We cannot go back to what we were on Friday 13 March 2020 when schools in Luxembourg were ordered to close their doors and move onto virtual platforms. Where we were then, was not where we should have been in our thinking on education. If that were the case, all our students would have been motivated, passionate and inspired to develop their learning in ways we could not have expected. We could not have planned this unknown but we could have prepared ourselves, and our students, better for the unknown.
So … what should we be thinking about now, when there continues to be a need for us to be accountable to our students, to their parents and to our profession? What is this present and future within the Covid-19 crisis and what ways are we willing to be more collaborative and creative in international education?
Our commitment has often been focussed on the parents of our students, in private fee-paying international schools, and on what they see as the best for their offspring based on an experience lived more than a generation before. It harks back to a past but not to the envisioning of the present and future with our students. Are we swayed by their demands without thinking and acting professionally or by understanding what our role could be in supporting a sustainable future through education and international schooling?
Should we not be thinking about our role as teachers and leaders in international schools, within this country, the region and the world? Knowing where we have supported and inspired students and where we have fallen short or failed to provide the environment for them to thrive, could be a focus for our thinking, our research and our action. How do we rethink our structures and systems to be, not only of service to our students but in service of our world; a sustainable world?
I would argue for the more collaborative approach that Covid-19 has fuelled in schools, with very different philosophical and structural positions. We have begun to debate, to argue and to converge in our thinking that has, hitherto, been competitive and separatist (think recruitment, communications, programmes). We have taken tentative steps towards a practice of openly sharing of intellectual property, human expertise and experience, together with a willingness to be honest about our failures and to seek out the commonalities in our struggles.
Will we be able to harness our newfound courage towards the iterative innovation that has been the hallmark of policy and practice in education in recent months so that we better serve our students? Will we, together with our charges, have the ability to forge forward in this milieu of uncertainty and vulnerability? Do we have the capacity to actively listen and seek to understand or will we fall back onto the well-trodden paths of pre-March 13, 2020? Do we have the courage to do things differently, intentionally, collaboratively and responsibly?
Patricia Angoy 