Learning from study visits: perspectives from the UK Dr. Helen Griffiths End of project conference, June 21 st -22nd Millennium Point, Birmingham

Presentation outline Summary of key findings from Phase 2, part 1 (data from two study visit courses that ran Research with in depth participants) Detailed look at data from follow-up focus groups with in-depth participants, June 2011 (Phase 2, part 2) Focus on Q4: How learning beginning to inform practice over time

Phase 2 findings from UK Q2: What do UK teachers learn from their involvement in study visits? o Teachers’ understanding of development & global issues o Intercultural learning o Representation & ways of seeing o Identity & self Q3 What are the key factors that prompt changes in knowledge and beliefs? o Displacement spaces o Communities of practice o Reflection Transformational learning? (individual change vs. changing social habits of mind)

Summary of findings Importance of preparatory and post-visit phases Learning is a relational, dialogic venture Reflective sessions, facilitated by differently knowledgeable others is essential. Understanding how, in intercultural conversations, we ‘translate difference’ is key to better communication. Openness to being challenged, and feeling ‘displaced’ is a quality that can enhance learning. Going as a group and developing supportive group processes provides essential ‘safe spaces’ for responding to and processing difficult issues.

Q4 How does learning from study visits inform teachers’ practice over time? Takes time to fully process learning from the study visit experience Focus groups with in-depth participants from phase 2, June 2011 (CCCCU n=4 Tide n=2) Study visits have impacted on both UK teachers professional and personal practice (and often these overlap) Questionnaire April-June 2011 (phase 2 participants)

Longer term impact? “A deep and long lasting impact that will bubble away under the surface for a while and occasionally come to the surface” (James, phase 3 questionnaire, GSVC) Adding to a process that already happening Maxine : It’s just a general attitude, I’ve noticed an attitude shift, which was already happening, I’m not saying I went to India and suddenly, you know... Megan: You saw the light Maxine: No, it wasn’t like that because it was already a process of, it was evolving, but India really, it did, really helped me to kind of, to get to a different place really. (focus group, ISSV) Still processing One of the things that I’ve been thinking about is what […] what content wasn’t there before I went to India and what content is there now, and how is the content of that translated into sort of like multiple layers, because you add more content to the original content as you keep meeting and discussing, and every time you have one of those sort of like light bulb moments either in your practice or in your personal life, that again changes the original content of the study visit (Megan, focus group, ISSV)

Longer term impact? Intangible, tricky to pinpoint or measure I have trouble separating out on a very small individualistic level about trying to find out what’s going on; what went on when I was out there, and what continues to go on, because the content keeps getting added to. Like today will add content to it…(Maxine, ISSV focus group) I think some people would find it hard to say if it’s had an impact on their life and I’m one of those people who actually find it hard to say specifically how India has impacted on my life. Although I know it has had and will have a big impact throughout the rest of my life, but I find it hard to say specifically, I’ve changed because of this or because of that. (Mark, ISSV focus group) Feeding into subconscious it has an impact immediately when you’re there on a very sensory level as we all experienced, but I think it has a different impact […] during the successive months when you come back, even this far down the line, it’s still having an impact I think, but maybe on more of a subconscious level. (Megan, focus group, ISSV) Being involved in research process helped process thinking

Professional and personal impact Professional & personal overlap Networking opportunities: teachers exchanging ideas, gaining new contacts (both within UK group & UK-South); working with other organisations; collaborative publications. Impact on own teaching: confidence; teaching about a distant place; futures; sustainable tourism ; single story. That has certainly proved a useful hour in one of my two hour sessions, doing that. That totally came from the Gambia and I wouldn’t have thought about the futures and there’s quite a big futures movement in geography education at the moment. So it really introduced me to it, in a big way (Geoff, GSVC focus group) I think in my teaching I thought, ‘oh yes, I definitely want to teach about India’, because I’ve just been... and then I suddenly thought, ‘I just don’t know what I actually teach the children’[…] I think I just need to consolidate what I’ve learnt more before I can actually approach it […] I still can’t explain it fully, and to teach it, I just don’t think I’d be doing it justice if I taught it this year […] So, that was a kind of thing that I really wanted to do and then I suddenly thought, actually I’m just going to leave it for a little bit longer. (Imogen, ISVC focus group)

Professional and personal impact I think, I think if I hadn’t been to India I don’t know where else I would have, or a study trip – let’s not call it India then – if I hadn’t had that particular experience and the content of that experience, the contents of the group, the time, the place, the sensory learning and all of the rest of it, I would have had potentially a different experience and would be a different person to how I and and feel now, but I don’t know how that is because I can’t work that out unless I went time travelling backwards and never ever had that sort of experience or, yes. (Maxine) Changes to lifestyle I think more carefully about giving to charity, and which charities and what they’re going to be used for, and....to start with. I also think, already aware about sustainability and sustainable lifestyle, and I think it’s reinforced it and brought it more to the fore, in terms of our use of resources. Even simple things like flights, cutting down on flights. (Geoff, GSVC) Becoming critically conscious; unpacking where things come from Recognising role of prior experiences

Relating to others Moving from binary views of us/tem, rich/poor to more relational views of how we relate to others. “You don’t have to have this Western-centric view of how people are and how the world is” How we relate to people in the UK as well as in the South. “I feel more compassionate towards people in this country that previously I would have been quite, not judgemental of, but just I don’t know, it’s hard to explain[...] but, there was a kind of element in my thinking that people get what they deserve, which sounds really harsh actually…”

Obstacles & frustrations Time and space (getting sucked back into day to day life) one of the key points for me, has been time. Lots of, ‘I must do this, must do that’- I’ve done some of it, but I haven’t done all I wanted to. (Geoff, GSVC, focus group) School life driven by external pressures Colleagues working to different agendas Obstacles to collaboratively working with Southern colleagues