The United World College experience and its framing: the evidence from a residential short course

Abstract

The continuously growing field of private English-speaking international schooling has always involved a dichotomy of approach. The marginal ‘internationalist’ approach, ideologically committed to nurturing unity and global peace, is exemplified by the cadre of United World Colleges (UWC). The UWCs began in 1962 and now number 18 globally educating 10,500 young people yet have largely evaded empirical research inquiry into their processes and experience. The inter-linked UWC 10-day residential ‘Short Course’ is a particularly strong unit of potential inquiry. By utilising Erving Goffman’s Frame Analysis we will investigate the UWC experience, as metaphorically told by participants. The course is framed as a ‘safe space’ whereby the participants can act out their thoughts and emotions, whilst also helping to bring them closely together as a ‘mini society’. This immersion, as a community of similarly minded yet privileged young people, seems to be a strongly inter-connecting experience.