The Global Culture Jam: Educators and students partnership narratives and what we can learn from these
Abstract
This practice piece is a narrative inquiry, bringing together the experiences of educators and students in relation to the Global Culture Jam (GCJ), an open and openly-licensed 5-day virtual programme offered in June 2021 by educators and students of Manchester Metropolitan University (ManMet), during the pandemic period. Educators and students worked together as co-creators, co-designers and facilitators to celebrate diversity and cross-cultural learning, teaching and living experiences and discover how it can enrich individuals, local and global communities. The topics of community, creativity, sustainability and curriculum were explored through a range of live events and self-paced activities which engaged individuals in a range of creative provocations and facilitated collaborative learning opportunities within a diverse community of learners and practitioners to share thoughts, ideas and practices. The GCJ was offered to educators and students across the institution, partner institutions and the wider public globally as a part of the Learning and Teaching Festival organised by the University Teaching Academy in collaboration with the RISE Internationalisation workstream. Members of this workstream became the core educators’ team of the GCJ.
This study and the authentic voices included by educators and students both internally and externally showed that working in partnership based on a democratic dialogue and trust relationships has a positive impact on educators and students. Therefore, such opportunities should be embraced in future while it is also important that workload requirements and time commitment are formally acknowledged in order to maximise positive experiences and outcomes.
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