Figure 4 shows how my ‘Three As’ affected the Ugandan schools’ local communities where I’ve worked. These effects may partially be attributable to the involvement of NGOs in two schools’ linking relationships or the longevity of the relationship between Kisiki College, a rural secondary school near Namutumba and the UK town of Ross-on-Wye, partly established through the auspices of Anglican bishoprics in the UK and Uganda. All aspire to the contested term Sustainable Development.

In Figure 5 I adapt Andreotti’s dispositional shifts (2011) to encourage ‘critical, creative and rigorous thinking’ (Bourn, 2015). These aims are promoted through Philosophy for Children (P4C), a methodology which like the web-based Open Spaces for Dialogue and Enquiry methodology (OSDE) Andreotti had helped to develop, encourages learning through dialogue and enquiry.

For the Ghanaian case too an emphasis had been put on Sustainable Developments at Tortibo village, guided by advice from a local Ghanaian director of the Discover Ghana Company, who assisted in Visitor Exchanges between the Ghanaian and UK parties. Quist-Adade and van Wyk (2007) place considerable importance on the requirement for local personnel to be engaged as advisors or contractors when International NGO projects are implemented in Africa. In my thesis I applied their five questions to establish ‘Effective Aid’ to several Ugandan local community ventures (and a proposal to print Braille textbooks for Tanzanian blind and visually impaired pupils, (Leonard, 2014b, p336)). One is shown in Figure 6.

The school’s bursar commented on how opportunities for employment arose from this fish-farm venture. The need to employ a workforce local to the school is perhaps made in the light of earlier less successful linking projects, in which scaling up from a family enterprise to a larger scale operation had not factored in the requirement for labour during school holidays:

Because when we construct that fish pond, people are getting employment. We are employing people there and we employ the people who are around the community that are around the school. So jobs are created, which can even help the people around. Their students again can get jobs, from what we have got from the link. Like now, we are hoping to open up a hostel, being constructed by the link, and the people will get jobs, the people around, because we can’t employ a person who is far from the school.

From my qualitative research it is hard to isolate exactly which factor has been responsible for successful outcomes in schools’ local communities. In my Tanzanian findings what Odora Hoppers (cited in Bourn, 2015) describes as exposing learners to different experiences and approaches is evident; the S/NELP there resulted in similar types of positive effects to those that I had identified in Ghana and Uganda. Here, for example, a Head Teacher in Zanzibar relates collaborations between UK visitors and those in the local hospital:

When Aston comes here… they bring medicines, and they go to help the doctors, teach us at the cottage hospital there, while they put some, like these things, everybody who goes to the hospital may gain from it. There are pieces of medicine, pieces of material, to be used by doctors, in trying to make different physical quantities of, like thermometers, and other medical instruments… they are given there and they are used to the communities, as their working materials. So, they gain, of course.

The computer room at the Zanzibar secondary school, partly funded through its S/NELP, if suitably maintained, was intended as a community resource; its equipment was not reserved for school purposes. Resourcing of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) within this S/NELP demonstrates this partnership’s aspiration to durability and sustainability, and its DE aim of ‘whole community involvement’. What was less certain was how future funding would be secured, to ensure that the computer equipment could be maintained and repaired. How the project could achieve commercial viability, or how its Internet service charges would be financed was not secure in 2011, as discussed by the partnership’s Linking coordinator:

Lack or absence of communication means in Zanzibar, the current come off most of the time and most school have no internet services; by October our internet services in school will cut off and we have no other money to repaid considered that we are the coordinator for other school at the South region, meanwhile they have no internet… The organisations like British Council should help means of communication. No communication no partnership.

Bourn and Cara (2012) reviewed the installation of the NGO Link Community Development’s (LCD) Solar Connect ICT equipment, facilitating solar powered Internet hubs, in thirty schools, in four African countries, as part of their ‘Partners in Development’ project. They identified several instances of locals agreeing to supervise, burglar proof and resource schools’ Solar Connect equipment. Community involvement was also a criterion for schools being selected to have this equipment installed. Until LCD closed its School Linking programme this NGO, like DGSP, had been a major player in UK/African School Linking (Bourn and Cara, 2013). LCD’s linking programme, like that of another NGO, Plan, had emphasised educational provision (see for example Bourn and Cara, 2012), instigating the S/NELP between UK and African schools, applying a model with an overt Development agenda in the South, funded from UK parties. A criticism made of Continuing Professional Development materials provided by these agencies is that they are often published only in English (Regester, 2011). There is evidence in research commissioned by LCD that through its now-ceased linking programme the NGO’s involvement in the Ugandan educational sector introduced more interactive teaching methods to those able to attend its workshops (see for example Bourn and Bain, 2012 and Bourn and Cara, 2013).

Bourn and Cara, (Ibid) found in their analysis of African data for schools in an LCD programme that 39/44 teachers’ participation in the S/NELP had precipitated changes in the methodologies used in their classrooms, (30/44 noting that it had changed these ‘a lot’). These changes included increased use of discussion and ‘discovery methods as well as child-centred methods’ (Ibid p25). This echoed findings by Bourn and Bain (2012), from Masindi district in Uganda, where primary schools engaged in the S/NELP had become exposed to approaches ‘from outside their own area’ (Ibid p20), subsequently leading to Ugandan students’ intercultural education, with greater reflection on their own culture and values. Lack of cost-effectiveness of LCD’s long-established Linking programme led to its closure, although the NGO is still committed to educational improvement in Ugandan schools (Bourn and Cara, 2013).

My findings showed however that on occasions linking relationships can become overly reliant on the largesse of UK partners, or that cultural education outcomes may be negligible, or simplistic stereotypes held about the Global North may remain unchallenged for some Southern adults. The former local Tanzanian agent for the small NGO Village Aid, Kenneth Mwanampalila, supporting linking relationships in the Buigiri community, for example, explained that some linking outreach ventures had been stopped, such as the provision of clothing shipped from the UK. The Head Teacher at the Primary School urged me to act as an advocate for his school, claiming that Village Aid funds to support the connection of his buildings to the electricity supply had been inadequate, a claim disputed by Kenneth. This mirrors criticisms of other unfinished educational projects in the Global South, such as those aired by a former LCD-funded Global Teacher, who had worked in East London, South Africa, on her placement (Edwards, 2012, pp8-9):

Donors had given money, but failed to stick around to see the project through to its end. Between 2004 and 2009, this did not feel uncommon. As I remember, the Eastern Cape landscape was littered with half-finished school buildings. This leads, naturally, to bitterness and resentfulness.

Opportunities for critical pedagogy that Bourn (2015) seeks for Development Education, and I advocate, may not easily arise in Southern schools’ local communities; perhaps they are more readily secured in the schools taking part in the S/NELP, rather than for those in the communities that they serve.

Local morale and self-esteem

Bourn and Cara (2012, p36) found in their analysis of relationships established by the NGO LCD, through its School Linking programme, that:

A key theme to emerge in terms of impact on African schools is the sense of pride in the school, feeling closer to its needs and development. By hosting UK teachers, the parents and the wider community were able to celebrate and promote what the school is achieving.

I found something similar in my research. Here a Ugandan secondary school’s linking coordinator relates how those in his local rural community in Nakigo reacted to visitors, from their UK partner in Kington, Herefordshire:

You see, there are… some of them, it is the first time they are meeting, and it is not really negative, it is, I tend to think it is very, very positive, because it is learning to see how the cultures are, from in Britain and in here – the food, the eat- and have you seen that even the people here have been wondering how the Whites can come and enjoy our food and I think this is quite a positive effect, they have had. They have been thinking that maybe someone from Britain might not be able to eat our food or they look down upon it, or what? They have been interacting and eating it with us and I think that is quite positive.

His observations suggest that unreliable stereotypes were addressed and through interactions between people from different cultures critical thinking was promoted, with his neighbours and UK visitors learning together. I, like the British Council and UNESCO (2006), identify this as an example of intercultural education.

This former linking coordinator at the long-established partnership in Zanzibar gave another example of critical thinking, for those at both ends of this relationship:

Maybe when our friends come to Makunduchi maybe they have their stories, maybe something that maybe people are sleeping on the trees and something like that. But when they come here they found that it is quite different; people are very amicable, living happily at the time, saying something like “Karibou”, something like that. And also found that in your country, maybe in England, that people are too far advanced…They come to learn that habit and culture, because it is not only students, but the full grown other one that, who experiences oh, this is good and this is better.

Thakwalakwa and Najda (2012) summarised what I have found to date in my ongoing work with Southern research collaborators, noting how much we all still have to learn from each other.

Recommendations and implications for the future of the S/NELP

To conclude this paper I now relate my recommendations to secure successful linking relationships. The submission, emergence and personal knowledge which I enjoy in the S/NELP after more than a decade (Holliday, 2010) have enabled me to become increasingly visible as a researcher, even acting as an advocate for the Southern collaborators.

Only the Northern, UK lens is applied, building upon Southern advice known at the conclusion of this research journey and corroborated evidence from other interested parties. The recommendations relate to all four of my research sub-questions from the concluding chapter of my thesis (Leonard, 2014b.) In gaining greater confidence in my qualitative interpretivist expertise and researcher’s voice the respondents’ voices too were championed in a more forthcoming manner, when confronted by social justice issues. My ‘reflexive excavation’ (Holliday, 2010), through implementing repeated, persistent attempts to delve deeper into the S/NELP and “persistent and continued efforts to get to the bottom of things” (Ibid, p17) enabled some unexpected realities to surface.

Finally I share seven implications for the future, addressing policy makers, practitioners and the academe.

Recommendations to secure successful relationships

Some links may not aspire to partnership; whatever the Southern school and its partner institutions are seeking from their nascent relationships should be clarified at the outset and then regularly reviewed.

Formalising schools’ participation should be encouraged, representing a commitment to work together, whatever the preferred timescale.

Advice from UK agencies such as the British Council’s Connecting Classrooms and UK One World Linking Association (UKOWLA) personnel and/or publications can guide potential linkers; their materials familiarise all concerned with pitfalls such as unwitting creation of dependency relationships which otherwise might ensue.

Prior to establishing a link those considering embarking on the S/NELP should ideally read literature written from a Postcolonialist persuasion; risks of dependent relationships forming would then be apparent. This awareness raising should then ensure that participants do not contribute unwittingly to their creation.

If schools’ participation in the S/NELP is to evolve into enduring sustainable partnerships, “high momentum” links (Edge et al, 2009) or even more powerful relationships enduring over the decades, like Kisiki College’s link or the Aston-Makunduchi partnership, Southern schools and, ideally, Northern partner/s must establish an evolving cohort of adults whose expertise and experiences of the S/NELP are routinely reported and shared with colleagues.

Linking relationships must not rely too heavily on individuals. If a post of Linking Coordinator is established this individual must ensure that the relationship is ‘owned’ by the school and ideally its local community.

As in any relationship the parties engaged in the S/NELP need to maintain contact with one another. Letter exchanges, reliant on postal services may prove problematic, with a risk that packages are lost in the post. Additionally, the cost of such communication to Southern parties is not negligible. Email, whilst not necessarily accessible on site at Southern schools can be a substitute, especially if Southern parties are pre-warned of such communications by text message.

Dissemination of advice, ideas and linking materials can happen first-hand, through face-to-face meetings and participatory action-research focused workshops; Sazani Associates’ Healthy and Sustainable Schools (HSS) Framework programme and the Aston-Makunduchi Partnership, in Zanzibar, Tanzania, both use this method (Leonard, 2012). Sazani Associates, working with marginalised schools in Wales, UK and Zanzibar have focused on shared learning and curriculum enrichment. MacCallum (2015) a Director of this NGO describes the nature of the project, based on a World Health Organisation (WHO) initiative as “innovative, creative, niche”. Three clusters of schools on the island now work towards different levels of the HSS Award. Trainers in Zanzibar are locals, from early participants in the programme, meeting Quist-Adade and van Wyk’s requirements to employ local personnel and respond to Southern agenda (2007). From its instigation in 2000, comprising two schools, one in Zanzibar and one in Wales, their transformative approach to global learning has evolved into a Global Professional Learning Community (GPLC) of over 40 schools in both countries (MacCallum and Salam, 2014).

As Internet access becomes increasingly affordable in the global South, I suggest that the British Council’s (BC) “Connecting Classrooms/Schools Online⁴” materials should not require users to have registered first on their website. It is prior to forming a link that advice is particularly beneficial. In 2015 “Funding for partnerships under Connecting Classrooms is currently under review”⁵; linking relationships should become self-reliant financially.

The British Council’s SchoolsOnline website⁶ gives basic advice, entitled “Establishing your link”. LCD’s wealth of archived materials, developed over its 15 years’ experience of the S/NELP, should be hyperlinked to the Connecting Classrooms/Schools Online website.

The S/NELP should not be seen as consisting of two schools, but rather linking should be viewed as a process. My research in Ghana, Uganda and Tanzania, has shown how the S/NELP works effectively when others take part, including NGOs and commercial enterprises.

Crucially, to minimize the risk of dependent relationships forming, those in the South should determine funding solutions, so that local challenges are solved using local knowledge. West (2014) suggests that a questioning of “the taken for granted and oppressive forces in a life” (Ibid, p165), with its resultant internalising of radically different ideas, represents ‘significant’ transformational learning. This is very important, since it contrasts with some Northern attempts at linking (Edwards, 2012). This may include collaboration with NGOs, the commercial sector, Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) and multilateral funding agencies, such as the World Bank.

Implications for the future

I believe that Northern teachers and young people in multicultural communities and Southern schools may prove rich areas for future S/NELP collaboration. Opportunities exist in School Linking to work together to aid the learning of those for whom the formal language of education is an additional language. Schools and HEIs should explore how such work can be instigated.

S/NELP participants need to consider collaboration beyond schools. Cross-phase and linking clusters should be encouraged; schools should work with institutions providing teachers’ professional development, such as HEIs, in the UK, the African continent and other Southern locations. Linked schools, particularly ICT centres of excellence, should act as educational ‘hubs’, engaging in outreach to wider networks of schools.

Schools should seize curriculum opportunities. New DE teaching and learning resources, created within the S/NELP should be disseminated for wider use. Geography curricula lend themselves well to this. Young people in German cities whose schools or youth groups include participants from a range of cultural backgrounds, may wish to share what they know about Development Education themes with young people from similar Diaspora communities (Scheunpflug, 2008). Schools in Romania might wish to link with those whose families are from the Roma Diaspora, in a range of Northern settings.

[5] See the website here.

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