International Forums
During the seven years the forum ran at the National Museum of Australia the project developed an international profile with three panellists from Australia and three from another country interviewing a guest via video link. Talkback Classroom forums ran in partnership with the Smithsonian Institution in the United States, and in 2005 worked with the United Nations when Shashi Tharoor, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information, was interviewed from United Nations headquarters. In June 2006, the first international forum featuring all students interviewing in a country other than Australia included two Australians working with two students from South Korea in Seoul; the guest was Chung-in Moon, a Professor of Political Science at Yonsei University. In 2007 students from Korea visited Australia to join two Australian to undertake an investigation into issues pertaining to the theme of Energy. The students then recorded an interview with the then Foreign Minister Alexander Downer. The student investigation and subsequent interview with Downer was the subject of a one hour documentary broadcast on Korean television network EBS.
Through the international forums project founder Stephen Cutting and National Museum Education Manager developed a pedagogical model referred to as the Learning Journey whereby participating students were 'immersed' in an investigation for each forum and took part in an intensive program of interviews and activities with experts and other people connected with the theme with the object of ensuring that students were knowledgeable and passionate about issues they would raise at the forum which represented the culmination of each international project.
After losing the forum venue and major sponsor - the National Museum - project founder Stephen Cutting approached the National Press Club of Australia to host the forum. In March 2009 the Press Club hosted the Australia Japan forum featuring a panel of Australian and Japanese students interviewing the Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith and the Japanese Ambassador Taka-aki Kojima. The Australia Japan forum represented the first Talkback Classroom Learning Journey to take students to both countries as they investigated Australia/Japan relations. The forum was funded by the Australia Japan Foundation. In 2010 the project was taken up in Malaysia when a joint Australian/Malaysian student team took part in an investigation into the theme of Education in Malaysia and took part at a forum hosted by the Australian High Commission in Kuala Lumpur. In the same year project founder Stephen Cutting introduced the project to students in Thailand and conducted a one week professional development workshop around ways to engage students in the classroom based on the pedagogy of Talkback Classroom. In 2012 students in Thailand and Australia will team up to conduct an investigation into 'popular culture' in Australia and Thailand and take part in a forum involving students in Melbourne at Coburg Senior High school and Nonthaburi school in Bangkok.
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