Keywords

1 Introduction

Extensive research has documented the advantages international collaboration has brought to education at different levels (Blosser & Kubow, 2016; Maguth & Hilburn, 2015; Wollons, 2000). Cross-cultural communication and collaboration skills including intercultural sensitivity and understanding are listed as essential twenty-first-century skills (Evans, 2020; Joynes et al., 2019). Within education, teachers capable of operating in an ever diversified and global world is highlighted as an important educational strategy. In addition to the enhancement of cross-cultural communication and collaboration skills, international collaboration in education improves participants’ professional development (Birkeland & Li, 2019; Hu & Ødemotland, 2021). Despite multiple advantages, international collaboration within education is vulnerable, such as miscommunication caused by unawareness of cultural differences, language issues, lack of commitment and financial support of the members. Although the development of science and technology has made it possible for collaborators to communicate via digital tools, these difficulties do not disappear. In addition, the use of digital tools is adding other challenges to be approached.

Internationalization with mobilities is a demand, and one of the key strategies for Norwegian and Chinese universities to improve the quality of education they offer, and the ranking of their universities nationally and internationally. A collaboration involving Chinese and Norwegian early childhood education teacher educators/researchers at universities, student teachers, kindergarten principals and teachers was initiated in 2004 and has been enhanced and sustained ever since (Birkeland, 2016; Li et al., 2021). The case project this chapter reports is an UTFORSKFootnote 1 project financed by the Norwegian Research Council for international collaboration between Norwegian and Chinese higher education institutions (HEI). The project is composed of a group of people who share a common concern and interest in developing early childhood education (ECE) with sustainability as the main focus. Collectively, the members initiate projects, provide a platform for regular dialogues and production of ideas and knowledge. The core members are relatively stable with new members gradually joining in. The main idea is that encounters with differences, with the unknown and with the unfamiliar may generate disorienting dilemmas (Birkeland & Ødemotland, 2018), disturbance and provoke constant revisions of interpretive modes and theories of reality among the stakeholders (Moss, 2014, p. 82). As such, the project is a place for realizing potential for professional development and learning. However, the project “...cannot predict or control what directions that learning takes since it does not proceed in a linear way, determined and deterministic” (Moss, 2014, p. 81). The most used communication channels are annual physical meetings, students’ and members’ mobility, emails, and social media (WeChat). The COVID-19 has posed challenges to the physical meetings and mobilities.

The concept of crisis has been frequently used after the outbreak of COVID-19, and COVID-19 is called COVID-19 crisis. Although defined differently, the essence of all definitions is that crisis is “an upset in a steady state... the habitual problem-solving activities are not adequate and do not rapidly lead to the previously achieved balance state” (Rapoport, 1962, p.212). Following cultural-historical perspectives (Hedegaard, 2009), we use the term contradictions to refer to the upsets brought by the COVID-19 crisis to this cross-cultural collaboration. The pandemic has made almost all countries close their borders to international travellers for different periods. China fully opened to international travellers in January 2023. As a public-funded project whose major goal is to promote participants’ development through mobilities and joint actions, mobilities are expected and required. Thus, the project experienced contradictions because of the tensions and conflicts between societal expectations and demands. There are contradictions between personal motivations and the current conditions. The main personal motivation of kindergarten teachers in participating in this project is to take part in the mobility program and thereby learn about other cultures and early childhood education through personal experiences. The present conditions have denied this possibility. When being dependent on utilizing digital technology, there are contradictions between expectations of having such digital competence and participants lacking such competence.

Even though the project faces crises at different levels, we are not passive in the face of the crisis. Rather, we are active in thinking of solutions collectively and taking actions to meet the challenges, being innovative and transformative (Edwards, 2010). Additionally, the project participants have demonstrated resilience in the face of the crisis. “Resilience is not a quality that is innate. Rather, it is a construct that is relative, developmental, dynamic, connoting the positive adaptation and development of individuals in the presence of challenging circumstances” (Gu & Day, 2007, p. 1305). This chapter aims to share an example of how international collaboration is sustained during a global crisis through a case highlighting the potential opportunities the crisis offers. Our goal is to spark new research and practices with creative and innovative approaches for international collaboration beyond this global pandemic.

2 Our Case

When receiving grants from the UTFORSK program for our collaboration we faced comprehensive societal expectations and demands. Firstly, there was an expectation of extensive teacher, student, and researcher mobility and international exchange. Secondly, there was an expectation of combining educational and research activities by including different stakeholders such as researchers, teacher educators, student teachers, kindergarten principals and teachers from both countries. These expectations and demands were clear premises for the project.

This cross-cultural collaboration project has been achieved through three major areas of activities namely, teacher education, early childhood education research, and kindergarten network, all of which require mobility and international exchanges. In this chapter, our focus is on the kindergarten network and the project named “Our neighborhood” that the network is working on. This project incorporates educational and research activities as essential elements. Research has been an indispensable component of the kindergarten network as we believe that systematic investigation of practices informs and inspires practices.

2.1 The Collaboration Before the Pandemic

An important activity that developed gradually from involving different stakeholders was workshops on the topic of early childhood education for sustainability (ECEfS). ECEfS as a major theme in the collaboration has focused on cultural sustainability and belonging exemplified by the topic of the “Our Neighborhood” project. In the annual physical meetings from 2016–2019 held in China and Norway alternatively, the kindergarten teachers shared their experiences and practices within topics such as local cultural tradition, local sites of importance, dramatic play, and storytelling. This sharing was mainly initiated and organized as workshops for and by the kindergarten teachers, so the researchers had a minor position and role. Initially, this sharing was not presented as best practices, but as a variety of practices on joint “problems” to inspire each other (Novoa & Yariv-Mashal, 2003). With this approach, the teachers opened to different ways of doing dramatic play and working with local traditions in the kindergarten. In this way, the workshops enabled the unexpected and new to emerge rather than controlling and evaluating the practices against preset goals and creating new knowledge to advance professional practice. The annual physical workshops as well as researchers’ visits to kindergartens have been indispensable parts of the project.

After the physical workshops about local traditions, the idea of working with “Our neighborhood” as a joint topic was elaborated. Firstly, the idea was an elaboration of local and cultural traditions. Gradually, the idea developed to become part of education for a sustainable future with an emphasis on cultural sustainability and the importance of belonging. The kindergartens were supposed to have a physical meeting and workshop in the spring of 2020. However, the pandemic crisis changed our plans dramatically.

2.2 The Collaboration During the Pandemic Crisis

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic was a real crisis for our collaborative project. The expectation of our project was extensive mobility. This possibility was immediately limited and affected the mobilities of students, researchers, and kindergarten teachers. We needed to think differently about data production concerning ECEfS. This could be done by researchers in Norway producing data in Norway and Chinese researchers producing data in China. The closure of mobility also impacted kindergarten teachers’ possibility to observe practices and inspire each other.

The kindergarten teachers were concerned about continuing to share their practices and had a strong desire to continue their collective community of practices (Cambridge et al., 2005). However, due to the demanding situation in the kindergartens, partly being closed and reducing activities to digital activities, the teachers could not take responsibility for keeping the collaboration going. Rather, we were looking for possibilities to combine the collaborative community of practices with research interests. In this way, the idea of conducting digital workshops including different stakeholders and sharing of visual materials was brought up, discussed, and thus implemented. Four different workshops were elaborated on the following themes:

  1. 1.

    Sharing project progress and identifying needs and support for continuity

  2. 2.

    Using storytelling in “Our neighborhood” project

  3. 3.

    Including the local neighborhood in a time of pandemic

  4. 4.

    Sharing local projects’ development and progress and reflecting on actions taken

The kindergarten teachers presented to each other and shared their thoughts about how this topic was related to cultural sustainability and children’s sense of belonging. The common focuses were education for cultural sustainability and belonging and local variations more than best practices with one norm/ideal way of doing it.

These presentations and discussions generated materials about practices and understandings about cultural sustainability and belonging. Establishing a digital platform for sharing contributed to both researchers and kindergarten teachers to see the joint problems we want to approach and not primarily be disturbed by the differences in ECE conditions and practices. Rather, joint concerns about ECEfS were raised. The generated materials have been used not only for reflection on actions and planning for future actions but also for research purposes (Hu & Ødemotland, 2021).

3 Discussion – Lessons Learned

The COVID crisis has challenged us to use alternative approaches for cross-cultural collaboration. As a result, we resort to digital platforms as a means to realize cross-cultural collaboration during the pandemic period to sustain the relationship, and further realize the project goals. Our experience during this period has informed us of the advantages and opportunities digitalization has offered to us.

First, digital technology gives rise to a peculiar form of consciousness and human action and has created new opportunities and possibilities. The digital platforms have helped us solve the embedded contradictions of mobility by flights and made it possible to keep communications and collaboration going. To achieve smooth and good communication via digital platforms, it is important that the project has established a joint culture for collaboration. Once the rapport between participants is established, using digital platforms can reduce the number of physical meetings which is sustainable. Speaking of sustainability, it means not only the sustainability of different dimensions but also the sustainable development of cross-cultural collaboration per se. We need physical meetings and at the same time, digitalization provides opportunities for ongoing dialogue despite the distance. Moreover, our experience is that we have teacher educators/researchers in each of the locations who can support kindergartens, which makes digitalization less vulnerable. Besides, a participant who has extensive knowledge about Chinese and Norwegian culture and early childhood education also contributes to lessening the vulnerability of digitalization. The successful use of digitalization also relies on the participants’ familiarity with the neighborhood project and trust of each other.

Secondly, while presenting and communicating using digital technology, the expectations are different from physical meetings. One expectation is that participants have the digital competence to use digital technology to present, share, and respond. In addition, it is expected that presenters use visual materials to clarify the presentation. Furthermore, it is expected that the participants are as active responders as, if not more active than when they meet physically. A challenge we face here is that in the digital workshops, it is difficult to make the participants actively comment and be critical when giving comments. Being critical for some means giving negative responses and/or evaluation. In the previous physical meetings, there were some critical questions and better dialogues. Since it is not easy to read people’s body and facial language via digital platforms, it stops people from being as critical as they used to be. Besides, when conducting the digital workshops, language was still an issue since the participants’ first language was either Norwegian or Chinese. The language used thus is English. One of the advantages of our project is that we have a colleague who speaks all three languages and thus can act as an interpreter when necessary. To encourage participants to be more active and critical in providing comments and feedback on digital platforms, it is important that the presentations are sent to them beforehand so that they can make some preparations.

Thirdly, the focus on cultural differences faded. When the participants met physically, they were to some extent overwhelmed by experiencing disorienting dilemmas facing cultural differences and differences in early childhood education practices (Birkeland & Ødemotland, 2018). The attention was focusing on cultural differences, and less on shared problems and ways of approaching such shared problems. When we were meeting digitally, we met on a culturally independent platform, which made people more aware of shared problems, i.e. how to educate for cultural sustainability and open up in different ways to inspire each other. In this way, the presentations of how to approach and include the local neighborhood in the kindergartens were different examples of how to solve a “joint problem” (Novoa & Yariv-Mashal, 2003).

Fourthly, in our process of preparing and implementing digital workshops, we learned that visual materials and artifacts can act as mediators when facing the difficulties of not being able to meet. Digital platforms have forced us to be more visual and to use examples in presentations to achieve better communication and understanding. We have saved all the materials for not only reflections on actions and for future action planning but also research. We were also inspired to make visual materials and learning resources and use digitalization for ECE master education in both countries.

Finally, digital platforms can also act as social spaces where participants share daily life during the pandemic and encourage and support each other socially in a time of isolation. Keeping the communication going enhances the bonds among participants which results in enhanced resilience. In the digital workshops, the participants showed their appreciation and support to each other when giving comments and feedback. Mutual trust and eagerness have made us more resilient in the time of digitalization.

3.1 Looking Forward

How to balance the embedded contradiction of cross-cultural collaboration is an ongoing issue that requires creativity under different circumstances. During the COVID 19 crisis, our project has tried to use digital platforms in innovative ways. A digital platform for ongoing cross-cultural collaboration among main actors in ECE can be a model for future collaboration, not relying on one form of communication but a hybrid one integrating both digital and physical meetings. The collaboration thus can be going on despite the distances. This hybrid communication model also contributes to the sustainability of the environment and the project and enhances the bonds and resilience of the participants. Utilizing visual materials on digital platforms can make it easier for participants of different cultures and languages to understand and inspire each other in a more concrete way. To encourage participants to be more active and critical in digital workshops, it is important to send presentations and give tasks beforehand.