Do Teachers See Global School Partnerships as a Tool to Deliver Anti-Racist and Inclusive Approaches? Connecting Classrooms through Global Learning. Practitioner Research Fund Paper 3

The aim of this study was to research whether teachers see global school partnerships as an effective tool to support anti-racist and inclusive approaches and deliver practice that reflects, is representative of, and engages all pupils. Over the last year, events have led to increasing debates around Black Lives Matter, the urgent need to de-colonise and re-design the curriculum and develop teaching and learning practice that responds to our diverse school communities and contexts. Although there are many schools involved in the Connecting Classrooms Through Global Learning programme it is unclear how many are actively using this work to address and respond to this need. This study aims to assess whether links can be made between the two agendas so that teachers can understand, embed within the rationale for and use their global learning work and global school partnerships as a vehicle to develop and evidence anti-racist approaches. Research data was gathered from both teachers and senior leaders via a simple online questionnaire for schools involved in Connecting Classrooms Through Global Learning school partnerships and used to gauge whether they are addressing the agenda and to what degree they can see these links as a tool to enable and evidence impact. This was followed by more qualitative data collected via virtual interviews with three teachers identified from their responses to the initial questionnaire. What is clear from the findings is that teachers acknowledge that a global learning approach and global school partnerships specifically have real relevance when developing anti-racist practice.