Teaching and learning about refugees: promoting community cohesion through the citizenship curriculu

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ITE session

• Teaching and learning about refugees promoting
  community cohesion through the citizenship
  curriculum

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To promote strategies and resources for
increasing pupils awareness of the experiences
of refugees.To provide practical ways of
developing participation and supporting community
cohesion. 
Aims
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You were asked to1. Acquaint yourselves with
the main findings of the DCSF Diversity and
Citizenship Curriculum Review 20072. Explore
Refugee Actions Refugee Awareness Project
InfoVault website to a) become aware of some
classroom materials that are available to
increase awareness of refugeesb) learn key
definitions.
Pre-session activity discussion feedback
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Some findings and proposals of the Citizenship
Curriculum Review (2007)

• Tenuous schools links with the community
• Discrimination and stereotypes
• Many teachers do not see the link between their
  subject and education for diversity
• The secondary curriculum for Citizenship
  Education should encourage societal and community
  cohesion through an understanding of shared
  values
• New curriculum element entitled 'Identity and
  Diversity Living Together in the UK'

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Activity 1

• Why learn about refugees in school?

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Why teach about refugees?

• Duties on Race Equality and Community Cohesion
• A safer place
• Young people's views
• Not easy to access accurate information
• Real opportunities for engaging young people in
  critical analysis
• Links with global citizenship issues at local,
  national and international levels

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Activity 2

• Definitions bingo!

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• A refugee is someone who has had to leave his or
  her country and who is afraid to return there
• owing to a well-founded fear of being
  persecuted for reasons of race, religion,
  nationality, membership of a particular social
  group or political opinion.
• (1951 Convention relating to the Status of
  Refugees)
• A person with refugee status is protected from
  being returned to their country of origin
• An asylum-seeker is a person who has left his or
  her country of origin, has applied for
  recognition as a refugee in another country and
  is awaiting a decision on his/her application

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• I went with my stepfather by bus and had to
  leave Mum behind. I still remember the war. I saw
  somebody killed and I remember that. We were
  afraid of being killed. Farukh
• After two months we settled own, but then we
  started to have other problems..children started
  to throw stones and call us names. Those two
  months of my life were terrible. Girl, aged 14
• There is so much ignorance that goes on whilst
  individuals make decisions and comments about
  refugees they seem to forget that we are human
  beings. Loan, 18

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Refugee movements

• Jewish refugees from Germany, Austria and
  Czechoslovakia 1933 -1939
• Polish refugees 1939 and post 1945
• Hungarians 1956 -1957
• Czech refugees1968
• Chileans 1974 - 1979
• Vietnamese 1979 - 1992
• From 1989 - 2002 asylum migration increased.
  Flows vary from year to year
• Since 2002 main countries of origin DR Congo,
  Iran, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Iraq, Sri Lanka,
  Somalia, Turkey, Afghanistan, Zimbabwe.

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World Refugee Survey 2008

• More than 14 million refugees in the world
• 1 million people fled their homelands in 2007
• Iraq is the source of most new refugees
• Almost two-thirds of all the worlds refugees are
  found in just two regions the Middle East and
  Africa
• The least developed countries in the world host
  the majority of the worlds refugees - over 90
  live in Africa, the Middle East, and South and
  Central Asia
• Under 4 of the worlds refugees live in Europe

www.refugees.org
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Refugees coming to the UK

• 24,000 asylum applications in 2007
• More than 80 fall since 2002
• Less than 5000 granted Refugee Status
• 3,000 applications from unaccompanied asylum
  seeker children
• Secondary refuge migration from other EU
  countries (eg. Somalis who have obtained
  citizenship in Germany, Netherlands and
  Scandinavia)
• Countries accounting for most applicants in 2007
  were, in order of greatest numbers, Afghanistan,
  Iran, China, Iraq, Eritrea, Zimbabwe, Somalia,
  Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Nigeria

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Curriculum links

• Learning about refugees links closely with
  National Curriculum Programmes of Study across
  many subject areas. For example in English,
  history, religious education, citizenship
  education and PSHE
• Studying refugees helps pupils to understand how
  they are linked to other nations

Key concept - Identities and diversity living
together in the UK
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KS3 and 4 Cross-curriculum dimensions

• Identity and cultural diversity
• Community participation
• Global dimension and sustainable development

http//curriculum.qca.org.uk/key-stages-3-and-4/cr
oss-curriculum-dimensions/index.aspx
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Rabbi Hugo Gryn (1930-1996)

• "I believe that how you are to people to whom
  you owe nothing is a signal. It is the critical
  signal that we give to our young and I hope and
  pray that is a test that we shall not fail."

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Assessed tasks linked to NC attainment targets
for Citizenship 

• What can children and young people do as a result
  of their learning?
• Important to develop assessed tasks, promoting
  activities that allow students, for example, to
  work collaboratively with others from the wider
  community to negotiate, plan and carry out action
  aimed at making a difference to the lives of
  others (Attainment target for citizenship Level
  5)

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Community Cohesion Teaching, learning and the
curriculum

• Helping children to understand others
• Value diversity
• Shared values
• Awareness of human rights
• Skills of participation and responsible action

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Activity 3 key issues and approaches

• Identify some common concerns you have about
  raising the issues of refugees in the classroom
  and wider school community
• Choose one concern or issue and, in your group,
  discuss possible approaches to resolve the
  concerns

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Strategies for teaching about refugees

• Developing knowledge understanding, empathy,
  legal/human rights, public discourse
• Games, quizzes, stories and testimony, role play
  and drama, literature, surveys and media projects
• Listening to refugee voices
• Celebrating famous refugees, those we have a debt
  to
• Using literature
• Using drama to assist the development of trust
  between young people, facilitate an honest
  engagement that promotes understanding and
  empathy and enable collaborative and
  communicative skills to be explicitly taught

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www.refugeeweek.org.uk
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• United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
  Teaching tools www.unhcr.org.uk/info/resources/tea
  chtools.html
• The Information Centre about Asylum and Refugees
  (ICAR) www.icar.org.uk
• Refugee Council Press myths and the facts
• www.refugeecouncil.org.uk/campaigning/takeaction/c
  ampaigners_pack
• Refugee Action Asylum in the media
• www.refugee-action.org.uk/news/asyluminthemedia.as
  px

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i-Kooch in Schools Bridge and Tunnel
productions

• Online teaching pack with drama approaches,
  guidance and activities

• www.bridgeandtunnelproductions.com/OurProjectsiKS.
  html

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Teaching controversial issues

• Collaborative strategies seek to gain the
  active co-operation of young people so as to
  engage them in genuine dialogue. For this to
  happen, they need to feel their own experiences
  are respected and their views listened to
  Education for Citizenship, Diversity and Race
  Equality A practical guide, The Citizenship
  Foundation, 2003
• Teaching controversial issues DEA Guidance
  for teachers exploring contentious world events
  with students
• www.citizenship-global.org.uk/controversial.ht
  ml

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A Global Dimension

• Global citizenship
• Conflict resolution
• Diversity
• Human rights

• Interdependence
• Social justice
• Sustainable development
• Values and perceptions

The challenge for anyone who cares about social
justice is making connections between the near
and the distant. Thats why our understanding of,
for example, how everyday objects embody labour
in another part of the world is important. Adam
Hochschild
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Nations and peoples are largely the stories they
feed themselves. If they tell themselves stories
that are lies, they will suffer the future
consequences of those lies. If they tell
themselves stories that face their own truths,
they will free their histories for future
flowerings Ben Okri
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DVD This is where I live - Runnymede Trust
www.runnymedetrust.org/projects/this-is-where-i-li
ve.htmlSlavery, racism and resistance a lesson
for citizenship. Video Art Postcards - Runnymede
and Manifesta www.runnymedetrust.org/projects/vid
eo-art-postcards.html BBC Learning Zone
Broadband www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone/schools/ for
Teaching notes downloads include Race Changing
attitudes
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Changes in public policy

• Rising levels of Islamophobia and demonisation of
  Muslims in media since 9/11 (2001) and 7/7 (2005)
• Moving debate away from racism and government
  policies that have embedded inequality and
  discrimination
• Implicit blaming of minority communities for not
  integrating
• New government led discourse of community
  cohesion
• Idea that nation needs a certain social glue
• Debates on Britishness
• Harder route to citizenship requirement of
  English language proficiency, oaths of
  allegiance, citizenship tests

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McPherson - 10 years on

• Ealing The monitoring Group has noticed a shift
  towards attacks on refugees
• Manchester The Council for Community Relations
  has seen evidence of a new wave of violence aimed
  at asylum seekers and migrant workers from
  Eastern Europe
• Tower Hamlets Church leader mentions increasing
  state harassment of irregular migrants. Now the
  issue is about what defines us as a country who
  is included and who is not.

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Five year strategy 2004

• Temporary leave for refugees
• Higher targets for removals
• Stronger border controls and electronic checks
• Finding ways to return unaccompanied asylum
  seeking children

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Detention

• Around 2,000 asylum seeker children detained each
  year
• Held in prison like conditions. Lack of proper
  play facilities education inadequate
• Research shows that children suffer emotional,
  physical and psychological harm
• Loss of appetite, infections, weight loss,
  listlessness, boredom, incontinence, difficult
  sleeping, fear and loneliness

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The resistance On the deportation frontline
The man jumped from two floors upthen they led
out his wife and her children. They were crying.
It was then I decided I was not going to stand by
anymore. Kingsway Estate resident, Glasgow

• In a Guardian Films report, Rachel Stevenson and
  Harriet Grant meet the people trying to prevent
  the deportation and forced destitution of refugees

See the film online www.guardian.co.uk/uk/video/20
08/jun/13/deportation.asylum.seekers
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What students at Lampton School say (see Positive
Press, Save the Children 2008)
Isnt it wonderful how there are so many
different races and so many different colours in
the worldif this world didnt have all of this
our lives would be pretty boring, not bright and
colourful like we have now. Why stereotype?
Why categorise? If you cant be yourself who can
you be?   I want people to be aware of who
people really are and not just what the media
says.   I want people to be more aware of how
racism affects people in the long term.
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QTS standards

• Q11 Know the assessment requirements and
  arrangements for the subjects/curriculum areas
  they are trained to teach.
• Q14 Have a secure knowledge and understanding of
  their subjects/curriculum areas and related
  pedagogy to enable them to teach effectively
  across the age and ability range for which they
  are trained.
• Q15 Know and understand the relevant statutory
  and non-statutory curricula and frameworks,
  including those provided through the National
  Strategies, for their subjects/curriculum areas,
  and other relevant initiatives applicable to the
  age and ability range for which they are trained.

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QTS standards

• Q19 Know how to make effective personalised
  provision for those they teach and how to take
  practical account of diversity and promote
  equality and inclusion in their teaching.
• Q25 (a) use a range of teaching strategies and
  resources taking practical account of diversity
  and promoting equality and inclusion.
• (b) build on prior knowledge, develop concepts
  and processes, enable learners to apply new
  knowledge, understanding and skills and meet
  learning objectives.

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Further activity planning a curriculum project

• Planning a project that raises awareness about
  refugees.
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• Involve young people from the start
• Use questions provided to help planning
• Consider a classroom or small group project or
  one across the whole school or wider community.
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• Some ideas
• Study of media coverage of asylum issues.
• Research leading to displays and campaigning
• A questionnaire to find out about attitudes
  towards certain groups.