Scottish secondary schools and their links with developing countries: study

6. Conclusion

The study has shown that partnerships and pupil visits to developing countries are not uncommon in Scottish secondary schools. Having a partnership is greatly appreciated by the teachers involved, both in Scotland and Malawi, and can bring pupils personal connections to different cultures, engagement with global (development) issues and function as a starting point for learning. Moreover, some Scottish schools showed they aimed to contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals, as they for example work with their partner school on improving (access to) education. However, while facilitating these activities there is a risk of reinforcing paternalism and dependency, and pity rather than empathy for the partner country. To mitigate this risk, critical reflection on global issues and structures of poverty and power should be included when discussing partnership and pupil visits.

Most partnership and visits will include fundraising activities. The literature and partnership guide reviewed suggests to avoid fundraising, however as the interviews and questionnaires showed, fundraising can play an important role in supporting partner schools and improve their ability to teach and help pupils. Teachers are aware of the imbalance that can exist between partner schools and do reflect on the equity of their partnership. Some teachers were struggling in how to best address these questions. It is important to include an assessment on both expected and unexpected impacts of activities supporting partner schools and development projects. Activities such as fundraising and pupil visits might be more prone to reinforcing stereotypes as they often (unconsciously) reinforce images and narratives of ‘development-as-modernisation’ and the western active agent, helping the poor, passive developing country. As the literature review suggest, promotion of professional training on international development, sustainable development goals and global citizenship can help address this. Some of the Malawian schools pointed out that current visits of Scottish pupils would not necessarily include a focus on shared learning or global issues.

Analysing the conversations with Scottish schools and organisations, there seem to be an assumption that having a partnership will make pupils more aware of issues such as poverty, and therefore lead to global learning. However, global learning includes to “think deeply and critically about what is equitable and just, and what will minimise harm to our planet.” (Scotdec 2019) and therefore ask for a critical understanding of social justice. Pupils will not reach this by themselves, therefore pre- and post-sessions for visits are important including discussions on issues such as stereotypes and poverty as well as lessons for pupils exploring social justice and sustainable development. Partnerships can help with bringing these lessons to life, especially by including joint learning and peer-to-peer contact. Teachers stated that they wanted to raise awareness of global citizenship and the impact we have on the world, yet it remained unclear what educational activities, or pre- and post-session linked to the visits, would make sure pupils go from their personal experience to and understanding of issues of inequality. Moreover, thoughts have to be given on how to link it to global learning in the wider school, as often activities that connect pupils to the partnership are fundraisers and one-off lessons. This latter point was also raised by Malawian schools, who mentioned that in the future they would like to see more exchange visits and projects that enhance learning.

To build a strong relationship with a partner school and incorporate the partnership in the wider school programme sustainability of the partnership is important but can be difficult to achieve. The difficulties that were encountered, both at the Scottish and Malawian side, were the funding of the visits as well as the involvement of staff. Some teachers were the sole carrier of the project. This asked a lot of time investment and when other issues take priority the partnership can end up on the back burner. Direct contact with the partner school was made easier by digital technology, and this has the potential to be used more, although it runs into problems with access (of the partner school to technology and electricity) and IT policies (of the Scottish school).

Although the survey in Malawian schools gave a first insight in the perspective of partner countries, a good understanding of the impact of partnerships is still lacking. How do partner schools for example they feel about Scottish pupils visiting, and the potential images portrayed about their life and country? The fact that half of the Malawian schools would like to develop exchange visits might indicate that they are looking for more reciprocity in the visits. However, it remained unclear from this exploratory study what purpose and programme these schools see for such visits. Do they look for joint learning programmes and cultural exchange? These are questions that still need to be addressed. Several organisations are currently working on studying the impacts of their programmes. This opens up the opportunity to discuss partnership impacts and the partner countries perspective.