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Leadership Opportunities and Global Citizenship Construction at an Internationally Minded School

This presentation explores how leadership opportunities provided to student leaders at an internationally minded secondary school assist in their understanding and construction of global citizenship.

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Leadership Opportunities and Global Citizenship Construction at an Internationally Minded School

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  1. How have the leadership opportunities provided to student leaders at an internationally minded secondary school assisted them in their construction of an understanding of global citizenship? Presentation for Strand 3: International learning and the formation/reflection of identity Alliance for International Education Conference 2010 Jan Hargreaves

  2. Situating the study within the literature

  3. Context of the study • a state secondary school with a successful academic focus, located in one of the leafy, relatively affluent and educationally competitive suburbs of the capital city of the state • highly multicultural and socially diverse, with a reputation for internationalism and as a socially progressive and innovative institution • enrolled students represent over 74 different nationalities. Australian citizens represent less than 48% of the student cohort, many not of Anglo-Celtic heritage • beyond multiculturalism to internationalism through its active participation in international institutions, e.g. The Council of International Schools (CIS); International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP) • the school aims is to produce students ready for the global future-cosmopolitan, bilingual and flexible in their thinking.

  4. Context of the study The ethos of the school was refined through engagement with the IDEAS project (Crowther et al., 2001). the school’s vision, values and school wide pedagogical principles continue to be seen by students and staff as both an apt description of current practices and a reminder of the school’s continuing aspirations. • The school’s vision: ‘a community of forward thinkers’ • The school’s values: each person’s dignity; our community’s diversity; open communication; quality learning • The school’s shared principles of teaching and learning: • scaffolding for independence • transferring knowledge and skills • substantive thinking • global connections develop learners who act in the creation of a preferred future, both in individual life and in their contribution to the building of a better world.

  5. Summary details of student participants

  6. What understandings of global citizenship are constructed by this group of student leaders?

  7. What understandings of global citizenship are constructed by this group of student leaders? • Global citizens are optimistic and empowered, articulating a sense of excitement about their membership of the global community and of the future ahead of them. They can accommodate feelings of ambiguity and uncertainty about the future and critically evaluate the role of new media and technologies in this future. They expect to contribute to positive change in the world in various communities and locations, through the use of collaborative and creative skills that suggest new ways of working with others and distributing power and influence. They are eager to participate in the rights and responsibilities of local, national and global citizenship and anticipate a life-time of learning from the past and from others with different perspectives and experiences. They are alert to the impact of globalization on their own positions of relative advantage and disposed to treat others with kindness, openness and civility. They show themselves capable of operating across multiple allegiances and simultaneously constructing multiple cultural identities which connect them with and commit them to others across the globe.

  8. In what ways do these student leaders identify leadership opportunities provided at the school as assisting them in their construction of an understanding of global citizenship?

  9. Focus group conversation Meg: Ok, like there’s lots of different departments in the school and it feels like you go in and you’ll start just like doing your normal studies from like Year 9 when you start choosing your electives and you’ll be picked up by a department… Holly: Um. Peter: Yeah. Meg: which will show you off. Holly: It’s like a guild that you join… Researcher: (laughs) Peter: Yeah, yeah. Holly: and you feel like you’re part of it. Olivia: Oh, yeah, yeah…

  10. Focus group conversation Meg: … You choose what you want to do and they (the teachers) pick you up. Olivia: Yeah. Which goes back to relaxing the relationships as well… Holly: But that’s also not to say that all teachers play favourites and stuff… Olivia: No, no, it’s not favourites. Holly: It’s not playing favourites, it’s kind of uhm… Olivia: Friendships. Peter: It’s more like the students playing favourites... Holly, Olivia (together): Yeah. … Zoe: Yeah, and she’s (a teaching staff member and athletics coach) like, “I want you to go to District Sports Cross Country… Olivia: Yeah. Peter: (laughs) Zoe: and like District Sport like Athletics” and I’m like “But I’m hopeless” but she recognizes that I’m really enthusiastic…

  11. In what ways do these student leaders identify leadership opportunities provided at the school as assisting them in their construction of an understanding of global citizenship? Schools facilitate in their students an understanding of global citizenship that is optimistic, confident and active when they: • elucidate and enact a distinct vision and set of values for their school that is informed by the multiple forces of globalization impacting on their local community • establish pedagogical principles that are aligned to this vision and these values and which establish high expectations and a zest for life-long learning • ensure these pedagogical principles inform practice in the classroom and the wider learning environment of the school • create a school environment that is relaxed, welcoming, inclusive and accepting • maintain open channels of communications that minimize hierarchy and positional distances • seek out avenues for and actively encourage each student to maximize their experiences and opportunities • actively facilitate and celebrate a diversity of perspectives and perceptions within the school community • delight in and encourage the emergence of individualized, interdependent selves in each and every student in their care.

  12. The alternative is not between difference and universality, between internal and external, but between closure and openness, between fundamentalism and an invitation to a voyage where we never know ahead whom we are going to meet during our journey, whether we will recognize- as once Iphigenia and Orestes did- our brothers and sisters among the strangers(Heller, 1998, p. 353). Jan Hargreaves jharg1@eq.edu.au

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