Case Study 11 Study visits to the global south
Stephen Scoffham, Canterbury Christ Church University
Overview
This case study demonstrates how one higher education institution offers initial teacher education
(ITE) students a transformative activity through residential fieldwork. The annual study visit to a
home for disadvantaged children in south India has also helped to strengthen international
understanding. Stephen Scoffham provides an excellent overview of the student and tutor
experience, and explains how participants learn from teaching, and interacting informally with
children through games and group activities. The importance of using structured group discussions
to make sense of new experiences is stressed. The project also demonstrates an exchange of
skills, knowledge and understanding between India and the UK at a local as well as global level.
Introduction
For over a decade, primary ITE students at Canterbury Christ Church University’s Faculty of
Education have had the opportunity to participate in an annual study visit to south India. The study
visit is centred on Goodwill Children’s Homes, which supports several hundred destitute and
disadvantaged children. Participants spend a week living in one of the homes in a remote hill area
of Tamil Nadu, teaching the children in the morning and interacting with them through games and
group activities at other times of the day. They also engage in practical projects such as painting
murals and clearing waste ground. Alongside their work in an educational setting, participants have
the chance to contextualise their experiences by visiting heritage sites, travelling by public
transport, exploring local markets and talking to local people. They have regular opportunities to
discuss their experiences both amongst themselves and with the tutors leading the group.
The study visit developed for a number of different reasons, which happened to combine at a
particular moment in time:
1. the tutors responsible for teaching Geography to ITE students were seeking to retain the
opportunity for residential fieldwork in courses which were being repositioned and
reorganised;
2. one of the most senior members of the university management team was a trustee of
Goodwill Children’s Homes, and was able to offer advice on both logistics and
intercultural understanding;
3. on a strategic level, the university was seeking to develop stronger international links and,
as a Church of England foundation, was sympathetic to charitable and philanthropic
activity.
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These fortuitous circumstances, coupled with the enthusiasm of a small group of tutors, generated
the energy to set in motion what has become a long term and increasingly fruitful link. The study
visit has, however, remained a largely grass-roots affair and has always been seen as a curriculum
enrichment activity. Being slightly to one side of mainstream university structures has presented
problems, as the study visit has had to be self-funding apart from contributions from the university
staff development budget. However, in the last few years, the advantages of autonomy have also
become apparent.
There is considerable discussion about the value of overseas study visits (Disney, 2004; Young,
2010; Martin, 2011). The environmental impact of long haul flights is highly undesirable, and there
is little practical benefit in getting unskilled students to undertake improvement projects when
local workers could do the job much better. Larger questions to do with charity, patronage and
post-colonial relations call into question the impact of philanthropic activity (Andriotti, 2009). Yet
despite these reservations, both the Indian hosts and the UK visitors affirm the enormous value of
the relationship.
From an Indian perspective, there are a number of qualitatively different benefits. To begin with,
financial contributions to running the children’s homes are of course extremely welcome.
However, the impacts of contact with westerners are equally or even more important. Children
throughout the home improve their spoken English dramatically as a result of daily exposure to
native speakers. The inspectors, who reported favourably on the local school soon after the first
visit by Christ Church students in 1999 (thereby raising its status) noted these improvements. On
a pastoral level, the manager of the home reports that contact with the students does much to
help settle young children who arrive each year a month before the study visit team. The boost to
staff from engaging with overseas visitors and the impact on their self-image and morale is also
manifest.
The quality of the relationship between the UK and Indian staff is central to the success of the
visit. Contacts have blossomed over the years and friendships have been maintained by email. It
has even been possible for some of the Goodwill staff to visit the UK and stay in tutors’ homes,
thereby enhancing their understanding of life in the west. One of the UK tutors summed up the
nature of the relationship in the following words:
We love being with them, we love talking with them and finding out about their lives. We’ve
been to their weddings and we’ve been to their christenings and we’ve seen each other
grow older. We think of ourselves as friends, we send each other cards at Christmas and we
swap notes about our lives.
For the UK students, going to southern India and working with children in a remote tribal area is
the chance of a lifetime. On a cognitive level, they learn about the history, culture, religion and
geography of India, developing an interest which they maintain afterwards and which feeds into
their professional lives. However, the experience often goes much deeper than this. It initiates a
process of self-reflection and examination and raises fundamental questions about values and
principles. Many students report that, rather than being depressed by the people who are living
marginal lives, they are ‘humbled’ by their uplifting example (Scoffham and Barnes, 2009). In one
particularly telling response, one student declared:
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I’ve fallen in love with India and its people. I’ve never been or felt so humble. The people are
just so warm and friendly and happy to be alive. Yet they have very little themselves. They
are so kind it restores my faith in humanity.
Experiences of this kind can be deeply moving and disturbing. There is a sense in which the study
visit disrupts established patterns of thinking and challenges established beliefs. Being at a distance
makes it easier to see the contradictions in practices which are accepted without question in the
UK. Questions about personal identity and beliefs emerge alongside discussions about happiness
and human welfare.
Powerful experiences can have both positive and negative impacts. Being part of a group helps to
provide individuals with the support they need to make better sense of what is going on around
them. Structured group discussions led by experienced tutors have a particularly important role to
play. They can deepen students’ thinking, by raising questions, making comparisons and providing
contextual information. It is all too easy to make assumptions and snap judgements. There are
many advantages in stepping back and being reflective.
There is no formal assessment for the India study visit, but many tutors and students have seen it
as an opportunity for research from undergraduate to PhD level. Word association exercises
conducted before and after the visit can be one way of highlighting changes in thinking. Qualitative
evidence comes from diaries and records, which students choose to keep at the time. The
comments that they make in casual conversations and informal feedback are often highly
significant. On every study visit there are also seminal moments and situations, which illustrate
larger points, often to do with inter-cultural understanding. These can be highlighted in reports to
colleagues and in feedback sessions where students report to each other about different aspects
of intercultural learning.
Our experience of taking students to south India over the years provides ample testimony to the
power and impact of the study visit. These two student reflections show that the effect can be
extraordinarily far reaching:
The India study trip was one of the most personally and professionally enhancing
experiences I have had. It’s up there with ‘having my children’ in terms of personal impact
and I feel enormously privileged to have been there.
Ultimately the trip was a heady mix of potent ingredients – culture shock, exposure to
extreme poverty, new friendships, self-discovery and the opportunity to travel in a country
at a level not normally available to tourists. Words will never do it justice.
Organising and running a visit of this kind is an immense professional challenge, and it is certainly
something which will not appeal to everyone. Only a small proportion of staff will be willing to
give up the time and take on the responsibility. At Christ Church, we have tried to set up a rolling
programme in which a colleague, who has been before, and is accompanied by a new member of
staff who is going for the first time, support the group leader. This combination provides a
measure of stability, but also provides a way to engage new colleagues in the experience.
The study visit is deliberately planned to be flexible and responsive to circumstances. The welfare
of the group is a high priority and much attention is given to both physical health and psychological
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issues. Organised group experiences are given prominence in the first few days of the visit. As
participants gain in confidence, greater autonomy and independence are encouraged. The richness
and variety of experience means that students draw a huge number of different messages from
what they see and do. One common theme though concerns the long-term impact. Memories
often fade with time, but for a significant number of students and staff the study visit remains as
vivid as ever even after a decade or more. As one tutor put it, ‘I think I will be processing stuff and
trying to make meaning of the study visit for the rest of my life’.
References
This article draws on on-going research being conducted by the author and the following
references:
Andriotti, V. (2009) The Contributions of Postcolonial Theory to Development Education (DEA
thinkpiece). London: Development Education Association.
Disney, A. (2004) Children’s Developing Images and Representations of the School Link
Environment. In Catling, S. and Martin F. (eds.) Researching Primary Geography. London: Register of
Research in Primary Geography.
Martin, F. (2011) Global Ethics, Sustainability and Partnership. In Butt, G. (ed.) Geography, Education
and the Future. London: Continuum.
Scoffham, S. and Barnes, J. (2009) Transformational Experiences and Deep Learning: The impact of
an intercultural study visit to India on UK initial teacher education students. Journal of Education for
Teaching. 35 (3), 257-270.
Young, M. (2010) The Global Dimension. In Scoffham, S. (ed.) Primary Geography Handbook.
Sheffield: Geographical Association.
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