On July 26th, 2023, at a teacher training course at Sophia University in Tokyo, a high school student gave a presentation on her own inquiry-based learning. Seibo partners with a number of schools ranging from elementary to university level to coordinate extracurricular activities, integrated inquiry hours, and social studies/religion classes.
Since 2017, inquiry-based learning has been added to the curriculum, and the schools have begun to connect with external institutions to provide students with opportunities to learn more about social issues and solutions.
Sales of coffee- Shoei Jogakuin:
At Shoei Jogakuin High School in Shirokanedai Tokyo, the student council promotes issues in Malawi and fair-trade coffee to be sold to support Malawian people. After designing an original label for the Malawian coffee drip packs, the newly labeled packs were sold. Through these efforts, students were able to take the knowledge they gained from staff and make it into a familiar problem that they could work to solve from Japan.
In terms of publicity, it was decided to create an original drip pack label to enhance unity within the school. It was also an experience of marketing strategy by applying ingenuity to upgrade an existing advertising practice. The students who played a central role in the drip pack process also participated in an online internship course run by Mobell, one of Seibo’s main sponsor companies. This online internship deepened the student’s understanding of charity, social enterprise, and leadership.
You can watch the presentations of the Shoei Jogakuin students here.
Learning about international issues in Malawi and public relations support- Salesian International School:
Students at Tokyo’s Salesian International School aspire to enter social welfare departments during their university entrance exams. As Malawian school lunches are popular among local people, we asked the students to think about how school lunches were important to Malawian children’s lives.
While comparing our work in Malawi to the social welfare environment in Japan, students were asked to consider how Japan’s systems differ from Malawi’s, and what can be done to support Malawi. Seibo will have the opportunity to make use of the student’s learning outcomes in social studies classes at school, and to further understand how we can support Malawi as a Japanese NPO.
The students who participated in the activity were able to obtain reference materials to be used in their essays for university. In general, it’s difficult for high school students to incorporate their experiences at an NPO into their essays in a short amount of time.
You can watch the presentations of the Salesian International students here .
Contents and Goals with Seibo’s Partner Schools
Contents:
-Conduct workshops on Malawi, local issues, and the importance of school lunches
-Consider local support methods, focusing on sales of donated coffee with students
-Implement support projects and product development
-When sales begin, collect data and report on sales activity
-Online interaction with Malawian educators
Goals:
-To deepen international understanding and empathy
-To identify international issues and think about solutions
-To experience marketing and product promotion as ways to bring about change
-To have continuous communication between support recipients and staff, rather than one-time contact
You can see some case studies of our school partnerships from here!