BASK
Brother-Abang Sister-Kakak By Brent Cook, Head of Coles and Senior School Mathematics Teacher Early in 2018, I was fortunate enough to be selected into the ASEAN Bridge School Partnerships Program. I was paired with Chun Yang Tan of SR Kuala Belait, a primary school in Brunei. This experience provided a unique opportunity to learn more about an unfamiliar culture and establish connections between the students in Coles House and the Brunei school.
At a time when it has perhaps never been more important to improve our understanding of Muslim culture, I felt assured to realise that simple sensitivity is more than adequate. Tan explained to me that Bruneians did not consider whether the way things are done were Muslim or not, but out of respect for so many Bruneians being of Muslim faith, that is just the way things are.
Initially, the program involved meeting Tan and working together at a conference in Sydney, which ran parallel to the ASEAN-Australia Special Summit. After the conference, Tan travelled with me to be hosted in our family home, while immersing himself in a range of experiences across all aspects of our curriculum at The Geelong College. He particularly enjoyed visiting the Year 4 Enviro program, as this aligned with the environmental focus he was incorporating into his teaching in Brunei. In January 2019, it was my turn to stay with Tan in Brunei and visit his school. As I learnt through organising a lesson to deliver to a Year 6 group, Australia is more than 1,300 times the size of Brunei. My experience of visiting the school was very warm, both in the greetings I received from a procession of students leading me to an all-school assembly, and physically, with high temperatures and humidity each day. I was blessed to learn a traditional song and reciprocated by teaching the Kookaburra song. I also planted a tree to commemorate the partnership established between our schools and wrote a message on their environmental wall. My time in Brunei seemed to go so quickly, visiting a range of lessons and contributing wherever possible, all documented on WhatsApp by the school staff with remarkable efficiency. During my first day at my partner school in Brunei, it became clear to me what I now value most from my visit. Much as we always consider what is different when we experience different cultures, I was instead moved to recognise what was the same. Looking beyond a more conservatively dressed people, with female staff and students having their friendly faces bordered with their hijab, I discussed common educational focuses with staff and shared cheeky jokes with the students, as I would with my own daughters.
Brent Cook and Chun Yang Tan
College teacher Brent Cook visited Brunei as part of a teacher exchange program.
17 Ad Astra Issue No 136
