collaborative, an initiative that expands the original PREP partnership into a cross-institutional model of teaching, research and shared professional spaces between faculty, staff and students in the United States and the Netherlands.

“Our goal is to create a lasting framework that connects educators across cultures,” said Dr. Rachelle Curcio, assistant professor of Teaching, Learning, and Curriculum. “This collaboration demonstrates how shared experiences and reflection can lead to collective growth for both universities and schools.”