A Collaboration on cross-cultural differences

Posted: 07 July 2021

Overview

Godspell College in Argentina shared a collaborated with Mayo College in India, British Overseas School in Pakistan and GEMS Modern Academy in United Arab Emirates to explore and discuss their cultural differences and similarities. The main objective was to debunk myths and stereotypes in order to grow in their international understanding and appreciation for diversity.

Planning

Godspell College made connections with schools from the South Asia and Gulf Region through the regions School Support Director and invited a group of 10 senior students per school to participate on a Zoom call discussion three topics of interest that would allow students to exchange ideas, experiences and perspectives.

The host school suggested a structure for the collaboration and offered participating schools to choose the discussion subjects out of five options. Together they decided to focus on the following three:

1. How is a day in the life of a teenage in your part of the world?

2. What’s the role given to women in your society?

3. What are your religious rituals?

Details

After connecting with the Rep from each school and deciding on the activity, students got together on a Zoom call. The first activity was to get to introduce their schools with a short presentation and get know each other. Following this ice-breaking activity, students were allocated into different baraza groups according to the topic they would be discussing. In each breakout room,  the hosts started off by introducing the discussion theme and then opened up the conversation so that everyone could share their own understanding and point of view about it. Once the breakouts were closed, the different groups were invited to share their conclusions on the main session so that everyone could listen to what was discussed.

Challenges

The first challenge was to juggle time difference. It was hard to find a time that would suit all schools and some of them had to start early in the morning or stay late at night.

Another challenge was to manage time during the zoom session. As schools were initially invited to present themselves and there were plenty of interesting topics to discuss, it was difficult to stick to the original schedule.

Lastly, at the very start of the call some of the participants were a little shy and it took some time to get everyone engaged.

Long term

The long term outcomes is to expand Round Square to other areas and to discover the learning potential that can be achieved by establishing multicultural projects. Staff members are discovering that Round Square has something to offer to everyone and are keen to add some kind of international projects in their planning.

We are definitely planning to run this activity again, with reviewed procedures and processes after what we have learnt from this experience.

Advice

• Make sure you cap participation to a manageable number so that everyone has a chance to talk and true interaction is allowed.
• Be trained in the use of collaborative platforms to guarantee that the session runs smoothly and you make the most of it.
• Be mindful of timings and scheduling and stick to it.

Author: Carmela Garcia Belmonte, RS Rep, Godspell College