The tortoise and the hare. The snail and the antelope. The crab and the monkey. These tales, from different cultures, all mirror the theme of patience winning against haste. There are many such examples of stories, myths, or folklore, that appear in different cultures.
At International Schools Partnership (ISP), we were curious about how short stories that are rooted in different cultures could be studied with the aim of developing students’ intercultural understanding. We used this as the starting point of our ISP Writers programme, part of our International Learning Opportunities for Students (ILOS).
ISP Writers is the first of our regional ILOS programmes, in which regional teams design international programmes that are tailored to the needs of their students and schools. With a growing number of expat families from South Asia joining our schools in Mexico and Central America, we saw an opportunity to connect schools in these regions through ISP Writers programme to foster purposeful collaboration among the student groups.
A window into a culture
Students began by studying a folktale from their paired region. For example, grade 5 students in India explored the Central American folklore of El Cadejo, a mysterious spirit that guides travellers either to safety or harm. Meanwhile, their fellow students in Mexico and Central America studied the Indian tale of The Monkey and Crocodile, focused on the themes of friendship and betrayal.
Through these stories, students learned about common elements across folktales – such as looking for a deeper meaning, exploring the cultural significance of the story, and identifying themes. Students reflected on what the tale might tell us about cultural traditions and whether there were any similarities with their home country.
Boosting creativity through collaboration
The second phase of the programme gave students the opportunity to showcase and develop their creativity and collaboration. Inspired by stories from Indian or Mexican and Central American culture, students used an interactive writing platform to co-create a new story.
Students were encouraged to apply narrative techniques learned in the previous module to write a chapter, which was then reviewed by their fellow students. Together, they crafted a story by voting for their favourite first chapter, which was the basis of the second chapter, and so on.
Building culturally rich stories together
In the final module, an author-led workshop focused on supporting students with the writing process. With prompts from the author around a genre and initial chapter, students from different regions worked in mixed teams to build chapters and an ending. Students were supported to showcase their learning by crafting a culturally sensitive and literarily rich narrative in teams.
Olivia Matthewson, Senior ILOS Project Manager at ISP, reflected on the learnings from this module: “We were pleased to harness the power of a digital platform for this stage of the programme, which allowed us to facilitate collaboration between the student groups despite the physical distance and time difference.”
Beyond the classroom
Our ILOS programmes are all about our students’ growth, and we are always delighted when to students lead their own initiatives in addition to the prepared programme modules. For example, at Instituto Thomas Jefferson Palomar in Guadalajara, Mexico, students designed covers for their finished books, had them printed, and held a book signing event with the parent and carer community to celebrate their achievements.
Another highlight was discovering fellow students’ cultural celebrations. Students in Mexico were keen to understand more about Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights celebrated by their fellow students in India. Meanwhile, students in India were keen to learn more about The Day of the Dead, celebrated in Mexico.
Reflections and next steps
Deborah Revolorio, Head of Student Futures Latam at ISP reflected: “This programme was a fantastic chance to share our traditions, our stories and our culture. We found that students were surprised to find so many similarities with fellow students on the other side of the world, which is always a pleasure to see first-hand. For example, students from both countries ended a virtual call by singing a familiar K-pop song!”
One student reflected: “I would recommend ISP Writers to another student as it helped me to learn more about writing in other cultures and boost my confidence.”
Another shared: “It’s a fun way to write and share your stories, it’s also a good way to learn about different cultures from all [around] the world and how they think.”
Looking ahead to next year’s edition, we are delighted to be expanding the programme to include schools in Europe, providing opportunities for even more ISP students to build their writing skills and connect with fellow students around the world.
