Dr. Patsala invited as a Keynote Speaker to the TESOL Macedonia-Thrace Welcome Back Event
Κολέγιο CITY College
Main Campus, Thessaloniki, Greece
31 October 2017

Dr. Patsala invited as a Keynote Speaker to the TESOL Macedonia-Thrace Welcome Back Event

The University of Sheffield International Faculty, CITY College and the English Studies Department have initiated yet another academic year in a productive and promising showcasing of their activities. With an emphasis on our on-going collaboration with the local community of Thessaloniki, Dr. Paschalia Patsala, Head of the English Studies Dept., was invited to a deliver a Keynote Speech at the TESOL Macedonia-Thrace Welcome Back Event through her presentation “Picturing Public Engagement: Its relevance to education, its impact on society.”

Dr. Paschalia Patsala, Head of the International Faculty CITY College English Studies Dept., was invited to a deliver a Keynote Speech at the TESOL Macedonia-Thrace Welcome Back Event

This presentation was dedicated to the staff and students involved in the Public Engagement Scheme of the English Studies Department, which has envisioned education as a transformational experience for both academic staff and learners. This programme, which includes English language lessons offered to high-school students coming from financially weak families, is in line with the mission of CITY College to prepare students for an active presence outside and beyond the university, to mould responsible citizens, who feel accountable to their local and wider community and who share with a firm understanding of their personal and local identity.

Dr. Paschalia Patsala, Head of the International Faculty CITY College English Studies Dept., was invited to a deliver a Keynote Speech at the TESOL Macedonia-Thrace Welcome Back Event

More precisely, Dr. Patsala’s presence at the event aimed at disseminating and consolidating the educational practices pursued at the International Faculty, and, pivotally, at articulating our Institution’s identity as shaped through its global focus but also its commitment to the society.  More specifically, the aim of Dr. Patsala’s presentation was threefold:

  • Firstly, to inform and engage the public in the English Studies Dept. Public Engagement Scheme—an initiative organised, realised and run by staff and students of the Department;
     
  • Secondly, to situate this particular initiative within a wider and global shift that has been changing the texture of education universally, namely an understanding of teaching and learning as civic and community-driven and not solely student-centred; and
     
  • Thirdly, based on the experience built on “Engaged Learning,” to sensitise and encourage other individuals, institutions, and organisations to identify in a cautious and consistent manner communities in need, in order to contribute themselves to further educational initiatives that will benefit specific vulnerable groups in the community.

Dr. Patsala’s presence at the event aimed at disseminating and consolidating the educational practices pursued at the International Faculty

The English Studies Department would like to wholeheartedly thank the Board of TESOL Macedonia-Thrace Northern Greece for their invitation and the opportunity to demonstrate how teaching a foreign language to a vulnerable population can have a valuable impact, finding new approaches to foreign language teaching, or simply brightening people’s lives!

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