Reflecting critically on a Ghana-Scotland school partnership: a rhizomatic narrative approach

Abstract

Drawing on my own lived experiences, this research examines the complexities and conundra of an international school partnership (ISP) between two primary schools in Scotland and Ghana. The study is a response to questions that arose having completed extensive South-North school partnership project work, years of quiet wonderings, and numerous entries in a personal research and travel journal. Previous research has called for the importance of inclusive spaces for building critical and ethical engagement around different perspectives. The relational and socio-emotional aspects of ISPs, and global citizenship education more broadly, have not yet been widely researched. In addressing this gap, the research applies a narrative approach and uses rhizomatic analysis of personal reflections, memories and lived experience stories. Despite ‘good’ intentions, the analysis reveals glimpses of neo-colonialism at play within our partnership, alongside material and knowledge inequalities. The analysis highlights the potential role of school partnerships in decolonising teacher thinking through ‘unlearning’. As a researcher and practising teacher, the research has involved critical reflection and reflexivity to challenge assumptions, develop criticality, and transform (colonial) thinking. In this study, the research uses professional and personal lived experiences as a starting point for a critically-informed rhizomatic narrative analysis. This approach generates new ideas that address the need for more inclusive educational partnerships between South and North. Significantly, the research’s insights add new understanding to the known paradox of simultaneous connection and distinction between oneself and the Other in partnership working between countries. Firstly, this study posits that informal spaces, as a ‘Third space’ (Bhabha, 1994) or ‘place of displacement’, may be more conducive to mutual and transformational learning than more traditional formal settings. Secondly, the research develops a key insight that relational transformation is more likely to happen when teachers engage with difference through authentic, personal relationships and ‘moments of sharedness’ with one another. Lastly, the findings support the need for new forms of inclusion based on a plurality of knowledges within ISPs, rather than being driven by Western ways of being and knowing. Further derivable research in this area can help develop new decolonial practices and a more radical and inclusive stance across future South-North ISPs.