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School Linking as a Controversial Issue

School Linking as a Controversial Issue. Fran Martin GTE Conference 2007 Institute of Education. What is controversial about school linking?. Read extract What questions does this raise? Why did the school want a link? Why did they choose to link with a school in rural Gambia?

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School Linking as a Controversial Issue

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  1. School Linking as a Controversial Issue Fran Martin GTE Conference 2007 Institute of Education

  2. What is controversial about school linking? • Read extract • What questions does this raise? • Why did the school want a link? • Why did they choose to link with a school in rural Gambia? • What did the staff hope pupils would learn? • Does this match what they are actually learning? • How is the hidden curriculum having an impact? • Is involving children in charitable actions appropriate as part of an educational venture?

  3. Why do schools establish a link or partnership? • Educational context • Political context • Teacher dispositions • Complementary or conflicting?

  4. Educational context • The Global Dimension (DfEE/QCA 2000 / DfES/QCA 2005) • Citizenship Curriculum (DfEE/QCA 1999) • Preparing children for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of life (p.10-11) • Developing knowledge, skills and understanding for pupils to be able to play an active role as future citizens and members of society(p. 34-40) • Halstead and Pike (2006): Alternative aims for Citizenship Education – your views

  5. Political Context • 1997 Govt. White Paper on International Development • DfID (1999) Building Support for Development: A Strategy Paper … Clare Short quote • 2000 UN Millennium Development Goals • DfES (2004) Putting the World into World Class Education • DfID (2006) The World Classroom … Gordon Brown and Hilary Benn quote.

  6. Teacher Dispositions • Personal experience of country • Friendship • Involvement in faith community links • World Views and how to respond to • Economic disparity • Requests from partner school for financial support

  7. Learning from Linking • What do we hope pupils will learn? • Focus on the 8 key concepts for the global dimension to enable pupils to contribute to securing a just and sustainable world in which all may fulfil their potential (Oxfam 2006 p.1) • Needs teachers who are willing to question their own assumptions and values about global development … Mackintosh quote

  8. Learning from Linking • What do pupils actually learn? • Affected by range of factors such as • Type of contact (link / partnership?) • Compatibility • Embeddedness in whole curriculum

  9. Contact • Contact - is a partnership between people (teachers, pupils) on a regular basis in ways that are meaningful for both • How can we establish contact in such a way that teachers and learners in both locations feel connected rather than separated? • How can we ensure that contact has learning (which is at the heart of an educational partnership) as its key focus?

  10. Compatibility • To what extent are partner institutions’ value-sets compatible? • Learning is more likely to take place if the value-sets are incompatible BUT • Recognition of how and why they are incompatible is needed, as is a disposition to learn from these differences rather than reinforce the status quo

  11. Similarities or differences?

  12. Compatibility • There is some indication … that the children’s estimation of the worth of their peers in the partner school is affected by the extent to which they possess modern consumer items. … Teachers may also latch onto this, as it is a much more comfortable image with which to work. … We cannot afford to dismantle some stereotypes and replace them with others. (Disney, 2004: 145)

  13. Unless school links are developed as shared endeavours … • they can come dangerously near to epitomising a new form of colonialism which endorses the traditional stereotypes of the dependency of people in the South and the exploitative nature of western culture. (Disney, 2004: 146)

  14. Further reading • Disney, A (2004) ‘Children’s Developing Images and Representations of the School Link Environment’ in Catling & Martin (eds) Researching Primary Geography. Register of Research in Primary Geography • Halstead and Pike (2006) Citizenship and Moral Education: Values in Action. Routledge • Mackintosh, M (2007) ‘Making Mistakes, Learning Lessons’ in Primary Geographer Spring 2007. • Martin, F (2005) ‘North-South Linking as a Controversial Issue’ in Prospero 14(4), 47-54 • Martin, F (forthcoming) ‘School Linking as a Controversial Issue’ in Claire & Holden (eds) Teaching controversial issues in democratic societies Trentham Books • Wood, S (2006) Learning from Linking’ in Tide~ Talkwww.tidec.org

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