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?– 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?

Why do schools establish a link or partnership?

• Educational context

• Political context

• Teacher dispositions

• Complementary or conflicting?

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

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.

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

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

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

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?

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

Similarities or differences?

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)

– 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)

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~ Talk www.tidec.org