CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19) AND SCSBC’S RESPONSE: Find the lastest updates here for students, faculty and staff.
CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19) AND SCSBC’S RESPONSE: Find the lastest updates here for students, faculty and staff.
Is your school facilitating relational activities like teatime to encourage conversations among your domestic and international students? No matter the time or place, sharing is crucial for building trust and fostering a sense of belonging in your school community.
The power of a story has the potential to offer more insight and depth on a topic rather than a direct explanation. We find Jesus’ teachings more relatable when reading Biblical parables. It is ingrained in us that we should be hospitable and welcoming as part of a church community, and we are taught how to “seek to show” hospitality while avoiding grumbling in alignment with our calling as followers of Jesus. As such, I would like to explore the diverse and unique ways we host our international students in our schools.
International families often express gratitude and well wishes by sharing or gifting tea or coffee from their hometowns, prefectures, or regions. It is a way of demonstrating appreciation for supporting their children throughout the year. Just as they continue to thank us for the work they see in our Christian schools, we can explore new ways of hosting to demonstrate our gratitude as we come together.
The children’s book Teatime Around the World by Denyse Waissbluth provides insight into the different approaches to having tea in at least 25 countries. Poured over yak butter or as thick as soup, some of the simplest practices can serve as important reminders of the commonalities rather than the differences. The act of having tea can be simple or complex, but it centres around the intentionality of the host. I take great delight in hosting, which requires a certain level of responsibility and the appropriate time to do it well.
I often find myself favouring the rich flavours of a bold chai tea, which boasts eleven ingredients with comforting aromatics and robust notes of cardamom, cloves, and chicory root. Elevating my beverage to enrich the flavours, I experiment by combining almond milk, leftover coffee, and honey. Sometimes, it works; sometimes, it does not. The full-body flavour is unique every time. Comparatively, as international coordinators, we bring diversity to our student body and regularly adapt and develop opportunities to facilitate new hosting potential. We are seeking to encourage our students with whole-person experiences in mind. As we learn, we share and celebrate what we discover while building stronger and fulfilling programs.
When determining the perfect tea blend, one must first consider purpose, flavour profiles, steeping process, setting, and company. Similarly, finding a good blend for your program requires careful consideration and proper planning. Our International Program and Homestay Coordinators, ELL specialists, and EAs, meet quarterly to discuss common trends, concerns, funding models, and resources. As early as the previous October, we are planning and developing immersive programs for new and returning students. Considering “the size of a gathering shapes what you will get out of people when you bring them together,”¹ we must also be mindful of the fiscal responsibilities when we provide the scaffolding students need to succeed in the Canadian education system. We must consider balancing our resources, spaces, and services with the composition of each grade for a balanced class. It is also crucial to find joy in what we create, even when the finances are a significant part of the conversation, while often working as core teams. As a larger group, we look at our common goals and then return to our school to blend the overarching goals with the purpose and vision reflected in our school cultures. This repetitive practice leads to deeper questions and vision planning at our respective institutions—likely over a stronger cup of coffee.
Just as your favourite tea blend often requires you to explore beyond your comfort zone, so does building diverse international programs; both often require guidance (especially after you have burnt your third bitter cup or worked with the wrong agent). I see the various aspects of thoughtful and intentional programming after seeing how our schools’ coordinators and ELL teachers host students. From admissions to course selection, agent to family relations, counselling to homestay services, intercultural to academic advising, and after-school clubs to Bible studies, we host with robust and distinctive flavours. Staff and students work together to support minorities and Indigenous departments, alongside intercultural departments. Therefore, we should be considering ways to build more connections moving forward. What is the right blend for each school as well as the network of Christian schools? How can we work together to achieve a healthier system?
At the classroom level, relational activities like teatime can be utilized to make conversations more accessible for domestic and international students alike. No matter the time or place, sharing is crucial for building trust and fostering a sense of belonging within the constructs of a safe space. While in Japan, I enjoyed watching how incredibly engaged Canadian students were when participating in a traditional tea ceremony club and a karate club at our hosting sister schools, Miyagi Gakuin and Hyogo Kokusai. Our students are encouraged to be vulnerable and open while learning about another culture with hands-on activities. They see how activities can require cultural knowledge, patience, and practice. In general, our students have transformative experiences based on how we create events and invite members to gatherings of any size.
Within ELL programming, we adapt resources while fostering accessibility for our students with Universal Design for Learning in mind. Several of our tools and awareness activities are utilized in mainstream classes as teachers see the everyday needs and embrace the ways that, as Priya Parker mentions in The Art of Gathering, demonstrate that “diversity is potentiality that needs to be activated” rather than “just be[ing] there” in the classroom. After careful and deliberate consideration, we invite students to recognize that they are part of a system. No matter the location, the activity must reflect sincerity and vulnerability, so the participants know they are valued and feel both seen and heard while developing trust within the group.
In closing, the power of story is enriching as we broaden our perspectives. Traditional Lunar New Year (February 10) and Spring Festival (February 10–20) are upon us, and some of our students will be celebrating with family and friends from countries such as South Korea, Vietnam, and China; others will be apart from their families, studying abroad, while trying to join the festivities back home. For broader student-body engagement, international coordinators and ELL staff are hosting students and showing appreciation for cultural diversity by hosting Lunar New Year meals, chapels, and other awareness activities. When we learn more about different cultures, we inherently become better hosts, creating a stronger school culture.
Sarah Edgar
Interim SCSBC International Student Program Coordinator
