Teaching English and Global Perspectives and Researching Sustainable Education in an Indian context (part 3)
By: Rebekah Meahl, Cohort 18 Master of Science in Conflict Management
I only have two weeks left in India! Time sure does fly. Since my last update, here’s what’s been happening in Bangalore!
Things are very fluid and always changing, and my flexibility has been tested as plans can change daily or even hourly! :-) One afternoon we received a notice at school that the following day (a Thursday) would be a holiday from school. When I inquired about it, I was given a vague answer from another teacher that it was an important person’s birthday. I find cultural variations from my American norm utterly fascinating!! Holidays and school breaks aren’t always put on a calendar in advance, and things change at a moment’s notice!
After exam week (mentioned in the last update) ended for the students, there was a 4 day weekend holiday. The first week and a half of October was spent in my 5th, 6th, and 7th grade classrooms teaching the rainbow song (as seen on my Instagram) to focus on some more English vocabulary, such as colors (purple was a new concept for some students), and also meanings/symbols of rainbows that transcend culture, such as promises, peace, and beauty. (Some of my friends from the western world have asked, but homosexuality is illegal in India and also a taboo subject in the public realm, so this was not an appropriate topic to discuss in school with children.) We also began an important lesson on global perspectives with a chart I created (also see a photo on Instagram) that compares 9 nations and some fun aspects for middle schoolers, such as food, sports, languages, and descriptive words of the people in each place! It has been challenging to design lessons in super-simplified English, as the English language capabilities is varied in each class. This particular global perspectives lesson has proven to be a most helpful and eye-opening lesson! When having students guess which countries we would learn about, I gave them hints based on region, etc. When I gave the hint that one of the countries was in the Middle East, a student replied “oh, we don’t know anything about the Middle East!” So I said “Well, today we’ll learn something new!” They were also very fascinated by the fact that of the 9 countries listed, I had personally visited 8 of them. (Kenya is the only place on the list I haven’t been.) The concept of globalized travel and interacting with others from around the world is literally a foreign concept to these students (no pun intended), which makes me so thankful that I can be part of adding some global knowledge to these students’ minds! The idea that people are different, cultures may have differences, but that we’re all human and should respect each other is something many of these children have never heard!! (Social identity theory, anyone?!?!) During my last week of upcoming teaching, we will review and wrap up our global perspectives lesson and chart, and review everything we’ve learned together over my two month internship.
Currently, it is the Diwali (pronounced “Divalee”) festival across India. This is a national holiday that encompasses several days of celebrations (mostly for Hindus), but widespread school closures and shop closures extend for more than a week! ACTS main offices in Bangalore remained open for meetings and planning, so I am saying in the city and working from the main office until October 25. I have been helping the staff organize some upcoming projects and conferences they’re doing, and I’ve been able to lead several conflict management workshops for ACTS employees to add to their “toolboxes” of skills. On October 25, I’ll be headed back to my rural school to teach for one last week before spending my last day back in the city to say goodbye to many of my ACTS friends and coworkers. I leave India on November 3 to head to Israel/Palestine for another MSCM study abroad class.
The two photos attached are the chart/outline of our global perspectives lesson and a selfie of me with a bull. While there are many Muslims and Christians in India, Hinduism is a prevalent religion, and cows/bulls are sacred to Hindus. They are allowed to roam free, including through the streets in the city. This particular bull was lying on a pile of trash in the road near a popular shopping district I visited with friends for lunch last week. (Littering/trash dumping is a huge issue in India.) Most of these animals are completely used to people and traffic, and this guy was no different, lounging in the road and completely unbothered by us. Such an interesting cultural thing to experience here! Also, it’s still warm and humid here. South India/Bangalore is closer to the equator than Florida, and this Florida girl has been chuckling at all the autumn/pumpkin posts from back in the US. None of that here!!
Thanks for following along on this Indian adventure as I complete my MSCM fieldwork! I have learned so much about education/sustainable education in India and I can hardly believe this experience is almost over. My Instagram posts are also shared on Twitter and Facebook, and I’m sure I’ll continue posting things there through the rest of my two study abroad experiences before I return to the States in mid-November.
-Rebekah
