Thursday, March 27, 2008
Global School Partnerships
Collaboration between schools from different countries is increasingly popular but how is the experience accredited fairly?
The government has restated its commitment for every UK school to have established global links and partnerships by 2010. Both Gordon Brown and Hilary Benn have stressed the importance of such partnerships.
“Education helps transform lives, banishing ignorance and improving opportunities. Building links between schools across the world, bringing pupils together, sharing experiences and learning will help us tackle the challenge of providing education for all.”
Across the country, schools have already responded by forging links and engaging in exchanges. This article provides some links for creating partnerships and some advice on gaining accreditation for your work if you have set up a partnership.
Accreditation for Teachers
Cambridge Education Foundation has been working closely with DFID to develop and accredit international partnerships. This has now extended into exploring the use of PbyP as a teacher’s personal portfolio in support of a masters qualification. If this collaboration is successful then this course should be available next January. There are a number of UK universities which will acknowledge your Global School Partnership work and afford you opportunities to gain accreditation. This could be a certificate, a diploma or as part of a Masters degree. Through accreditation you can gain professional recognition for the difference you make. It may involve a piece of action research, some curriculum development, or a professional portfolio. Make the work you are doing for your global link a part of your professional development.
Click here to find out more about how Cambridge Education is currently involved, here to read DFID’s latest report or here to view a summary of the work.
Linking your school to the world
Teachers can feel bombarded with the great opportunities to collaborate with colleagues in other countries and however worthwhile or even exciting they may seem, it can be overwhelming to find your way through them. Now a new web-site elanguages.org has made it very easy to sift through the projects already running or to promote one of your own.
elanguages promotes creative collaborations between children and teachers all over the world, it is free, easy to use and unusually projects start at Age 5.
As well as sharing of resources, and forums there is a notice-board for schools and individuals to ask for partners for projects which is divided by age-group and subject and country involved. It is fascinating to see how many countries are using the facility and the range of ideas suggested. An example of one of the projects is a newsletter written for students of one country for students of another to read.
eLanguages is part of the wider Global Gateway initiative by the British Council which has been operating for a number of years with considerable success.
Visit the elanguages site or the Global Gateway site here