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Ulverston Victoria High School is a mixed comprehensive set in a rural part of south Cumbria. Not exactly the type of location you’d imagine finding an offering-place to the Mexican Day of the Dead, perhaps, but this November just such a structure (or Offrenda) will be built – and take pride of place in the school!
For Pat Hannam, Head of Belief, Philosophy and Ethics at Ulverston, the Mexican celebration is the culmination of what started out as a tentative investigation of international contacts for the school’s Philosophy Club.
In September 2001, thanks to a programme organised by the British Council in Mexico, Ulverston School was able to make a link with Secundaria Tecnica 44 Francisco Villa, a junior high school in a poorer area of Mexico City called Itzapalapa. The programme was initially established to encourage e-mail linking between UK and Mexican schools interested in human rights and citizenship.
From there, a blend of tenacity, assistance from teachers and parents and support from the DFID Global School Partnerships programme has turned that link into a full-blown global school-to-school curricular project.
As Pat explains, the teaching strategy ‘Philosophy for Children’ has been a key tool throughout the project, enabling young people in both countries to adopt an enquiring approach into the issues that have come up between the schools. ‘It also allows for a great deal of investigation into ideas of citizenship and democratic education, something of particular importance for a country such as Mexico – an emerging democracy with a history of autocratic government alternating with revolution,’ she says.
After initial e-mail exchanges between the pupils of the two schools and a teacher exchange funded through the old British Council’s North-South programme, Ulverston were able to mount their first teacher-and-student visit to their Mexican partner in October 2003. With guidance and support from the DFID Global School Partnerships team, they were able to send eight students and three teachers to Secundaria. Although Ulverston had to fund the trip itself, the strength of the partnership was shown by the support of the Mexican school. As Pat reports: ‘Each individual paid their own fare, but families in the community linking generously hosted us, which meant costs were at a minimum’.
It also gave the students a wonderful chance to share and discuss a range of philosophical issues first-hand with their Mexican counterparts – including, for example, exploring differences in the way graffiti is perceived. Whereas the Mexican students, already familiar with city life and city art, immediately thought of ‘graffiti art’ and had a generally positive view, the first reaction from the students from rural Ulverston was that graffiti was something negative, more usually found on a lavatory wall!
The groups also discussed the role of families in society, and the roles of different people within the family group. As one student observed: ‘In Mexico, family is particularly important, with whole extended families often living together in one house, whereas in England, families are more usually scattered across the country and even the globe.’
Since then, this DFID Global School Partnership initiative has continued to go from strength to strength. Sixth-formers at Ulverston now spend time learning about Trotsky, who famously spent his last years in exile in Mexico. Meanwhile, the Mexican Day of the Dead is being taught as a topic in Year 8 (12-13 year-olds) as part of the RE curriculum. As Pat comments: ‘What began as something exclusive to one department now infuses the experience of the whole school.’
The project has also been given a boost with the school’s successful application for a DFID Global School Partnerships Curriculum Project Grant. This has enabled Ulverston to further embed the global dimension into the curriculum, with 8 students and 4 teachers from Secundaria Tecnica 44 visiting their UK partner school in July 2004.
This time, groups were able to discuss curriculum development in both schools (particularly in Geography, RE, History and PSHE), introduce the Mexican visitors to Ulverston’s Amnesty Group, Environment Group and school council, and discuss how they might go about establishing their own school council back in Mexico.
What’s more, the planning for Ulverston’s Day of the Dead Offrenda continues. Never one to miss an opportunity, the school will be using the celebration as a chance to explore with the students important philosophical questions about death, and how different people and cultures respond to this unifying human experience. This may seem rather a sombre subject to pursue, but as Pat points out: ‘In Mexico, the ritual is seen as a time to celebrate life, not to mourn death.’ (Indeed, families not only welcome the spirits of their dead back into their homes at this time, they also visit the graves of close relatives to enjoy sumptuous picnics in a festive social atmosphere – certainly a good example of how different global perspectives can vary our approach to important issues.)
Last word goes to Pat: ‘Without a doubt, the linking is influencing the school ethos positively – something that’s vitally important for a rural Cumbrian school.’
This is a consortium initiative by the British Council, Cambridge Education Foundation, UK One World Linking Association (UKOWLA) and Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO). It offers advice and guidance, professional development opportunities and grants to schools in the UK and in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and Latin America that use partnerships to develop a global dimension in the curriculum. Visit the Global School Partnerships website.
A project website has been created by two Ulverston students. Visit the mexicolink website. For more information about Ulverston School’s trip to Mexico, visit the Sapere website.
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