From my point of view, conflict in itself is neither good nor bad. It is simply a normal occurrence in our various relations starting from the interpersonal level, all through to the global. It is the response to the occurrence of conflict that determines whether the outcome is positive is negative.
Considering the diverse sociopolitical composition of our societies, it is to be expected that different perspectives will be held by different people for virtually every subject under the sun. The various responses to these differences of perception or opinions will determine if the differences are resolved peacefully or allowed to degenerate into deeper animosity or sometimes outright violence.
Conflicts can have a positive side; some conflicts may be the result of misinformation, misconceptions or poor channels of communication between the parties to the conflict. But when each party takes a stand on the issue and there is a conflict, a well intended and sincere resolution process will lead all parties to see things from the point of view of the other sides. This could lead to better understandings among peoples in the society.
And best of all, if such a process is successful, it will motivate all the parties to be willing in the future to open lines of dialogue between one another when other issues come up in future.
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Conflict in my immediate environment - My Reflections
A conflict in my immediate environment that readily comes to mind is that which is caused by differences of political opinion. Political affiliation in our society is largely influenced by ethnic/religious relations with the politicians themselves and has less to do with political ideologies, credibility, or trustworthiness of the politicians.
During discussions o issues, I sometimes find myself at opposing sides with people whose outlook to politics is influenced by the ethnic or religious beliefs of a particular politician. Once they share a common religious faith or ethnic origin with a politician, they are never willing to question his actions and policies and wouldn’t listen to anyone questioning his actions or policies, even if it is apparent that the actions or policies are detrimental to public good.
Though none of my personal encounters has ever degenerated into open fights, but I have seen many people start bloody fights over such political discussions which are caused by myopic leanings. When I find myself in a discussion with someone whose political beliefs are based on ethnicity of religious beliefs, my most common method of diffusing tension is allowing the other party enough time to air their views while I attentively listen. This listening technique often allows me to hear them through and understand them even if I feel their view is wrong!
When they seem to have finished, I usually come in by first highlighting the points on which we mutually agree (e.g. “I can see that you agree that Nigeria belongs to all of us”, “I agree with you when you say corruption is the main problem of our country, but do you think anyone should be immune from anti corruption laws simply because of his ethnic origin or religion?” etc)
Such questions usually enable us to start from points we mutually agree on and then slowly go on to those upon which we disagree. By guiding our conversation to become a form of exploration through issues that affect us both, I am mostly able to change a potential fight to a discussion which even if we don’t agree on all issues, we understand one another.
During discussions o issues, I sometimes find myself at opposing sides with people whose outlook to politics is influenced by the ethnic or religious beliefs of a particular politician. Once they share a common religious faith or ethnic origin with a politician, they are never willing to question his actions and policies and wouldn’t listen to anyone questioning his actions or policies, even if it is apparent that the actions or policies are detrimental to public good.
Though none of my personal encounters has ever degenerated into open fights, but I have seen many people start bloody fights over such political discussions which are caused by myopic leanings. When I find myself in a discussion with someone whose political beliefs are based on ethnicity of religious beliefs, my most common method of diffusing tension is allowing the other party enough time to air their views while I attentively listen. This listening technique often allows me to hear them through and understand them even if I feel their view is wrong!
When they seem to have finished, I usually come in by first highlighting the points on which we mutually agree (e.g. “I can see that you agree that Nigeria belongs to all of us”, “I agree with you when you say corruption is the main problem of our country, but do you think anyone should be immune from anti corruption laws simply because of his ethnic origin or religion?” etc)
Such questions usually enable us to start from points we mutually agree on and then slowly go on to those upon which we disagree. By guiding our conversation to become a form of exploration through issues that affect us both, I am mostly able to change a potential fight to a discussion which even if we don’t agree on all issues, we understand one another.
SAMPLE LESSON ON ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION
Activities of Oil companies, and Environmental degradation in the Niger Delta.
The widespread damage to the ecosystem in the Niger Delta caused by oil spills, and other uncontrolled exploration related activities, led to a campaign by the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni Peoples (MOSOP) in the 1990s to raise awareness about the problems faced by inhabitants of the region. The campaigned was aimed at getting local authorities, multinational oil companies and global organizations to intervene and ensure effective steps are taken towards compensation, repairs to the damaged environment and a change in the mode of operations of the oil companies.
AUTHOR: Ibrahim Oyekanmi
TIME: 3 Lesson periods (2 hours X 3)
GRADE LEVEL AND SUBJECT: Advanced Computer application packages classes, Basic Multimedia Presentations using Ms PowerPoint.
MATERIALS: - Wikipedia pages on Ogoniland
- United Nations Report on the environmental degradation in Ogoniland caused by SHEL Plc’s activities in the region.
METHODS: Readings, Reflections and discussion sessions within groups and the whole class; using Google News to search for information, and using Ms PowerPoint to create a Presentation to highlight the damage to the environment caused by activities of SHELL Plc and the efforts of the social justice movement that struggled to get SHELL to accept responsibility.
CONCEPTS: Effects of exploration and extractive activities on the environment; taking action; existing international mechanisms for pursuing environmental causes; possible success of nonviolent protest if kept up; environmental degradation and the attendant structural and physical violence.
OBJECTIVES: Learners will:
Learn to use Ms Powerpoint to create a presentation detailing the timeline of the environmental issues of Ogoniland.
Understand the link between the activities of oil companies and environmental degradation.
Understand the ways in which environmental degradation leads to violence.
Learn that effective mechanisms exist for pursuing environmental claims.
Understand that, even if it takes long time, unflinching persistence and determined commitment to cause will certainly bring victory at the end.
PROCEDURES:
0. General background lecture on Ogoniland and its environmental problems.
Learners will be guided to:
1. Get Wikipedia articles on Ogoniland.
2. Search for the news itemS on the UN report using Google News.
3. Sift through the search results to get the appropriate pages with useful details of the contents of the report.
4. Print relevant pages of the report that contain the main highlights.
The class will be divided into small groups and each group given a copy of the printouts from the report to study for a week before the next class with emphasis on the following themes:
The people of Ogoniland before oil was discovered.
Environmental degradation from activities if Oil companies,
Efforts of social groups at getting the problems addressed.
The responses of the government and the Oil companies to the efforts of activists.
International organizations involved in investigating environmental issues.
Achievements of the campaigns;
Expectations for the future.
In the next lesson period, the reports will be discussed in a session to be facilitated by the teacher.
Students will be asked to raise their questions and comments on their understanding of the documents. These questions and comments should be thrown open to the whole class. From the various the submissions that come out of the discussions, 3 – 4 paragraphs-long submissions should be written out for each theme.
The written submissions for each theme should form the content of a slide in the presentation to be creates using Ms PowerPoint in the final lesson period.
REFERENCES
http://www.mosop.org/14_UNEP_OGONI_ENGAGEMENT_012008.pdf
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14391015
The widespread damage to the ecosystem in the Niger Delta caused by oil spills, and other uncontrolled exploration related activities, led to a campaign by the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni Peoples (MOSOP) in the 1990s to raise awareness about the problems faced by inhabitants of the region. The campaigned was aimed at getting local authorities, multinational oil companies and global organizations to intervene and ensure effective steps are taken towards compensation, repairs to the damaged environment and a change in the mode of operations of the oil companies.
AUTHOR: Ibrahim Oyekanmi
TIME: 3 Lesson periods (2 hours X 3)
GRADE LEVEL AND SUBJECT: Advanced Computer application packages classes, Basic Multimedia Presentations using Ms PowerPoint.
MATERIALS: - Wikipedia pages on Ogoniland
- United Nations Report on the environmental degradation in Ogoniland caused by SHEL Plc’s activities in the region.
METHODS: Readings, Reflections and discussion sessions within groups and the whole class; using Google News to search for information, and using Ms PowerPoint to create a Presentation to highlight the damage to the environment caused by activities of SHELL Plc and the efforts of the social justice movement that struggled to get SHELL to accept responsibility.
CONCEPTS: Effects of exploration and extractive activities on the environment; taking action; existing international mechanisms for pursuing environmental causes; possible success of nonviolent protest if kept up; environmental degradation and the attendant structural and physical violence.
OBJECTIVES: Learners will:
Learn to use Ms Powerpoint to create a presentation detailing the timeline of the environmental issues of Ogoniland.
Understand the link between the activities of oil companies and environmental degradation.
Understand the ways in which environmental degradation leads to violence.
Learn that effective mechanisms exist for pursuing environmental claims.
Understand that, even if it takes long time, unflinching persistence and determined commitment to cause will certainly bring victory at the end.
PROCEDURES:
0. General background lecture on Ogoniland and its environmental problems.
Learners will be guided to:
1. Get Wikipedia articles on Ogoniland.
2. Search for the news itemS on the UN report using Google News.
3. Sift through the search results to get the appropriate pages with useful details of the contents of the report.
4. Print relevant pages of the report that contain the main highlights.
The class will be divided into small groups and each group given a copy of the printouts from the report to study for a week before the next class with emphasis on the following themes:
The people of Ogoniland before oil was discovered.
Environmental degradation from activities if Oil companies,
Efforts of social groups at getting the problems addressed.
The responses of the government and the Oil companies to the efforts of activists.
International organizations involved in investigating environmental issues.
Achievements of the campaigns;
Expectations for the future.
In the next lesson period, the reports will be discussed in a session to be facilitated by the teacher.
Students will be asked to raise their questions and comments on their understanding of the documents. These questions and comments should be thrown open to the whole class. From the various the submissions that come out of the discussions, 3 – 4 paragraphs-long submissions should be written out for each theme.
The written submissions for each theme should form the content of a slide in the presentation to be creates using Ms PowerPoint in the final lesson period.
REFERENCES
http://www.mosop.org/14_UNEP_OGONI_ENGAGEMENT_012008.pdf
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14391015
Social Justice Issues and Environmental Degradation in the Nigerian Niger Delta - My Reflections
The Nigerian Niger Delta is rich in Petroleum and its allied resources. The uncontrolled extractive activities of the oil companies working in the region has resulted in widespread environmental pollution.
This contamination has had a negative effect on farming and fishing, which are the main traditional occupations of the inhabitants of the region. Farmland and rivers have been rendered waste as a result of contamination from oil spills from the pipelines which crisscross the whole area.
Wells and local streams which serve as sources of fresh water for the people of these areas have also become contaminated.
Reports also suggest that in some areas in the Niger Delta, the air itself is contaminated and inhaling this contaminated air is believed to be the source of many diseases experienced by locals.
A recent United Nations reported indicted a multinational oil company that is active in the Niger Delta of intentional negligence in the case of the oil spills in the area. The report further stated that it will take up to 25 years to clean up the area and revive the ecosystem that is dead!
Consequently, most of the residents of this area live in abject poverty despite the colossal income generated by the government from the petroleum resources extracted from the area.
They lack basic social infrastructure like good schools, hospitals, access roads, etc.
Apart from being deprived of their basic rights to a healthy environment, residents of this region are thus also deprived of their sources of livelihood and suffer a painful form of structural violence by being denied their basic rights to good education, health etc.
Over the years, some individuals of the region and local groups have started campaigns to protest these injustices, but instead of the authorities looking into their claims, they have been subject to direct physical violence in the form of arrests, executions and massive brutality in the hands of the military joint task force which is in charge of security in the region.
This oppression and the attendant injustices should be discussed in classrooms and students given an opportunity to understand that, while oil could be a major source of income to a country, the way and manner in which it is extracted, refined, and transported could have negative effects on the lives of local communities.
Among the issues that learners could be introduced to, are:
Relationship between oil extraction activities and environmental pollution;
Effects of environmental pollution on the economic lives of local communities;
Relationship between oil exploration and violence;
Relationship between oil exploration and illiteracy;
Relationship between oil exploration and personal health.
Guiding learners to become aware of the various environmental issues outlined above, will:
Make them aware of the need to strike a balance between economic prosperity and environmental sustainability in public policies.
Guide them to cultivate a motivation to take action to ensure the environment is protected.
Make them aware of the relationship between the activities of oil companies and social justice issues.
So, while the largest proportion the government’s income from export comes from this region, the inhabitants of this area face a disproportionate amount of discrimination and oppression.
By denying them good schools, the children from this region largely grow up uneducated and thus denied deprived the opportunity of acquiring quality education that could possibly have placed them in good stead to rise to positions from which they might possibly have been able to effect changes in the plight of their people.
They are thus condemned to lives as searching for nonexistent jobs as unskilled labour!
REFERENCES:
http://www.insular.com/~tmc/politics/africa/ogoni.fact.html
This contamination has had a negative effect on farming and fishing, which are the main traditional occupations of the inhabitants of the region. Farmland and rivers have been rendered waste as a result of contamination from oil spills from the pipelines which crisscross the whole area.
Wells and local streams which serve as sources of fresh water for the people of these areas have also become contaminated.
Reports also suggest that in some areas in the Niger Delta, the air itself is contaminated and inhaling this contaminated air is believed to be the source of many diseases experienced by locals.
A recent United Nations reported indicted a multinational oil company that is active in the Niger Delta of intentional negligence in the case of the oil spills in the area. The report further stated that it will take up to 25 years to clean up the area and revive the ecosystem that is dead!
Consequently, most of the residents of this area live in abject poverty despite the colossal income generated by the government from the petroleum resources extracted from the area.
They lack basic social infrastructure like good schools, hospitals, access roads, etc.
Apart from being deprived of their basic rights to a healthy environment, residents of this region are thus also deprived of their sources of livelihood and suffer a painful form of structural violence by being denied their basic rights to good education, health etc.
Over the years, some individuals of the region and local groups have started campaigns to protest these injustices, but instead of the authorities looking into their claims, they have been subject to direct physical violence in the form of arrests, executions and massive brutality in the hands of the military joint task force which is in charge of security in the region.
This oppression and the attendant injustices should be discussed in classrooms and students given an opportunity to understand that, while oil could be a major source of income to a country, the way and manner in which it is extracted, refined, and transported could have negative effects on the lives of local communities.
Among the issues that learners could be introduced to, are:
Relationship between oil extraction activities and environmental pollution;
Effects of environmental pollution on the economic lives of local communities;
Relationship between oil exploration and violence;
Relationship between oil exploration and illiteracy;
Relationship between oil exploration and personal health.
Guiding learners to become aware of the various environmental issues outlined above, will:
Make them aware of the need to strike a balance between economic prosperity and environmental sustainability in public policies.
Guide them to cultivate a motivation to take action to ensure the environment is protected.
Make them aware of the relationship between the activities of oil companies and social justice issues.
So, while the largest proportion the government’s income from export comes from this region, the inhabitants of this area face a disproportionate amount of discrimination and oppression.
By denying them good schools, the children from this region largely grow up uneducated and thus denied deprived the opportunity of acquiring quality education that could possibly have placed them in good stead to rise to positions from which they might possibly have been able to effect changes in the plight of their people.
They are thus condemned to lives as searching for nonexistent jobs as unskilled labour!
REFERENCES:
http://www.insular.com/~tmc/politics/africa/ogoni.fact.html
Relationship between Environmental Education and Social Justice - My Reflections
Upon reflection on the relationship between Environmental education and social justice, we’d see that the aim of Environmental education is to equip learners with knowledge and skills that will make them aware of their environment and its allied problems. Environmental problems have direct and sometimes indirect effects (positive or negative) on our daily lives, and in many cases, linked to derivations, discriminations and outright occurrences of violent conflicts!
In aiming to create a world population that is consciously aware of environmental issues, Environmental education strives to prevent, reduce, or where possible eliminate possible causes of social injustice in the society.
A society that is aware of the environmental consequences of industrialization on their lives for instance, will certainly make proactive efforts to ensure industrial growth and development plans are made with due consideration for possible environmental effects.
Apart from guiding people to be committed to taking proactive stances on issues, Environmental education, if properly implemented, will guide people to adopt Environmentally-friendly attitudes and values. By adopting a lifestyle that seeks to protect the environment, people will be indirectly protecting and promoting the rights of others to good environment.
Many conflicts across the globe are caused by environmental issues like resource control, environmental degradation and direct marginalization of indigenous people. Many forms of structural and direct physical violence are perpetuated as a result of these conflicts. With Environmental education, people will acquire the capacity to critically examine environmental issues and upon due reflection, seek for civil nonviolent methods of effecting transformation.
With a society that is consciously aware of their rights and responsibilities towards the environment, governments will also have to place top priority on environmental considerations when initiating and implementing various policies.
Environmental education strives at the equitable and sustainable usage of environmental resources the earth. Its efforts really help in ensuring social justice finds a place in the dictionary of world leaders.
In aiming to create a world population that is consciously aware of environmental issues, Environmental education strives to prevent, reduce, or where possible eliminate possible causes of social injustice in the society.
A society that is aware of the environmental consequences of industrialization on their lives for instance, will certainly make proactive efforts to ensure industrial growth and development plans are made with due consideration for possible environmental effects.
Apart from guiding people to be committed to taking proactive stances on issues, Environmental education, if properly implemented, will guide people to adopt Environmentally-friendly attitudes and values. By adopting a lifestyle that seeks to protect the environment, people will be indirectly protecting and promoting the rights of others to good environment.
Many conflicts across the globe are caused by environmental issues like resource control, environmental degradation and direct marginalization of indigenous people. Many forms of structural and direct physical violence are perpetuated as a result of these conflicts. With Environmental education, people will acquire the capacity to critically examine environmental issues and upon due reflection, seek for civil nonviolent methods of effecting transformation.
With a society that is consciously aware of their rights and responsibilities towards the environment, governments will also have to place top priority on environmental considerations when initiating and implementing various policies.
Environmental education strives at the equitable and sustainable usage of environmental resources the earth. Its efforts really help in ensuring social justice finds a place in the dictionary of world leaders.
KEY PRINCIPLES OF ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION
Like all of Peace education, Environmental education is education for, or/and about peace. On one hand, Environmental education aims at equipping with knowledge and skills that will lead to awareness and concern about the total environment and its associated problems. On the other hand, it also aims to guide learners, by virtue of the acquire skills and knowledge, to imbibe attitudes and values that will motivate them to become committed to work individually and collectively towards solution of identified current problems, and the prevention of the occurrence of new ones.
The first UN conference on environmental education in Tbilisi (1977) endorses some guiding principles for environmental education.
According to the Tbilisi Declaration, environmental education should:
Consider the environment in its totality—natural and built, technological and social (economic, political, cultural-historical, ethical, esthetic);
Be a continuous lifelong process, beginning at the preschool level and continuing through all formal and non-formal stages;
Be interdisciplinary in its approach, drawing on the specific content of each discipline in making possible a holistic and balanced perspective;
Examine major environmental issues from local, national, regional, and international points of view so that students receive insights into environmental conditions in other geographical areas;
Focus on current and potential environmental situations while taking into account the historical perspective;
Promote the value and necessity of local, national, and international cooperation in the prevention and solution of environmental problems;
Explicitly consider environmental aspects in plans for development and growth;
Enable learners to have a role in planning their learning experiences and provide an opportunity for making decisions and accepting their consequences;
Relate environmental sensitivity, knowledge, problem-solving skills, and values clarification to every age, but with special emphasis on environmental sensitivity to the learner's own community in early years;
Help learners discover the symptoms and real causes of environmental problems;
Emphasize the complexity of environmental problems and thus the need to develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills;
Utilize diverse learning environments and a broad array of educational approaches to teaching, learning about and from the environment with due stress on practical activities and first-hand experience.
The first UN conference on environmental education in Tbilisi (1977) endorses some guiding principles for environmental education.
According to the Tbilisi Declaration, environmental education should:
Consider the environment in its totality—natural and built, technological and social (economic, political, cultural-historical, ethical, esthetic);
Be a continuous lifelong process, beginning at the preschool level and continuing through all formal and non-formal stages;
Be interdisciplinary in its approach, drawing on the specific content of each discipline in making possible a holistic and balanced perspective;
Examine major environmental issues from local, national, regional, and international points of view so that students receive insights into environmental conditions in other geographical areas;
Focus on current and potential environmental situations while taking into account the historical perspective;
Promote the value and necessity of local, national, and international cooperation in the prevention and solution of environmental problems;
Explicitly consider environmental aspects in plans for development and growth;
Enable learners to have a role in planning their learning experiences and provide an opportunity for making decisions and accepting their consequences;
Relate environmental sensitivity, knowledge, problem-solving skills, and values clarification to every age, but with special emphasis on environmental sensitivity to the learner's own community in early years;
Help learners discover the symptoms and real causes of environmental problems;
Emphasize the complexity of environmental problems and thus the need to develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills;
Utilize diverse learning environments and a broad array of educational approaches to teaching, learning about and from the environment with due stress on practical activities and first-hand experience.
The Classroom as a Gender inclusive environment - My Reflections
I feel my perception of women, at both the personal and professional relationship levels, is that of equal partners who are as capable as I am. I know that just like I have my strengths and weaknesses, they also have theirs!
Upon deep reflection, I have arrived at the understanding that we are created complementary by nature. In any field of human endeavor, it is the combination of the unique strengths and outlooks of both sexes that could lead to the emergence of a successful complete whole.
With such a disposition, I see the students in my classes generally as human beings, each with his/her unique stories, intelligences and strengths which could be nourished to guide the individual student and the class as a whole to reach their potentials in their chosen fields.
Even in my professional relationships with female colleagues, I have realized that they are sometimes able to bring a refreshing different perspective to issues which, I must be sincere, I, as a man may not be aware of. We may be different, but I know we are equals who need one another to ensure a successful existence.
In diving students into groups at the beginning of the programme, it is my usual practice to ensure the groups, while created with the perceived intelligences as the primary consideration, are made up of both boys and girls. Such pairings/groupings allow the students to learn and work together in a cooperative manner. This in turn, allows them to cultivate a sense of mutual respect and understanding for one another.
By appreciating the qualities or capabilities of one another, they go through the programme seeing one another as equal partners.
Even in a conservative society like mine which is male dominated, the initial prejudices of looking down upon the girls, which the boys have grown up with, wears off after some time of learning and working with girls on group tasks and assignments.
Another good way of promoting gender equality in the classroom is assigning leadership roles to the girls when they are proven to be capable. This boosts their self-confidence and as time goes on, wins them the respect of the boys. A female group leader who is able to excellently coordinate the activities of her group is quickly accepted by the boys as an equal who is consulted in issues other than curricular activities.
In designing our learning materials, I usually consider the general interests, intelligences and emotional disposition of the various students. By ensuring there are parts of the learning activities that every student can relate to, regardless of sex, race or other differences, everyone is able to contribute to the discussions and assignments.
A more direct method could be to raise societal issues that border on gender inequality, and throw them up for general discussions during our free periods. Examples of such questions include:
There are more men than women in politics; would it make any difference if we had more women?
OR
Should there be any occupation that is strictly reserved for women?
Such questions would provoke deep reflections among the students and diverse opinions will certainly crop up, giving me an opportunity to learn more of the outlook of the students towards gender issues, and thus be able to guide the class clear long held prejudices borne out of misconceptions and false myths.
Upon deep reflection, I have arrived at the understanding that we are created complementary by nature. In any field of human endeavor, it is the combination of the unique strengths and outlooks of both sexes that could lead to the emergence of a successful complete whole.
With such a disposition, I see the students in my classes generally as human beings, each with his/her unique stories, intelligences and strengths which could be nourished to guide the individual student and the class as a whole to reach their potentials in their chosen fields.
Even in my professional relationships with female colleagues, I have realized that they are sometimes able to bring a refreshing different perspective to issues which, I must be sincere, I, as a man may not be aware of. We may be different, but I know we are equals who need one another to ensure a successful existence.
In diving students into groups at the beginning of the programme, it is my usual practice to ensure the groups, while created with the perceived intelligences as the primary consideration, are made up of both boys and girls. Such pairings/groupings allow the students to learn and work together in a cooperative manner. This in turn, allows them to cultivate a sense of mutual respect and understanding for one another.
By appreciating the qualities or capabilities of one another, they go through the programme seeing one another as equal partners.
Even in a conservative society like mine which is male dominated, the initial prejudices of looking down upon the girls, which the boys have grown up with, wears off after some time of learning and working with girls on group tasks and assignments.
Another good way of promoting gender equality in the classroom is assigning leadership roles to the girls when they are proven to be capable. This boosts their self-confidence and as time goes on, wins them the respect of the boys. A female group leader who is able to excellently coordinate the activities of her group is quickly accepted by the boys as an equal who is consulted in issues other than curricular activities.
In designing our learning materials, I usually consider the general interests, intelligences and emotional disposition of the various students. By ensuring there are parts of the learning activities that every student can relate to, regardless of sex, race or other differences, everyone is able to contribute to the discussions and assignments.
A more direct method could be to raise societal issues that border on gender inequality, and throw them up for general discussions during our free periods. Examples of such questions include:
There are more men than women in politics; would it make any difference if we had more women?
OR
Should there be any occupation that is strictly reserved for women?
Such questions would provoke deep reflections among the students and diverse opinions will certainly crop up, giving me an opportunity to learn more of the outlook of the students towards gender issues, and thus be able to guide the class clear long held prejudices borne out of misconceptions and false myths.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
