Worldschooling. Where the World is Your Classroom!

by Liette Godin McKerras

The Worldschooling classroom Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

In Western cultures, learning has traditionally been associated with formal schooling where the transfer of knowledge and skills flows hierarchically top down from teacher to learner. Dr. Tim Boileau also adds that in formal learning there is typically a gap in time and place between the learning and the use of the knowledge acquired so additional support to ensure successful performance is often required. Canadian research into second and other language learning by Dr Sarah Eaton, suggests that there is value in all types of learning. Although not seen as particularly valid, perhaps even overlooked by Western standards, she insists informal learning is now gaining recognition as an essential and effective method of acquiring knowledge and traditional formal learning methods are now beginning to appear outdated.

If the traditional formal mainstream classroom built as a one size fits all model does not appeal to you or your child, what then, are your choices? In the video above, Gwyn Ridenhour can tell you that the world is your oyster. You can create any learning environment you choose using hackschooling. Realising that her children did not fit the mould for the traditional mainstream classes, Ridenhour created the learning environment best suited for her children. Hackschooling is combining different types of learning to create the best curriculum to fit your child. As this type of learning is child-centred, it can be individualized according to the strengths and interests of the child. A form of learning she describes as hybrid, it can combine some formal subject learning in a school, with informal self-directed web-based learning, one on one tutoring, guided learning from parents and real-life experiential learning in whatever form it arrives. What it does not provide, is anxiety provoking performance based test-taking. As the already mentioned Dr Boileau states, when people have a need to know something, they learn. The evidence of this learning comes from being able to accomplish something that you were once incapable of, it does not need to come from passing a test. Therefore, does it matter in the end how the learning took place? Or is it the learning that is important? In this short clip, Kevin Honeycutt explains his belief that preparing our children for the 21st Century careers that don’t yet exist, means more than teaching students to learn, they need to learn to love to learn.

Learning to love to learn is much easier when there is choice of what, where, when, why and how to learn. There is a growing community of parents who have taken control of their children’s education and have taken the concepts of child-centred, experiential, place-based and informal learning to a whole new level. They are part of the growing worldschooling community who have embarked on a journey of alternative education. Basically home-schooling while travelling, worldschooling makes all learning experiential, and consequently, real and meaningful. This type of education is filled with choices because the world literally is your classroom.

What does a worldschooling education look like? Looking at the travel blog of the World Travel Family, there is plenty of learning going on over a year of travel. From geography, to history, blogging and other computer skills, photo editing, reading and writing, language learning, mathematics, music, dance, art, science, sports, games, health, hygiene, and religious education, the worldschooling curriculum looks full and most of all, fun. As the previously mentioned Dr Sarah Eaton would suggest, informal learning is authentic and experiential, can take place anywhere, anytime, and is never ending. And Dr. Tim Boileau would add, if situated within an experience that is meaningful and built on top of already existing knowledge and experience, informal learning naturally evolves.

An image invoking thoughts of WWII through a Western Lens Photo by Laura Goodsell on Unsplash

Keeping this in mind, imagine reading about World War II from a Western perspective through books as step one of learning. This is usually the formal learning done in a mainstream classroom. Then imagine, perhaps on a field trip, seeing the poppy fields and graveyards in Europe and being able to visualize the places once read about and how that increases the knowledge and makes it real. Now worldschooling can do that, but it can go even further.

An image invoking thoughts of WWII from an Eastern Lens

Add to the previous experiences, visiting the bridge on the River Kwai in Kanchanaburi Thailand to experience, read about and perhaps discover for the first time, a new perspective on the same war taking the learning of World War II to a new level.

Taking the curriculum to a whole new level is not the only thing worldschool provides. There are the numerous, often spontaneous, life skills that are learned. A 2019 report from a New Zealand study by Wylie & Vaughan interviewed Wellington young adults who had been on a gap year and discovered that the experience of travel and seeing the world broadened horizons, helped with self-discovery, taught communication skills and problem solving skills, taught prioritising of values, as well as budgeting and time management. Some of these skills can be learned in a traditional classroom of course, but the real experiences such as making money go further while travelling but still getting to experience good food, exciting adventures and a comfortable bed sounds a lot more fun.

Making learning fun and meaningful for the whole family is the goal of worldschooling. Parents can continue to be life-long learners alongside their children not merely as their teacher or guide. Rogoff et al. believe that guided participation, the interactions between child and guide, or parent in this case, varies across cultures. Western cultures tend to adopt the role of the all-knowing teacher imparting wisdom to their child, whereas most Indigenous cultures prefer a participatory experience including the child in all adult activities for them to learn through observation, sharing and trial. This form of learning through guided participation is seen as more inclusive of different cultures. Participating in different cultural communities along with their children promotes cultural understanding and acceptance for both the child and the parent.

Leaning about different cultures by experiencing them first-hand can also be considered place-based education. The content for your curriculum emerges from the dynamics of the place such as its politics, ecology, geography and sociology. Worldschooling is the epitome of place-based education where learning is experiential and multi-disciplinary connecting the learner to the communities themselves. Worldschooling, as an informal, place-based model, could then be described by Dr. Sarah Eaton as more flexible, inclusive and applicable to the real world than traditional forms of learning. It is a type of learning where the world literally is your classroom.

Liette Godin McKerras

is a psychologist in training.

She is a wife and a mum of 3

who keep her very busy. She is

a life-long learner who has an

addiction to travel and adventure.

This blog was created to fulfil course

requirements for a Master's degree.