Listening to learn
Holly Linklater- Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge, UK (PhD student);
Mayfield Primary School, Cambridge, UK (Senior teacher)
This presentation will concentrate on empirical research undertaken with young children (3-8 years) from 3 families, playing and talking about the Reception Year of Early Years education in the UK. The children were included as participants, researching how meaning is made of practice in early years education. The research highlights the potential for tackling, in relationships of mutual respect, some profound questions relating to education in schools, and children’s incredible willingness and ability to participate in such discourse. This has significant implications for future research, particularly how teacher-research might be used to develop and inform pedagogical understandings of transformative learning opportunities within a learning community.
Valuing children’s potential as participants in research, a playful activity was designed to ensure that the process of generating data would be meaningful to the children as well as to the researcher. Analysis of the discourse highlights themes of early education that were of importance to the children. Further discussion of these themes offers insight into how concepts of work and play might be linked to the role of the adult-in-charge, potentially undermining opportunities for learning; and how concepts of the individual, normalisation and the individualised academic curriculum promoted by national policy (and teachers) stand opposed to a notion of community on which the children place great emphasis.
Recently in the UK there have been dramatic changes in the state provision of early years education and care, most notably the introduction of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority’s ‘early learning goals’ in 1999 and ‘curriculum guidance for the foundation stage’ in 2000. Outlining the context in which these changes came to take place, this research begins to consider how we might understand children’s experiences of this policy in practice in their reception year, and the need for change within educational practice if we want children and teachers to engage in transformational learning experiences.
The children must be listened to so that we may learn from them. At the same time we must find a language to use to speak about what we [practitioners] do, so that we do not limit ourselves to the ‘standards’, ‘targets’, and ‘objectives’, but can begin to articulate the process of childhood in the context of school education – transformability – being as well as becoming. As teacher-researchers, we must find the confidence to unashamedly engage in reflexive practice, not to see it as a sign of being ‘unsure’, but as a rigorous way of ensuring that we are living up to the challenge that we set ourselves when we chose to be teachers. We must embrace the power we have and use it to collaborate with the communities of learners we work with to transform lives for the better – for now and the future.
Fostering emotional intelligence through curriculum
Liana Jaber Hashem and Maha Quran
Al-Qattan Center for educational research and development (QCERD)
Ramallah- Palestine
Abstract
Schools have historically concentrated on boosting students’ cognitive abilities. But developing students’ emotional smarts, is just as vital (Goleman, 1996). In brief, emotional intelligence is being able to manage distressing moods well and control impulses, it is remaining hopeful when you have setbacks, it is empathy, and it is social skills. Emotional intelligence plays a major role in person success in life, even more than IQ contribution. Emotional intelligence skills may be encouraged through two approaches; separate curriculum (Freedman. 1998), or through the curriculum itself (Dotty 2001).
Gwen Dotty talked in her book Fostering Emotional intelligence in k-8 Students (2001) about 5 levels through which students’ emotional intelligence could be fostered. The five levels are: awareness of self and others, approval of self and others, mastering self responsibility, finding personal meaning, self responsibility, and valuing honesty and ethics. According to Dotty, these five levels are hierarchical and should be in sequence. Dotty suggested different activities in several subject matters to achieve each level.
Methodology:
Settings:
Nine school teachers, two researchers from Qattan Center for Research and Educational Development (QCRED), collaborated in a project for fostering emotional intelligence through curriculum.
Two science teachers implemented the experiment in the seventh grade classrooms. One was a girl’s governmental school and the other was a boy’s private school. another teacher took the responsibility of implementing the experiment in the third grade of a governmental girl’s school. She almost prepared her own activities and shared the implementation and the evaluation with the group.
Approach:
Collaborative action research between teachers and academic researchers was implemented for more than a year, and passed through three phases: preparation, implementation, and evaluation.
During the preparation phase the whole group discussed the theory behind the five levels suggested by Dotty, the whole group brainstormed ideas for activities based on the content in the textbook, these activities were discussed in depth and elaborated. They were implemented in the second phase. The evaluation phase was an ongoing process during the first two phases. The whole group especially those who implemented the experiment in their classrooms evaluated the whole experience and reflected on their practices, and on the influence of their intervention on their students.
Data collection and analysis:
Data was qualitatively collected through oral and written interviews with school teachers, and students, video taped classroom observations (which were transcribed and analyzed), and reflection forms which were also analyzed. Data was also obtained from the diaries written by both teachers and students.
Findings:
On one level, the whole experience raised practitioners’ awareness of the importance of emotional smarts and their impact on the learning process and on raising a healthy, optimistic, positive child, as much. They developed their skills to design activities through the curriculum.
On the other level, students were more aware of themselves, they were encouraged to express their feelings and opinions freely, they became more willing to accept others, they took responsibility of their own action, their learning became more meaningful, and they valued ethics and honesty, and above all, their attitudes towards the learning science became more positive.
One of the three cases namely the one implemented in the boy’s private school revealed that students needed more than approaching them through curriculum. More efforts should be given (separately from curriculum) in order to enhance their behavior.
NOURISHING THE SPECIAL NEEDS OF EVERY CHILD
CHRISTOPHER GILMORE- The Holistic Education Foundation
The recent book, REINVENTING EDUCATION (Synetics Education Initiative ISBN 0-9538534-1-1), includes my chapter exploring the above challenging title. I suggest that students of all ages to feel special need to be offered more benign person-centred strategies. With openly honest negotiations, such strategies should develop in learners, parents and in teachers alike much more experiential self-awareness indicating that 'An unexamined life is not worth living' - (Socrates). Through cross-referencing experiences, self-management is encouraged by the making of more pro-active choices, children learning to take responsibility for the outcomes as early as possible.
As part of a presentation (and/or workshop) I can show my CD as I facilitate thinking skills with 6-year-olds, the theme being SHAPES AND SIZES explored in numbers of different ways. Other philosophical themes I have explored with 4+-year-olds over ten years. Hence I now suggest Medical Examinations, incrementally at whatever age, can include a range of student-centred cross-curricular learning opportunities, amplifying personal profiles. From molecules to muscles, from maths to magic, plus biofeedback, does not such a 'Body of Knowledge' contain every transforming subject in the universe? In using similar Socratic approaches my research with Secondary students on learner-driven lessons was published in another book, SOCIAL INNOVATIONS (ISBN 0 948826 30 4).
I now suggest that goal-setting and regular self-assessments realistically boost self-esteem in all learners, hopefully without false ego or hollow hopes. Long established ways of educational delivery, like medically supervised childbirth, tend to rely on more 'allopathic' means to mask the pain of deliveries. Currently, People Power, defying the traditional deification of doctors, is leading more and more folks to the growth industry known as Complementary Medicine and Therapies. Meanwhile, the fabled 'Indigo Children' are now often terrorising both bewildered parents and teachers. Since established modes of teaching are slow to change, I further suggest we now need no more alternative patchwork 'remedies' as such. Instead, a complimentary approach of heart before head - as with extra-curricular creative activities bespoke to the innate gifts and skills of each participant - can help most students to cope with imposed lessons with a greater love of all-life learning. In experiencing more self-worth, examination results can improve no matter how stodgy the diet delivered during lessons. For a happy childhood to last a successful lifetime through such self-mastery skills, a Making of Me Programme for each student can be devised, this nourished by an integrated Master Learning Menu. As a co-founder of the international Spirit of Learning Conferences, all this and much more I have presented in different forms in four continents including in South Africa. To feel fully healthy, no better way than to see everyone as special, not least, one's own self as the central learner.
Higher Education and New Changes
Abdolmajid Eskandari, University of Tehran, IRAN
New realities of the world raise a series of issues that higher education systems have to face. As problems become more and more complex, they require multidisciplinary approaches. The higher educational centers are no longer the only group of actors on the scene. This demands redefining the curriculum and other components of higher education systems as well.
Higher education institutions represent systematic way of teaching. They are different from any other educational bodies, but at the same time, they should realize the new changes in the world. They are supposed to act as the pioneers of any change which is due to occur in the society. The approach being adopted should be interdisplinary; otherwise the programs will not work. All components of higher education including institutions, teachers, learners and curricula must mover in a harmonized way. Today, the education and those who gain knowledge can not stay in an ivory tower and act in an isolated from.
Higher education policy makers must not disregard the successful experience of the past under the excuse of transformation, but at the same time, new changes are inevitable. Everyone has realized that our life does not cease to exist at the borders of our society and it should be considered within a global context as well.
Transformation is an inseparable part of academic life. The basic mission of universities is to promote the intellect of the human being at the service of his/her welfare. Universities are expected to interact with the society and be in line with the demands of the society while keeping the basic mission of their establishment. The graduates of universities should be trained in a dynamic way to be able to create changes and act in an innovative way. If the universities and higher education centers wish to survive, they have no way but to welcome changes in all its dimensions. The impact of globalization on higher education is serious, even a threat to its existence, but at the same time, offering a rare and valuable opportunity for many universities to go beyond their region and the open world.
The speed of transfer of information, thanks to the Internet has created a new atmosphere. We live at the moment and one can not rely on the past teachings and satisfy the students. Access to data via new means of communications has revolutionized the shape of our life. The universities need to develop a new way of viewing the world in the most dynamic way. Reviewing the Iranian higher education programs, this paper is an attempt to discuss the importance of changes in higher education systems to meet the demands of the society.
Decolonizing Educational Curricula in the Age of Globalization, Recolonization, and Imperial Capitalism
Julian Kunnie- Director and Professor, Africana Studies
The University of Arizona, USA
The paper will discuss the manner that students and academics alike around the world could begin to sharpen knowledge and critical thinking skills, so that both teachers and students become more functionally literate and socially and politically conscious thinkers, and are consequently empowered to engage in liberation paradigms in the classroom, in teaching, instruction, advising, and in publishing. Key critiques of imperialism, global capitalism and colonization, patriarchy, classism, racism, and of environmental despoliation, will be discussed in this paper. It will illuminate the profound levels of curricular dysfunction experienced in school systems in late capitalist societies, especially in the West, and the manner that education has now become entrenched in the main as the principal vehicle for perpetuating class elitism and minority elite control of the world and rewarding individualistic notions of greed and self-seeking satisfaction that has destroyed the socio-economic and cultural fabric of particularly marginalized communities in the world, a scale of oppression and annihilation unprecedented in human history. The paper will draw upon the works of diverse Indigenous scholars and writers from around the world, including radical thinkers like Winona Duke, Kahlil Gibran, Chinweizu, Linda Smith, Samir Amin, Tsenay Serequeberhan, Vine Deloria, Marimba Ani, Eduardo Galeano, Paulin Hountondji, Iyanla Vanzant, Mumia Abu Jamal, Richard Weaver, Terry Eagleton, and W.E.B.Du Bois, in the discussion and analysis of issues highlighted above.
FOR RURAL DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA
ABIDOGUN, BABAJIDE GBOYEGA
DEPARTMENT OF CURRICULUM STUDIES
FACULTY OF EDUCATION
LAGOS STATE UNIVERSITY, OJO
The failure of any educational system to fulfill the objectives for which it was established is often the precondition for calls for its reform. Such is the case in Nigeria where the history of educational development is replete with various attempts at innovations and reforms, the major ones being the Universal Primary Education (UPE) programme in the Western (1955) and Eastern(1957) regions of the country, the free UPE of the Federal Government(1972),the development and adoption of the National Policy on Education in the 1980s along with the accompanying 6-3-3-4 system of education, and the current Universal Basic Education(UBE) which commenced in 1999. This paper seeks to examine the concept of educational reform in Nigeria from the perspective of childhood education, with particular attention being paid to the situation in rural areas. The paper further analyses the effects the existing situation holds for rural development and suggests strategies that can assist in improving the situation.
The limits of education in the UK - purpose and performance
Mr. Alexander Higgins- University of Sussex
Mr. Brian Goldsmith
The U.K. education system has experienced substantial changes in the last ten or so years. The introduction of top-up fees in the university sector, the alternative funding opportunities available, the shifting relationship between student, teachers, and administrative staff are examples of this. In conjunction with these administrative changes, the New Labour government has identified education as they key way of tackling problems of inequality and exclusion for the poorest sections of British society. According to the government, improving the qualifications and skills base of this group through education will enable them to contribute to the economic success of Britain. Current government drives towards community cohesion and basic skills appear to be positive steps to address lags in education however, these changes are not unproblematic. This paper will address some of the key criticisms of this approach and question what has influenced the change in policy direction.
In paying attention to the changes in the UK education system and drawing upon my personal experiences during my time in the UK I hope to be able to draw parallels and share perspectives with those from other countries. In so doing the following set of questions will be raised in the paper:
- Is education just for economic betterment?
- Is community cohesion to be considered as community cohesion under a State and within a realm of numerous States?
- How does community cohesion, education, and initiatives from community, local, regional, national, international levels feed into wider processes often associated with Globalisation?
- What can I do to improve my life and the lives of those around me?
By including my personal experiences alongside, and in order to illustrate, these larger questions I intend to develop themes that Brian will focus upon more closely through his knowledge and experience. Themes that Brian will develop include:
- How groups and identities can come together to rectify and identify problems.
- The role of finance, structural barriers and personal worldview in shaping personal and local experience.
- What it means to contribute to “society” at present and the notion that only those who contribute will be rewarded.
- The UK’s agenda for economic regeneration and the “shake up” of education in the UK.
- The limits of formal education in the UK and the role of education through alternative methods with a view to greater empowerment.
- The role of alternative and community enterprise based education.
The paper will thus concentrate on Brian’s work in community enterprise alongside questions of what world we live in and how we can grasp opportunities through education.
Globalisation and Imperatives for Changes in Educational Policy Making and Implementation in Nigeria
Dr/Mrs. Modupe Adelabu
Faculty of Education O. A. U. Ile –Ife Osun State Nigeria
This paper examines Globalisation within the thematic context of necessary changes in the educational systems of most countries of the world; with Nigeria being used as a case study. Globalisation has enormous implications for changes in all aspects of education, than most nations and people are prepared to refuse or accept. This paper examines the imperatives for systemic changes in all aspects of Education as dictated by globalisation trends and tendencies. The paper will put forward policy-proposals on how to initiate and sustain necessary changes in the educational systems of Nigeria for other developing nations to meet the demands of globalization. A globalised World economy and trading system indirectly implies that globalised educational policies and practices must evolve with time. This evolution seems slow in the developing countries. Nigeria and other developing countries should reposition and prepare for systemic changes in education to meet the dictates of Globalisation. This seems to be the central theme of this paper.
Transforming the Nigerian Educational system
Tola Olujuwon- Dept of Educational Foundations and Management,
Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education, Otto/Ijanikin, Lagos. Nigeria
The Nigerian educational system is in a state of confusion and disarray as a result of inconsistencies, non-implementation of policies, corruption and corrupt practicesperpetrated by the stakeholders. There has been a clarion call by all and sundry for the resuscitation, re-appraising and re-examining the Nigerian educational system in line with the current trends. This paper will concern itself with the above and other issues and proffers transformative education as a solution to these problems.
REPEAT STUDENTS: IS THIS THEIR FATE?
AUTHORS: ZEHRA UNVEREN, FATMA BASRI, GULEN ONURKAN
EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN UNIVERSITY
NORTH CYPRUS
Repeat students have always been a crucial problem for educational institutions. These are students who are unsuccessful and have to go through the same course for a variety of reasons. These reasons mainly seem to arise from general socio-cultural problems, frustrating past language classroom experiences, inadequate use of strategies or lack of interest in second language learning (Lescano,1995).
Eastern Mediterranean University is an English medium university. Students have to pass the Proficiency Test in order to study in their departments. Those, who score below 60 from the Proficiency test, have to study English at the School of Foreign Languages where they are placed in classes according to their level of English. There is a modular system and students take exams every eight weeks. The ones who score above 60, move up in the programme and the ones who score below 60 have to repeat the same level. These students are called “repeat students”.
In the School of Foreign Languages of Eastern Mediterranean University, the case of these students has maintained its importance for years. Repeat students are given the opportunity to cover the same syllabus in remedial English classes. However, despite these classes, it is hard to say that the required success is achieved. Statistics show that in the first level test of 2005-2006 academic year, 20% of the students had to repeat the same level (sfl.emu.edu.tr). Is this what their fate brings them or can something be done to avoid this fate?
Research was conducted to search for an answer to this question and explore ways in order to guide students. The aim of this research was to find out the underlying reasons for not being able to meet the required standards to move to a higher level and to explore whether they are aware of these reasons and to provide them with efficient ways to promote success. Two types of data were collected. These were student questionnaires and test results. Students reflected on their performance through the questionnaire and came up with weaknesses which they believed made them underscore The test results were analysed to see whether there existed a correlation between the two. After the correlation, the students were informed about the areas they need to work on. In the light of the collected data, necessary modifications were made accordingly.
In the presentation, participants will be invited to share their own experiences related to underscoring students in their institutions and contribute with their further suggestions.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Lescano, A. Augusto. 1995. The Remedial English Project. Forum, 33, 4, pp. 40 – 41.
Civic education and Community Based Learning in Morocco
Lahcen GHECHI- Al Akhawayn University, MOROCCO
The paper introduces the notions of Civic education and Community Based Learning and explores the various ways in which civic education syllabi can enhance democratization in Morocco. The paper is divided into two parts: the first explains how Community Based Education is badly needed in the Moroccan context, and underscores the need to raise the partners’ (faculty, students and administrators as well as incumbent members of the local government and civil society as a whole) about the role civic education can have in strengthening their civic engagement and their sense of belonging to a community. The second part is a proposal towards the creation of the Centre for Civic Education in AUI. Its main goal is to devise programs for faculty and students and projects which contribute to the development of the community. In short, the paper is an answer to the question ‘How do our educational institutions need to change in order for learning to become genuinely transformational?’
Towards Quality Education in Botswana Schools:
Examining the role of Educational Change
Mrs. Lillian Mokgosi-Wills- University of Sussex, UK
This paper focuses on recent developments in education through the Millennium Development Goals’ (MDG’s) and Education For All (EFA) agenda with particular promotion of access to quality basic education. In the context of developing countries, research has proved that most of the written policies and their implementation often seem too complex and ambitious especially if there are other problems that affect the education system, (Argyris and Schon (1978), Eisemon (1988), Chapman and Carrier (1990), Welch (2000). According to these writers, written policies would simply represent the ideal curriculum whereas the actual curriculum (implementation in the classroom) would be a totally different picture. Beyond the dissimilarity in the curricula they also note the countless and fruitless efforts to improve the quality of education particularly in the context of Africa, Latin America and parts of Asia.
In this paper I ague for the link between pedagogical knowledge and practice, and the critical role of educational change to be explored in ways to enhance quality in education Botswana schools.
The first part of the paper focuses on quality in education, with particular reference to ways to enhance quality in teaching and learning. The paper critically engages with the notion of better quality teaching and learning to improve practice and thus attain quality in education. It explores contemporary struggles, tensions, debates and dilemmas underlying the concept of quality in education. The study draws heavily from my recent research in four secondary schools in Botswana and questions some of their inherent ideological orientations, intended and unintended consequences, and impact on learners and learning, teachers and teaching, and aspects of school leadership.
The second part of the paper engages with the discourse of Educational Change to unpack the productive and complex challenges involved to attain genuine quality educational experiences. In Botswana, change in the educational sector comes about through an official policy, which is written or authorised through the governments' administrative channels. There is a National Curriculum to be followed and there is a national examination system. The paper engages with different approaches to educational change including systems, contingency and Fullan’s phenomenological theories to map out a successful change process.
The paper ends on a reflective note. It makes recommendations partially drawn from lessons learnt from the different schools and also my personal learning experiences that challenged my assumptions about pedagogical practices for crucial educational transformation that I continue to learn.
From Personal Experiences of Transformative Learning toward Educational Change
Tetyana Koshmanova- College of Education, Western Michigan University, USA
The transition of the former Soviet republics of the Eastern Europe, Central Asia and Caucasus took a tortuous road. The gulf is wide between the initial hopes for change and the current state of reforms. Transition was an imagined journey from totalitarian regimes and a planned economic system to pluralism, democracy and market economy. Yet the realities of historic development are such that instead of a smooth guided journey the countries of Eastern Europe, Central Asia and Caucasus are taking difficult and diverse paths with the points of destination still distant and debated.
Ukraine, one of the largest post-Soviet countries, is an example of the situation we face today in Eastern Europe in terms of the transition from post-communist regimes to civil societies. Following the recent presidential elections of November 21, 2004, massive falsifications were exposed, causing great social crisis. The outrage of the Ukrainian people indicated a democratic awakening as they strove for human rights and the end of the authoritarian regime. However, along with the new democratic mood, the Orange Revolution brought great political instability into the region, revealing deep ethnic, religious, economic and political divisions and eventually split the Ukrainian nation into two opposing parts – East and West, with the agrarian West that is ardently nationalist, predominantly Catholic and anti-Russian, and the industrial East which is predominantly oriented toward Russia in speech and religion.
Since the Orange Revolution is clearly moving Ukraine in a more European direction, changing students’ intolerant beliefs and attitudes about other ethnicities is crucial. Accepting core democratic values, such as caring for others, kindness, fairness, equity are vital elements for the civic development of most post-conflict societies of Eastern Europe, as well as for peace and stability in the region.
The study focuses on exploring the method of transformative learning for democratic educational change. The purpose of the study is to test, or try out, an approach for changing beliefs and attitudes of teacher candidates towards peacebuilding, humanism, and accepting others. The procedure for this study involved several stages: (1) investigating teacher candidates’ attitudes or ethnic stereotypes about different nations bordering Ukraine and about themselves as well; (2) conducting attitudes/stereotypes’ intervention by means of transformative learning towards the formation of teachers’ peaceful attitudes, and (3) analyzing the consequences of this intervention. The paper specifically analyses the research experience for teacher candidates as they reflected on their multi-ethic practices of personal transformative learning. It also utilizes the research findings of cultural-historical theory of activity to inform the field of transformative teacher education for peace and democracy.
Inside Classrooms and Outside of War: Students and Teachers Transitioning from Conflict to Post-conflict in Nepal and Liberia
Maryam Ishani Parsi
Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict
Division of the International Rescue Committee
Columbia University Master’s degree candidate
International Education Development in International Humanitarian Issues
Quality and access to education are direct and indirect casualties of war in many conflict situations. In some situations, the conflict has weakened national infrastructure to such an extent that entire generations of children have lost their opportunity to learn at the level of their peers in other nations and instead have become sadly versed in violence and disruption. Such is the case in Liberia today.
In Nepal, education was attacked far more directly as rebels violated the rights of thousands of children teachers when they targeted schools they charged with teaching values and ideas that countered their revolutionary efforts. These children have learned the immense politicized role of education in their nation while suffering the loss of valuable opportunities of learning.
This paper will examine two cases in which education has provided healing and change in conflict and post-conflict situations by examining a project in Nepal led by Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict and on-going efforts to implement the INEE (Interagency Network for Education in Emergencies) Minimum Standards for Education in Emergencies, Chronic Crises and Early Reconstruction in Liberia.
In Liberia, with the election of Ellen Sirleaf Johnson, the first female president on the African continent, a president who has expressed strong commitment to education goals, the conflict appears to have passed. This paper will examine the implementation of the INEE standards in the transition period in Liberia. The paper aims to study some of the challenges facing educators who are working to implement the INEE minimum standards and some of the concerns of communities that are experiencing transition from conflict to post-conflict in regards to education development.
In Nepal, the conflict is on-going but a project spearheaded by Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict gathered a group of sixty children who have witnessed and experienced the destruction committed by the Maoist rebels and the national army for the creation of a comic book that depicted the destruction they had experienced. The project was initially intended to be a capacity strengthening project for local NGOs in Nepal who are working towards the demobilization, disarmament and reintegration of child soldiers but served as well to open the doors of healing and transformation for the children who had experienced the brutality of the war.
In order to address these elements I will briefly review the history of the conflicts in Nepal and in Liberia and explain the aims of INEE and capacity building projects. Additionally, I will be in communication with two educators who are working in Liberia on the development to the minimum standards as well as their implementation in Liberia and I will draw upon my own experience with the capacity building project in Nepal.
Universal Values for Peace Education
Meaningful Education for Ethical Development
Dr. Nina Meyerhof- Children of the Earth, USA
Education comes from the word educare….meaning to bring forth. Education in former years was used as a vehicle to occupy children during the industrial era. Education was not seen as the vehicle for individual success nor as the means of building the culture of the future. Today we move into the technology era and a time of downloading information. This is an invitation to educators to finally be able to focus on the personal evolving development of children.
Schools have become the main social institution for children as so many parents are forced to be out of the home for most of the day. Teachers are the social service providers and become partially responsible for the development of their value system. Teachers form small societies or daily communities in which children interact with each other, learn about their personal selves, develop interests and start to plan for their futures.
In the year 2000 it was declared the Decade of Peace and Nonviolence for Children of the World. This was an official request from the United Nations and UNESCO and supported by the many peace organizations. It offered educators the means for building a Culture of Peace. Within this document the values expressed are:
Respect All Life
Reject Violence
Listen to Understand
Share with Others
Perserve the Planet
Rediscover Solidarity
Education for peace is a fairly new phenomenon. Peace encompasses the learning of nonviolent communication, tolerance, acceptance of diversity and love as the basic law of life. It is possible for education for peace to begin to initiate curriculum that reflects on the deeper meanings of life and fosters children to explore their individual entitled birth potential. Recognizing that information is acquired and only exists as relevant if the individual is able to integrate this into knowledge. Learning becomes predicated on self knowing. Presently character education, moral education, and self esteem development are considered aspects of aiding in the child’s reaching this personal inner potential and becoming a valued citizen for peaceful coexistence.
It is my premise that within each of us is coded a very personal life intent and that when that intent is activated all externals become pliable for meeting the truer intrinsic loftier needs. When a young child can say I am this and I am that and I know then this child can begin to express an ethical meaningful life. A deep sense of self is the road to peace.
Life ethics----to love one another as the self, to share and to care, to recognize the interconnectedness, to live honorably, to be responsible and responsive all become a natural pursuit of a meaningful self fulfilling life. A child who is open to this is a child who is ready to find the inner resources that commands a way of being that stands out within the masses. This is a child who has learned of the self in relationship to the greater Self and is willing to walk a path of peace.
Peace can be taught as a conceptual construct. Peace can be emphasized as a management tool. Peace once examined not only as a word but rather a state of Being that offers children a sense of being special. For this to occur one must establish a rapport with children that focuses on the inner life.
To do this in a mainstream classroom it is necessary to develop a classroom with guidelines that stresses that living ethics offers a meaningful life. If one is to draw a lifeline one would realize at the end of a life the importance of existence is having felt that one has served for a greater good beyond one’s own needs. Children can project themselves into this future and think backward to begin to understand the importance of living a life of virtue and in service to the others. Nothing is more fulfilling than to know one’s life has purpose.
There are several techniques emerging that further the understanding of living in right relationship to self and the world. A classroom is the microcosm of the macrocosm and what we achieve there is what we may achieve in the world. As community communing together there is a process which asks for Sociocratic Decision making allowing for lateral empowerment and decisions made by consent. Consent means to be able to consent within the limits of agreement. This permits each child to be able to contribute to each decision and be empowered to know their own mind as well as feel the importance of being a contributory member of society. For the interpersonal exchanges amongst the children there is a model called Nonviolent Communication that stresses that each person’s request is a personal need rather to be a judgment of the other. In the class a child is encourage to self express learning that the feelings and thoughts arise from within and are only stimulated by the others. Most important is an evolving conceptual framework that deals with conflict. Until now the method has been to use conflict resolution which implies resolving and releasing by compromise. Conflict Transformation on the other hand recognizes that any conflict can be transformed to its Highest potential and bring dignity and great spiritual answers for all concerned. Peace then becomes a continuously evolving and developing quality of relationship.
To enter the world with right intention and walk the Middle Path a child must have touched deep into the personal core of Being. Teachers are models who exhibit the seeking for becoming more enlightened. Right speech and harmlessness by a teacher offer possibilities for open dialogue about self. A child is offered this learning and teaching model often already knows that inner self. This process must not need be through meditation though considered a faster process but also can be achieved through the written word, drawings, and examples of great heroes who have chosen to be self-reflective and walk a path of personal conviction. Teachers are the inspiration and model the values they espouse. Inspiring young people who most often feel disenfranchised from society and lost in the sea of troubles when presented with an educational platform that encourages self realization and an attitude of listening to an inner voice most often can become the peacemakers of the future giving voice to an inner calling.
It behooves us to recognize children are the future and the skyline of this future depends on the values we model. Values and ethics are not to be imposed but rather inspired and defined. One voice, one heart and one humanity.
Crossing Another Border: Immigrants at the University
Renata Fitzpatrick, Gada Roba and Liyun Lin
General College - University of Minnesota, USA
Our panel consists of two students and one instructor from the University of Minnesota’s General College. We will briefly describe the General College, which “has a visible national role in the field of access and developmental education” (Lundell, Chung and Higbee, 2005). The General College vision focuses on integrating intellectual growth, multicultural perspectives, and student development. Through its curriculum and student services, it provides academic support for students who are sometimes characterized as being under-prepared for college work, mostly by virtue of their standardized test scores. Many of the students are “non-traditional” freshmen: a large percentage of them come from underprivileged backgrounds, many are working, and some are also parents. Rather than viewing these students as deficient, the college “affirms all individuals and their potential to achieve” (Taylor, 2005) and works to help students build on their intellectual strengths. The Commanding English Program specifically offers this support to immigrant and refugee students whose first language is not English, with a year-long curriculum that integrates language support with credit-bearing content courses such as anthropology and sociology. Two students, one a refugee from Ethiopia, the other an immigrant from China, will talk about the transformative aspects of their first year at the University of Minnesota, when both were enrolled in the Commanding English Program. Students will tell their personal stories and identify the strategies they believe have contributed to their success. We will then identify the features of the college program (curriculum, learning environment, teaching practices) that we believe to be transformative, as well as discussing both individual and institutional barriers to transformation. Among the features of the college that are considered most valuable are the multicultural curriculum, the unusually close relationships between students and staff, and the organization of learning communities. In addition, for students whose first language is not English, the Commanding English Program provides language support without restricting students by holding them in ESL (English as a Second Language) only classes, and helps them build voice and academic literacy. These are some of the elements of the college that faculty see as potentially transformative; the students on our panel will share their perspectives on how such practices actually affected their learning.
WORKSHOPS
WORKSHOP: ICDP AND THE EMPATHIC APPROACH
Nicoletta Armstrong- International Child Development Programmes (ICDP)
In 1985, Professor Karsten Hundeide with a team of psychologists began developing a psychosocial intervention programme for vulnerable children; the ICDP international organisation was registered in 1992 in Oslo, Norway. I am one of the founders and international consultant for ICDP. I am based in England, but have been working in different countries, on all continents. Currently my work is mostly in Latin America. I adapted the ICDP didactic material for large scale implementation and during the last 6 years have been cooperating with UNICEF, leading ICDP training projects that so far reached 200 Colombian towns and over 400 000 children.
The ICDP approach to training is based on the idea that the best way to help children is by helping adults who are in charge of their care and education. For that purpose we have developed a simple and culturally adaptable, sensitizing programme, called “I am a person too” . It aims to bring out and sustain good quality interaction between caregivers and their children, by raising the awareness of caregivers about their children’s psycho-social needs and by increasing their ability to respond to these needs.
By opening up a space for children to be heard and responded to and through its emphasis on empathy and compassion for the other, our work is closely linked to promoting children’s rights and it contributes to peace building both inside the family and community in general.
The programme was tested out and evaluated in different parts of the world and there is evidence that the programme works in different societies and with caregivers with very different educational backgrounds. We offered training workshops to individuals, non governmental and governmental organisations in a number of countries, including Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine, Macedonia, Bosnia, Portugal, England, Italy, Palestine, Jamaica, Brazil, Colombia, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, Angola, Ethiopia, Congo, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Australia. ICDP developed projects on large scales in Angola, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Macedonia and Colombia.
In 1993, the ICDP programme was evaluated and later adopted by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in Geneva, who also published our manual as a WHO document. There is close cooperation with UNICEF.
ICDP trains resource persons from local organisations and networks (education, social services and health) to spread our work further to caregivers, teachers, families and children. We also co-operate with local universities who participate both in the assessment of the need and in the evaluation of the developmental effects of our sensitising programme.
Based on recent research in psychology, the ICDP programme defines 8 criteria for good quality adult - child interaction. These criteria, put as simple questions, are used for personal, as well as group reflection and analysis of typical every day interactive episodes with children. We facilitate a process of practical exploration, observation, monitoring and self evaluation, with the aim of strengthening and building on that which is already positive in adult-child communication, as well as promoting the adoption of developmentally signifcant ways of relating to children.
The workshop will focus on illustrating the essence of the ICDP programme through practical exercises and key points from its theoretical background.
WORKSHOP: Preparing Students for Global Leadership: Essential Skills for Engaging Religious Diversity and Spirituality
Peter Laurence, Executive Director, Education as Transformation
Transformative education can be defined as education that induces a dramatic change in perspective. One of the global perspectives that is in transition currently and is open to the possibility of dramatic change concerns religious diversity and spirituality.
The existence of religious diversity in our world is a fact, and its significance for peaceful global co-existence is clear. But in addition to the variety of religious traditions, a new phenomenon has emerged among students, other young adults, and in cultures at large. It is often expressed as “I’m not religious but I’m spiritual.” These are the people in whose lives traditional religion has been missing or has not served adequately.
Both religious diversity and non-traditional spirituality are the focus of much discussion. These are sensitive topics, however. In a structured institutional setting, such discussions are best handled through skillful facilitation. Many professional educators shy away from approaching these topics, feeling unprepared for the emotions and controversies they may kindle. Faculty and staff need preparation for leading sensitive discussions, and students who are looking toward the possibility of leadership careers would be well served by having exposure to the understandings, skills and attitudes required for effective dialogue. Such leaders need to be reflective practitioners, skilled at facilitating dialogue across our deepest differences.
This workshop will provide an overview of an eight-hour program designed to train university students and staff in the basic skills of Contemplative Listening, Dialogue, Small Group Dynamics, and Small Group Facilitation. The workshop has been field-tested in the United States and Canada, and its application in a more diverse cultural setting will be evaluated at this conference. The workshop is designed to be primarily interactive, with as little direct presentation of information as possible.