Fostering collaboration between Australian and Chinese schools
Asialink Education's Emeline Gillingham and Australia-China Digital BRIDGE Participant Simon Huang share some of the key lessons learned and insights for successful digital partnerships.
30 April 2024
AEF was pleased to contribute to the National Symposium on the Future of Australia-China School Partnerships organised by the International Education Association of Australia (IEAA) in May 2024.
Supported through a grant from the National Foundation for Australia-China Relations, IEAA’s Symposium brought together more than 200 school leaders, educators, policy makers and a diverse range of other school stakeholders from both Australia and China, online and in person.
AEF's Assistant Manager, International Partnerships, Emeline Gillingham, and Australia-China Digital BRIDGE Participant, Simon Huang, shared some of the key lessons learned and insights for successful digital partnerships in line with AEF’s What works Report on School partnerships in a digital age. They presented alongside two other panelists, Sharon Armstrong from the Victorian Department of Education and Tom Shugg, Co-Founder of Meg Languages, who shared highlights and insights from the Victorian Young Leaders to China digital pivot, during a panel session chaired by Suyi Xie from IEAA.
BRIDGE, which stands for ‘Building Relationships through Intercultural Dialogue and Growing Engagement’ is AEF’s flagship teacher professional development program which establishes school partnerships between students, educators and school communities.
Funded by the National Foundation for Australia China Relations, the Australia-China Digital BRIDGE program was AEF's first school partnership program with China since 2015 and the first to be delivered fully online. 42 school partnerships were established in 2022/23, with more than 150 educators involved from 34 schools across Australia and 45 schools in Guangdong, Hangzhou, Jiangxi, Ningbo and Shanghai provinces.
IEAA is making available the following symposium resources to share key learnings, ensure accessibility and deepen impact of the information and insights that were presented during the symposium:
- recordings of symposium sessions, including AEF’s contributions to the panel session on Digital Partnerships
- a follow-up report on the National Symposium on the future of Australia-China school partnerships will be published in July 2024.
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