By Beauty Boois
School Counsellor & EDIB Champion
When I initially learned about the Masters in International Education, offered by Kings College, London, in collaboration with Northbridge International School Cambodia via Nord Anglia Education, a wave of excitement rushed through me!
Professional development opportunities, such as this are exactly what I believe researchers in International Education such as Hayden, Bunnell and Poole were referring to when they wrote about what keeps staff in international schools, happy, engaged, and willing to stay on in the schools, or within the organizations under which the schools operates.
In our globalized world a plethora of opportunities are centered around profit, which can sometimes create situations that neglect the human drive for personal or professional growth, and self-actualization. This fully funded opportunity is something that all Nord Anglia Education employees can benefit from where all costs are taken care of by individual schools and the organization in order for us to access, top-tier, high-quality master's level education from one of the most renowned universities in the United Kingdom.
Not only is this an incredible opportunity for professional development, but the course content itself is engaging and invigorating. With subjects ranging from the history of international education and international schools to the postcolonial lens of international schools, and the perspective of international schools as agents of social change - the subject matter is topical and bound to leave its graduates with a holistic and comprehensive understanding of international education in a way that can impact real substantial change in individual schools, and NAE as a whole.
Being relatively new to working in the international school sphere, my interest in the opportunity was centered on learning as much as possible about international education in a way that can improve my understanding of our students, parents, teaching staff and leadership as well as to see how my role is connected to the different stakeholders in the school and overall NAE Education Strategy. I also see it as an opportunity to delve into research that centers wellbeing and EDIB in international schools.
Being the school counsellor and the EDIB Champion at Northbridge International School Cambodia (NISC), I am always looking to align with knowledge that could resonate with my desire to positively affect or influence student wellbeing, equity, diversity, inclusion and belonging in my school and beyond. Suffice to say (or write) that I aligned with the perfect opportunity to reach my personal and professional goals and I am lucky to have the support of the principal at NISC, in terms of my research interests.
With just 7 units completed in the program I have already used the knowledge gained from it to propose, initiate and suggest various ways to boost our school's implementation of the NAE EDIB strategy and I am truly excited and delighted to forge the way forward in this way, amongst others.
