Learning From Everyday People: Teaching Your Students to do Cultural Research with the Garifuna of Central America and New Orleans - Thurs 3/10 4-8pm
The Garífuna culture was born in 1635 when Africans headed for slavery in the New World escaped from a Spanish shipwreck and began to mix with the Carib-Arawak inhabitants of the island of Saint Vincent. After a series of conflicts with the British they were exiled and landed on the shores of present day Honduras in 1797. This workshop will explore present day Garífuna in Central America and the large population of Garífuna in New Orleans. During this workshop, Prof. Donna Bonner will present strategies and techniques for teachers to increase their knowledge and understanding of ethnographies for use in the classroom. Prof. Carmen Rogers, Xavier University, will also present her research and findings of present Garífuna in New Orleans. The workshop will close with a panel of local Garífuna who will discuss their unique place in New Orleans and the World.
This event will take place in the Greenleaf Conference Room, 100A Jones Hall, Tulane University
posted by Erica Roggeveen @ 5:09 PM
7 comments
7 Comments:
On March 10, 2005 I attended the LARC workshop entitled Learning from Everyday People: Teaching Your Students to do Cultural Research with the Garifuna of Central America and New Orleans. Professor Bonner introduced ways to include multicultural education into the classroom and Professor Rogers from Xavier shared the results of a small study done here in New Orleans concerning the Garifuna people.
Professor Bonner's section of the presentation discussed reasons why a teacher should include comparative cultural analysis or ethnography into the classroom such as the idea that knowledge gained is the foundation for respect and knowledge gained regarding one's own culture leads to self-respect. She also spoke about ways to include ethnography into the classroom such as including cross-cultural materials across the curriculum, including works of literature from different cultures, and modeling culturally sensitive attitudes wihtin the classroom so the students have a good role model. Professor Roger's section of the presentation dealt with the results of her analysis of the Garifuna people who call New Orleans home. The Garifuna culture was created when Africans mixed with Carib-Arawak citizens. The Garifuna people were never put into slavery and many of them speak Spanish, as well as their own language, Garifuna. It was supposed that the Garifuna culture was slowly vanishing because the young generations were becoming more Americanized, however, it appears that the Garifuna culture is very much alive through their strong Catholic faith and Dugu practices.
I had never heard of the Garifuna people before and I was surprised to see how different they are from the African American culture. What I really enjoyed was watching how some of the young people were trying really hard to keep the culture alive by learning the language and being active in the traditions. The seminar made me more culturally aware of everyone's differences, as well as similarities. I was surprised by how strong these people believe in their heritage and how proud they are to be Garifuna.
After looking at the possible ways to impliment cultural study into the curriculum that was given to us as a part of our seminar booklet I really enjoyed the idea given in box 9, Recalling a Sense of Place. I believe this acitivity would be perfect for middle school students within an English class because it would include descriptive writing, practice with figurative language such as imagery, working to translate the five senses into words, and sharing a little bit of personal history of each student. One alteration I might do to this project would be to have the students write a mini essay and then locate all the different types of literary devices they used. This way they can practice their utilization of literary vocab and also display their creativity.
Reply to Brook's comment:
Great reflection on the experience, and good ways of bringing ethnography and cross-cultural materials into the classroom. You could enhance this in one of two ways - either by focusing on cultures with which your students identify, or by finding cultures, like the Garifuna, who are not usually thought of when we think of "people in Latin America," or "people in Asia," etc. The use of personal narratives of people from other cultures can also be incorporated, particularly if the students then write their own.
Great job!
On Thursday March 10th I attended a workshop with the Latin American Studies department at Tulane University titled “Learning from Everyday people.” The workshop combined 3 presentations and a panel discussion to highlight a group of people called the Garifuna and to use this group as an example of how cultural diversity can be brought into the classroom.
The first presenter used his anthropological/sociological experiences with this group as an introduction of who the Garifuna are. He used many slides with personal descriptions and stories to attract the audience in to his presentation. The introduction to the culture helped to peak my interest for the rest of the workshop. I had never heard of the Garifuna people before this. While I knew many people of darker skin are not necessarily “African American” I never really gave much passing thought to how they identified themselves.
The second presenter I think had the most impact on my specific area of interest. Her power point presentation discussed how to bring multicultural elements into the classroom. She highlighted the importance of knowledge leading to respect for yourself and other cultures. Adolescents are struggling to form their own identity. In a psychological perspective this is often the time when the will experience their first realization or encounter of their race in comparison to their peers. This is a great time to expand their new found cognitive abilities of perceiving the world in altruistic ways. I was particularly interested when the presenter highlighted the concept of culture as an element of everything. Finding self-respect is an important foundation for respecting others. A math class could easily use the local community as a cultural element to teach a subject of math. For fractions students could use local recipes that have never been recorded. Algebraic manipulation could be used with the planning of Mardi Gras, from floats to beads to costumes there are so many variables that could be manipulated. Architecture and shapes blanket the New Orleans community with originality that makes this city unique. The Mississippi river could be used in connection with science and math to look at erosion, the capacity of the levy, and even the effect it has on the economy. Culture can also be brought to even a more local level of the school or classroom. Students’ for classroom management purposes at the beginning of the year could be asked to geometrically and artistically develop a “symbol of the class” and what sort of culture they wish to establish.
Once the students are able to respect their own culture, math units can then go on to take a look at other cultures. Recipes for other areas could be used as mirror examples for comparison. Unique architecture that influences New Orleans buildings could be investigated. Music typically is an important and unique element to different cultures and this could be combined with a lesson in fractions to describe the differing types of beats. Math takes a culture and looks at the planning and development of the culture, many lessons can be created to analyze strengths and originalities of each culture.
The 3rd presenter talked about interesting information about the Garifuna people. She discussed her research of Garifuna in New Orleans. The panel discussion that followed expanded on the 3rd presenter’s information. The difficulty of developing an identity while part of a culture commonly overlooked was highlighted. Having students work on projects that investigate their roots and present them to the class, if they be Irish or Russian or Latin American, could create a sense of pride for the students and also introduce many unique cultures to the classroom.
Adolescents are at a unique time when developmental impairment from early childhood can still be remedied and new development establishes a strict foundation for adulthood. This is the prefect time to introduce culture as an element of education. Sparking interest now, during middle/high school years, will encourage continuing development through their lives.
reply to Miriam's comment:
I love the way you think of ways to integrate teaching about culture to math! Very creative ideas.
This post was originally done by Karlye Brennion:
I attended the Garifuna talk awhile back and found it to be interesting. I admit that I am not very aware of Latin American Studies and had no idea who the Garifuna were before going to the presentation. The presentation was very well organized and rich with information. As far as relating it to my classroom, I hope to teach in New Orleans so that could be one of the cultures I present. It was fascinating about their rituals and the language. I think it is important to expose children to various cultures because it enriches them as well as makes their own culture more meaningful.
I atttended the workshop on the Garifuna on March 10th and found it to be very interesting. I didn't know about the Garifuna people prior to attending the workshop, and I found their history and culture fascinating. I especially enjoyed the second speaker and what she had to say about incorporating culture into the classroom. She made many very good points about culture, including that we often overlook our own. I am in the elementary education program, and I think it will be important for my students to learn to appreciate their own culture and other cultures at a very young age. Incorporating culture into the classroom for younger children can be difficult; it can be a difficult concept for them to understand, and it's hard for a teacher to know what should be addressed and what should be left out of the classroom environment. The points that the speaker made about how to include culture in the curriculum were very beneficial; she reminded us to include different cultural material across the curriculum, to include novels and art made by people different from the students, and to pull out similarities as well as differences between our culture and other cultures.
My favorite part of the workshop, however, was the panel discussion with local Garifuna. I learned so much about their culture from listening to their stories and opinions, and I understood the respect and reverence they have for their culture, ancestors, and history. Not only did I learn about the Garifuna, but I was reminded to respect my own culture and history as well. Having a panel such as this with people from different backgrounds would be interesting and beneficial to students of all ages, including the elementary students that I will be working with. I really enjoyed the workshop.
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