Potential and Risks
There may be many benefits to be gained from developing a school partnership and conducting a student immersion if:
- Catholic Social Teaching principles are adhered to,
- there is the time and investment available to sustain and monitor the program, and
- the arrangement is mutually beneficial.
Some potential benefits of a student immersion include:
- cultivating an openness to new thinking and ideas
- inspiring a desire for positive change, locally and globally.
- developing self-awareness
- developing respect for others
- developing skills of inquiry and critical thinking, and the ability to apply these to local and global issues
- developing the ability to communicate in different ways and settings
- developing an appreciation of diversity
- deepening a sense of injustice and a commitment to tackling it
- fostering an understanding of how local and global are interconnected, and of the impacts that actions have at both levels.
While local or global student immersions can develop social justice and cross cultural awareness, they are not necessarily an action that achieve the above.
Film clip - Great learning can happen Watch the film clip and discuss:
| Discuss: - What learning potential can you see for your students and the community you are visiting?
- What 'cross cultural, cross generational' learning potential can you see?
- Do the benefits outweigh the financial and human resource expense?
- What impact might the visit have on the host community?
- What impact will the travel have on the environment?
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