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Some good ideas there Orla. Our school is actually in a partnership with am organisation in Cambodia. Each year, we are visited by 4 Cambodian students who we have helped to support through school/college. The students stay with different families in our community, from our school, and learn about the student, their culture, their education etc It’s an extremely worthwhile and educational partnership for our school and involves the local community too.
I actually witnessed a classic example of this in the classroom in June! I was the Support teacher for second class and the class teacher had to deal with the following scenario: the children were outside for yard-time and a game of football started. One little boy was the organiser and the co-ordinator of the game and selection of players. He chose all boys!!! None of the girls were chosen! Needless to say, when the class came back in after yard-time, the teacher was inundated with complaints from the girls! Both the teacher and I were extremely surprised at what had occurred. The little boy in question is new to the class and he comes from a different country/culture so whether or not this had any influence him, I don’t know. The teacher had a chat outside with the little boy and he honestly couldn’t see what the problem was! He said “but girls don’t play football!” The teacher herself actually plays on the local soccer team!!!
It was a great teaching opportunity for the teacher and she handled it extremely well. It opened up the whole conversation on gender equality and allowed the children to explore and to challenge stereotypes based on gender.
Development education in the classroom in this instance, enabled the teacher to raise awareness around gender stereotypes and to identify with issues of unfairness.
Hi Colin,
I also notice this quite a bit in the classroom – assigning a task and then the boys and girls taking on very different roles! During free-play too I notice that a lot of the boys gravitate towards the Lego and the construction activities while many of the girls gravitate towards the dolls, dolls-houses, prams etc It never ceases to amaze me and I do wonder how much of this stems from nature versus nurture!
“The Role of Global Citizens in Today’s World” emphasises the need for people to understand global issues and to appreciate both our own place in society/the world as well as the place of others. I loved the line in this article that said “to be a global citizen is to care. It is to empathise.” As educators, this is something that we can foster and encourage in our students. By teaching social justice in our classrooms we can enable the children to identify with issues of unfairness, to make connections and to have a say/voice. We can teach lessons through various subjects/curricular areas e.g. History; Geography; Art etc I work in an Educate Together school which provides even more scope for teaching through the Learn Together curriculum. Strands of the curriculum include Values and Ethical Perspectives, Equality and Justice and an Ethical Approach to the Environment. Children are encouraged to develop an understanding of right and wrong and to look at values such as respect, kindness and co-operation. They are encouraged to develop an awareness of human rights, equality, diversity and social justice. Issues such as climate change, pollution, endangered species etc are addressed throughout the the curriculum. This curriculum complements DE in the primary classroom. Staff and colleagues would regularly engage in training linked into the Learn Together curriculum. We have set up a Student Council which enables the children to have a say in how the school is run/organised as well as a Green Schools committee which strive towards earning various awards/flags for our school. This is a big part of school self-evaluation for our school each year.