Tim Cagney, Chief Executive, ACS International Schools, reflects on why values matter
Tim Cagney, Chief Executive, ACS International Schools, reflects on why values matter.
In times of conflict, like the war in Ukraine, we are reminded of what matters in an international community and why the values we hold are so important. During immensely challenging and heartbreaking times, this is when the values of our exceptional community are tested and really come into their own. I am proud to have witnessed numerous examples of this in recent weeks.
As a group of international schools with over 70 nationalities of students and staff represented, sensitivity, intercultural understanding and respect for each other is integral to what we stand for, and essential to achieving peace. We welcome everyone and act with kindness.
The aim of an international education is to promote intercultural understanding and communication across boundaries. Managing conflict is an important part of living in a diverse community and we recognise our responsibility to help our students make sense of the world they're growing into.
By following a truly international education programme, our students examine subjects from multiple viewpoints, rather than from a national standpoint as they may do in a national curriculum. Inside and outside the classroom, different perspectives are valued and explored. Seeing situations from different angles helps to foster empathy and respect - crucial qualities when dealing with conflict.
Over the years, many of our students have participated at ACS and around the world in Model United Nations (MUN) conferences, where they are tasked with representing a country in an education simulation and solving a specific problem working with delegates from around the world. An excellent exercise in diplomacy and international relations, and I would like to think that the values they live every day at ACS is the ideal preparation. Not just for MUN, but for life in an unsimulated, unfiltered world.
Of course, our priority at this time is the wellbeing of all our students, to ensure they feel safe and supported. Our Heads of School have been reassuring families that we are supporting their children during this crisis. Our school counselling and advisory teams are, as always, available to our young people who are directly affected or especially concerned.
I am unsurprised yet extremely proud of our community’s response to the war in Ukraine, not least our students, who have perfectly exemplified our values: Aim high, and make it happen; Imagine better; Act with kindness; Welcome everyone; and Work together.
Our ACS community organised an internal donation drive for essential supplies, in partnership with local organisations, to collect what is most needed. Staff, students and families have generously contributed and have helped to sort, pack and label boxes in English, Polish and Ukrainian. The hundreds of boxes were then transported directly to Ukraine in an articulated lorry, kindly provided by GKN Freight Services.
Seeing our values being lived every day throughout our remarkable community gives me great hope for the next generation of changemakers, ready to make their mark on a hopefully more peaceful, kind and tolerant world.
As our Chief Executive notes, continued conflict in a number of places around the world provide a salutary reminder that the broad palette of world history and international unrest does, sadly, repeat itself. As a human race, we still have much to learn about getting along, seeing eye-to-eye and working together for a better future. So, what can education do to address this?
Global competence
Global competence is something educators talk about more and more and is fundamental to a good international education. A recent white paper by Harvard's Research Schools International, commissioned by ACS International Schools, referenced multiple recent ‘'global overlapping crises” many of them international, pointing to an increasingly unpredictable future for all. The paper cited a recent UNESCO report on ‘Futures of Education’ which stressed the role of education in ‘addressing common challenges, uniting around common endeavours and providing the knowledge and innovation needed to shape sustainable and peaceful futures for all’.
There are a number of definitions of global competence within the white paper. They all come down to the core abilities of understanding perspectives from many angles; collaborating with many different nationalities and people from all walks of life, empathising with others, communicating effectively across cultures and taking meaningful action in order to make the world a better place.
How can education develop students’ global competence?
The white paper identified the core teaching practices that are effective at supporting students’ global competence and determined there are five key learning activities that matter:
1. Volunteering
2. Participation in events celebrating cultural diversity
3. Learning about different cultures and nationalities
4. Participating in classroom discussions about world events
5. Resolving conflict – correlated with students’ adaptability, openness to diversity, ability to communicate and see from different perspectives, their respect for others and awareness of global issues.
Global competence is a key pillar of ACS’ education strategy and it is reassuring and inspiring to see these activities reflected in the day-to-day life of all ACS International Schools. From every student’s service-learning experience as part of their school programme, to seeing students rally behind causes big and small, global and local. For a more in-depth understanding of the global competence white paper click here and to read about how global competence fits into the ACS education strategy click here.
