People and places
What I wish my teacher knew about me... Through the eyes of a student, Jane Barron investigates mobility’s impact on learning – and what schools can offer in support Dear Teacher, Like most of the students in your classroom, I am a globally mobile kid. I have spent a significant portion of my developmental years living in at least one culture that is different from my passport culture. By the time I finish my international school education, I will have experienced more meaningful losses and separations than most people experience in a lifetime. Did you know that whilst living a globally mobile life comes with many benefits, it can also impact my learning? Please let me tell you about it and what you can do to support me, so that mobility does not inhibit my learning but enhance it. Moving is hard. I’m not the only one who thinks this. I’ve heard grown-ups say that moving is as stressful as death and divorce, and the hardest of all moves is repatriating. I’m not looking forward to that one! Researchers have recently confirmed my thoughts too: here are some examples. A 2016 Danish study led by Dr Robert T Webb found that, regardless of socioeconomic background, links between childhood residential mobility and negative outcomes in later life were widespread, particularly if frequent mobility occurred in early/mid adolescence. Between 2009 and 2015, in three studies, Professor John Hattie identified that the single factor most detrimental to learning was unmanaged mobility. In March 2016, Australia’s NSW Department of Education concluded that students who change schools several times do worse in literacy and numeracy than their peers. This research has brought me comfort. I’m not crazy. All the weird things going on inside me are because I live a globally mobile life. How does Mobility Impact My Learning? “At any school with a high degree of turnover, transitions affect everyone – staff, parent or student – and regardless of whether a person is moving or being moved away from” say SPAN (Safe Passage Across Networks), leaders in supporting and connecting school-based programs that address international mobility. For me (and other globally mobile students), mobility impacts my academic, social, emotional, physical and spiritual wellbeing and causes me to ask questions about my identity. Let me explain. Academically, there are gaps in my learning because each Autumn
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| 2017
school I go to has a different curriculum. It worries me. Will I ever catch up? Will my current knowledge be valued? Socially, leaving old friends and making new friends is stressful, not to mention dissecting new social norms. Working through the grief and loss of saying goodbye, suppressing the feeling of disloyalty to my old friends whilst trying to make new friends are just some of the challenges I face. Emotionally, we students arrive at a new school feeling sad and anxious. Sad, because we have lost the familiar old life. Anxious, because everything is new and unknown. Add in anger at our parents who made us move here and we have a jumble of emotions that makes focusing on schoolwork incredibly difficult. I can’t even begin to discuss what happens when I stay and my friends leave. Physically, all of this takes a toll on my body. Sometimes,
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