Global Partnerships as sites for
mutual learning: teacher
development through N-S study
visits
Critical Thinking for Development Education – moving
from evaluation to research
National University of Ireland, Galway,
October 3-4th, 2009.
Fran Martin
University of Exeter
Context
• Educational
– Global dimension across the curriculum
– Global school partnerships
• Political
– Maintaining position in global economy
– Millennium development goals
• Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
• Achieve universal primary education
Issues
Western worldviews
– Responding to
difference
– Responding to
poverty
Comparing lifestyles
T: What do you think homes
might be like in a village in
Kenya?
• They are made of mud and
straw
• Yes, mud and straw
• I think some might have
wood on
• Mud houses, or caves with
little doors on
Response to difference
Perceived as negative
(judged against Western
lifestyle).
One response is to focus on
similarities as a means of
connecting to the other,
being inclusive
Hides important differences;
points of similarity decided
upon by dominant group
Focus on commonality
• 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)
Responses to poverty
T: What about the children in
The Gambia, what do you
think the children are like?
• Hmm. Well, not that happy
because they don’t have
many toys to play with so
they have to make them
• Operation Christmas!
• Yes! We gave them toys. I
sent a Noddy car
• For Christmas, every single
Christmas, we get boxes and
put paper on it and then put
toys in it and send to
Gambia.
Charitable response
• Focus is on what is lacking, the criteria for
which are decided by dominant group
• Focus on economic disparity does not
allow discussion of cultural, social and
spiritual heritage as wealth (Graves, 2002)
• Neo-colonialism
N-S Study visit courses
• Experienced teachers UK-Gambia
– UK course Nov - June
– Study visit to Gambia 1 week in Feb, work
with teachers but not in school
• Student teachers UK-Southern India
– Study visit Kerala and Tamil Nadu 18 days
July
– 1 week at a children’s home in the Palani
Hills, including teaching in school
Experienced teachers’ changing
perceptions
• Although economically Gambia is a LEDC I think that
its people are more developed in their attitudes and
the way they treat people. It is so sad though the way
tourism has destroyed some people’s traditional
values and caused them to beg, especially children.
• I have expressed culture shock, but not in finding
Gambian culture difficult to assimilate but in seeing
how Western tourism is so crassly out of tune with
the needs of both Gambian people and the local
environment. In creating what tourists want, much of
what is naturally here is being sacrificed. This type of
tourism is clearly not sustainable.
• I now question whether charity is always a good thing
Frozen narrative / Idée fixe
• Looking at and having the chance to compare
differences in the state education system of
course means that I’m not going to complain
when I haven’t got the resources ... They
have had to become resourceful in order to
deliver the lessons that they need to deliver.
And I think the work TIDE has done and is
continuing to do will make an immense
difference.
Student teachers’ learning
• For some reason I feel more sorry for poor people
(beggars, homeless) in India than England. Is this
because I have preconceptions of India being “poor”?
• Surprised by the priorities of people - live in mud
shacks with little sanitation but have satellite TV,
radio and mobile phones
• I completely agree that [the children’s home] needs
sponsorship … I don’t think I agree with the pressure
on the children to be sponsored. I feel it is very unfair
on the children who aren’t sponsored as it may
possibly feel like another rejection
Theoretical lenses
• Socio-cultural learning theory
• Communities of practice: changing
experience of participation (Wenger, 2005)
• Intercultural experiences (Fiedler, 2007);
Third space (Bhabha, 1994)
• Displacement spaces (Brock et. al. 2006)
• Deconstruction through critical reflection
within a supported, secure environment
Research design
Challenges for research:
• How do I establish an ethical relation to the ‘other’ and
avoid keeping ‘Western academy and the Western
academic at the centre’ (Andreotti, 2007)?
• Western knowledge systems, indigenous knowledge
systems: Learning to unlearn (Andreotti & de Souza,
2008)
• Recognition of dynamic nature of places, societies,
cultures and the relationships between them (avoiding
frozen narratives)
UK
Gambia
Gambian
Researcher
Mutual, intercultural
learning
UK
Southern
India
UK Mutual, intercultural
learning
PI and RF
Southern Indian
Researcher
The World is like a table. Twenty percent
live on the table and eighty percent survive
underneath it. Our work cannot be to move
a few from under the table onto the table, or
vice versa. Our task is to move the table, to
change its position if necessary, and all to
sit together around the table.
Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Haiti, cited by Hopkin (2002).
References
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Andreotti, V. (2007) ‘An Ethical Engagement with the Other: Spivak’s ideas
on education’, Critical Literacy: Theories and Practices, 1(1), 69-79.
Andreotti, V. & de Souza, L. M. T. (2008) ‘Translating theory into practice
and Walking Minefields: Lessons from the project ‘Through Other Eyes’’.
International Journal of Development Education and Global Learning, 1(1)
23-36.
Burbules, T (1997), ‘A Grammar of Difference: Some Ways of Rethinking
Difference and Diversity as Educational Topics’. Australian Educational
Researcher, 24(10) 97-116.
Disney, A (2004) ‘Children’s Developing Images and Representations of the
School Link Environment’. Catling & Martin (eds) Researching Primary
Geography. Register of Research in Primary Geography
Leonard, A (2008) ‘Global school relationships: school linking and modern
challenges’ in Bourn, (ed) Development Education: Debates and dialogues.
London: Institute of Education
Martin, F (2008) ‘Mutual Learning: the impact of a study visit course on UK
teachers’ knowledge and understanding of global Partnerships’. Critical
Literacy: Theories and Practices, 2(1), 60-75
Wood, S (2006) Learning from Linking’ in Tide~ Talk
http://www.tidec.org/Tide~talk/network%20arts/distant-places.html
www.throughothereyes.org.uk/