COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT
Stepping out of the ‘bubble’ The Importance of Creating Meaningful and Sustainable Community Partnerships By Laura Davies, Athletic Director & Sadie Hollins, Head of Sixth Form, Lanna International School, Thailand Many international schools pride themselves on their extra-curricular programmes. Go to most school websites, and they will loudly and proudly tell you about the extensive number of activities they offer; sports, drama, music, MUN, IA, leadership, debate team, community service – the list goes on. They proclaim that these will prepare students for entrance into universities, employment, and transform young people into truly ‘global’ citizens. Whilst schools are to be rightly admired for creating such amazing opportunities for students, we must also ask ourselves - what is the true purpose of all of this? In a setting where business and education are so closely intertwined, it can sometimes feel as though we have forgotten to include programmes that truly place the holistic development of students at the heart of them – and that also consider the wider communities in which international schools are situated. The importance of interacting with, and embracing the local community, is stressed by Keith Allen (2000), who states that ‘one of the most important roles of an international school is to encourage its privileged students to develop an appreciation of, a respect for, and an empathy towards their world’. Whilst many international schools pride themselves on creating globallyminded young people, this should not be at the expense of their knowledge and understanding of local issues. We would argue that this should in fact take precedence, and the way in which schools manage this interaction is essential. Whilst many schools do make efforts to engage with local communities, the intention behind this must be considered. The communities in which international schools are situated are rich in culture, language and history, and students must be given the opportunity to explore and engage with these in a way that goes beyond simple awareness or charity. At our school, we have developed a relationship with an organisation called Playonside. Playonside work with the Burmese migrant community in Mae Sot on the Thai/ Myanmar border, and use football as a way of bringing together and empowering young people from this community. They aim to spread awareness of the issues facing these young people, and are particularly keen to promote equal opportunities and improve relationships between the different ethnic groups that exist within the community. Our collaboration with this organisation has been carefully fostered and built up over a period of time, and has involved a range of mutually coordinated activities, involving many different parts of the school body. As part of our Sports Leadership Level 3 course we have taken students to Mae Sot, where they have organised and lead games and activities as part of the seasonal football festivals run regularly by Playonside. These festivals bring together teams from the many migrant schools in the local area, and include participants of a wide range of ethnicities, gender, ages and abilities. The focus of these events is social inclusion, and points are awarded to teams not merely for winning, but also for displaying teamwork, fair play and mutual
respect for one another. Along with the benefit of offering our students the opportunity to put into practice, and evaluate, their coaching skills in a different and unfamiliar environment, it also pushes them outside of their comfort zone, helps to break down social-barriers, and encourages them to communicate and build connections with the young people they meet. Additionally, we have both taken a group of female students to Mae Sot to participate in a football tournament hosted by Playonside, and invited women and girls teams from the organisation to visit us in Chiang Mai to take part in (what we hope will become) an annual ‘friendship’ tournament, alongside teams from both our school and other local international schools. This has not only allowed us to foster and strengthen the relationship between students, but also provided additional opportunities for female students to participate in sports, thereby challenging gender stereotypes – one of the core aims of Playonside. Finally, we have involved our entire school community in fundraising efforts, both financial and to provide specific resources as needed – for example we recently hosted a drive to collect donations of stationery, as Playonside worked to support the teachers at the migrant schools they work with to do home visits and provide socially-distanced classes during the pandemic. This ongoing collaboration has been meaningful to our school and our students in many ways, but what we feel has been most special about this project is the genuine relationships that have formed as a result. Our students, whilst not without problems of their own, do possess an amount of privilege and entitlement that is not afforded to everyone. During our trips, we not only take part in sports events, but also visit the border crossing so students can see firsthand what happens there, and attend presentations delivered by Playonside coaches, many of them migrants themselves, that provide them with information about the political and economic issues that contribute to some of the difficulties experienced by these communities. Our students are invited to visit homes and schools, and see for themselves the stark contrast between their lives and the lives of the people they are now meeting and interacting with, determined by little other than a birthplace lottery. Most importantly, students from completely different backgrounds connect with each other. They become friends, discover the similarities that bind them, develop a better understanding and appreciation of their differences, and build relationships that last beyond school-arranged events. So our final message would be this; collaborations with local organisations are wonderful and important. As international educators, we should be pursuing opportunities such as these for our students and attempting to create genuine, long-term relationships with those that inhabit the wider communities in which our schools are situated – relationships that serve the best interests of these communities, and not merely those of our schools and our students. Our hope is that long after they leave school, students will continue to remember these experiences and the relationships they formed, and that it will shape their future actions in a way that is beneficial to those they live alongside - particularly those that may not share their privilege. References: Allen, K. (2000) The international school and its community: think globally, interact locally, in Hayden, M. & Thompson, J. (Eds) International Schools & International Education, Kogan Page: London, UK. Winter 2020 Issue 31
