|
Quality training certainly helps, along with commitment and professionalism – but let’s not forget a liberal dose of self-directed learning, too. Continuing Professional Development, or CPD, is built on the notion that learning never ceases, whatever your age or rank. And promoting the international dimension in schools offers plenty of scope not just for learning, but for enhancing your career, too.
Take John Sully, Assistant Headteacher at Manor School in Mansfield. Through a Teachers’ International Professional Development (TIPD) grant, he organised a ten-day visit to Manor School’s partner school in Buenos Aires, Colegio Southern Cross. The highlight of the trip was delivering a practical workshop on Thinking Skills to 30 Argentinians. John Sully and colleagues visit a stadium attached to a Buenos Aires school teachers from local schools. ‘It was a real eye-opener for me,’ he explains. ‘The audience engaged with the issues on a political level, citing some examples from their everyday lives in Argentina, which certainly improved my knowledge of the culture.’
The Argentinian teachers’ response also gave Manor School some fresh ideas on how to adapt political issues across range of curriculum areas. ‘In History, for example,’ says John, ‘we are currently working on a GCSE module entitled “Conflict”, where we’ve been able to incorporate ideas which have been sparked off by the workshop on different approaches to reasoning and making connections down the ages.’
What about learning new skills? ‘Absolutely! The whole process of setting up the trip – negotiating with our partner school’s head on our aims and focus, plus co-ordinating the sharing of resources between the two schools – threw up all kinds of challenging project management issues for me to deal with, on a global scale!’ John recalls. ‘In terms of teaching skills, I was also struck by the ethos of openness and honesty that exists amongst staff at Southern Cross – an infectious enthusiasm for the whole business of teaching and learning that I found very stimulating.In short, the visit has really made me aware of the possibilities that education can afford in terms of becoming a global citizen.’
John’s experience isn’t unusual, according to Ray Kirtley, co-ordinator of the Regional Professional Development Network for Yorkshire and Humberside – a body that offers school-based support for developing an international policy. ‘Most teachers find acquiring a host of new skills is a welcome adjunct to getting involved with internationalism,’ he says. Just having the opportunity to observe how schools are run in other countries leaves many practitioners professionally stimulated and refreshed.’
Any other benefits? ‘Being able to successfully project-manage on an international scale gets people’s confidence soaring, for a start!’ says Celia Robbins, consultant and trainer for Yorkshire and Humberside region ‘Teachers tell us that being able to compare their own teaching often opens people’s eyes to the fact that teaching and learning can be successful in a range of very different cultural contexts – there is not necessarily only one way to teach and one way to learn, and that can be very stimulating for them.’
Jo Speak is the international and art co-ordinator at Alwoodley Primary School in Leeds. ‘As an art specialist, I believe the arts can be a powerful tool for communication – a sort of universal language,’ she says. ‘That’s why I got involved with internationalism in the first place, co-ordinating a three-year Comenius 1 project with schools in Germany, Latvia, Romania and Sweden. Our aim was to use the arts to explore the issue of diversity – our cultural similarities and differences as Europeans. The project ended in 2004, but it was such a powerful learning experience, we’re now trying to embed a global dimension right across our arts curriculum.’
But there have been personal benefits, too. ‘Successfully managing such a large project did wonders for my confidence,’ says Jo. ‘It’s led to me taking on a new role as local advisor to Leeds City Council, helping their International Relations department support schools starting out in international work. I’m also an artist in my own right, and my experience – that enriching exposure to other cultures – continues to fuel my creativity.’
Find out more on the Teachernet website (England only).
Comenius offers opportunities for joint curriculum work with other European schools as well as opportunities to job shadow colleagues in other countries. Find out more at www.britishcouncil.org/comenius
| 
