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International
Schools |
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International
schools are unique environments. Most schools have students from a
large number of countries, and few principals can predict exactly
which nationalities will be represented in their schools in any one
year. School culture is not reflected in the local culture, but an
accommodation must be found with the host country. Many students are
bilingual or multilingual and have complex cultural backgrounds. As a
result of all these factors much of the research, theory and
literature relating to relevant topics such as multiculturalism,
biculturality and bilingualism have limited application.
However,
schools are confronted with all these issues. With students from up
to 110 countries and faculty members of several nationalities,
international schools face educational and social challenges.
Differences in educational, organizational and social systems must be
negotiated. Providing an environment in which students of many
cultures, countries and language feel comfortable and are ultimately
able to succeed academically and socially places extreme demands on schools.
Schools are
also faced with the challenges of helping students from varied
backgrounds to adapt to the school environment as well as preparing
them to return home. Students living in foreign countries or moving
from country to country face a unique set of problems.
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Multiculturalism
in
International Schools |
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Multiculturalism in international schools
differs from that in schools at home. Although the pedagogical goals
remain the same, a number of factors influence the ways in which they
can be achieved.
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Most international schools have a large number
of different nationalities represented. As a result teachers must
rely on their knowledge of the parameters of cultural differences and
on general cross-cultural skills rather than on knowledge of specific cultures.
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The cultural groups represented in a school
vary from year to year. Schools must therefore seek flexible
solutions to accommodate other cultures.
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School culture is not reflected in the local
environment. Many students must learn to cope with two new cultures simultaneously.
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Many international students have complex
cultural backgrounds and face challenges relating to identity,
multiculturality and multilinguality.
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Educational and economic factors rather than
socio-political pressures determine how schools respond their
multicultural student body.
The presence of students from many
nationalities alone does not make a multicultural school.
International schools respond to their client base rather than the
political pressures that many public schools in various home
countries face. As a result, they have some freedom to find creative
and constructive solutions. At the same time they are not spurred on
in the same way by political or social pressures to participate in
multicultural processes. Schools must find their own educational,
philosophical and moral reasons to work towards creating a
multicultural environment.
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National
Schools Abroad |
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International national schools,
primarily British and American, constitute roughly half the English
language schools abroad. In many cases these schools were established
to provide a British or American education abroad. However, most
schools now have student bodies of over 60% of non-national students.
As a result they provide a curriculum and environment that fulfills
the needs of a diverse student body. Satisfying these two mandates
raises questions at all levels of schooling from mission statement to
daily decision making on a wide variety of issues.
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Cross-Cultural
Understanding
and Intercultural Skills |
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Cross-cultural learning is a lifelong process,
particularly for those living abroad. In daily contact with other
cultures we have the opportunity to continually increase our
knowledge of our own cultural programming and other cultures.
However, faced with a complex environment when living abroad there is
also a natural propensity to develop stereotypes. The stress and
insecurity of overseas living may lead to the development of
prejudices. Cultural learning and the development of intercultural
skills improve the ability to understand and communicate with people
of other cultures, decreasing prejudice development.
International teachers are confronted not only
with the need for personal intercultural skills but for skills
specifically relating to education and the classroom environment.
Teachers in international schools face classes with students from
many countries, twelve nationalities in a class of fifteen, for
instance. With an average annual student turnover of 20-30% in many
schools the nationalities represented in the student body also vary
each year. In face of the contact with so many number of
nationalities teachers in international schools can pick up only the
basic "does" and "don'ts" of many of their
students' cultures. And nationality does often not describe many
expatriate children who are a mixture of the cultures and countries
they have lived in, the schools they have attended and, not
infrequently, bicultural homes.
In such situations it is more important for
teachers to gain an understanding of the parameters of differences.
How different can a culture be from mine? What differences can
affect classroom performance and interaction. Equally important is
the development of personal intercultural skills such as
understanding one's own cultural constructs, tolerance for dissonance
and ambiguity, cross-cultural communication, goal-oriented reframing,
the ability to reconcile differences and seek similarities, world-mindedness.
Although the diversity in an international
school can lead to many cultural exchanges and cultural learning, it
can also result in the development of stereotypes and prejudices,
national cliques, misunderstandings and conflict. Schools inevitably
have students from countries that are in a state of political or even
military conflict with each other, and political developments can
affect student behavior and relationships, particularly among older
students. Student cliques based on culture, nationality or language
are common serving both genuine needs and exclusion in
in-group/out-group processes.
Cross-cultural differences create a challenging
social and educational environment, how to deal with current
political conflict, for instance. How can a teacher lead a discussion
on Middle East affairs with students from both Israel and the West
Bank in the classroom, for instance? Can such a discussion even
take place? Or how can schools deal with students' anger when their
country is being bombed by the country of other students?
Students are also challenged by the demands of
interacting on a daily basis with students from a wide variety of
other countries. What social rules do they follow? What can they do
when their friends speak their own language together, effectively
shutting them out? How can they put it right when one of the
inevitable misunderstandings occurs? Students who have just arrived
from their home countries often have particular difficulty coping
with such diversity, but even those students who have spent their
lives abroad may have developed destructive coping strategies. Few
children can develop constructive strategies to cope with this
situation without guidance. Providing such guidance is a further
challenge for faculty at international schools.
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International
Children |
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Not all students an at
international school move from country to country. Some go abroad
only once. Others live permanently in the host country or are host
country nationals. Usually a significant percentage are what
are referred to as Third Culture Kids (TCKs). These children
face special challenges relating to international mobility. Many
students are bicultural or multicultural and bilingual or
multilingual. All students face challenges relating to dealing with
diversity and identity development.
Even the TCKS are a diverse
group, not only in terms of nationality and culture, but also in
terms of background. Depending on the circumstances in which they
lived in host countries many of these students have learned the other
languages and cultures. Students from other countries who attend
American or British International Schools also adapt to the school
culture. Many of these children become bicultural or multicultural.
They develop intercultural and international skills. At the same
time, there is the risk that these children grow up feeling they
don't belong anywhere, at home or abroad. And they face the
challenges of integrating sometimes conflicting cultural mores.
Healthy biculturality requires an atmosphere in which all cultures
are accepted and valued.
The term TCK was adopted because
these young people interact at the meeting place of cultures rather
than using the 'code' of a particular culture. Although this term
underplays the importance of primary and continuing socialization at
home, it is nevertheless applicable. International children must
leave behind some of their cultural programming in order to get on
with so many others from a wide variety of cultures. But at this
meeting place of cultures what rules apply? Are there rules?
Does getting on with friends from other cultures mean dropping your
own rules? How do students find a path for themselves when home,
school, friends and host countries may have different value systems
and guidelines for behavior?
All of the challenges facing
international students impact on their schools and students need help
negotiating different and sometimes conflicting value systems, and
complex identities. Belonging to more than one culture many
international children are capable of growing up able to becoming
'mediating' persons in a world in desperate need of such individuals,
but their future lies in the hands of parents and educational
institutions.Providing the circumstances for such development is a
further challenge that international schools face.
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School Communities |
Abroad,
international schools frequently function as a focal point for the
international community. Because expatriates are often isolated from
the host community by language and culture the lives of many members
of the international community, students, parents and faculty alike,
revolve around the school and school events which therefore functions
not only as an educational institution, but as a social institution.
Creating a
well-functioning multicultural community is challenging. Parents from
different cultures bring a variety of value systems with them. They
have expectations of how schools and communities should function. It
is also natural, particularly for those unaccustomed to a
multicultural environment, to seek the company of other nationals,
creating in group/out group situations in school communities which
can become adversarial. Breaking down barriers, creating common goals
and finding commonalities as well as mediating conflict and
dissonances are all challenges that schools face.
Added to
this are the personal problems of living abroad, particularly among
spouses who may not be employed and seek alternative constructive
occupations. Although these people have time, skills and energy that
can be used by the school, their help must be used wisely and steps
taken to promote inclusive behavior. Communities rely on
participation but while in some countries encourage parental
involvement in children's education is welcomed, in others education
is considered the exclusive domain of educators.
Creating a
community which welcomes the participation of all parents and is able
to harness the skills and contributions of all members is yet another
challenge faced by international schools.
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