Develop social entrepreneurship skillsets and mindsets in all our students
School should not just prepare students for the future, but get them inventing it. A key strategy to turn this into action, is to steep student experience in social entrepreneurship, so that every child makes a dent in the universe, before they leave through the gates for good.
School should not just prepare students for the future, but get them inventing it.
At Nanjing, we’re fed up of hearing how school is “preparation for a life we can’t even imagine”. From where we’re standing, every young person is very much living their life right now.
A key strategy to turn this into action, is to steep student experience in social entrepreneurship, so that every child makes a dent in the universe, before they leave through the gates for good. “Social entrepreneurship is not trying to solve all the world’s problems, nor is it about collecting some cash and sending it to a far off land,” explains parent, Shareena Mundodi.
“My interest in social entrepreneurship is that it’s a really basic principle to teach people, it’s not rocket science, but the impact can be profound.”
If our students find a good problem, and can come up with a sim- ple solution, they have the potential to expand upon it and change the world.
Early tactics in this field have involved the school’s ongoing “Make Your Mark with 100 kuai in cash” project. Arden Tyoschin, Deputy Director at the school, was frustrated with so many projects of this “social” nature – they’re a blip and then they’re done. “We wanted people to create a concept that could scale from that first 100 kwai prototype,” she explains. “How could it continue to self-fund, keep going?”
One chance conversation with Shareena later, and the team had hatched a plan.
“I came across a blog post from this PhD student living in Beijing, Jonny Dangerfield, who wondered what he could do about the terrible air pollution problem in the city,” explains Shareena. “When he explored the options, he found that as a grad student he couldn’t afford the air purifiers on the market. So, he strapped together a fan and a HEPA filter, and created a low cost option for the vast majority of people who can’t afford the commercial variety. He now holds workshops all over China, showing people how to make these for themselves, and sells low-cost version through his SmartAir site.”
This got a lot of the students really thinking about the kinds of prototypes that they could create that would create impact, and not just be a one-off.
“There is something motivating about slapping the word “enterprise” on it,” believes Shareena. “The goal doesn’t have to be to make a profitable business. It has to be to use simple principles to create a solution or offer some kind of advice to a community, to make a situation better tomorrow than it is today.”
SMALL PIECES LOOSELY JOINED
The role of parents cannot be underestimated, believes Shareena. “At NIS there must be scores of parents who have these connections and passions to share. Bridging the gap all comes down to start- ing with something small. This was a very small project with some eighth grade students, and it fit well with their existing 100 kuai project. Just giving up a little time for a discussion with the students about how a product or service can make a social difference was very powerful.”
The connection from Shareena to Jonny was one link. But the links kept coming. “Over lunch one day with a friend, who runs a big business here in Nanjing, she dropped into conversation about how she wanted to do something more for her community. She also talked about her love of her own dog, and her disgust with the irresponsible owners who don’t pick up after their pets.”
The happenstance of these “small pieces, loosely joined” was about to strike once more. Back at school, there was a team of three girls who had lost direction and motivation with their concept. It was about helping dog owners to be more responsible for cleaning up after their dogs.
Shareena arranged for her friend to chat to the students, enthusing them with her excitement about their project. However, by the time we got the girls and this entrepreneur together a few times more, the exam season had started, it was approaching the end of the school year, it was going to be hard to do something.
MANAGERIALLY LOOSE, CULTURALLY TIGHT
This demonstrates how the Bursting the Bubble strategy has to include bursting the confines of our timetables and campus. As the students head into Grade 9, their next teacher, Francis Morin, has a curriculum that will permit the students to continue their concept from one school year to the next, explore how they might make their idea scale, while learning new craft, design and technology skills. Educational Leadership Professor, Tom Sergiovanni, describes this empowerment of teachers and students as being able to happen in an environment that is “managerially loose, culturally tight”. This way of working, this ‘tactic’, is a core part of the school’s means of meeting our goals.
PARTNERSHIP
“The important lesson here for students is that it’s not just about coming up with an idea, but also meeting the right partner who can help make your idea come alive, and last a long time.” When schools talk about ‘collaboration’, this is perhaps the real world skill we’re talking about.
“When I look at the dog poo project, and compare it to the key themes of this Bursting the Bubble strategy, I can see every aspect of the strategy in one Grade 8 project,” concludes Shareena. “When we apply this theme to learning, all of a sudden it feels like we address everything: there’s a connection to China, there’s a huge degree of student voice and choice, a need to experience trials and errors in order to redesign prototypes better, connection with the local community and learning away from the campus itself.”
“Our parents have amazing skillsets. We’re all incredibly lucky that our children go to this school. The invitation is there and, as we’re in China, word of mouth drives coincidences that can make the difference. This is a really cool space, where you can do pretty much anything. Get involved!” Shareena Mundodi
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution, Non Commercial, ShareAlike 3.0 China Mainland License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/cn/
First published in 2015 by NoTosh Publishing.
NoTosh and the notoshTM mark are Registered Trademarks.