Florence Smart
Can ‘live’ international video calls with pupils create a collaborative, more globally minded, and up-to-date approach to geography lessons? Florence Smart shares her MSc research in which she created a new impactful learning environment and pedagogy from beyond the confines of the classroom.
International Video Calls in Lessons
In this MSc study, video calls (via Microsoft Teams) were used across a sequence of geography lessons with year 8 pupils in a senior school in London and their international peers at a school in Bangkok. The calls included instances of group discussion, 1:1 conversations and whole class collaboration aiming to recognise that ‘empowering and engaging the voice of students is vital’ (Breslin 2011: 59). Qualitative data were collected from staff and pupils in London, using a base-line test, post-intervention questionnaire and a group interview.
The research found that video calls could enhance learning and help widen viewpoints while bringing case studies alive. Video calls can be used to contribute to blended digital lesson activities to ‘check-in’ with pupils abroad, mutually discussing their own learning and everyday experiences. The real time video calls also sought to decentralise the teacher as the ‘sage on the stage’ and invite more perspectives and authenticity from first-hand accounts.
Amidst the ‘galloping variables’ of globalisation (Bennis, 1970), digital shifts have transformed the spatial constraints of the classroom opening the potential of live global interaction and collaboration. Jones (2010) finds that authentic voices can also help counteract the onslaught of potentially biased, inaccurate media coverage or outdated textbooks. Her research suggests that students value intercultural dialogue too for future employability, personal growth and well-being. Therefore, cross-cultural interaction should be more routine and ‘risk free’, putting students at ease (Jones 2010). This may be particularly significant too for marginalised students who struggle with a sense of belonging at school (UNESCO 2017).
Rationale
Rationale for the video call intervention in this research came from speaking to colleagues frustrated with resources that used outdated language, or those that papered-over nuances of lived experiences (Anderson, 2021). Teachers also wanted to help students resist commonplace misconceptions created by heightened media coverage and social media.
Promoting participation and inquiry helps create critical thinkers and improves a sense of ownership of learning which has been at the forefront of policy in the UK (Wasner, 2016) and the SDGs – Goal Number 4 (UNSDGs, 2023). This intervention also responds to what Russel (2023) described as the ‘anti-education’ system, where rote learning for academic success can stifle curiosity. Arguably, soft skills like leadership and collaboration will help ‘future proof’ children’s education as well as to overcome potential issues posed by artificial intelligence.
Reinforcing opportunities to share ideas, but only with like-minded individuals, may, however, only widen the echo chamber. This speaks to Wasner’s (2016) questions of, how teachers ‘decide whose voices to listen to, and how?’. In terms of bringing a plurality of voices into the classroom, she suggests that it should no longer be considered ambitious to introduce a greater range of perspectives.
I believe geography teachers should enable students with new ways of seeing the world with a greater emphasis on the geographies of everyday life. Freire’s (1970: 53) concept of a ‘banking model’ is long gone, which equated teachers as clerks who would plainly ‘deposit’ information into children. Educators should be both ‘simultaneously teachers and students’ and a live dialogue through video calls allows for all of those in the classroom to be learning collaboratively.
The Intervention
In the calls, students asked questions such as ‘What are you studying at the moment?’, ‘Do you consider your homeland to be a democratic country?’, ‘How much free time do you have?’, ‘Do you own a guitar?’. The latter, follows on from Hans Rosling’s quirky ideas to measure development – guitar ownership per capita. He argues that this shows that individuals in the country have enough disposable income for the guitar, for lessons, free time to practise, and are exposed to a range of musical influences suggesting social mobility. In the study this question, provided the most fruitful responses and encouraged discussion about music and cultural similarities and differences.
International collaboration was also built into the supra-curriculum alongside the study to embed challenge and curiosity. This involved letter writing within a geography club and a Geographical Speaker Programme. In the latter, one guest speaker on Teams was a marine biologist in the Maldives, giving pupils a direct insight into life working there, and another was a British diplomat working for the foreign office in Shanghai, speaking on foreign relations and careers.
Findings
In the base-line questionnaire and early sections of the group interview, students tended to refer to ‘us and them’ – in, perhaps, an unintentional or unconscious process of ‘Othering’. In the post-intervention questionnaire, there are more phrases such as ‘we are…’, ‘our geography lessons…’ and ‘first-hand voices’, which allude to a greater sense of group collaboration, self-awareness of being united as learners. This links to what Fielding (2001) suggests is a favourable element to learning – engendering pupils with a ‘significant voice’.
The analysis of the cross-section of answers relayed a sense of sameness. The results found that the students consumed some of the same media, for example. There was also discussion about other aspects of consumption such as drink and music. While this is unsurprising given the context of the two schools – one being the international counterpart of the other – another view was that friendships were being built and a sense of cultural difference or othering was eroded. Quotes from the post-intervention questionnaire, include ‘I made friends’, ‘I would like them to come to visit us, or me to them’, and ‘even though they are far away, we are very similar’. Collins (2014: 300) says that school rituals of community buildings have key consequences – ‘optimism, confidence and initiative’ – the video calls in this study may be regarded as a useful, addition to assemblies, ‘form’ times or activity days.
Challenges and Ethical Considerations
Because this study focusses on an immeasurable skills-based intervention, it is difficult to track cause and effect. One year 8 participant, however, noted that he valued that the discussions were open-ended and there was no assessment.
Practical implementation of the project was also limited by time constraints, time differences, language barriers, access to technology and space in the curriculum for ‘non-examined’ study. The lessons took place during ‘form time’ in the UK and the last period of the day in Thailand and required significant teacher input and support to ensure effective learning in the digital sphere.
Ethical concerns about ‘looking in’ must also be considered alongside safeguarding and data protection. The study received CUREC ethical approval from BERA with informed consent from the head teacher, parents and the participants. There was no data collected from the pupils at the international school and no recording of the Teams calls. Safeguarding in the digital sphere involved two members of staff present in the calls and close following of policy. Partly because many students may show less restraint or inhibitions on communication behind the keyboard (Hardaker, 2015), I was clear in my behavioural expectations with the classes and had oversight of the conversations being had verbally and in the ‘chat’ function. Questions posed by pupils must be non-judgemental and students should be guided on the best ways to approach each other politely and appropriately.
Conclusions
This research points to the potential of seizing the opportunities that digital technology can provide for live interaction and cross-cultural learning through hearing from voices beyond the confines of the classroom. Looking ahead, pupils could be linked up in lessons with other students, businesses, conservationists or charities (after taking into account ethical and practical considerations).
References
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Bennis, W. G. (1970). American bureaucracy, Transaction Publishers.
British Educational Research Association (BERA) (2018) Ethical guidelines for Educational Research. [Online] Available on: https://www.bera.ac.uk/publication/ethical-guidelines-foreducational-research-2018 [Accessed on 14 July 2023].
Bragg, S. (2007). “Consulting young people.” A review of the literature. Open University for Creative Partnerships. www. creative-partnerships. com/content/gdocs/cyp. pdf.
Breslin, T. (2011). Beyond ‘student’voice: The school or college as a citizenship-rich, human scale and voice-friendly community. The student voice handbook: Bridging the academic/practitioner divide, 57-72.
Bunnell, T. (2021). “The elite nature of International Schooling: a theoretical framework based upon rituals and character formation.” International Studies in Sociology of Education 30(3): 247-267.
Collins, R. (2014). “Interaction ritual chains and collective effervescence.” Collective emotions: 299-311.
Fielding, M. (2001). “Students as radical agents of change.” Journal of Educational Change 2(2): 123-141
Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Harmondsworth, Penguin.
Hardaker, C. (2015), ‘“I refuse to respond to this obvious troll’: An overview of responses to (perceived) trolling”, Corpora, 10 (2): 201–229.
Jones, E. (2010). Internationalisation and the Student Voice Taylor & Francis e-Library, Routledge.
Rosling, H. (2023). Factfulness. Flammarion.
Russell, J. (2023). Our anti-education system stifles curiosity. May 29th 2023, The Times.
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UNESCO. United Nations Educational, S. a. C. O. (2017). Accountability in education: meeting our commitments; Global education monitoring report, 2017/8. Paris, France.
UNSDGs – United Nations Educational, S. a. C. O. (2023). “UNSDGs Goal 4: Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.” Access from https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal4
Wasner, V. (2016). “Critical service learning: A participatory pedagogical approach to global citizenship and international mindedness.” Journal of Research in International Education 15(3): 238-252.