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Imagine that you and your spouse are missionaries who have just moved overseas with your school-aged children to minister in Scubdon (a fictitious country). You need to enroll Johnny in school, so you go to the international Christian (or “MK”-missionary kid) school. Classes there, however, are taught in Jakelimon, a (fictitious) language read in the opposite direction with an alphabet that looks to you like it’s made of random squiggles. Most students and teachers are from Jakelimo (not your home or host country), and the curriculum and teaching materials are in Jakelimon.

If that’s not enough, Johnny must pass a proficiency test in Jakelimon to enroll. Mrs. J, the director, sympathetically tells you that the school will do all it can to help prepare Johnny for future studies in your home country, but the onus will be on you to help him meet the educational requirements there. She also says that most students adapt to Jakelimon culture at the school (because it’s the culture of most students and teachers), which may complicate Johnny’s ability to adjust to life back home.

Are you disappointed as you leave Mrs. J’s office? Frustrated? Angry? Ready to get your agency to start its own school so your children don’t have to adjust to both the Jakelimon school and the host country?

Missionary parents regularly endure this scenario at international Christian schools around the world. The difference: the majority language is American English and the dominant culture is American. Even in schools that declare to serve MKs, children from non-majority nations may face an uphill struggle because of language and cultural differences within the school.

No easy answer Most MK educators are grappling with the needs of an increasingly multi-national missions community with limited human and material resources. But if we agree that this is a need, why are we still grappling with it 20 years after the first International Conference on Missionary Kids in 1984?

The main reason is that no simple solution exists. It’s usually not practical (or desirable) to start schools for each national group that follow its own national curriculum and language. The typical international Christian or MK school today has students from different nations in every classroom and grade level. In addition, high teacher turnover makes it difficult for teachers to grasp and own the problem before they can meaningfully address it. Another challenge is some parents’ fear that providing a good education for many nationalities will somehow harm children of their own culture.

Possible solutions Three approaches are helping meet the needs of students in a diverse school. First, educators have tried to internationalize curriculum by bringing in materials, syllabi and objectives from multiple nations. This seems to work best in schools where teachers are multi-national and can supply approaches and educational materials from their home country. This curriculum prepares students for university in an array of nations by focusing on academics from an international perspective.

A second option is to offer internationally recognized programs and/or testing that provides external credibility for studies. The International Baccalaureate (IB) program is one such recognized high school program with required course syllabi. Students take exams to show mastery of school subjects and earn an IB high school diploma. The Advanced Placement program, also for high-schoolers, offers an international diploma that universities in many nations accept as proof of a thorough secondary education. The International General Certificate of Secondary Education is a British exam that validates studies through the equivalent of tenth grade in the US.

Finally, some educators view an international curriculum as impractical and instead favor a culturally sensitive curriculum. As the school selects materials for history, literature, government, science and math, educators must heed the points of view of all the school’s students, not just those of the majority culture.

At its 2003 meeting, the Intermission MK Education Consultation issued a statement on meeting the educational needs of a diverse mission community. The consultation urges MK schools to continue working toward internationalizing the curriculum and meeting the needs of non-North American families, and suggests specific principles for doing so (see the international ministries section of www.acsi.org). It also encourages mission agencies in traditional sending nations to provide better support for non-North American families and to include the educational needs of prospective candidates as an important factor in placement and ministry assignment. For agencies in new sending nations, the group recommends that schools do all they can to provide continuing educational support and resources for children’s learning.

Schools, agencies, sending churches and education professionals must work together to meet the educational needs of all the kids in our diverse missions community.

Karen Wrobbel is assistant professor of education at Trinity International University in Deerfield, Ill.