Global Citizenship

August 18th, 2011

Malawi and Scottish schools

nickmorgan

Comments: noneTags: school improvement
 

Global citizenship activity comes in many shapes and sizes, but one of the most common variants involves teachers making a personal voluntary contribution to educational development in another country. Teachers are able to use their professional skills to assist growth and school improvement, and gain a much greater understanding of key global issues (such as sustainability) and of Scotland and its place in the world.

Over the academic year and summer vacation of 2011 there will have been hundreds of teachers and students involved in school partnership work in sub-Saharan Africa. Because of the historic links between the two countries, and the efforts of charities such as the Scotland Malawi Partnership, many of these partnerships are between schools and communities in Scotland and their counterparts in Malawi. For example:

Glasgow City Council has become involved at authority level to share its expertise with a region of Malawi, working with charity Link Community Development in a new project called Malawi Leaders of Learning. This week’s Times Education Supplement Scotland article, titled ”the warm heart of Africa“, reports on the new partnership and the visit to Malawi of Glasgow’s Director of Education. This new relationship builds on a base of strong existing partnerships between some schools in Glasgow and Malawi and the work of participants in LCD’s ‘Global Teachers’ programme.

Link Community Development also took some teachers to Malawi this July as part of a fundraising initiative called Bike Ride 2011. A group cycled through large parts of the country, staying in local communities as they travelled and visiting education projects supported by LCD funding. The experience is described online, and one of the cyclists blogged about his experience. The Courier newspaper published an article about a local Perth participant. The charity is already recruiting bikers for 2012.

Categories africa, international, sharing practice

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