What I Wish My Fellow Educators Knew About Transitions
Dear Fellow Educators,
I’m an Adult Third-Culture Kid (ATCK), the mother of Cross-Cultural Kids (CCKs) who have attended international and domestic schools, the colleague of international educators who were either locked-in or scattered all across the globe during the pandemic, the friend of parents who are moving their families to new schools (and back again), and a former high school counselor in international schools in Asia. In all of these roles over the years, I’ve experienced and witnessed the good, the bad, and the ugly of transitions-care practices.
I’d like to outline for you the reasons why, particularly during a global pandemic and with new schools putting various new protocols into place, transitions-care should be at the forefront of schools’ planning going forward.
The Needs
From Barbara Schaetti (1996) to John Hattie (2009, 2018) through to Barron & Mahoney (2020), research has shown that (a) unmanaged or mismanaged transitions have a negative impact on student learning and (b) that international schools do not have a thorough understanding of transitions and the need to care for those in transition.
During the Covid-19 global pandemic, international schools learned that sudden student, family and staff transitions could have negative impacts on their communities. Many schools quickly sought creative ways to address the need for building community and taking care of their people during these unexpected transitions.
The Concerns
I host SPAN’s monthly online gathering, The Nest, and over these past many months, I have heard from practitioners in schools around the world who have shared their concerns for students and staff through the pandemic. These have ranged from:
social isolation of students and teachers due to government lockdowns
screen fatigue
lack of community engagement, connectedness and belonging
fear and anxiety
multiple transitions into/out of countries, or into/out of in-person school and daily routines
the inability to say a clear good-bye to leaving staff, students and families
teaching remotely from various time zones
exhaustion and stress
As Doug Ota, author of Safe Passage: How mobility affects people & what international schools should do about it, has stated: “the pandemic of course pushed the rate of such changes into warp-drive.”
A Way Forward
#1 Focus: The pandemic brought our attention to transition-care needs in schools.
This “silver lining” from Covid-19 brought transitions-care to the forefront of our collective minds, and meant that we came up with some creative ways to address the issues and concerns raised above. These included:
For Arriver families: virtual video campus tours
For Stayer students: online game nights, with prizes delivered to their home (if possible)
For Arriver and Stayer parents: Sharing baking or cooking recipes from their home culture, with others following along to make it at home
For all students: more intentional counselor check-ins, individually and in small groups
For Stayer Staff: happy hour or pub quizzes with a beverage of your choice, depending on time zone
For Leaving Staff: Zoom good-bye gatherings
#2 Broaden: Schools need a diverse set of perspectives to build better transitions
Another of the “a-ha” moments of our learning is that schools need people in a variety of roles to build robust, sustainable, even joyful transitions-care practices in schools. Successful Transition Teams include classroom teachers, counselors, Admissions Officers at their core, and expand to invite students, parents and Administrators to join.
In our discussions amongst the current cohort completing the SPAN Laws of Transitions Certificate Course, we have examined how building transitions-care can be “ground-up” or “top-down.” Neither is better than the other, and usually it takes cooperation in both directions to really get transitions-care programming off the ground.
#3 Keep it Personal: Start with yourself, then honor the stories and experiences of all the people you serve.
We have found that sharing our personal transition stories has had the most impact on our own learning, and on the ripple effect of our transitions-care advocacy in our schools. When we see and hear the experiences of the Stayers, Leavers and Arrivers in our schools, we connect more to each other and to the need to provide transitions-care for all of our students, families, staff and administrators.
So, what’s your pandemic transition story?
My hope for you as an educator is that you explore your own experience during the pandemic, as well as how your story connects with those of your colleagues, your students and their families.
What do I wish you knew?
That there are many, many other folks all across different schools who are also wanting to improve their transitions programs and build sustainable transitions teams to care for themselves and each other. That you are not alone. That transitions matter, because teaching and learning does -- and we cannot take care of the latter without addressing the former.
With warmest wishes for the journey ahead,
Aleka Bilan
SPAN Team Member
Let’s positively manage these upheavals of transitions in international schools to equip our students with lifelong skills for tackling transitions well. In this JAL, facilitated by two transitions-care experts from Safe Passage Across Networks (SPAN), we will address the concerns raised in international schools by the pandemic, so that everyone can get back to the focus of what we do -- teaching and learning.
Whether you are a Principal, Deputy, Head of Faculty, Head of Department, Grade Level Leader, Teacher, Counselor, Transitions-Care Coordinators or Admissions Staff member, this job-a-like will give you a starting point for having broad conversations about where your school transitions-care program can develop.
Individuals holding a current paid SPAN Membership can participate for free. If your school is a SPAN Partner or SPAN sponsor you may also register for free. To sign up for SPAN Memberships, Partnerships & Sponsorships, please visit: https://www.spanschools.org/memberships or contact admin@spanschools.org.
