GLOBAL TEACHERS
Globalised education
Michelle
together to improve life for everyone. This sense of
community spirit was echoed in the entrepreneurs that
Johnson
we met and the businesses and schools that we visited.
my school was very supportive of my trip and is
equally keen to support work in response to it. The
discusses how
benefits to my fellow teachers and my students are
far-reaching – we are now developing a whole-school
visiting one
approach to globalisation in the curriculum.
We have begun work identifying our value system,
remote school from India’s
what values mean, and how best to construct positive
values that will be integral to the success of our
‘untouchable’ community
students. We have developed a student-led fortnightly
news broadcast, filmed and presented by the students,
which shares and celebrates achievements and events
changed the lives of her
across our school community. and, as in Shanti
Bhavan, we now have a group of students compiling
students back in the UK
world news items to share with the whole school
during tutor time. We are also developing enterprise
opportunities across the curriculum.
WaS one of 10 teachers privileged enough The Global Teachers Project provides a fantastic
i
to spend a day in Shanti Bhavan, a boarding opportunity for teachers who are developing their career
school in the remote rural corner of Tamil in school leadership. it is so valuable to share global
nadu, Southern india. practice with teachers, as this is how we develop best.
Shanti Bhavan’s aim is to create leaders of To have the opportunity to share our experience in
tomorrow’s india from the poorest members Making friends: other countries and to learn from their experience gives
of the “untouchable” community. Students from Bangalore everyone a deepened understanding of shared concerns.
The visit was one day in an intense and challenging in India who inspired Ms our students are becoming more and more in touch
week-long study tour as part of the first Global Teachers Johnson during her trip with a globalised world. This brings great opportunities
Project, organised by the Specialist Schools and and we need to help students embrace these. it also
academies Trust (SSaT) with Leaders Quest. brings great and new challenges, which our students
Funded by the Talent and enterprise Taskforce at During our visit, the children shared their experiences high their aspirations are despite incredibly challenging will have to be prepared to face.
the Department for Children, Schools and Families, the and challenged us, the British teachers. in the morning, circumstances. Shanti Bhavan demonstrates that We often hear about how students in india and other
project follows the prime minister’s Global Fellowship we attended the school assembly, where students of all education can overcome any social disadvantage. global economies will overtake our students when
programme for 18 and 19-year-olds and offers teachers ages read out global news and sang their inspirational in india, education is often the only way for some competing for jobs in the future. We do have a global
on the SSaT’s leadership programmes a first-hand school song. They also organised a debate where families to move out of poverty. The potentially far- marketplace, but i believe this means we must set an
understanding of the new global economies and the four students competed against four of us over issues reaching effects of education for the whole family was example of working together to strengthen relationships
implications for teaching and learning in the UK. including global education, the recession, and human confirmed by our visit to Paraspara Trust, a voluntary with our global partners. We must learn from each other
Sixty teachers visited Brazil, China or india for a rights. The knowledge and integrity of these young organisation set up in 1996 to eradicate child labour in and learn to work with each other. SecEd
week in august. i chose india because i teach a lot people was phenomenal. urban slums and villages of Bangalore and the rural
of young people from indian heritage at my school. The students performed short drama pieces showing areas in Karnataka. • Michelle Johnson is head of art at Cheney School, a
We wanted to find out how india’s poorest and most life as they knew it before Shanti Bhavan, exploring By reaching out to the mothers, Paraspara Trust comprehensive school in Oxford.
vulnerable people are working to move out of poverty, domestic violence, child labour, and prostitution. teaches them skills such as sewing which can sustain
and the importance of education in these communities These performances were incredibly powerful and their families, meaning the children are able to go
Further information
in order to help us tackle similar challenges in the UK. showed the drive the students have to succeed and how to school. in this way, the whole community works http://nationalconference.ssatrust.org.uk/?q=node/140
Psycho babble
Is a good degree enough?
Promethean’s ActivExpression.
DaviD Cameron has, this week, announced that homes where there is little, if any, interaction, and
under a Tory government teaching will be made a therefore begin their school days with the most minimal
More choices for your money.
“high-prestige” profession, into which only graduates understanding of what school entails.
with top degrees will be welcomed. He proposes to Teachers no longer face a classroom of fresh-faced
encourage these top graduates into the field by paying children, eager to embark on their school career. Kids
off their student loans, and thereby getting the very are underfed and over-technologied, under-disciplined
best to teach our children. and over-confident, and perhaps disaffected long
While i, like anyone else involved in education, before that first book is opened.
applaud any positive change that will improve the While, in the past, a stern academic could corral
outlook for and achievement of students, i wonder if kids and get them all learning in the right direction,
this is not a little misguided. there are, today, many more skills required for a
Teaching is a profession that requires specialist teacher even to get a class to order, and to work on
communication skills – some might call it a finding a balanced curriculum that will be appropriate
“gift” – for reaching children and young for the hugely diverse group that faces them.
adults in a way that they understand a clever chemist from oxford may
and from which they benefit. While have the knowledge to pass on the very
certainly some of the best schools highest level of information to students,
in this country require extremely but would they really have the skills
high standards from the teachers necessary to reach today’s kids? it is a
they recruit and employ, i think it’s terrifically rude generalisation, but i
safe to say that they also look for do think that many of the brightest
4 sets for the price of 3 8 sets for the price of 6
12 sets for the price of 9
more than academic prowess. swots at my own university were
& 50% off half-day on-site & 1 FREE half-day on-site
& 2 FREE half-day on-site
not so long ago, teaching not necessarily the most gifted
training session training session
training sessions
was very much a blue-stocking socially, nor the easiest people
profession, full of erudite men and with whom to converse or, indeed,
men who devoted their lives to learn from. a lot of the bright
passing on skills and information. stuff was locked up in their heads
Crusty academicians, many of them and they would find it difficult to
were, with a more than passable explain concepts they found simple
skill in sending a class to sleep. and logical.
But kids learned because education So while no-one wants our school
was respected, and their learning was system filled with teachers who can’t spell,
expected. or can’t pass on the wonders of their subject;
it mattered not so much that teaching skills equally, these unruly youths are very unlikely to
were brilliant and teachers able to engage the respond to someone who can’t respond to them.
enthusiasms of a class. instead, kids knew they We need, in our systems, teachers who understand
had to learn, and teachers knew what to teach them youth. Who know their subject, but also how to pass
– if not how. it on in ways that kids can also understand. Teachers
The difference today is, of course, that the average who can gain respect and encourage enthusiasm. it’s
student has no respect for education (nor do many too simplistic to say that a good degree makes a good
of their parents), and they are not actually expected teacher. To make the profession “noble” again, we
For further information
to learn. The stubborn social problems to which mr need to change the fabric of society. Until that time, the Visit www.activexpression.co.uk
Cameron refers have, in fact, changed the entire nature teachers in the system have to understand the weave
Call 01254 298598
of childhood and the place of the child within society. of that fabric before we have any hope of reaching the
Teachers are now not just educators, but mentors, kids, and only then can they begin to learn.
pseudo-psychologists and counsellors, social
administrators, and often surrogate parents/nannies, • Karen Sullivan is a bestselling author, psychologist
Terms & conditions apply, see website for further details.
and even security guards. many students come from and childcare expert. Email KESullivan@aol.com
SecEd • January 28 2010 
07-english.indd 7 25/1/10 09:53:28
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