Becoming Globally Competent Through Inter-School Reciprocal Learning Partnerships: An Inquiry Into Canadian and Chinese Teachers’ Narratives

Abstract

This study explores how a Canada–China Sister School Network provides school-based professional learning opportunities for in-service teachers to grow their knowledge and capacity to educate for global competence and citizenship (GCC). In particular, it presents the story of a Canadian teacher and a Chinese teacher who had found ways of educating for GCC through carrying out intercultural and international reciprocal learning in a researcher-supported inter-school reciprocal learning partnership. By inquiring into the Canadian and Chinese teachers’ growth narratives, this study highlights four lessons teachers, educators/researchers, and policy makers may learn from the two teachers. It concludes by highlighting the potential of a relationship-oriented, open-ended, and non-hierarchical international school network in supporting teachers to become more globally competent, foregrounding reciprocal learning and collaboration among school practitioners and researchers.