Connecting classrooms to connect cultures
With the advent of faster and widely-accessible
information, communication and transportation technologies, we are living in an
era where our actions increasingly influence and are influenced by realities in
other parts of the world. Truly understanding our own communities, province and
country requires gaining a deep understanding of the relationships of
interdependence they have with the rest of the world.
Global knowledge can no longer be associated with a small group of “worldly” people, as it once was, but is now basic and requisite for individuals to make sense of their everyday lives. In an effort to connect students from Pakistan to the world and provide them with global insight, many schools and classrooms across Pakistan, and indeed across the world, are engaging in international school partnerships with schools in the UK.
These partnerships take different forms, from teachers and students exchange, to curriculum-based project-work partnerships between two classes of students, to hopefully long-term, ongoing relationships between two schools.
The success of such learner-centred and intercultural dialogue-aimed partnership can be difficult to define, as it depends on the purpose and motivations underlying the partnership’s establishment. However, a review of the British Council’s Connecting Classrooms Project and a scan of existing exchanges with increasing demand suggest that these partnerships are proving exceedingly successful in addressing a critical missing link of internationalising education in Pakistan.
Connecting Classrooms is running successfully across Pakistan and 30 clusters have been formed with British Council’s technical and financial support. One hundred and fifty schools are now directly linked with 90 schools in the UK. These are non-elite schools and mostly represent government schools.
A cluster is a mixture of public and low-cost private schools with a greater emphasis on bringing public and private schools together in turn strengthening and supporting government’s policy decision of public-private partnerships in education.
More than 3,000 teachers have received training and learning opportunities in student-centred teaching and learning, student voice and curriculum-based projects through Connecting Classrooms. Information and Communication Technology is being used successfully and hands-on trainings have been conducted for all schools for the effective use of ICT for strengthening and sustaining these partnerships beyond the project timeline. These 3,000 are expected to cascade the learning to another 4,000 by the end of the project.
Connecting Classrooms partnerships have provided a wide range of opportunities for all involved particularly learners, from the enrichment of educational experiences and the broadening of school culture, to pedagogical dialogue. Students, teachers, administrators, parents and communities all stand to benefit from Connecting Classrooms, albeit in different ways.
For students
In a society bombarded by stereotypical images and negative and dramatic media, Connecting Classrooms is providing students from Pakistan and the UK with the opportunity to learn about another country or culture from the people who know it best — those that live and study there.
As students engage with primary sources of information, they begin to question previously-held assumptions, evaluate media biases and develop a greater appreciation for difference and start to look at these as diversity rather than divides. While learning about another place and way of life, students are also engaged to reflect upon their own lives.
Connecting Classrooms pioneered the inclusion of students in teachers training as equal participants. Everywhere in the world and in Pakistan, too, teacher training courses, although mainly concerned about the students and learners never extend an invitation to them. This innovation of the British Council has met with resounding success as students’ voice was institutionalised in the ethos of schooling and learning.
One student participant said, “This was an unthinkable situation for us to be participating equally and working alongside our teachers. We now have an understanding of limitations of teachers as well as students but more importantly we have agreed to transform our school culture as equal stakeholders by helping other students and teachers.”
Connecting Classrooms provides opportunities for students from Pakistan and UK to jointly research discuss and consider their own identities and develop mutual respect for each other’s identities. Connecting Classrooms partnerships illustrate the concept of global interconnectedness in an extremely tangible way. Conversing with their partners on issues of common concern has deepened the understanding of students from UK and Pakistan about international issues while enhancing their sense of active citizenship at local, national and international levels.
By incorporating collaborative learning activities, partnerships have encouraged students to locate and explore common ground and develop cooperative learning skills. Partnerships have also brought a unique intercultural element to collaborative learning activities. While learning with and from their peers in other countries, students from UK and Pakistan have started to develop and hone cross-cultural communication and correspondence skills.
For teachers and others
Connecting Classrooms partnerships is strengthening of relationships among staff members as school staff identify and work towards the achievement of common goals and outcomes for internationalising education.
According to one head teacher who visited UK as part of the project, “We came here as strangers and have transformed into a team. We have learnt so many new ideas to improve our schools but most importantly we have developed a shared vision to lead and inspire positive change through our students.”
Connecting Classrooms provides the impetus for the establishment of international professional learning communities. Teachers, heads and administrators are enabled to connect with the partner school’s administration to discuss approaches, strategies and challenges of school management. Similarly, teachers are conducting dialogue with other educators about their experiences in the classroom and sharing ideas about how to enhance learning.
A teacher commented after receiving training, “We have discovered and learned about the value of voice of students and parents in schooling and education. We have recognised the joys of patience and tolerance. Our minds were challenged to new ideas, we were encouraged to explore new horizons, question our practices and apply new theories.” Another teacher remarked, “We have been awakened and made aware of the true global nature of education.”
Parents, guardians, community ...
Parents engage directly in educational processes by helping theirchildren with partnership-related schoolwork, attendingConnecting Classrooms functions and supporting the partnership by encouraging children to learn about another culture and country. Connecting Classrooms provides opportunities for parents who have relevant cultural, linguistic or travel experience to share their experiences in the classroom not only for students but also for teachers.
Connecting Classrooms encourage a better understanding of different societies, cultures and religions and an appreciation of such values as social justice, democratic processes, equality and sustainable development. It also provides a forum in which respect for differences can be explicitly modelled. Extending the outreach of an international school partnership allows new information and ways of thinking to permeate throughout the community.
In these tumultuous times when Pakistan is not only struggling with grave security and law and order challenges but is also faced with a fast eroding public sector education, it is critical that the learners and youth of Pakistan are provided with international opportunities. Such opportunities could achieve two critical successes — (1) Challenge negative perceptions about each another and develop sound foundations of mutuality by appreciating diversity and (2) a real opportunity to present the true face of Pakistan which is robust, resilient and progressive, at the moment of course almost against all odds.
The writer is British Council’s director for Sindh & Balochistan, and its country lead on schools and education.
Global knowledge can no longer be associated with a small group of “worldly” people, as it once was, but is now basic and requisite for individuals to make sense of their everyday lives. In an effort to connect students from Pakistan to the world and provide them with global insight, many schools and classrooms across Pakistan, and indeed across the world, are engaging in international school partnerships with schools in the UK.
These partnerships take different forms, from teachers and students exchange, to curriculum-based project-work partnerships between two classes of students, to hopefully long-term, ongoing relationships between two schools.
The success of such learner-centred and intercultural dialogue-aimed partnership can be difficult to define, as it depends on the purpose and motivations underlying the partnership’s establishment. However, a review of the British Council’s Connecting Classrooms Project and a scan of existing exchanges with increasing demand suggest that these partnerships are proving exceedingly successful in addressing a critical missing link of internationalising education in Pakistan.
Connecting Classrooms is running successfully across Pakistan and 30 clusters have been formed with British Council’s technical and financial support. One hundred and fifty schools are now directly linked with 90 schools in the UK. These are non-elite schools and mostly represent government schools.
A cluster is a mixture of public and low-cost private schools with a greater emphasis on bringing public and private schools together in turn strengthening and supporting government’s policy decision of public-private partnerships in education.
More than 3,000 teachers have received training and learning opportunities in student-centred teaching and learning, student voice and curriculum-based projects through Connecting Classrooms. Information and Communication Technology is being used successfully and hands-on trainings have been conducted for all schools for the effective use of ICT for strengthening and sustaining these partnerships beyond the project timeline. These 3,000 are expected to cascade the learning to another 4,000 by the end of the project.
Connecting Classrooms partnerships have provided a wide range of opportunities for all involved particularly learners, from the enrichment of educational experiences and the broadening of school culture, to pedagogical dialogue. Students, teachers, administrators, parents and communities all stand to benefit from Connecting Classrooms, albeit in different ways.
For students
In a society bombarded by stereotypical images and negative and dramatic media, Connecting Classrooms is providing students from Pakistan and the UK with the opportunity to learn about another country or culture from the people who know it best — those that live and study there.
As students engage with primary sources of information, they begin to question previously-held assumptions, evaluate media biases and develop a greater appreciation for difference and start to look at these as diversity rather than divides. While learning about another place and way of life, students are also engaged to reflect upon their own lives.
Connecting Classrooms pioneered the inclusion of students in teachers training as equal participants. Everywhere in the world and in Pakistan, too, teacher training courses, although mainly concerned about the students and learners never extend an invitation to them. This innovation of the British Council has met with resounding success as students’ voice was institutionalised in the ethos of schooling and learning.
One student participant said, “This was an unthinkable situation for us to be participating equally and working alongside our teachers. We now have an understanding of limitations of teachers as well as students but more importantly we have agreed to transform our school culture as equal stakeholders by helping other students and teachers.”
Connecting Classrooms provides opportunities for students from Pakistan and UK to jointly research discuss and consider their own identities and develop mutual respect for each other’s identities. Connecting Classrooms partnerships illustrate the concept of global interconnectedness in an extremely tangible way. Conversing with their partners on issues of common concern has deepened the understanding of students from UK and Pakistan about international issues while enhancing their sense of active citizenship at local, national and international levels.
By incorporating collaborative learning activities, partnerships have encouraged students to locate and explore common ground and develop cooperative learning skills. Partnerships have also brought a unique intercultural element to collaborative learning activities. While learning with and from their peers in other countries, students from UK and Pakistan have started to develop and hone cross-cultural communication and correspondence skills.
For teachers and others
Connecting Classrooms partnerships is strengthening of relationships among staff members as school staff identify and work towards the achievement of common goals and outcomes for internationalising education.
According to one head teacher who visited UK as part of the project, “We came here as strangers and have transformed into a team. We have learnt so many new ideas to improve our schools but most importantly we have developed a shared vision to lead and inspire positive change through our students.”
Connecting Classrooms provides the impetus for the establishment of international professional learning communities. Teachers, heads and administrators are enabled to connect with the partner school’s administration to discuss approaches, strategies and challenges of school management. Similarly, teachers are conducting dialogue with other educators about their experiences in the classroom and sharing ideas about how to enhance learning.
A teacher commented after receiving training, “We have discovered and learned about the value of voice of students and parents in schooling and education. We have recognised the joys of patience and tolerance. Our minds were challenged to new ideas, we were encouraged to explore new horizons, question our practices and apply new theories.” Another teacher remarked, “We have been awakened and made aware of the true global nature of education.”
Parents, guardians, community ...
Parents engage directly in educational processes by helping theirchildren with partnership-related schoolwork, attendingConnecting Classrooms functions and supporting the partnership by encouraging children to learn about another culture and country. Connecting Classrooms provides opportunities for parents who have relevant cultural, linguistic or travel experience to share their experiences in the classroom not only for students but also for teachers.
Connecting Classrooms encourage a better understanding of different societies, cultures and religions and an appreciation of such values as social justice, democratic processes, equality and sustainable development. It also provides a forum in which respect for differences can be explicitly modelled. Extending the outreach of an international school partnership allows new information and ways of thinking to permeate throughout the community.
In these tumultuous times when Pakistan is not only struggling with grave security and law and order challenges but is also faced with a fast eroding public sector education, it is critical that the learners and youth of Pakistan are provided with international opportunities. Such opportunities could achieve two critical successes — (1) Challenge negative perceptions about each another and develop sound foundations of mutuality by appreciating diversity and (2) a real opportunity to present the true face of Pakistan which is robust, resilient and progressive, at the moment of course almost against all odds.
The writer is British Council’s director for Sindh & Balochistan, and its country lead on schools and education.
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