As global competition for skilled graduates intensifies, a South African private higher education institution is betting that international classroom exchanges can produce the adaptable, future-ready teachers the country needs.Stadio’s School of Education has established partnerships with institutions in Norway, Canada and the US, exposing local student teachers to global best practices and intercultural learning.Central to this effort is Learning to Lead, a three-year project with Norway’s Queen Maud University College of Early Childhood Education focused on developing multicultural leadership in early childhood education.“The aim is to contribute meaningfully to the UN’s goals of building a strong educational foundation for children through ECE [early childhood education],” said Marinda Swart, head of teaching practice at Stadio’s School of Education.Stadio students have spent time in Norwegian early childhood centres, while Norwegian students completed teaching practice in South African schools.“Experiencing different educational systems firsthand broadens students’ perspectives, strengthens their cultural competence, and equips them to work confidently in diverse classroom environments,” Swart said.This kind of exposure prepares teachers not only with subject knowledge but also with the resilience and adaptability to navigate a rapidly changing world.Intercultural competence is a crucial skill for student teachers to develop, Swart said, and engagement with global communities allows them to think and teach beyond their own contexts.The exchange of perspectives runs both ways, Swart noted. As countries such as Norway grow increasingly multicultural, South Africa’s decades of experience navigating diversity make it an attractive destination for international students and academics seeking real-world exposure to inclusive education.Swart distanced the programme from any suggestion that international automatically means superior, emphasising that the partnerships are about connection and mutual learning.“It’s about connecting with global communities, making sure we learn from other countries and are aware of what is happening internationally,” she said. “We then blend that with our own knowledge of what’s happening in South Africa.“Not everything that happens internationally in well-developed countries can always be transferred directly to a South African context, but our students’ and academics’ awareness of these practices filters back into our curriculum,” she said.Those lessons were on full display in Norway. Among the most transferable was its experiential, play-based approach to teaching, in which children select their own materials and direct their own learning — a marked contrast to the more structured, teacher-led classrooms common in South Africa.It’s about connecting with global communities, making sure we learn from other countries and are aware of what is happening internationally.— Marinda SwartSwart also noted “risky play” as an interesting cultural difference, with Norwegian children as young as three using knives to craft objects. There is acceptance that bumps and bruises are part of growing up, reflecting a broader principle in Norway: that children learn better when given the freedom to fail and make their own decisions, building the independence and problem-solving skills that overly directed learning can suppress.Norwegian schools deliver much of their curriculum outdoors, regardless of the weather, using fallen trees as obstacle courses and streams as classrooms — an approach, Swart said, that is equally relevant locally.“Teaching and learning are not dependent on resources alone,” she said. “It’s really about sparking a child’s curiosity.”Beyond Norway, Stadio’s partnership with Canada’s Brock University introduced a focus on innovation and sustainability, including a hydroponics pilot project through which student teachers explored how scientific concepts could be applied in classroom settings.“Students develop not only scientific understanding, but also the confidence to apply these concepts in real educational settings, positioning them as agents of transformation when they enter schools,” said Kemi Adebayo, academic manager at Stadio’s School of Education.A partnership with Pacific Oaks College in the US, meanwhile, is centred on social justice and inclusive education, with students and faculty engaging on issues ranging from child wellbeing to gender-based violence through seminars and collaborative dialogues.For Adebayo, the three partnerships together point to a broader institutional ambition.“Through such collaborations, we can integrate innovative, practice-based approaches into teacher education and position Stadio within global academic networks, contributing to institutional growth and enriching the overall student experience.”Business Times