Lyfta Us Up Through Common Values From Around the World

Transformative Educational Leadership Journal | ISSUE Spring 2024

Read how one school found a digital storytelling tool to positively influence cultural capital and compassion beyond place and identity, shift stereotypes and prejudices, connect students internationally on a values-based level, and reflect on commonalities in a global context.

By Jody Billingsley and Joanne Calder

---

“I know that [postcolonial studies] never promised explicitly to make the colonized world a better place for colonized peoples. It did, however, carry with it, the implicit expectation that, through exposure to new literatures and cultures and challenges to hegemonic assumptions and power structures, lives would be made better.” (King, 2003, p. 58)

How do we positively influence cultural capital and compassion beyond place and identity, shifting stereotypes and prejudices, connecting internationally on a values-based level, and reflecting on commonalities in a global context? How can the OECD 7 Principles of Learning and the First Peoples Principles of Learning play a role? After a year of exploring this question, we have found that a digital platform called Lyfta can help in significant ways.

What is Lyfta?

“Learning is embedded in memory, history, and story.”

First Peoples Principles of Learning, FNESC

Lyfta is an online platform where students can access hundreds of observational, interactive documentaries showing a “slice of life” from people around the world. Lyfta’s goal is for students to understand “how interconnected and interdependent we are” and to gain “a deep awareness of their power and role in the world” (source). With the tool, students experience a variety of cultures, languages, roles, and perspectives through positive human stories. These stories model universal core values such as resilience, teamwork, and kindness, in addition to critical thinking skills. Teachers can invite students to explore Lyfta Storyworlds. For a more directive approach, teachers can also access lessons that support ongoing classroom themes and units, allowing learners to explore global connections with others through common core values.

What did we do?

The ability for learners to seek connections and “horizontal connectedness” is also important between the formal learning environment and the wider environment and society. The “authentic learning” this promotes also fosters deeper understanding.

The Nature of Learning OECD 

Initially, we were hesitant about the Lyfta platform, as we have seen many programs with a multicultural focus ending in tokenism, detracting from the goal of equity and fostering globally-minded citizens who care for others and the world around them. For this reason, we proceeded with cautious optimism. After a short time spent setting up the online Lyfta classrooms and learning to navigate the website, teachers launched the recommended “20-minute” Lyfta time per week. During this time, students and staff explored lessons and Storyworlds connected to a common value or curricular theme. The Storyworlds were immediately engaging, allowing students a glimpse into the lives of people around the world – not something all typically had the means to do outside of school. In addition, there was a high level of interest and engagement of students of all skills and abilities. Equity and horizontal connections began surfacing during the initial launch of Lyfta. To capture these, teachers used a consistent thinking routine to connect Storyworlds in an ongoing way (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Lyfta Response Sheet

What did they notice? Initial Student Voice

Learning is holistic, reflexive, reflective, experiential, and relational focused on connectedness, on reciprocal relationships, and a sense of place.

First Peoples Principles of Learning, FNESC

Throughout their Lyfta experiences, students shared their observations and wonderings juxtaposed against their own lived experiences. What surfaced was a noticing of common values, such as happiness, in different places. Many situations challenged their Western ideals and assumptions as made visible in their statements below:

• “Even though some people are poor, they help each other.”
• “There are separate schools for children with special needs. I didn’t know there were schools like that.”
• “How well people take care of their elders.”
• “How much people don’t waste and how much they reuse.”
•  “Both the men and women have the same rights, how do they know so much in a tiny village.”
• “People were so welcoming to the women who just showed up in their village.”
• “Members of the community have clean and nice clothing.”

These reflections show students’ initial knowledge and their biased assumptions about power, privilege, and material wealth. Students wondered how people worldwide could be happy without many material possessions. From this curiosity, great discussions surfaced about world resources, wealth, human rights, and our responsibilities as global citizens. Teachers guided students to examine their values based on the self, classroom, and the school community, helping them move toward greater awareness and understanding of how much humans share, regardless of their global context. Lyfta was beginning to expand their world.

As a culminating project, students created their own Storyworlds depicting a school value in action. Students chose a value and wrote an article connecting their Storyworld to the value. Then, they filmed a short video and presented their Storyworld to their peers. Through this project they taught one another how interconnected we all are.

Here are some examples of students’ reflections after this learning:

• “I have learnt that even though the world may be very big, it can be very interconnected.”
• “I thought others around the world would be quite different from me, but most have similarities.”
• “People in very different situations are going through similar things.”
• “What I’ve learned about the world is people are really kind-hearted.”
• “I have learned that other people know their community better than I do.”

Watch the video of student reflections here.

Where to next?

Some students wrote that they were surprised others could be happy with few material possessions yet expressed gratitude that they had so much more than others. Our next step is to have students deeply explore the question, “What makes people happy?” to develop further understanding about the connection (or lack thereof) between material possessions and happiness and to further explore, through Lyfta, what can contribute to personal happiness and well-being.

Conclusion

Educators strive to offer authentic ways for students to explore their identity, place, and connection to the broader world. Lyfta is an excellent resource for students to expand their understanding and awareness of how similar we are to people worldwide. It also increases student engagement and provides opportunities and multiple entry points so all learners have access in meaningful ways.

The activities and lessons provided give opportunities for students to reflect on themselves and their sense of place through stories. We witnessed how extending these lessons to collaborative projects and reflecting on connecting to place deepens students’ sense of self and belonging. 

For more information about Lyfta please visit https://www.lyfta.com/about-us.