Dr. Sina Westa, MSc

since 2023: Senior Scientist at the Department for Higher Education Research, University for Continuing Education Krems
2021 – 2023: Research Associate & Project Coordinator QUALITEACH, Erfurt School of Education, University of Erfurt
2018 – 2021: Research Associate at the Chair for Elementary Education, Faculty of Philosophy and Education, Catholic University Eichstätt-Ingolsadt
2013 – 2016: Marie-Curie doctoral fellow within the ITN UNIKE (Universities in the Knowledge Economy)

Academic Education

• Certificate for Teaching in Higher Education Teaching of the Bavarian Universities
• Dr. of Science in Teacher Education and Educational Sciences (Scientific area: Educational Science; orientation: Educational Policy), Faculty of Education, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
•  MSc in Applied Social and Community Research, School of Applied Social Science, University of Brighton, UK
• 1. Staatsexamen (1st State Examination) in Teaching at Primary School with the Major Subject Psychology with an Emphasis on School Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Education, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich, Germany

Publications

Stachowiak-Kudła, M., Westa, S., Meix-Cereceda, P., & Azorín-Toboso, J. (2024). Impact of mergers on conflicts at universities—Conclusions from courts decisions. Conflict Resolution Quarterly, 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1002/crq.21424

Parmigiani, Davide; Nir, Aviva Bar; Burke Jenene; Claughton, Amy; Ferguson-Patrick, Kate; Baruch, Alona Forkosh; Heddy, Eileen; Impedovo, Maria Antonietta; Ingersoll, Marcea; Jones, Mellita; Kimhi, Yael; Lourenço, Mόnica; MacQueen, Suzanne; Pennazio, Valentina; Sokal, Laura; Timkova, Renata; Westa, Sina; Wikan, Gerd (2023). Assessing the development of Global Competence in teacher education programmes: Internal consistency and reliability of a set of rubrics, Higher Education Pedagogies, 8(1), DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/23752696.2023.2216190

Stachowiak-Kudła, Monika; Westa, Sina; Santos Botelho, Catarina: Bartha Ildikó (2023). Academic Freedom as a Defensive Right, Hague Journal on the Rule of Law, 15(1), 161-190. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40803-022-00188-4 

Westa, Sina (2021). Warum Lehramtsstudierende an einem SCHULWÄRTS!-Praktikum teilnehmen. [Reasons for teaching students to take part in a SCHULWÄRTS! Internship]. In Auslandspraktika in der ehrkräftebildung. Erste Erkenntnisse aus dem SCHULWÄRTS! Forschungshubs des Goethe Instituts. [Internships abroad: First insights from the SCHULWÄRTS! Research hub of the Goethe Institute]. Goethe Institut. Waxmann: München. ISBN: 978-3-8309-4403-4; 978-3-8309-9403-9

Westa, Sina (2020). “Professionalization through Internationalization in Teacher Education: International Project (IPC) an Example for Internationalization@home.” In Quality Teachers and Quality Teacher Education, Key Concepts Series, edited by J. Madalińska-Michalak. Foundation for the Development of the Education System. ISBN: 978-83-66515-31-4 

Westa, Sina (2017). What does Academic Freedom mean for Academics? A Case Study of the University of Bologna and the National University of Singapore. In The University as a Critical Institution? Higher Education in the 21st Century Series Volume 10, edited by R. Deem and H. Eggins. Rotterdam: Sense Publisher. ISBN: 978-94-6351-116-2

Conference Presentations

2023

Exploring academic freedom, its constraints and the role of solidarity in exercising it. (Westa, Sina & Custers, Benedikte) Solidarity and the University 5-th Annual Philosophy and Theory of Higher Education Conference. 13-15th June 2023, University of Gdańsk, Poland. 

2022

What do teacher-education students expect from an internship abroad for their personal and professional development? Insights from a qualitative analysis of motivation letters for the SCHULWÄRTS!-programme of the Goethe Institute. ATEE 2022 Winter Conference Teaching and Learning for an Inclusive Interconnected World; 20/21/22 April 2022; Sestri Lenate, Italy. 

2021

Online Cooperation in Teacher Education: How do teacher-education students perceive cooperative learning in an online environment? Teacher Education Policy Europe (TEPE) conference: Challenges of distance teaching in teacher education and education”, 20-22 May in Ljubljana, Slovenia, online. 

2020

Warum Lehramtsstudierende in Ausland gehen: Motive und Erwartungen an ein Auslandpraktikum im Rahmen von SCHULWÄRTS! [Teacher-education student’s reasons for going abroad: Motivations and expectations for an internship abroad within SCHULWÄRTS!] Internationalisierung der Lehrerbildung und internationale Lehrermigration/ Internationalisation of Teacher Education and International Teacher Migration. 03.-04. December 2020 online, organised by the Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany, online.

Policy Perspektiven zur Internationalisierung der Lehrerbildung in Deutschland und der EU: Widersprüche, Gemeinsamkeiten und Potentiale. [Policy perspectives on the internationalization of teacher education in Germany and the EU: Contradictions, Similarities, and Potentials]. Internationalisierung der Lehrerbildung und internationale Lehrermigration/ Internationalisation of Teacher Education and International Teacher Migration. 03.-04. December 2020 online, organised by the Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany, online.

2019

Widening Participation or the Massification of Higher Education: Reclaiming Academic Freedom as a Tool for Preventing the Dehumanisation of Higher Education Teaching. Philosophy and Theory of Higher Education Conference (PHEC19). 18-20 September 2019, KU Leuven, Belgium. 

Professionalisation through Internationalisation in Teacher Education: International Project (IPC) an Example of Good Practices. Teacher Education Policy Europe (TEPE) conference: ‘Quality Teachers and Quality Teacher Education: Research, Policy and Practice’. 16-19 May 2019 in Cracow, Poland. 

2018

Evaluation of the “International Project (IPC)”: Results of the IPC 2017 Survey. Sixth International Conference “Children’s Perspective on School, Teaching and Learning”, 7th July 2018, Sofia University St. Kl. Ohridski.

2017

Academic freedom in an international perspective: a case study of the University of Bologna and the University of Singapore. “NEAR-EU” Jean-Monnet Network INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE Looking Out”: Comparability and Compatibility in Global Higher Education, Tuesday, 10 October 2017, University of Ljubljana. 

2016

What does Academic Freedom mean for Academics? A Case Study of the University of Bologna and the National University of Singapore. CHER 2016, 29th Annual Conference, The University as a Critical Institution? Cambridge, United Kingdom 5-7 September 2016. 

Widening the understanding of academic freedom by using an interpretive comparative research design. The higher education conference: the scholarship of learning, teaching & organizing: Amsterdam: University of Applied Sciences, 2016.

2015

Balancing traditional academic values and modernization in European higher education: a case study of the University of Bologna. ECER 2015: education and transition - contributions from educational research: programme by network. Budapest: European Educational Research Association, 2015.

Consumerism or humanism: educational values in the University of Bologna and beyond. Annual conference and XXVII Anniversary of the Magna Charta Universitatum Values beyond 2015: The global challenge for universities and their students, 17 September 2015, Bologna, Italy. 

Academic freedom and quality assurance: Two sides of the same coin or a contradiction? Symposium "Governance, Performance & Leadership of Research and Public Organisations”, 16. 7. 2015, Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Deutschland. 

Internalising new discourses: reshaping university autonomy and its effects on academic freedom. Universities in the knowledge economy transforming higher education in the Asia - Pacific Rim and Europe. Auckland: University of Auckland, 2015.

Academic freedom always a non-ambiguous case? Where does it start and where should it end? (Panel summary).  (Westa, Sina; Alemu, Sintayehu Kassaye; Zgaga, Pavel; Beiter, Klaus Dieter) Universities in the knowledge economy transforming higher education in the Asia - Pacific Rim and Europe. Auckland: University of Auckland, 2015.

2014

Academic freedom in contemporary European universities: An analysis of ˝Lehr- und Lernfreiheit˝ after the Bologna process. ECER 2014 [The past, present and future of educational research in Europe].

Teacher education between ‘Lehr- und Lernfreiheit’. Overcoming fragmentation in teacher education policy and practice. Zagreb: Teacher Education Policy in Europe (TEPE) conference. Institute for social research: University of Zagreb, Faculty of teacher education, 2014.