It is with much sadness that Diane Tabbagh, Coordinator Learning Community, Wyndham City Council and Chair of The Global Learning Festival (GLF) Working Committee, reported that Fatma Dodurka, Coordinator of the UNESCO Learning City Hatay project Türkiye, and coordinator of "Be the Voice of Girls" was amongst the victims of the devastating earthquakes in Turkey.

Diane noted that as well as playing an active role in the GLF working group Fatma ran several events over the three years of the Festival – including “English at Tea Time” and “Be the Voice of Girls”, collaborating with young people and providers across the globe and giving space and voice to share their common experiences. Fatma designed her innovative curriculum to help young girls from marginalised and various ethnic backgrounds to improve their English skills through various mediums, including storytelling, drawing, painting, and craft.

Our Global Learning Festival community will miss Fatma's energy, passion and skill. Fatma had a unique way of connecting with others in her city but also across the globe. We will all remember fondly the vital role she has played in our Global Learning Community.

The following is a Most Significant Change Story about Fatima’s experience as part of the 2020 Global Learning Festival and is reproduced with permission from Hellen Kibowen,  International Development graduate of RMIT University and the GLF Working Group.

Fatma's Story of Change - 2020 Global Learning Festival Event

CREATING HOPE BY GOING GLOBAL – FATMA’S STORY

Fatma Dodurka is a language specialist from Türkiye and the coordinator of Hatay Learning City. Fatma first heard about the Global Learning Festival (GLF) from the Cork learning event in June 2020.

Fatma had been running English-speaking classes in Türkiye in person but the COVID-19 pandemic made her consider having an online platform where she could reach out to her students and other interested participants from around the world. The GLF presented her with this opportunity and she was excited to attend the planning meetings each fortnight because she felt it would allow her to meet other event hosts to exchange information and ideas. Fatma felt these fortnightly meetings and interactions with other hosts always brought in fresh energy to her own work and contributed significantly towards planning and marketing her own GLF events.

Initially, Fatma was hesitant to move her events online because she thought no one would attend her sessions, but Jac and Diane from Wyndham City Council encouraged her to go for it, so she did.

Fatma’s sessions at the GLF were well attended by participants from across the world and from different age groups. From this experience, she says:

‘I had dreams of going global because the pandemic pushed me to go online, I tell other people if they have an inspiration to do something, go for it! Share it with the networks you have, and you will get support. Sharing ideas with people is key’.

This dream of going global inspired her to name her sessions ‘Go Global All Around The World!’

The teenagers who attended the online GLF debate sessions were excited to meet others from France, Australia, UK, USA, Tunisia, and Algeria. They told Fatma it was like travelling around the globe and that this was a dream come true for them. Fatma shared how this boosted her confidence in running her events because she felt that the children and young people were in their own ways making connections and drawing benefits from the online forums.

Using a special open-ended encouraging questioning technique, Fatma was inspired by how the older children spoke freely about how it was challenging to learn a different language online during the pandemic and that there was a challenge of accessing and using technology. Fatma said:

As a teacher, I have observed that children are not used to learning new languages online, and when they have to do it online, they prefer learning it with others in the room. They need company and don’t want to learn by themselves’.

For Fatma, this highlighted the issue of equity in terms of access and use of technology and infrastructure. The overwhelming feedback from the participants in the online debating sessions was that there was a need to have more similar sessions. Even the migrants and refugee students attending the English-speaking classes showed interest and wanted to attend the upcoming sessions.

As a result of the GLF, Fatma now has weekly online debates with participants drawn from across the globe who share stories and experiences of language learning. She says:

I want to do some more on a different platform. I love online activities and want to be active. My daughter and students were excited to be part of the global event, everyone wants to be part of the online debates, it is almost like a movement and they all want to be part of it!

Fatma is excited to have established new partnerships, with notable ones being with WISE, Qatar and Wyndham Learning City. She concluded by saying:

This was a big opportunity to make new connections from across the world! I am now very busy preparing for webinars with other Learning Cities including Cork,  Wyndham, UK, and Belfast.’