From pole to pole

Enviado por José Antonio Vergara

October 20, 2008

IB WORLD
January 2008

They may be 9,516 miles apart, but the IB’s most northerly and southerly schools share the same ethos of international-mindedness

José Antonio Vergara
Diploma Programme coordinator, The British School –Punta Arenas, Chile

Punta Arenas, is widely believed to be the world’s most southerly city. With a population of 120,000, it is renowned for its links to the oil industry as well as its extreme weather

IB What’s your background?
I was born in Punta Arenas and I have worked at the school for 12 years. My first speciality was history but I have gradually moved into economics.

IB What challenges does the school’s location give you?
Without contact by land with the rest of the country until recently, it was very difficult to maintain a link with other schools. Our closest contact is with schools in Argentine Patagonia, with whom we have sports and academic exchanges: this allows us to overcome some of the geographical and mental isolation. Technology has changed things too – it had previously been difficult to access up-to-date information, but now we have introduced a range of blogs and wikis into the classroom.

There are some things we cannot change: between May and August, there are only a few hours of daylight, and so we begin the day before sunrise, and when we finish it is already dark. In summer, it’s the opposite – we only have four hours of darkness. Culturally speaking, the isolation of the area has allowed us to create a very clear identity. We are the grandchildren of immigrants who arrived looking for better living conditions and created an original way of living together in an inhospitable environment.

IB How important is it to ensure your students receive an internationally-minded education? How do you make sure they do this?
One of the main reasons we decided to become part of the IB community is the international nature of the curriculum. The global vision it provides us with is a vital complement to our strong local tradition. Due to our location, it is very valuable to enter into contact with schools from around the world and feel part of a global community that shares values and interests.

For example, all Antarctic expeditions stop off at Punta Arenas, and this offers our students great possibilities that we can share with other schools in the IB community.

Brynjar Nordgård
Biology teacher, Finnfjordbotn Vidaregåande school, Finnsnes, Norway

Finnsnes is a town 40 miles from the city of Tromsø, with a population of 11,000. It is well-known for its trade links, as well as its Arctic climate, which brings heavy snowfall

IB What’s your background?
I was born and raised in northern Norway. I have taught at Finnfjordbotn since 1984, mainly information and communication technology (ICT) and biology.

IB What challenges does the school’s location give you?
BN It can limit opportunities to enjoy long-distance trips to central European areas. The Arctic winter offers challenges to us all: ice and snow, blizzards, frost and cold, and clear days combined with short periods of milder, rainy days can sometimes make you feel that there is far too much weather for any reasonable purpose. With the sun gone from late November to mid-January you could easily draw the conclusion that this must be depressing, but it’s not: the Northern Lights are spectacular and although we don’t see the sun, it makes the sky and the sea alive with wonderful colours. Sure, it can be tiring during the long winter months, and you need an extra gear to motivate some of the students, but imagine their energy from April, when the midnight sun enters the scene and darkness disappears. Mind you, not all that extra energy is expended at school…

IB How important is it to ensure your students receive an internationally-minded education? How do you make sure they do this?
Living in the Barents region, which unites the northernmost parts of Sweden, Norway, Finland and north-west Russia, we are especially focused on international cooperation. The region shares a similar culture and environment, as well as natural resources and a mutual desire for political and economic stability.

Arctic biology encompasses understanding and awareness of all these concepts and should be an integral part of our biology course and our students’ understanding. Also, international-mindedness is in a broad sense woven into Norwegian educational practice in general. Most subjects in a Norwegian school deal with and look at international relations in different ways.

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