International School Partnerships
Oxfam, in their guide, Building Successful School Partnerships,
states that:
Successful school partnerships:
- Generate enthusiasm and motivation for learning.
- Cultivate an openness to new thinking and ideas.
- Inspire a desire for positive change, locally and globally.
There is also a risk that school partnerships may:
- Close minds instead of opening them.
- Promote pity and sympathy for those in the [economically] poorer country, rather than empathy and [solidarity].
- Focus on differences, with too little recognition of a common humanity.
- [Focus on similarities, with too little recognition of diverse cultural realities.]
- Reinforce stereotypes.
- Cultivate paternalistic attitudes and feelings of superiority.
- Fail to examine global issues of inequality and injustice.
A second guide that may be of interest to you is, Alberta Education’s International School Partnerships
If you are looking for an international school twinning for your school or classroom, consider www.epals.com Contact Carrie Rowlandson at cerowlandson@cbe.ab.ca for questions on how to get started, digital citizenship, or any other matters related to getting your school globally connected.
Take a look!