II. SUIS: Mission

Like most international schools operating in Shanghai, curriculum is delivered mostly in English and partly in Mandarin Chinese, aiming its appeal towards parents who feel multi-lingualism will be a valuable asset to their children’s future careers. The school however takes this approach much further by emphasizing a strong cultural component. In addition to mandatory Chinese-language classes, international students also share a certain number of classes with local Shanghai students as well as take instruction from Shanghai teachers for other courses. SUIS calls this its “East Meets West” philosophy, an unfortunately cliché-sounding motto that is much more than what it implies on the surface.

For SUIS, “East Meets West” was not concocted as a marketable facet, but a feature embedded in the school’s occupancy agreement with the Chinese-run Xiehe Education Group. Under this partnership, SUIS is given permission to operate its international curriculum within locally-run facilities. This comes with many advantages. Drastically reduced are the hefty construction and maintenance costs for a suitable facility. Building taxes, fees, bureaucratic red tape, and other inhibitors to a school’s expansion are also minimized. However, for the sake of practicality and lowering costs, SUIS must share resources, including teachers, with the Xiehe local stream without compromising the quality and aim of its international curriculum.

Under these circumstances, the SUIS founders, composed of both local and foreign professionals, designed a curriculum which would attempt to exploit the advantages of learning under two different systems. For instance, they found that students fared better in mathematics when instructed under the Chinese system than under the western system while the reverse was true in subjects such as language arts and science. In the end, both systems were dissected for their strengths over the other and compiled as a chart for what would be the underlying blueprint for the SUIS school design.

Click here to see the charts for the SUIS school design

Unlike most other international schools whereby students take some Chinese-language courses interspersed throughout an otherwise western curriculum, SUIS international students must take part (and learn) in both international and local Chinese curricula. While mostly instructed in English, some classes are lead entirely in Chinese using strictly local methods. The goal of course is to be able to deliver a quality international curriculum along with an understanding of the Chinese language and culture superior to those offered by other international schools. However, the resulting cross-cultural learning environment is one that requires careful maintenance and monitoring as current international curricula often employ progressive methods such as child-centered learning which can be at odds with the traditional Chinese practice of rote learning.

Great leadership is necessary to sustain the balance between two different school cultures. Not only are international students required to attend and flourish in a certain number of local Chinese classes, but the SUIS international stream is required to collaborate and exchange ideas frequently with the Xiehe local stream in order to maximize the effectiveness of "East Meets West". Considering the cultural and ethnic makeup of the school staffs, language and cultural differences can make collaboration difficult to manage. Nevertheless, school leaders must find a way to support and encourage this important characteristic.