Understanding other outlooks and cultures - focus on Africa

[Boyd Roberts]

Understanding other cultures and outlooks

Some centres have indicated that this area is one of the most challenging to address within the IGC Award.

Here are a few resources and suggestions that have come my way over the past few months:

1.       Primary Source

Primary Source is a US-based organisation that “promotes history and humanities education by connecting educators to people and cultures throughout the world. In partnership with teachers, scholars, and the broader community, Primary Source provides learning opportunities and curriculum resources for K-12 educators. By introducing global content, Primary Source shapes the way teachers and students learn, so that their knowledge is deeper and their thinking is flexible and open to inquiry.”

It produces guides to books, films, teaching materials and other resources for use in the school context. Start your search at:

http://www.primarysource.org/resourceguides

2.       Africa

Most IGC Award centres are outside Africa, and learning a little more about the continent can be an admirable way of addressing all or parts of Understanding other outlooks and cultures.

Prof Merry Merryfield, one of the leading exponents of global education in the US, who lived and worked in Africa for a number of years, wrote in an emailing circle I belong to: “I really wish teachers who teach about Africa would listen to what Africans are saying and writing about their lives, places, issues.  There are so many resources now from children’s story books (see Africa Access for reviews and help) to online videos through TED, YouTube, webcams, etc. and literature and current event sites such as Global Voices, newspapers, blogs and organizations’ websites.

 

When children you know hear the word Africa do they just think of wild animals or poverty?  (I have wondered whether the little Award plaques we use of African animals might help to perpetuate stereotypes as well as, hopefully, pleasing Award recipients. Boyd)

 Or do they know the names of several African nations and how they are different?  Do they know most of the continent is desert or grasslands or do they perceive it all as “jungle”?  Do they know what they use or see every day that comes from somewhere in Africa? (chocolate for one!). “

Africa Access recommends books on Africa, often written with African perspectives. It runs the prestigious annual Children’s Africana Book Awards. The website also links to other sources of resources and materials relating to Africa.

http://www.africaaccessreview.org/aar/index.html

Here are a couple of particular book recommendations:

Kasia Parham, a former IB school teacher, worked with children in Tanzania to bring their stories to publication. The books, Dogodogo (about street children) and Emusoi (about Maasai girls striving for secondary education) are highly recommended – mainly for students aged 11-14. More details at http://www.teach-africa.com/our_books.html

John Nordquist, on an emailing list, recommends  Links, by Nuruddin Farah. “A masterpiece of story telling, the author lives inside the skins of the people of Mogadiscio. It’s a great book for consciousness awareness.”

And remember that newspapers and television channels are available online for perspectives from other countries and continents. For instance the leading Kenyan newspaper , the Daily Nation, is available at:

http://www.nation.co.ke/incudes

Global Dimension, the UK’s government-sponsored searchable website for global education resources (very useful) has details of a considerable number of resources relating to Africa (and indeed to other areas of the world).

http://globaldimension.org.uk/

This link is to a search for resources relating to Africa.

 

3.       Women’s rights and opportunities

Emily Giles at the International School of London posted on the Award Ning  “We are trying to expand IGCA at ISL and we have a nice big group taking part! To kick things off we hosted a salon screening of Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, which was a great success. I'd greatly appreciate any thoughts that you might have about turning this into a larger project.”

Following are a few suggestions from me. Other suggestions and ideas very welcome. Email (Reply All) or post to the Award Ning at http://igcaward.ning.com/profiles/blogs/new-to-igca?xg_source=activity

There would seem scope to develop this area further under “Other cultures and outlooks”. Students could investigate the role of women in different cultures and societies, using, as far as possible, personal statements from people. It might be appropriate to focus on attitudes to education of girls in different countries, perhaps drawing on Malala Yousafzai’s recent book  (I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban) and videos. (There are quite a few on YouTube e.g. a short CNN video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIqOhxQ0-H8 and a much longer 56 minute BBC documentary at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPPuhqIRWuI ; or a longer CNN interview, including with Malala's father at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKIQ_AyLi30).

It might be best to try to find unedited interviews with women rather than edited excerpts used by NGOs to make a case for women’s rights. This would give a broader understanding of views in the context of the relevant society. However, it is easier to find resources that aim to address the issue of women’s rights and gender imbalance in education, such as:

Shazia’s story – about early and forced marriage:

http://globaldimension.org.uk/resources/item/1864

Women’s Rights – from Amnesty

http://globaldimension.org.uk/resources/item/1392

Stories from Zambia – short personal statements from a variety of people, including women on education

https://camfed.org/media/uploads/files/Growing_Up_in_Zambia_Listen_...

I have a story to tell –stories about education from women in a number of African countries

http://globaldimension.org.uk/resources/item/1156 for description

resource at: https://camfed.org/media/uploads/files/I_Have_a_Story_to_Tell.pdf

The Global Campaign for education has a number of resources that are relevant (http://www.campaignforeducation.org/en/resources) These are mostly factual reports, which are rather indigestible for students, but contain basic factual information on women and education in various countries e.g. http://campaignforeducation.org/docs/reports/GCE_INTERIM_Gender_Rep... and Making it Right for girls http://campaignforeducation.org/docs/reports/GCE_INTERIM_Gender_Rep...

 

4.       To reflect on ……

A single lucid moment

A single lucid moment is a short account by a US Peace Corps volunteer in Papua New Guinea about the reactions of people in the village where he was staying to a picture of streets of Chicago. (This is worth reading – it is quite short – whether or not you use it with students).

http://www.peacecorps.gov/wws/stories/single-lucid-moment/

There are accompanying teaching notes etc for those who wish to make more extensive use of the account.

 

 

5.

To Know Him     About a Boy: Transgender surgery at sixteen, by     Margaret Talbot

 

On another mailing list I’m part of, Elizabeth Morley and Eric Jackman of the Institute of Child Study Laboratory School, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, Canada draw attention to an article about a teenager in the US undergoing gender reassignment.

“This expansive New Yorker article offers something uncommon and worthwhile. The subject is a transgendered high school senior, who, we are told, attends a good school, gets good grades, and has a supportive, middle-class family. He does not try to speak for all transgendered teenagers; instead, he simply tells his own story with unusual clarity and a style that takes the reader into his confidence. The author, the New Yorker's Margaret Talbot, shows a notable restraint. One of the article's strongest attributes, and the aspect that makes it valuable for educators, is that every paragraph advances understanding without coming to any conclusions. We get a partial glimpse of one young life at a moment of decision and a period of ensuing change, and we can't quite go back to not knowing it. Sure, Talbot includes expert views, research, statistics, and context, but she uses these devices in service of what the boy wants us to know - what it feels like to be this particular transgendered person. Many related texts       serve as readymade discussion prompts for our school communities; while this text could certainly serve that purpose, it also serves two higher ones, modeling respect and empathy.”

Read the full article at:

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/03/18/130318fa_fact_talbot