MANDELA Partners Meet in Linz for Three Day Training

A delegation from Gordon Academic College of Education participated in the three-day face-to-face training workshop of the international MANDELA project – Multilateralism through Negotiation & Cultural Diplomacy Education in the Levant and Africa, held in Linz, Austria, from 1–3 September 2026.

Gordon was represented by Dr. Eli Vinokur, Dr. Avinoam Yomtovian, Dr. Mirit Sharon, and Shadia Sbait, Project Coordinator, who joined colleagues from the MANDELA partner institutions for three intensive days of training, professional exchange and collaborative planning.

The meeting marked an important stage in moving from the project framework toward practical implementation within the participating higher education institutions.

A central focus of the Linz meeting was intensive training in the four educational approaches at the heart of MANDELA: VaKE, Game Changers, Cultural Diplomacy and CoPoweR .

Through parallel workshops, participants experienced the different methodologies first-hand and explored how they can be adapted and integrated into higher education courses. The workshop structure enabled representatives from each institution to train in different methods, building institutional expertise that can subsequently be shared with colleagues and students.

The training reflects MANDELA’s broader aim of strengthening the capacity of higher education institutions to equip students with competencies relevant to dialogue, negotiation, cultural diplomacy, intercultural engagement and navigating complex social and cultural contexts.

An important component of the meeting focused on translating the MANDELA methodologies into academic practice. Participants worked on frameworks for integrating the approaches into courses and discussed how the knowledge gained through the project can be transferred within each partner institution.

Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) was also addressed as a cross-cutting component of the project. Gordon contributed to the discussion on COIL course design, drawing on its experience in international and digitally mediated collaborative learning.

For Gordon, the Linz training is therefore not an isolated international activity. The knowledge, methodologies and experiences gained during the meeting will support the next stages of the project, including the integration of MANDELA approaches into teaching and the development of opportunities for students to learn and collaborate across institutional and national boundaries.

The face-to-face format also provided valuable space for dialogue among the project partners. Alongside the training workshops, participants discussed project implementation, quality assurance, course integration, upcoming activities and the next stages of MANDELA.

For Gordon Academic College, participation in MANDELA forms part of its continued commitment to internationalization, innovative pedagogy and meaningful international academic cooperation.

The Gordon delegation returns from Linz with new tools, shared experiences and concrete directions for bringing the MANDELA methodologies into the next phase of the project at the College.