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Massachusetts Restores Bilingual Education

Massachusetts’ Republican Governor Charlie Baker has signed the LOOK Bill into law which will allow the state’s schools to offer bilingual and dual-language education. According to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, there are more than 90,000 English language learners (ELLs) in Massachusetts.

The Massachusetts House and Senate earlier voted overwhelmingly to approve the LOOK Bill and endorse the Seal of Biliteracy. Under the bill, school districts can maintain current the immersion programming or choose an alternative that meets federal and state standards. The legislation expands the role of parental advisory councils and allows parents the flexibility to choose programs that best meet their child’s needs.

“After 10+ years working on this, we have legislation that will guarantee all students learning English will be taught in strong programs tailored to fit their needs,” House Ways and Means Chairman Jeffrey Sanchez, one of the bill’s longtime proponents, tweeted.

Since 2000, the number of English learning (EL) students has doubled to more than 90,204 students, or 9.5% of the student population, according to Democratic legislative leaders, who added that while “statewide graduation rates for students have risen over the past ten years, the achievement gap between EL students and their peers persists.”

The bill also requires better tracking of student performance and reviews of school programming, and directs the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to develop additional guidelines and supports for districts.

Spanish Speakers Rising by Five Million a Year

Don Quixote and Sancho Panza monument with Cervantes

Spain’s Instituto Cervantes has released its annual report on the Spanish language: El español en el mundo 2017, revealing that more than 572 million people speak Spanish worldwide, of which 477 million people are native speakers — five million more than last year — and that there will be more than 750 million Spanish speakers by the middle of the century.

Currently, 7.8% of the world’s population speak Spanish, and that figure looks set to remain the same until at least 2050, while the percentages of the world’s population that speak Chinese and English are both set to decline.

Now in its 20th edition, the annual guide is more than 250 pages and is divided into four sections, the first of which examines the current position of Spanish, and includes information about the language, like the fact that there are more than 21 million students of Spanish as a foreign language, the sue of Spanish on the web has grown 1,400% since 2000, and that Spain is the world’s third-largest exporter of books.

Entitled La iberoamericanización del español, the second section contains six articles on the influence of the Americas on Spanish written by Richard Bueno, the Cervantes’ academic director; Santiago Miralles, director general of the Casa de América; Jesús Andreu, director of the Fundación Carolina; Darío Villanueva, director of the Real Academia Española y President of the Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (ASALE); Alicia Mayer, director of the  Centro de Estudios Mexicanos (CEM) at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) in Spain; and Martín Gómez, delegate of the Instituto Caro y Cuervo (Colombia) in Spain.

The third section is dedicated to la difusión del español en la era de la digitalización, and the final chapter looks at the worldwide presence of the Cervantes Institute.  For the first time, a digital version is available in EPUB format. Visit www.cervantes.es for more information.

 

Making the Most of Europe

Students (and teachers) should take advantage of the many travel deals on offer to see as much as they can of this diverse continent

People planning to study in Europe should be sure to add some extra time to the trip so that they can experience more of the continent. Here are some tips:

Transatlantic Travel

Flying across the Atlantic is currently one of the best deals in travel. Apart from the well-known major airlines (particularly United and Virgin Atlantic), consider smaller budget carriers, like Norwegian Air and Wow (out of Iceland), which offer discount deals where the travel tax often tops the actual cost of the flight. These “no-frill” airlines charge extra for everything, but apart from the price, travelers might be able to get a stopover in a fascinating city like Reykjavik.

Discount Cards

Discounts for student and youth travelers are offered by thousands of museums, parks, and historical sites, as well as airlines, railways, hostels, and hotels.

Student IDs are widely recognized throughout Europe, opening up a huge range of discounts at hotels, restaurants, tours, and tourist attractions, but buying an International Student Identity Card (www.isic.org) helps holders actually get these discounts, and the organization provides guides so users know where to find these deals. Any full-time student over the age of twelve can get an International Student ID. If a traveler is not a registered student, the International Youth Travel Card, which offers similar perks, is available to anyone under age 26, student or not.

Organizations like STATravel.com and StudentUniverse.com offer massive discounts on flights, hotels, and tours to students traveling in groups of ten to twelve or more.

Air Travel within Europe

There are dozens of budget airlines on the continent that make city-hopping extremely affordable. Check out the many airlines offering super-cheap one-way European airfares. Ryanair and EasyJet have the extensive routes across the continent, but many major airlines also have their own budget subsidiaries, like British Airways’ Vueling. These carriers offer thousands of one-way flights between European destinations for less than $60 including tax. However, bear in mind that these airlines don’t offer “extras” like in-flight meals, free drinks, or prebooked seats, so pack some snacks and arrive early to get a good seat.

These budget airlines usually land at less-busy airports farther out from major cities, so make sure that there is affordable transport (coach or rail) into town, or the journey from the airport into the town center may end up costing more than the flight.

Also, prepare for delays and cancellations, and do not expect meal and hotel vouchers.

Baggage allowances are also very limited, with exorbitant charges for excess, so try to leave extra bags and sports equipment with friends if possible. Unfortunately, airport lockers are a thing of the past thanks to security concerns.

The easiest way to compare budget airlines for a given route is to use an aggregator, like Skyscanner or Adioso, which has an even wider range of search options.

Rail Travel

Travelers under the age of 25 are eligible for a decent 25% discount on Eurail (www.eurail.com) train passes. Eurail is a consortium of train companies covering most of Europe, and it offers one of the easiest, cheapest, and best ways to explore the continent. Most of the trains in Europe are modern and comfortable, and travel times are much shorter than comparable routes in the U.S.

The discount includes all Eurail passes, whether it is the Global Pass, the Four Country Select Pass, the Three Country Select Pass, or the Two Country Select Pass, as well as the many single-country Eurail passes.

There are two types of Eurail youth pass—the Global Pass and several multicountry passes. Multicountry passes allow travelers to take a Eurail train around two or more European countries and cost a bit more than buying a single European country train pass. They generally cost less than buying a separate Eurail ticket in six or more European countries, though.

Discounted tickets are also available on the Eurostar, the train passing under the English Channel between London and Paris or Brussels.

The Eurail Global Pass Youth is a flexible pass that offers great value. This is the pass for those who are not sure which countries they want to visit on their Europe trips and want to keep their options open.

The Eurail Selectpass Youth offers unlimited travel to any two to four countries out of 23 countries over the course of two months. Travel days do not have to be consecutive, and users can choose between five, six, eight, ten, or 15-day travel options, but the countries they choose to visit must border each other.

Eurail One Country Passes are available for the following countries/regions: Austria, Benelux, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Greece, the Greek Islands, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Scandinavia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, and Sweden. Prices start from €60 for a pass in Slovenia and go up to €175 for a pass encompassing Scandinavia.

Accommodation

A shared hostel room is a great way to save money and meet fellow travelers. Hostels are generally clean and safe (but it is always a good idea to check the reviews on sites like TripAdvisor, Hostels.com, or HostelWorld before booking). Nowadays, these are really nice places with lots of great people from all over the world. For a bed, it usually costs €20–29 a night depending on the European city in question. For that, travelers get cheap accommodation which is usually very centrally located and has long reception hours.

Another cheap accommodation option is to rent an apartment or room privately. This is probably the cheapest way of staying somewhere if one is traveling in a group, and it can work out much cheaper than a youth hostel. But it can come with some restrictions: if one is renting a section of a private house, then the reception is obviously not open 24 hours.

There are plenty of websites that connect people who have an apartment or spare room with potential renters, like Airbnb.com, but bear in mind that they do charge a 10%+ commission.

Renting from a local is not only good for the wallet; it also means travelers have someone to ask what to see and someone cool to talk to. There is often an understanding that the host and the guest cook meals from their own cultures on alternating nights. This is not mandatory but is always fun and interesting.

Couch-surfing is another option. International websites such as CouchSurfing and Airbnb connect budget-minded travelers with locals who are willing to lend their spare bedrooms (and couches) to travelers. These gracious hosts are usually a great resource for local insights.

Funding

Some student-oriented travel sites (including STATravel.com) offer scholarships to fund trips. But this is not the only way to pad otherwise-lacking funds. Applying to one of these programs could add a few hundred or several thousand dollars to the budget, but students will have to prove that their trips have educational merit. Other organizations—including the Smithsonian Institution, the Student Youth Travel Association, and National Geographic—also provide financial support to poor, ambitious voyagers-to-be.

The Amazing Case of El Biblioburro

Lori Langer de Ramirez uses the world language classroom to broaden students’ knowledge of geography and introduce concepts like social justice

Language study can open a student’s eyes to social issues around the world. In rural Colombia, teacher and child advocate Luis Soriano brings books to students who have little access to them.

Traveling to schools throughout La Magdalena with his donkey library, or El Biblioburro, Soriano exposes young students to literacy and a love of reading. Learning about this grassroots project, students of Spanish can explore geography, socioeconomic inequities, and history while participating in class projects to improve the lives of others.

Social Justice and teaching

Kids love to help. In my 25+ years of teaching Spanish, I have always found students to be fascinated by by real-world problems and compelled to come up with solutions that work. As educators, it is our job to curate valuable experiences for our students and provide opportunities for them to design, plan and execute solutions that are effective and needed. Children and young adults can do so much to make change in our world, and it is up to us to expose them to authentic issues in ways that compel them to take action. For this reason and others, I am convinced that teaching world languages through a social justice and problem-based lens can be both engaging and efficacious. It taps into the energies of our young people and their desire to make a positive impact on the world in which we all live.

The Story of the Biblioburro

Several years ago I learned about the work of Luis Soriano, a schoolteacher from La Gloria in the state of Magdalena in Colombia. Soriano was concerned about the lack of access to books and other school materials for many children in his region of the country. Believing that books and reading are the keys to developing a child’s creativity and essential for developing educated, thoughtful, successful adults, Soriano decided to do something about the problem. He enlisted the help of two donkeys, which he named Alfa and Beto, designed custom saddles to carry loads of books, and set out to bring these books to rural children. He soon became known as the Biblioburro and has since visited countless schools and children with his donkey library.

After years of working in obscurity, the international media has discovered Soriano and his work, and he has since been nominated for the CNN Heroes award, covered in a PBC POV documentary, and written about in the New York Times. There are two wonderful picturebooks written for children about the Biblioburro: Jeanette Winters’ Biblioburro: A True Story from Colombia (also available in a Spanish language version) and Waiting for the Biblioburro by Monica Brown. There are also a growing number of curricular materials – in English and in Spanish – that have been developed around this compelling story. With such a wealth of information, videos, storybooks, articles and photos, I began to think about ways to bring this story to my middle school Spanish students.

Personal connections

As the spouse of a Colombian and all around Colombia-phile, I am always on the lookout for ways to expose students to positive images and themes relating to this amazing country in South America. Too often Colombia is associated with negative topics, such as drugs or guerilla warfare. While these themes are indeed part of the country’s complicated history, they tend to obscure all of the positive elements of the country’s culture and history (like the fact that Colombia was, once again, named the “happiest country in the world” on the WIN/Gallup International Survey!) The media, always hungry for narratives that have shock value, tend not to tell the stories about the vibrant traditions, the vast natural resources of the country, or the country’s many popular icons and heroes. To counteract negative images such as those from shows like “Narcos” or films like “La Colombiana,” I endeavor to find ways to share the beauty of Colombia with my students.

On a family trip to Colombia one summer, my husband and I decided to try to connect with Profesor Soriano to explore the possibilities of designing a project for my seventh graders. We made a call to the Fundación Biblioburro to get a sense for the needs of the children and to discuss ways in which we might be able to offer support. Soriano and his now-growing group of volunteers had established a student work center and library in La Gloria and were in need of computers, office furniture, and of course, books. We shipped a laptop to the foundation and began to plan ways in which our students could collect funds to purchase books – in this way, our social justice project was born.

The Biblioburro Project

Back in New York, I designed a thematic unit for my students that would allow them to discover the work of El Biblioburro through watching videos, viewing photos, exploring maps, and reading short descriptions of Soriano’s work (see resources for a link to the thematic unit). In the middle school, students learned about the coastal region of Colombia where El Biblioburro operates and watched videos. Students designed their own poster, radio announcement, or video to educate the school community about this important work. In both the lower and middle school, we read the book by Jeanette Winter (El Biblioburro – Un cuento real de Colombia). Students were instantly fascinated by the idea of una biblioteca ambulante/a mobile library, and began to ask questions about ways in which they might help out. One activity involved small groups in brainstorming ways in which they could support the work and, given that bake sales are a ubiquitous part of our school culture, they decided that they could raise money to then buy and ship books to the Fundación.

In our three classes of seventh graders we raised a little over to $600. With the funds, colleagues and I visited a small mom-and-pop Spanish-language bookstore called Librería Barco de Papel in Jackson Heights, Queens. We purchased one book for each student in our classes and brought them back to our school. Each student chose a book and took it home to read. Not only was this exciting for students, but it was excellent interpretive reading practice for them. They were then asked to write a letter to a child in Colombia, which was their presentational writing work. We worked on these letters over the course of a week or so, with students peer editing the letters and making subsequent revisions. In the letter they included a greeting, an explanation about why they chose the book that they were sending, and a summary of their favorite part of the book. These letters were ultimately pasted into each book, the books were packed up, and finally shipped off to Colombia. When the books finally arrived at their destination, Profesor Soriano sent us several lovely photos with students holding up the books we had sent. Our students, needless to say, were excited and expressed feelings of accomplishment at the end of the project.

Conclusion

This project was neither innovative nor groundbreaking. It simply involved a heady mix of several important components for the development of an effective social justice-based curriculum: access to good sources of information in a variety of media, a compelling story with real-world issues and challenges, personal connections to the topic that made for even greater passion of participation, and students who are excited to make a difference.

Whatever the topic and whatever the need, designing learning opportunities for our students that involve them in solving problems is both a great way to foster proficiency growth in their language as well as strengthen critical thinking skills. Students will use their language not just to communicate, but also to make positive change in their world – helping to underscore the importance of being a multilingual citizen in our ever increasingly global world.

REFERENCES/RESOURCES

Resources: Social Justice and El Biblioburro for the Spanish Language Classroom (articles, links to videos, thematic units and other teaching materials): http://miscositas.com/biblioburro.html

Article: Ramirez, Tanisha Love, and Moreno, Carolina, “This Country Was Just Names The Happiest In The World, Again,” The Huffington Post, January 5, 2016. Accessed online at:

 https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/this-country-was-just-named-the-happiest-in-the-world-again_us_568c0ce4e4b0b958f65d1d7a 

Source for Spanish-language books: Librería Barco de Papel, Jackson Heights, Queens, NY: http://libreriabarcodepapelny.com/

Blog: Biblioburro sin fronteras – this blog is maintained by the Fundación Biblioburro and has a wealth of photos and information about Profesor Soriano’s work: http://biblioburrosinfronteras.blogspot.com.co/ 

Dr. Lori Langer de Ramirez is director, World and Classical Language Department and Global Language Initiatives, at The Dalton School, New York City.

Diverse Classes Boost Collaborative Skills for All

Exposure to diversity in the classroom tends to be associated with better collaboration skills., according to the first OECD PISA assessment of collaborative problem solving, and girls are much better than boys at working together to solve problems.

The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) collaborative problem solving assessment was given in 2015 and measured students’ ability to solve a problem by sharing the understanding and effort required to come to a solution, and pooling their knowledge, skills, and effort to reach that solution.

PISA is coordinated by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and conducted in the U.S. by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). The U.S. was one of 51 education systems participating in the PISA collaborative problem-solving assessment, along with two U.S. states—Massachusetts and North Carolina. About 125,000 15-year-olds took part in the test, which analyses for the first time how well students work together as a group, their attitudes towards collaboration, and the influence of factors such as gender, after-school activities, and social background.

U.S. students outperformed their peers around the world, on average, with 14% of students scoring at the highest level of proficiency, which may be a positive benefit of immigrant students. The report recommends that “students be encouraged to mingle with others from different backgrounds” and that: “One of the demographic factors related to the collaborative aspect of performance in this assessment is the concentration of immigrant students in a student’s school. Non-immigrant students tend to perform better in the collaboration-specific aspects of the assessment when they attend schools with a larger proportion of immigrant students. This result cannot be generalized to socio-economic diversity within schools, however. Education systems should investigate whether, in their own context, diversity and students’ contact with those who are different from them and who may hold different points of view can aid in developing collaboration skills.”

Another interesting finding is that “there is no clear relationship between socio-economic status and students’ ability to work productively with others…Likewise, there are no large differences between the collaborative skills of immigrant and non-immigrant students.”

“In a world that places a growing premium on social skills, education systems need to do much better at fostering those skills systematically across the school curriculum,” said OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría. “Parents and society at large must play their part too. It takes collaboration across a community to develop better skills for better lives.”

Students who have stronger reading or maths skills tend to be better at collaborative problem-solving because managing and interpreting information, and the ability to reason, are required to solve problems. The same is true across countries: top-performing countries in PISA, like Japan, Korea and Singapore in Asia, Estonia and Finland in Europe, and Canada in North America, also come out top in the collaborative problem-solving test.

However, students in the U.S., Australia, Japan, Korea, and New Zealand perform better in collaborative problem solving than would be expected based on their scores in science, reading and mathematics. But students in the four Chinese provinces that took part in PISA (Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu and Guangdong) do less well compared to their results in mathematics and science.

Girls do better than boys in every country and economy that took the test, by the equivalent of half a year’s schooling on average (29 points). On average, girls are 1.6 times more likely than boys to be top performers in collaborative problem solving, while boys are 1.6 times more likely than girls to be low achievers. This is in sharp contrast to the findings of the 2012 individual problem-solving test which found that boys performed better than girls.

Students who play sports generally have a more positive attitude towards collaboration. However, students who play video games outside of school score slightly lower in collaborative problem solving than students who do not play video games, on average. On the other hand, students who access the Internet or social networks outside of school score slightly higher than other students.

Pisa 2015 Results (Volume V) Collaborative Problem Solving, together with country analysis, summaries and data, is available at www.oecd.org/pisa.

When Literacy Gets Critical

Lina Sun provides a rationale for integrating peace education into the English curriculum through graphic novels

Graphic novels, which tell real and fictional stories using a combination of words and images, are often sophisticated and involve intriguing topics. In the past two decades, the graphic novel medium has been coming into its own. This medium has to be considered as “not the visual equivalent of prose narrative or a static version of a film,” but rather “their own thing: a medium with its own devices, its own innovators” (Wolk, 2007, p. 14). As such, as both narrative and cultural production, the medium of the graphic novel warrants our careful attention and critical analysis.

There has been an increasing interest in teaching with graphic novels to promote literacy (e.g., Gorman, 2003; Schwarz, 2002). A pedagogy of multiliteracies using graphic novels can enhance reading engagement and achievement, reinforcing students’ senses of their identities as readers who are learners and thinkers (Guthrie, 2004). However, there is scant mention of how such multimodal texts can be used for fostering students’ critical literacies and promoting peace education in the English Learner (EL) classroom.

This article provides a rationale for integrating peace education into the EL curriculum and examples of methodological approaches to helping post-secondary teachers use graphic novels as a powerful tool to cultivate students’ critical thinking abilities and a disposition for peace and democracy.

Graphic novels 

A graphic novel is an original book-length, fiction or nonfiction story produced in the style of a comic book (Chun, 2009). Here, I am concerned with original book-length stories in graphic novels, allowing creators to present longer complex narratives and mature themes, which is not possible with shorter comic books. Graphic novels provide ample opportunities for students of all ages—especially English learners—to interact with highly engaging, multimodal texts of numerous genres.

The use of graphic novels and comics to support language learning in the EL classroom is not a new concept. Using graphic novels in the classroom contextualizes the target language in ways that help students learn how to use language correctly. Wright (1979) argues that comics provide visual support for learners’ construction of meaning during reading, and suggested incorporating comics into writing activities with these students.

English learners often face formidable barriers in a written text without any accompanying visual context. Cary (2004) suggests that graphic novels as visually supported texts provide comprehensible input and lower the affective filter for second language readers. Moreover, within the context of an EL classroom, critical literacy is an important element in a student’s journey towards acquiring the academic literacy necessary for success in school (Cummins, 2001). Norton and Vanderheyden (2004) stated, “For learners struggling to understand academic texts in a second language, the comic book represents an exciting opportunity to engage with text from a position of strength rather than weakness” (p. 218). This statement is important in that it eschews the deficit model in favor of a perspective that values diversity and burgeoning bilingualism and biliteracy as strengths. Beyond the instructional considerations previously mentioned, the substantive content of certain graphic novels is particularly appropriate for EL learners. For example, works that center on themes of social inequalities and social justice, like Maus I and II (Spiegelman, 1973, 1986), Pride of Bagdad (Vaughan & Henrichon, 2006), and Pitch Black (Landowne & Horton, 2008). These works are accessible to even high-intermediate EL learners and can help them engage in critical discussions in ways that are not always possible with text-only content, due to their scaffolding of textual meanings through rich visual modes of representation. Thus, the teaching of critical literacy can take place while students develop literacy skills through their engagement with these texts.

A rationale for integrating peace 

education in EFL curriculum

In developing an integrative theory of peace education, Danesh (2006) observes that even today “most peoples of the world live with conflict-oriented worldviews, whether ethically, religiously, or environmentally based” (p. 239). Johnson and Johnson (2005) define the aim of peace education as helping individuals resolve conflicts without violence, and maintain harmonious relationships through providing them with the needed information, attitudes, values, and behavioral competences. Peace education also presumes that human beings “have an active propensity toward goodness and human cooperation and are inclined toward benign values and behavior” (Synott, 2005, p. 9).

Language learners throughout the world face enormous cultural transformations as old order changes and so-called developing nations increase their economic power and military might. These changes often cause reactionary responses to the new and uncertain conditions they bring, as seen in the inter-ethnic conflict in Serbia and the numerous civil wars in Africa and Asia. In the U. S., these conflicts are reflected in gang violence in cities and towns. However, peace education is not limited only to the topic of war and peace. Wenden (1991) states, “Comprehensive peace education is a response to the violence that pervades our relationships with one another and with the natural world.

It seeks to bring to light the values that underlie the social systems that maintain relationships of violence and to consider more cooperative alternatives” (p. 154). Harris (2004) reviewed the theoretical roots of peace education and classified it into five different types, which include international education, human rights education, development education, environmental education, and conflict resolution education. Opotow, Gerson, and Woodside (2005) defined four key areas of peace education:

Education for coexistence that stresses diversity education, tolerance, sharing, collaborating, and awareness of stereotypes.

Education for human rights that gives priority to learning about killing, genocide, rape, torture, violation resulting from racism, ethnicity, religion, or gender, as well as the study of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Education for gender equality that focuses on violence experienced by women and traditions.

Education for environmentalism that emphasizes environmentally protective attitudes, positions and behavior, learning about pollution, overuse of resources, and destruction.

Our students will need to be able to deal with these issues (racism, unjust distribution of wealth, prejudice, environmental degradation, war and conflict, etc) using strategies that require intercultural communication because these issues cross national boundaries and need international cooperation. They need to be aware of the cultural similarities/commonalities that draw us together as human beings. And, they need to be able to resolve conflict using cooperation and mutual respect. If real social change is going to take place for a more tolerant and peaceful world order, it will begin with helping young learners think critically about their world. I believe that peace education, a dynamic collaborative process by which the learners begin to take responsibility for dealing with the problems they face using the tools of cooperation, tolerance and communication, offers the learner the possibility of responding to the issues of survival and human enrichment. Peace education allows learners to make positive contributions not only to the local community but to the broader international community as well by promoting cross-cultural communication and understanding. It is for this reason that EL instructors have a critical role to play in promoting, organizing, and practicing peace education in classrooms.

A pedagogical approach to teaching about conflicts, wars and peace

Before any attempt at Peace Education, the instructor needs to prepare materials and plan objectives. The objectives should be flexible enough to meet the changing needs of the learners. Approaches can be matched to reflect student interest and time availability on the part of the instructor. The methodological approaches can be explored in Banks (1993) and Renner (1994).

Basically, the instructor can choose to add activities to the existing curriculum through a Contributions Approach in which an article is read, a video is watched, or a discussion game is used in connection with a holiday or event. For example, activities concerning human rights can be added to syllabus in December for Human Rights Day. This approach allows the instructor to show how individuals or groups have contributed or are contributing to our world and offers learners basic information in addition to references for follow-up. The Additive Approach is a little more complicated. Using the existing curriculum, the instructor prepares an addendum to it on a specific question or group of questions. These are included with the standard curriculum and do very little to change the overall approach in teaching. The Transformative Approach changes how syllabus is presented in the classroom.  Attention is paid to the content of course books from the points of view of direct and overt racism, sexism, cultural superiority, violence, and real-life skill development of conflict resolution, persuasion and consensus building. Finally, the most complicated model, but the richest in terms of student autonomy, is the Social Action Approach. In this approach, syllabus is completely designed by learner-instructor interaction. Students choose a group of questions they want to study. Then through independent study and application of language skills, they work at resolving the various aspects of the problems posed in each question. This requires a good deal of work on the part of the language instructor who must prepare a variety of activities, evaluate for content and language acquisition, provide resources and support for the students in their study, and be able to draw it all together in the end. The following is an example of mixed pedagogical approach to teaching about conflicts, wars and peace where the instructor encourages learner autonomy and independent learning.

Teaching and learning about conflicts and wars often means exploring complex—and sometimes frightening—challenges like nuclear weapons, atomic bombs, military action, disarmament, revolution, liberation movements, terrorism, and international relations. These subjects often emerge in the study of history and politics, where building understanding about peace and conflict is an important goal for many local and national communities. Although people disagree about whether war is inevitable, conflict is a fact of life. Many individuals and groups believe that schools are among the institutions that share a responsibility for helping citizens learn how to manage conflict so that people can live together peacefully—not only on a global scale, but in personal and classroom interactions. Literacy teachers should encourage students to develop the knowledge, understanding, skills, and attitudes that they need in order to create a better and more peaceful world.

Though global conflicts are often in the news, worldwide deaths from battle have actually decreased significantly since the 1950s, in part because major powers have not been at war for decades. New democracies are emerging, increased economic interdependence makes the costs of war much higher, and international institutions are playing important roles in negotiating peace agreements. A highly networked world is also expanding opportunities for learning, connecting, and exploring both our diversity and common humanity.

In spite of these hopeful trends, the number of armed conflicts within fragile states, regional upsurges in violence, and terrorism are all causes of concern. Armed conflicts can be caused by many factors, such as economic disparities, battles over resources, cultural disputes, or quests for political power. Conflict is most likely to occur in countries that do not have consistent government or open trade, that have high infant mortality rates, and where weapons are easily available. When armed conflicts come to an end and peace agreements are signed, the international community struggles to rebuild war-ravaged states, which often face weak economic and political systems, crime, violence and poverty. In some areas, armed conflict is a feature of everyday life; children are sometimes used as soldiers or may be victims of other war crimes.

Throughout the world, students moving towards adulthood will eventually grapple with complex, interconnected, 21st century challenges related to peace and conflict. Many issues will have overlapping local, national and global dimensions. Individuals, groups, nations and international organizations will need to work closely together in order to resolve them peacefully. “Leadership today means navigating a larger, more complex set of issues and more complicated relationships,” notes the World Economic Forum, yet it also provides “unique opportunities to develop collaborative solutions on a larger scale.”

“Peace” has no universally accepted definition. Traditionally, peace has been understood as the absence of war (also known as negative peace). The notion of positive peace has been increasingly linked with discussions about big ideas such as justice and equality. Themes related to conflict, war, peace and justice could often be found in religious texts and communities.

People have been asking questions about peace and conflict for a very long time. Sustained inquiry and critical reflection on questions like these help to develop citizens who can take responsible actions that can lead to a more peaceful world.

How can we manage our struggle to share finite resources?

How do we deal with feelings of aggression?

What knowledge, skills and attitudes are important for people who want to be able to contribute to making a better and more peaceful world?

How will we get along together?

What does it mean to have a “just war”?

How does global conflict affect the lives of children?

Can war be a legitimate way to pursue national interests?

Is military intervention justified to protect the innocent, for example, to prevent genocide?

Is war inevitable or is it an obsolete means for resolving conflict?

How do different cultures understand violence?

How are justice, peace, security and development related to one another?

What does peace in my community have to do with peace in the world?

How does conflict connect with resources and human development?

Why does politics sometimes end in war? How is war sometimes avoided?

Some ideas for teaching for peace

Education about peace is generally defined as learning about the institutions and processes that are needed to establish peace, such as human rights law and international treaties. Education for peace, on the other hand, focuses on teaching the skills, attitudes and values that will foster peace.

Here are some ideas for teaching for peace.

Explore ways to promote a “Culture of Peace” for your classroom (one resource to consider is UNESCO’s Declaration on a Culture of Peace). Learning communities can practice skills like these:

Active listening—focus fully on what other people are communicating, suspend judgment, ask questions, reflect on interactions;

Valuing commonalities—celebrate our common humanity, including shared needs for  sustenance and safety, but also needs for understanding, social connections, dignity and self-worth;

Fostering compassion—practice empathy and stand up for others in distress;

Appreciating diversity—reflect critically on personal and cultural perspectives, and those of others, in order to understand different beliefs, values, experiences, forms of expression and ways of knowing.

Take advantage of community resources that offer diverse linguistic and cultural perspectives.

Observe the International Day of Peace (21 September) or United Nations Day (24 October).

Use technology to connect and build relationships with people who share other values, attitudes, modes of behavior and ways of life.

Monitor world events and be sensitive to students’ perceptions and concerns about local and global conflict.

In a word, before beginning a peace education process, the instructor must have clear objectives in mind and be able to anticipate learner reactions.

The instructor’s role is to give the learners the tools needed to become self-directed learners, not only in the L2 but also in the broad idea of education. The instructor must also be open to compromise and change within classroom as the students’ ability to think critically is expanded. Learners must be given the opportunity to have a voice in planning curriculum and take an active role in the learning process.

Conclusion

The graphic novel is a relatively recent concept that is highly promising for engaging EL students in critical literacy. Using graphic novels for peace education in the context of the EL classroom is both effective and dynamic.

The format allows students to access the text in various ways beyond what the traditional linear format of print text can offer. It also encourages students to engage in both verbal and visual representations helping them gain deeper understanding.

The inherent ambiguity in the visual/text format of graphic novels opens up possibilities for multiple readings and interpretations of content. Furthermore, graphic novels offer EL learners the possibility to use the target language to communicate the needs of not only the local setting but engage in communication with the global community. It adds a dimension of social consciousness to the curriculum that allows for fostering critical thinking. Graphic novels can be an effective means to hone EL students’ critical literacy skills by integrating peace education into the curriculum.

References

Banks, J. A. (1993). Multicultural education: Issues and perspectives. Needham Heights,

MA: Allyn & Bacon.

Cary, S. (2004). Going graphic: Comics at work in the multilingual classroom. Portsmouth,

NH: Heinemann.

Chun, C. W. (2009). Critical literacies and graphic novels for English-language learners:

Teaching Maus. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 53(2), 144-153.

Cummins, J. (2001). Negotiating identities: Education for empowerment in a diverse society

(2nd ed.). Ontario: California Association of Bilingual Education.

Danesh, H. B. (2006). Toward an integrative theory of peace education. Journal of Peace

Education, 3(1), 55-78.

Gorman, M. (2003). Getting graphic! Using graphic novels to promote literacy with preteens and teens. Worthington, OH: Linworth.

Guthrie, J. T. (2004). Teaching for literacy engagement. Journal of Literacy Research, 36(1), 1-30.

Harris, I. M. (2004). Peace education theory. Journal of Peace Education, 1(1), 5-20.

Johnson, D. W., & Johnson, R. T. (2005). Essential components of peace education. Theory into Practice, 44(4), 280-292.

Norton, B., & Vanderheyden, K. (2004). Comic book culture and second language learners.

In B. Norton & K. Toohey (Eds.), Critical pedagogies and language learning (pp. 201-

221). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.

Opotow, S., Gerson, J., & Woodside, S. (2005). From moral exclusion to moral inclusion:

Theory for teaching peace. Theory into Practice, 44(4), 303-318.

Renner, C. E. (1994). Multicultural language learning: Applications in EFL curriculum

development. Perspectives, 2(1), 78-87.

Schwarz, G. E. (2002). Graphic novels for multiple literacies. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 46(3), 262-265.

Synott, J. (2005). Peace education as an educational paradigm: Review of a changing field using an old measure. Journal of Peace Education, 2(1), 3-16.

Wenden, A. (1991). Facilitating learning competence: Perspectives on an expanded role for second-language teachers. Canadian Modern Language Review, 41(6), 151-167.

Wolk, D. (2007). Reading comics: How graphic novels work and what they mean.

Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press.

Wright, G. (1979). The comic book: A forgotten medium in the classroom. The Reading

Teacher, 33(2), 158-161.

Key Thinkers in Peace Studies

Elise Boulding (1920-2010), American sociologist whose work focused on the role of family in establishing peace.

Johan Galtung (1930-), Norwegian sociologist whose sometimes controversial ideas about “structural violence” and human rights emphasize transforming conflict by peaceful means.

Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), German philosopher who set forth a number of conditions for establishing “a perpetual peace” including constitutional republics.

Desmond Tutu (1931-), South African activist and religious leader who campaigned against apartheid and championed racial reconciliation. His work has inspired global campaigns for human rights.

Using graphic novels to integrate peace education into critical EL curriculum 

Graphic novels like Maus, Barefoot Gen, Palestine, and Persepolis, which feature complex themes on war and its atrocities, current political development, and coming-of-age in a time of revolution, can mediate historical realities with their unique visual narrative styles. These image-text works represent an emerging way of representing social chaos and trauma, and do so in a number of innovative ways. Many EFL learners can imagine and interpret the characters’ experiences that are far removed from their own daily lives. These multimodal texts can be integrated into a critical EFL curriculum for peace education.

For example, the EFL students are able to better understand the horrors of the atomic bomb through the harrowing experiences of the main character in Barefoot Gen, partly because of the artist’s stylization and an authentic narrative about an unimaginable nuclear war. This phenomenon has important implications for students’ engagement with reading graphic novels featuring complex themes because reader “ownership over meaning making is clearly one of the appealing facets of comic book reading” (Norton & Vanderheyden, 2004, p. 211). The following is an example of how teachers can employ a critical multiliteracies approach using Barefoot Gen in the post-secondary EFL classroom for peace education.

Japanese graphic novels, or manga, have certain features that facilitate their use in class, namely their widespread appeal, high artistic quality and ever-increasingly availability in English. Barefoot Gen raises issues of conscience, ethics, civic responsibility, religions, and cultural biases and differences. This particular text is chosen because of its affordability, the seriousness with which it treats the topic, and the opportunities for classroom discussion it provides. Barefoot Gen series is a ten-volume graphic novel that tells the story of a young boy who survives the atomic bombing in war-torn Hiroshima and the immediate aftermath. It is considered one of the most important anti-war manga ever written, with a message of the urgency of compassion and civic responsibility and the strength of hope. Originally this series was published as a serialized comic in a Japanese boy’s manga magazine. It has been translated into more than ten languages throughout the world. The story is closely based on the early life experiences of the author, Keiji Nakazawa, who lived with his family in Hiroshima and experienced the bombing first hand. In the lengthy autobiographical series of Barefoot Gen, Nakazawa created many sub-narratives that showed how domestic Japanese life was affected by militarism, radiation sickness and the U. S. occupation.

This controversial novel raises quite a few concerns as to its anti-war theme. On one hand, Barefoot Gen was once removed from Matsue City school libraries in Japan because it was considered an “ultra-leftist” manga that perpetuated lies and instilled defeatist ideology in the minds of young Japanese. Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Minister Hakubun Shimomura supported the decision, explaining that the manga was harmful to youth with its depictions of violence and chaos in Japan in the 1940-50’s. After tremendous outcry, the Barefoot Gen ban has been overturned. On the other hand, Barefoot Gen relays an informed accounting of Japan’s role in Word War II and is a strong anti-war piece that cannot and should not be silenced. Nakazawa relates a poignant geopolitical perspective of the war, discussing the power of political machines, “divine rule” versus democracy, and the power individual citizens must exercise to secure their rights and uphold their values.

The powerful and unassuming series portrays a large, traditional but complicated Japanese family consisting of a pacifist father, a mother who is nine months pregnant caring for her preschool aged son at home, an older brother that has enlisted in the military to prevent his family from being targeted as “unpatriotic traitors,” another young son who has been evacuated to the countryside (where he faces starvation), and a sister trying to maintain some sense of normalcy by attending grammar school. In Volume One, the story begins in Hiroshima, early August 1945. It establishes the main characters and relays the causes and horrors of the war. We meet Gen, his family friends, and neighbors, and through their interactions, we learn the Emperor’s rationale for war. We also witness the blind support most Japanese showed and their cruel attempts to silence alternate political and social opinions.

Gen’s father, Daikichi is critical of the war and labeled a traitor by their community. His children are beaten and shunned by peers and teachers, Daikichi is jailed and tortured, and merchants refuse to sell them the limited resources and food available. A short time later, the atomic bomb is dropped, we see the nightmarish hell it brought. Victims’ flesh is burned and hanging from their bodies, others are trapped under homes or running from fires, many are maimed and/or dying. The remainder of Volume One reveals how Gen and others find the means and courage to deal with the pain and shame of surviving. The remaining volumes relate life in the aftermath of the war through the eyes of Gen, his family, orphaned friends, and other survivors whose paths cross Gen’s.

Teaching social issues and civic responsibilities

Over the course of the ten volumes, Nakazawa details the bomb’s aftermath from a cultural, political, and humanistic perspective. We learn why Japan went to war and how China and Korea were stripped of their natural and human resources, including the enslavement of those captured. We see that while most Japanese blindly supported the Emperor’s “divine right” and rule, a growing number of people began to question and resist it. We learn the long-term effects of the bomb: limited/contaminated food and water, homelessness, orphans, radiation poisoning and medical/health issues that doctors were equipped to handle, rampant crime, misuse and abuse of drugs and medications, and the crumbling of law and order.

We also witness Japanese social and political reactions after the bombs: burned, sick, and disfigured survivors were ostracized; writing about the atomic bomb was forbidden for many years; the different political parties and the National Police Reserve was used as a strong military arm to keep citizens in check; the rationale and politics of the Korean War; and why America’s role in the war threatened Japan.

Lina Sun received a PhD in Curriculum & Instruction from Saint Louise University, MO, USA. She is currently working and researching at the School of Foreign Languages, China University of Petroleum, Beijing, China. This study is funded by the Science Foundation of CUP (Bejing, 2462015YJRC006) and special research foundation of China English Reading Academy “Reading and Cultural Awareness” (CERA1351108).

Arabic Honor Society

Qatar Foundation International (QFI) has launched the Arabic Honor Society (AHS) to recognize top-performing high school students studying Arabic language and Arab culture.

Benefits of the AHS will include:

Exclusive awards that support summer study, study abroad, and college tuition;

Information about higher education opportunities to continue Arabic study past the secondary level;

An updated list of relevant scholarships and grants;

Yearly contests and events to connect students and keep them engaged.

Induction into AHS also provides students with the possibility of financial assistance and travel opportunities, as well as university and career guidance after high school graduation.

“Like French, Spanish, Latin, and Chinese language students, Arabic language students will now have access to exclusive opportunities for advanced study in recognition of their outstanding academic achievement,” said Maggie Mitchell Salem, executive director of QFI.

Honor societies are an important addition to high schools, providing a pathway for exceptional students to flourish through community engagement and leadership opportunities. Creating an Arabic honor society was a natural next step for QFI. Formed in 2009, they create engaged global citizens by expanding the study of Arabic language and culture in public and public charter schools in the Americas.

The Arabic Honor Society has the following experts on its advisory board: Martha Cutts, former head of school at Washington Latin Public Charter School; Mahmoud Al-Batal, program director of the Center for Arab and Middle Eastern Studies at American University in Beirut; Georges Chahwan, head of the Arabic section at Choate Rosemary Hall and chair of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages’ (ACTFL) Arabic special interest group; Wafa Hassan, Arabic Department director of Global Educational Excellence Charter Schools and president of the National Council of Less Commonly Taught Languages (NCOLCTL); R. Kirk Belnap, professor of Arabic at Brigham Young University; Layla Bahar Al-Aloom, educational consultant and membership chair of the Southern California Arabic Language Teachers’ Council (SCALTC); and Maggie Mitchell Salem, executive director of Qatar Foundation International.

Become a Spanish Student Ambassador

Students can now apply to be the representative of Spain and the campaign Study in Spain (SiS) in their university for the next round of the Student Ambassador Program.

The program aims to strengthen relations and the image of Spain in higher learning institutions across the U.S. through various promotional activities conducted by the SiS Student Ambassadors in their universities, directed toward promoting Spain as a destination for study abroad programs.

Requirements:

Attend a university or college in the U.S.

Have studied in Spain or have a good knowledge of Spain

Be committed to the program for at least seven months during the year

Incentives:
The SiS Student Ambassadors receive:

Free materials, allowance, and expenses compensation for their activities

Official diplomas issued by the Spanish Embassy

The chance to participate in the award ceremony

The chance to win a one-week trip to Spain for the most active Student Ambassador of the year

Contact the program coordinator at the Spanish Embassy–Trade Commission in Miami for more information: [email protected].

The Right to Multiple Identities

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Editorial by Dan Ward

The constitutional crisis in Spain’s autonomous region of Cataluña highlights the new reality of identification in our globalized world. Although many Catalans consider themselves to be both Catalan and Spanish, speak both languages, and enjoy customs of both cultures, they are being forced by intransigent politicians to choose between them, as if one precludes the other.

Of course, many Catalans are fervently nationalistic and will not be satisfied until they are independent from Spain, but Barcelona’s mayor Ada Colau claims independence is not supported by the majority of Catalans, and, as recently as July of this year, opinion polls suggested that the majority of the region’s residents did not support independence.

A significant factor in swaying opinion on the issue is membership of the European Union (EU). Whether or not they see themselves as Spanish, nearly all Catalans identify as Europeans and want to be part of the EU. However, an independent Cataluña would be refused EU membership based on Spain’s objection.

Parallels can be drawn between the decisions being made there and last year’s Brexit vote in the UK which is continuing to be contested by the many Brits who want to be British and European. And similar situations are apparent worldwide when people are required to compartmentalize themselves.

Here in the U.S., people are often compartmentalized based on race, language, creed, sexual orientation, or religion, but the reality is that most of us have many identities that defy us being placed in one particular box.  Standing up for black rights by kneeling down during the national anthem does not make you less American, nor does speaking a language other than English. By the same token, worshipping Jesus, Allah, or Buddha need not conflict with allegiance to a secular country or a state.

Identifying with the heritage of your ancestors is compatible with a pragmatic approach to modern-day life, and it adds to its richness. Preserving their language and customs as your own complements your personality as an American.

In a similar way to bilinguals improving communication through their ability to switch between languages, recognizing the multitude of identities present within an individual is the route to understanding that person.

It’s likely that the crisis in Spain could have been averted if the central government would have been more amenable to the desire for increased decentralization of power. However, the heavy-handed reaction by Madrid has led to a more entrenched position. The lesson to be learned from this is that we need to accept multiple identities to avoid conflict.

In our quest to simplify, we tend to compartmentalize people and highlight the divisions between them rather than appreciate the differences. People are too complex to be classified so simply, so we need to take the time to recognize that they are composed of a myriad of identities, some of which may complement, and some of which may conflict, with our own, but the sum of which make them fascinating.

Bipartisan Bill Seeks to Boost Study Abroad

Congresswoman Cheri Bustos (D-IL) and Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) have introduced the latest incarnation of the bipartisan Senator Paul Simon Study Abroad Program Act. This bill would establish a competitive grant program, run by the Department of Education, for colleges and universities to expand study abroad opportunities for undergraduate students. It, like previous versions, is named after the late Illinois Senator, Paul Simon, who encouraged Congress to come together and prepare the next generation of Americans with the global knowledge and skills needed in an increasingly interconnected world.

Click here to see Congresswoman Bustos speak on the floor about the bill

“Senator Paul Simon dedicated his life to improving the lives of hardworking Illinoisans and creating new opportunities for our young people, and I’m proud to honor his legacy of service by introducing the Paul Simon Study Abroad Program Act,” Congresswoman Bustos said. “Since Paul Simon’s time in public life, study abroad programs have become even more important tools for colleges and universities to prepare students to succeed in our connected world. This bill will help our next generation of leaders to learn how to operate in our modern global society. Paul Simon was an important person in my life and I work hard every day to uphold his tradition of bipartisan leadership, so I am very proud to introduce this legislation with my friend, Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen.”

 Click here to see Congresswoman Ros-Lehtinen speak on the floor about the bill

 “We live in an increasingly globalized world and as a former Florida certified teacher, I know that education is the key to success,” Congresswoman Ros-Lehtinen said. “In today’s interconnected world, students must gain foreign language skills and the ability to learn from other cultures. Study abroad programs are an excellent way to learn these essential skills. However, the ability to study abroad remains just a dream for rural, minority, and first-generation college students. Cheri Bustos and I filed this bill to address this problem by establishing a competitive grant program that will allow universities to provide low-income and other underrepresented undergraduates with the means to be able to study abroad…Only by learning about different parts of our world can our nation’s future leaders effectively engage with a wide variety of people and situations that will prepare them to thrive in an interconnected economy.”

“The Senator Paul Simon Study Abroad Program Act is, at its core, a jobs bill. Its implementation would ensure our nation is prepared to compete in a globalized economy and solve international challenges that know no borders,” stated Esther D. Brimmer, executive director and CEO of NAFSA: Association of International Educators. “We need more graduates who speak a second language, who understand other cultures and who are comfortable living and working in a global setting. One of the best ways for students to gain these skills is by studying abroad. It is no longer a ‘nice-to-have’ for a subset of college students but should be an essential component of a quality higher education. We applaud Representatives Ros-Lehtinen and Bustos for taking the lead on this vital piece of legislation and urge Congress to quickly move it through to a vote.”

Created from recommendations put forth by the Commission on the Abraham Lincoln Study Abroad Fellowship Program and the vision of the late Senator Paul Simon, the legislation aims to:

  • Increase the overall number of undergraduate students studying abroad annually to one million within ten years;
  • Increase the number of nontraditional and minority students studying abroad so that the demographics of study abroad participation reflect the demographics of the undergraduate population; and
  • Increase the number of students who study abroad in nontraditional destinations, with an emphasis on study abroad in developing countries.

This bill is supported by Language Magazine, the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, NAFSA: Association of International Educators, Partners of the Americas, the American Council on Education, the American Association of Community Colleges, the Forum on Education Abroad, the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities, the Association of American Universities, the Fund for Education Abroad, and the American Councils for International Education.

Bipartisan companion legislation, S. 601, has been introduced in the Senate by Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Roger Wicker (R-MS).

 

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