Annual Conference of the National Committee of Social Studies: Washington, DC
Diversity
Reflections
Gathering with four thousand teachers of social studies or pre-service teachers added to my perspectives on the subjects I am teaching. Teaching in an American international school gave me a connection to the curriculum in the US. It was great to hear the successes and struggles teachers from across the country were having and be inspired all at the same time.
1. Internationalization of Perspectives
The theme of the conference was about diversity. One of the main trends is bringing more international perspectives and content into the classrooms. How to engage students to connect to other cultures and views beyond their own?
There are more national and state initiatives to promote this. Especially for teachers and students who normally don't have opportunity to travel or be exposed to other cultures, exchange programs and cultural trips are offered to different countries. These are strategic to promote more awareness of different global views out there. Fundamental understandings towards peace and working in the increasing globalizing world.
As part of this, I was part of a workshop for looking at Middle Eastern culture and how to expose students to the complexities of this region. From meeting young diplomats from the United Arab Emirates, eating at a Lebanese restaurant, looking at the influences of Islamic art in the Freer Gallery at the Smithsonian, and visiting a former ambassador to Yemen in her home to learn about Yemen silver jewelry, it was a cultural immersion within the US itself. It did spark ideas of how I will connect the current Middle East issues with our unit on Ancient Egypt coming up. What do I want my students to learn about the connection from the ancient to modern civilization?
It was obvious that depending on what state and school district that there were varying degrees on how students are being exposed to global issues. Even though it is important to be promoted in the curriculum, reality is that many teachers are faced with lack of resources and priority of their time is needed to cover the curriculum for standardized tests.
One of the keynote speakers Teta Banks, who is the consul of Liberia, spoke of the importance of students to be exposed to global issues to prepare them for their life in this world. Programs such as Model United Nations and collaborations between schools in different parts of the world give students chances to connect to people and issues.
In the international school setting, daily we learn about cross-cultural perspectives with each student coming from different cultural and country backgrounds. Lessons are framed with those different perspectives in mind and that not one culture is better than another. Perhaps the challenge is more delineating what the different views are and their origins. For as we learn to accept, we sometimes expect others to see it the same way.
2. Challenges in Public School Education
Like other countries in the world, public school education is facing many struggles. Insufficient education funding which affect the learning at the classroom level. Different priorities and initiatives are given to teachers and there is challenge to achieve good scores for the school and district. Even with all of the obstacles, teachers are trying to overcome all of this and focus on helping students learn. I met some teachers that have use of technology through district funding, and are wanting to learn more on how to integrate it in their curriculum. Even though there are frustrations, the teachers I met are working hard at bringing the value of education to their students and community.
3. Resources
Walking through the exhibition hall, it is full of exhibits from different publication companies or organizations. It is clear that there are a lot of resources for teaching Social Studies. Some require money to purchase and others are completely free. I did come away with some suggestions for new textbooks that encourage critical thinking, resources for current global issues, and knowledge of some cool geography resources online and print from National Geographic. Filtering what is useful for our classrooms is an exercise and it comes down to not what we can have or access but what will we do with it.
4. Teacher Training in China Talk
I came across a lot of professors of pre-service teachers. It reminded about how important they were to train new teachers in their understanding of teaching history, geography and global issues.As I listened to the visiting scholar Zheng Guo Min speak at the International Assembly meeting, I was encouraged to hear how the Chinese government was promoting teacher education by funding school fees and giving initiatives for teachers to go and teach in the rural areas of China.There is a discrepancy between rural and urban teachers and quality of education. For such a large country like China, in order for the overall education level to improve, it largely depends on the quality of teachers in all regions. China's struggles are no different from the US and occasions like these are important in understanding shared perspectives. Through round-table presentations of academic research papers I got a glimpse at current trends in Social Studies research. Service-learning is something that is being used to bring exposure to global issues to students. Though if and how it is implemented varies greatly and is dependent on the priorities of individual teachers. Though as more teachers are exposed to this in their pre-service training too, they will be influenced on how to bring global perspectives into their classroom.
5. Bringing Life into Class
As I participated in the various workshops and explored the museums in DC, I kept thinking on how I bring to life the things my students are learning. Looking at primary documents is something we all have to teach the kids. It was neat for me to go the Library of Congress and be in the Africa and Middle East section in a special room to look at selected ancient texts from the Middle East. Seeing it in real life brought to life where the information we study from texts come from. Now many of the primary sources from the Library Congress is available on a website online. With technology we can access more things easily and there are more available resources. Yet it is about how to bring these into the class without losing the focus of what skills and content we want the students to learn.
The Newseum is a multi-layer fascination of events that have shaped the world in the last century. Seeing original artifacts from 9/11 and exhibits on photojournalism reminded me of how these multi-sensory displays make us understand more of events that we were not present for. How to make ancient civilizations exciting and applicable to the contemporary life of my students? There are so many links to events and society of today, yet I need to be intentional on bringing them to my students. Guiding them to understand life.