Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) has gained momentum for fostering global competence and internationalizing curricula, offering a more accessible alternative to traditional study abroad programs (Hackett et al., 2023). In the K-12 space, COIL provides younger students and teachers the opportunity to engage in cross-cultural communication when physical travel across time, space, and cultures is difficult due to students’ minor status and other structural barriers, e.g., cost, school calendars, and local instructional requirements (Hinshaw et al., 2022).
Virtual Exchange (VE) is a broader term that encompasses COIL and other online instructional approaches focusing on cross-cultural teaching and learning (O’Dowd, 2018). VE connects youth participants in “a more neutral third space” mediated through online technologies, as compared to traditional cultural exchanges when one group travels to another country (Stevens Initiative, 2024, n.p.). This shared space is co-constructed by adult facilitators, who “help students enter into the realm of collaborative inquiry and construction of knowledge, viewing their expanding repertoire of identities and communication strategies as resources in the process” (Kern & Warschauer, 2000, p. 21).
This article describes a school-university partnership and how educators collaborated in a Community of Practice (CoP) to create a cross-cultural VE between secondary students in China and the United States.
Background on the School-University Partnership
For nearly a decade, educational researchers at North Carolina State University’s Friday Institute for Educational Innovation (Friday Institute) have facilitated collaborative learning opportunities between Suzhou North America High School (SNA), a private international secondary school in Suzhou, Jiangsu, China, and partner schools in the United States (Spires et al., 2018a). Through facilitating these cross-cultural school partnerships, the Friday Institute team has explored students’ engagement in Border-Crossing Discourse (Spires et al., 2023) and teachers’ and students’ evolving cosmopolitan literacies and participation in cross-cultural inquiry (Spires et al., 2018b; 2019a; 2019b).
In spring 2022, Xiaohong Lin, an Asian languages and cultures teacher at Coastal High School (CHS), a public charter secondary school in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, USA, reached out to Marie Himes and Sarah Bausell at the Friday Institute seeking a connection with a partner school in China. Ms. Lin wanted to enhance her students’ understandings of Chinese culture and language through a collaborative learning experience with similarly aged peers living in China.
After an introductory conversation with Ms. Lin, Ms. Himes reached out to SNA contacts to gauge interest and capacity for a VE. As an international school, SNA aims to provide students with an educational environment in which they can “develop an international perspective” through internationalized curricula, extracurricular activities, and international exchange opportunities (SNA, n.d., n.p.). Thus, SNA Assistant Principal, Carolyn Gao, was eager to speak with the school’s faculty and find a teacher from the SNA side to lead this VE.
Ms. Lin believed that a VE between her U.S. students and students in China would be an opportunity to “create a learning community beyond the classroom” and cultivate her students’ “open-mindedness and global competence.” As an international teacher from China living and working in the US, Ms. Lin was keenly aware of rising political tensions between China and the US. These tensions motivated Ms. Lin to seek cross-cultural student connections, seeing the possibilities for “learning from each other so they [students] can see the potential for collaboration in the future and have a different source of information on China and the US than just social media and the news.”
Michael Angelo Ehilla Baiño, an international teacher at SNA from the Philippines, was selected by Ms. Gao for the teacher leadership role. Mr. Baiño’s motivation for partnering in this VE was twofold: (1) “wanting students to learn more about other cultures” and (2) supporting students in “realizing how cross-cultural interactions can build mutual respect and understanding.” As a biology teacher at SNA, Mr. Baiño recognized that he and his students would be engaging in the VE in an extracurricular fashion, which provided some added logistical and curricular flexibility; however, it also presented some drawbacks in terms of SNA student recruitment, available time investment, and academic alignment.
In the summer of 2022, Ms. Lin, Mr. Baiño, Ms. Himes, and Dr. Bausell held an organizational meeting prior to the beginning of the 2022-23 academic year, marking the beginning of our school-university Community of Practice (CoP).
Co-Constructing a School-University Educator Community of Practice
Hinshaw et al. (2022) highlighted teachers’ professional development through the facilitation of VE as it “directly and indirectly exposes teachers to cross-cultural perspectives” (p. 2). In addition to the professional growth experienced by educators via cross-cultural interactions in designing and implementing VE, facilitators also navigate challenging contextual factors, including time differences, restricted and uneven access to technology, and local instructional requirements, e.g., instructional standards, curricular sequences, and standardized assessments (Baroni et al., 2019; O’Dowd, 2018).
Co-constructing a Community of Practice (CoP), as originally conceptualized by Wenger (1998), with the school- and university-based educators facilitating this cross-cultural student VE offered a professional learning orientation toward enhancing educators’ relevant skills and knowledge in VE while also strengthening our collegial network through collaborative problem-solving. Moreover, with the goal of cultivating understanding and community among students in the VE across cultural contexts, a CoP provided educator participants with opportunities to experientially mirror students’ explorations of “interaction, mutual dependence, and identification with a group” (Westheimer & Kahne, 1993, p. 325).
As educators and experts on their school community contexts and students, Mr. Baiño and Ms. Lin brought to bear insider knowledge in our CoP alongside Ms. Himes and Dr. Bausell’s expertise as university-based educators in connecting educators and students across time, space, and cultures to create a shared vision for student learning in the VE. Four principles have guided our CoP:
- Cultivating students’ global competence is the core function of our VE.
Given VE student participants’ differing instructional contexts, e.g., VE as an extracurricular activity at SNA and integrated into an elective Asian literature and cultures course at CHS, Mr. Baiño, Ms. Lin, Ms. Himes, and Dr. Bausell had to first co-create a shared vision for the purpose of the VE. To co-create this shared vision, CoP members asked themselves in what way participation in a VE could bring value to both schools’ student communities. This shared vision acted as a guidepost for subsequent decisions made in the CoP.
- Decisions are consensus driven.
Since members of the CoP were participating based on their roles with differing organizations, it was particularly important to establish this norm early on in community formation. Ms. Himes and Dr. Bausell were particularly cognizant of how their positions within an institution of higher education and as the connecting parties between the two school-based educators could be perceived and/or leveraged to disproportionately influence the decision-making process within the CoP; however, all parties recognized the value in the insider and outsider perspectives that each member brought to the CoP and, therefore, understood the importance of community co-construction through consensus-making.
- Active participation in regular synchronous communication is expected.
Communication is an integral part of dynamic communities. Thus, to effectively carry out the core function of the cross-cultural student VE through consensus-driven decisions, Ms. Lin, Mr. Baiño, Ms. Himes, and Dr. Bausell needed to co-construct a schedule for regular synchronous communication. CoP members developed a communication plan that included opportunities to connect synchronously and virtually before, during, and after each student VE session. CoP virtual meetings that took place before each student VE session offered opportunities for members to co-design the student sessions; group chats during each student VE session afforded CoP members with opportunities to check in and make in-the-moment adjustments to instructional implementation; and post-VE session virtual meetings provided opportunities for reflection and revision among CoP members moving forward. The co-constructed communication plan contributed to creating a rhythm for the CoP and VE.
- Roles and responsibilities of CoP members may differ and evolve overtime.
While co-construction and consensus-making are hallmarks of a CoP, so too is the understanding that CoPs invite different levels and styles of participation. In this CoP, Ms. Himes served primarily as the coordinator to organize synchronous CoP and student VE session activities. Mr. Baiño and Ms. Lin took on leadership roles in terms of instructional implementation with students before, during, and after VE sessions and provided important and necessary feedback during CoP reflection sessions. During year one of our CoP, Dr. Bausell attended synchronous meetings and supported Ms. Himes, Ms. Lin, and Mr. Baiño in creating instructional materials for the VE and in acting as a thought partner. In year two, her role shifted to being an asynchronous thought partner and to documenting the CoP and cross-cultural student VE for research purposes. As the cross-cultural student VE between SNA and CHS enters its third year, CoP membership and members’ roles and responsibilities will continue to evolve.
Conclusion
In collaboratively developing a cross-cultural student VE, school- and university-based educators have co-constructed and operated within a CoP to iteratively address VE design and implementation. The CoP approach has afforded participants with opportunities that mirror what their students are experiencing through VE to engage in and reflect on how their professional and personal identities shape and are shaped by engagement in cross-cultural dialogue. To view a short video from the 2022-23 cross-cultural student VE, please visit https://go.ncsu.edu/ccsve_snachs22-23.
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