BAGSKOL Postdoctoral Fellowship

The BAGSKOL project (Erasmus+ KA2) aims to understand culturally complex teaching in schools. This innovative concept corresponds to a range of complex subjects and situations that are generally dealt with from one or some cultural view.s. That can make it difficult to address the core questions in the teaching knowledge. For teachers, culturally complex teaching appears as uncomfortable to deal with, uneasy to anticipate. Ideally, this would necessitate a high level of self-reflexion from the teachers. Additionally, it appears difficult, at first, to de-centre these questions from their national context, even if they address global and interconnected questions: teaching institutions produce norms and practices in line with legal requirements and national curricula. Thus, it is a challenge in teacher training to propose procedures dealing with these questions.

International and intercultural cooperation is a means to develop a holistic and comprehensive understanding of these teaching questions and their context. This allows the clarification of the multi-faceted aspects of these questions and potentially more fruitful teaching. BAGSKOL gathers the teams of six university and will follow the collaborative creation of courses, teaching and analysis by international pools of students. The project will provide, in association with different partners, resources, guidance and training toward change. It aims to make a significant contribution to the understanding of the complexity and cultural dimension of the teaching in the classroom.

The position is part of the activities of the European Erasmus+ research and training project KA2 BAGSKOL - Understanding culturally complex teaching as a challenge towards teachers and educators' agency in education, led by the CREN. This project brings together researchers and trainers from six European universities on the theme of culturally complex teaching (project description on the CREN website).

Employer

Nantes Université is a public higher education and research establishment offering a university model that is unique in France, bringing together a university, a university hospital (CHU de Nantes), a technological research institute (IRT Jules Verne), a national research organisation (Inserm) and leading schools (Centrale Nantes, École des Beaux-Arts Nantes Saint-Nazaire, École d'Architecture de Nantes). 

These players are pooling their strengths to develop the excellence of Nantes' research and offer new training opportunities in all areas of knowledge. Sustainable and open to the world, Nantes Université ensures the quality of the study and working conditions offered to its students and staff, to encourage their development on all its campuses in Nantes, Saint-Nazaire and La Roche-sur-Yon.

The Research Centre on Education in Nantes (CREN) is an education and training sciences research centre attached to the Humanities and Languages Faculty of Nantes University. The post is mainly linked to the activities of a group of researchers working on themes 3 - Policies and actors in education and training and 5 - Knowledge, didactics and philosophies in education. The person recruited will be able to develop links with the Department of Educational Sciences within this faculty, as well as with the Inspé – Institute for Teachers Training. The post-doctoral researcher will work under the supervision of Tanguy Philippe, senior lecturer at Nantes Université and project leader.

Main activities (coordination)

The researcher will be responsible for federating and leading the work of a team of researchers, in conjunction with the project's academic coordinator. He/she will have to integrate his/her own scientific and methodological contribution into this collective dynamic. In this project, the central experiment, carried out by all those involved in the project, consists of observing the process of designing cooperative lessons between future teachers from several countries on complex or controversial issues.

The activities are performed within a consortium and then some missions are essential to the position (coordination), while others (analysis, scientific production) will be performed collectively within the consortium; the researcher will support and stimulate this collective action.

1. Coordinate and lead collective research: lead seminars, articulate research between the subgroups, coordinate the budget (with the financial service) and timetable, communicate on the collective results, manage the project’s webpage.

2. Analyse teacher training on culturally complex teaching

• Contribute to the organization of interactions between students from different countries
• Produce and analyse data: audio and video recordings, asynchronous exchanges, interviews, analysis of lesson plans, etc.
• Suggest ways of implementing new teaching/learning approaches in course formats (seminars, placements, summer schools).

3. Make proposals for individual and collective scientific productions

• Summarise the research and training activities carried out
• Lead the collective writing of the reports for the Erasmus+ Agency (mid-term and final)
• Lead the collective writing of scientific articles
• Produce original personal research related to the research project

Profile / Skills and knowledge required

General, theoretical or subject-specific knowledge:

• Fluency in English, B2 minimum in comprehension and expression
• Disciplinary background in social and human sciences, particularly in education and training sciences or in disciplines dealing with culture (cultural anthropology, ethnography, sociology, cultural geography, etc.).
• Knowledge of interculturality, teacher training and citizenship from an international perspective.
• Knowledge of teaching from a sociological and didactic perspective

Operational skills

• Identify appropriate methods for teacher training
• Organise collaborative work in an intercultural and international context
• Lead group work
• Determine objectives and original concepts/methods
• Use innovative digital and educational tools
• Ability to conceptualise
• Ability to make comparisons

Personal/interpersonal skills 

• Organisational skills
• Working in an interdisciplinary and intercultural context
• Diplomacy in interpersonal relations and ability to create a climate of listening
• Interest in different cultures and societies
• Critical thinking and reflexivity

Our strengths

• Possibility of teleworking
• 45 days annual leave
• Working environment conducive to integration into the academic world

Where to apply

E-mail postdoc-bagskol-cren@emploi.beetween.com

Required elements to apply : cover letter, Curriculum vitae, A scientific article as main author before 20th April 2025.

Requirements

• Research Field: Educational sciences
• Education Level: PhD or equivalent
• Languages: ENGLISH Level Excellent, FRENCH Level Good
• Years of Research Experience: 4 - 10
• Diploma :  PhD

Benefits

Contract : 12 months (possible renewal)

Salary : 3700 € gross/month (approximately 2973 € net/month)