'Developing the Global Dimension in Schools and in Classrooms Essay\r'

'The School\r\nThe work where I carried go forth the research for my report is St Augustine of Canterbury Roman Catholic High School in Oldham. The pupils add up from a wide salmagundi of ambits including English and Irish operative clear, Pakistani, Indian, disconsolate Caribbean, Black African, Travellers, Polish and pupils who be of involved race. The religions I encountered included Roman Catholic, new(prenominal) Christian, Muslim and Hindu. Many of the Pupils at St Augustine’s find very limited familiarity of the come outside world due to the poorer backgrounds that they come from.\r\nThe Lessons\r\nThis report is based on a series of four lessons I taught to a Year 11 Citizenship yr. The motion of the lesson is the real of Africa, problems inwardly the continent, come-at-able solutions to the problems and their complications. The purpose of the lessons is to a fault to create a sense of empathy in the pupils, improve their research skills, and give them the prospect to present their findings at the end of the unit.\r\nIn the first lesson, the pupils be given a map of Africa and a list of countries. They commence to use the internet to find out where the countries are situated on the map. This provokes banter over how countries in Africa were formed and how their borders were touched by westerlyern Colonisation and the populace fightfares. The second part of the lesson involves a abbreviated tidings over round of the rise up kn proclaim problems in Africa such(prenominal) as genteel War, Corruption, HIV, Poverty and Famine after(prenominal) which the pupils will start their own powerpoint presentation describing these. The pupils are assisted in commencement this with fact sheets on HIV and help in Africa and on Corruption in Africa.\r\nThe second lesson focal pointes on Civil War in Africa. The pupils are given worksheets with the call of four countries that have faced Civil War, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Sudan and S ierra Leone and questions on the impact of war in these countries. The pupils watch a sack for the film Hotel Rwanda which concenteres on the Rwandan Genocide. There is discussion on what they have seen, which expands into related returns such as refugees before they are allowed to go on the internet and research the answers to the questions for devil of the countries. The second half of the lesson is worn out(p) working on the powerpoint presentations and adding many of the facts they have researched into their own presentation.\r\nThe third lesson focuses on Fairtrade in Africa. The pupils are given a worksheet asking questions or so Fairtrade and shown a short video on the projector promoting and explaining what Fairtrade does for African producers. The pupils are directed to the Fairtrade website in order to answer any be questions on their sheet. The second half of the lesson is spent finishing off their powerpoint presentations and adding facts just about Fairtrade.\r \nIn the fourth lesson, the pupils present their findings to the rest of the segmentation and discuss the issues as a class, individually having the opportunity to extend their opinions on the topic and the various aspects they have covered.\r\nThe Focus concourse\r\nWhat did pupils learn from the lesson and how do they feel school prepares them to be part of an ethnically and religiously diverse society?\r\nI chose 4 pupils to begin part in my focus group, Jodie who was very opinionated, from a smock, working class background; Priya, a Hindu, Indian fille who was more(prenominal) quiet however got caught up in the debate; conjuration who is from a mixed Black Caribbean and White background; and Mlala, a boy from a western hemisphere African background.\r\nJodie felt very skittish about being â€Å"forced to take Citizenship”. She felt it was a waste of meter as in that location is no expertness or exam to sit in this subject. She felt it was a waste of era a nd she had very little interest in what happened in Africa, she felt it would be more relevant to study problems occurring in the UK during Citizenship lessons. During the class discussions she was unsympathetic to the plight of refugees and had strong feelings regarding their presence in the UK and on immigration as a whole. jakes was of a akin opinion, he thought that Africans should â€Å"sort out their own problems”.\r\nPriya defended refugees and their need to come to this region pointing out that it is non always possible for refugees to go to the next nearest sylvan as there may be trouble within that country as well and that if there are a lot of refugees coming from countries that are airless to each other that one or two countries that are stable full to accept refugees cannot take all of the refugees. Mlala too pointed out that some of the problems that occur in Africa are a direct end point of European colonisation and war.\r\nI visualize why Priya and Mlala are more antipathetical to posture involved in the debate. To some extent they may feel that the comments are directed at them or their friends or families. They see the issues of developing countries from a different perspective. Mlala only came to the UK in the last family and has grown up in West Africa. He and his family are immigrants themselves, he dislikes the hand over painted in the media moreover does not want to get into direct opposition over it. Priya was born here but has strong roots in India; she has friends and family there who she visits and who have come to live in the UK more recently.\r\nI also comprehend where these feelings are coming from in Jodie and sewer in the sense that they are exploitation up in working class, white households which are targeted in the media to feel that immigrants and refugees are coming to the UK and make life more difficult for them affecting housing, jobs, schooling the NHS and opinions within their families are bei ng reflected through them.\r\nJodie and John did appear to enjoy having the opportunity to express their opinions about issues that are highlighted in the media and discussed at home. Priya and Mlala, were more reluctant to talk about the issue, I believe they may have felt uncomfortable at generation about some of the issues raised and the strong point of other peoples opinions, however as the debate went on they were motivated to speak to get across their own different points of view.\r\nMy Reflections\r\nI felt at the end of the lessons and the focus group that something had been achieved in the sense that Jodie and John’s opinions appeared to soften and they had learned some facts that they were previously unaware of. Priya and Mlala, I believe came out of it mor confident for speaking their minds and making their opinions known.\r\nI feel that the lessons were a victory in the sense that they created a fashion model for debate and got the pupils thinking about these issues quite of just accepting what they read in the Tabloids and hear from the people around them.\r\nWhen I prepared the lessons I had to stick within the framework of the the topic for problems within Africa but I feel it would be vertical to have the opportunity to use the topic of Africa to challenge peoples’ preconceptions of the continent and the people, perhaps by focussing on the more peremptory aspects of Africa in order to give the pupils a more balanced viewpoint.\r\n'