Celebrating Similarities and Differneces

Context

This example comes from a primary school in London (UK) serving a multicultural, transient population, living in an area of deprivation. It can be used in humanities lessons (history, geography, religious education) or as part of a special week of activities like Refugee week, Black history week. It is best used at the beginning of a term when the teacher establishes a climate that celebrates pupils and their identities. This in turn creates a safe and familiar environment where pupils feel they have a common sense of belonging and each pupil is valued for being special in her/his own way. The activity is supported by the higher levels of Kohlberg’s stages of moral development at which pupils move from promoting interpersonal relationships and social contact to sharing and acknowledging universal principles.

Objectives

The aim of the lesson is to create a safe learning environment where all pupils, their cultures, religions and identities, are valued. This is achieved through sensitive and emotionally intelligent teacher-mediated learning, appropriate use of the voice, use of non-verbal cues, gestures and tone to enable all to feel included. The teacher’s capacity to be objective and non-judgmental is critical to make this activity effective. The sensitive classroom environment sets the tone for pupil talk and their development as thinkers. Religion and identity go hand in hand, and a safe environment allows pupils to engage in a reciprocative dialogue in which their own and others’ faith may be valued. The proverb “Our mind is like a parachute: it only works when it is open” is very important here. Skills of being a good listener are crucial to promote and demonstrate interest, celebration and unconditional empathy in being valued. This sets the basis of an understanding that religious education is about developing world views. RE allows the pupils the opportunity to see a wider world and investigate and experience it. Mutual boundaries of respect and confidentiality need to be set. It is important to avoid tokenism.

For pupils:

• To become confident about their own identity and uniqueness
• To recognise and value over time the diversity in their classroom
• To develop knowledge and understanding of the global diaspora and links with other countries
• To realise that faith and identity is not just a local phenomenon but occurs everywhere

Teaching strategies:

Pupils sit in a circle to be visible to one another and promote a sense of class identity.

Teaching is inclusive because the activities are accessible to pupils with special needs and disabilities. Use of modelling clay or plaster, photographs and displays means that language levels are not a barrier.

Collaborative learning is used in group work, encouraging and praising one another, guiding and supporting one another, with full participation so that dominance and passivity are reduced.

Parental, family and community participation is another strategy. This activity uses the pupil’s family and community, and helps them feel part of the school. This helps pupils to value them and their learning. It also creates partnerships and reduces tensions. One example of a Muslim parent who had been experiencing regular and tense interactions with the school over her two sons illustrates this. The parent, it was discovered, had completed a degree in Art and agreed to come into school to lead a competition in RE based on “Where is God?” This proved to be a positive and enriching experience not only for the pupils but for the parent and her relationship with the school. It also proved beneficial to the school’s relationship with the wider community, and helped to reduce stereotypical attitudes towards Muslims.

Partnership (if any):

This activity was instigated by the class teacher in the school, in cooperation with the teacher responsible for Ethnic Minority Achievement (EMA), who asked all other teachers to trial and incorporate activities at the beginning of the school year to celebrate pupils’ similarities and differences. It was left to teachers how they did that in order to promote teacher creativity.

Themes addressed:

• Making all feel included and valued
• Differences and similarities between people from different cultural and religious backgrounds

Target group/size of group:

A whole class of about 30 pupils, who may be aged between 5 and 7, with varying language and special educational needs

Persons involved:

The teacher, any support staff working with the teacher, the pupils, visitors such as parents and grandparents with their oral testimonies to faith and cultures.

Description of activity

First, there is the setting of the verbal and non-verbal cues to create the safe climate and environment in preparation for the rest of the activity. Pupils then go on to talk about our commonality and differences – being part of one class, in one area, region, country, involves links with other countries in different parts of the world. Seeing language and religion in a global context, eg not all Hindus come from India, they live in the UK, Caribbean, etc. They come from different backgrounds and practice differently.

Time needed for preparation and implementation:

One hour for preparation and about 1-2 hrs for implementation. This includes the introduction to the activity, varying oral testimonies from visitors, pupil dialogue then the actual activity work for display.

Instructions (unfolding of the activity):

• Pupils talk about their uniqueness; they use mirrors to observe features unique to them. They draw themselves.
• Pupils talk about their grandparents – where they come from. They listen to the stories of parents or grandparents visiting the class – where they grew up, the songs they sang, the people they were influenced by, etc. They then link themselves to parts of the UK and different parts of the world
• They are then plotted on to a display/map of the world.
• Pupils discuss how their families have come together in this place from different places, and realise what a diverse mixture produces the similarities of being together in one class. This is a cause of celebration

Teaching/pedagogical materials and equipment used:

Paper, drawing implements, mirrors, large map, tape to connect pictures to places on map

Appraisal

One of the most fundamental lessons derived from this activity was recognising and valuing the strength of diversity of various faiths, and diversity within each faith. This contributed significantly to learning about and from religion. The challenge for many non-specialist teachers of RE is lack of subject knowledge. However, the pupils to some extent can help overcome this as they share beliefs and experiences common to them in relation to their faith. This minimises the “all Muslims, Hindus or Christians believe …” but emphasises the individual; it marginalises stereotypes and labelling but personalises the pupils and their voices.

The activity was very valuable in raising the self-esteem of pupils and their awareness of the value of others. It led to a notable increase in their awareness of the wider world. Their skills of empathising with each other increased. The pupils enjoyed the lesson, both in thinking about themselves in their drawings and in plotting the variety of places where families came from. They asked questions about the different places and different practices explained by the visitors.

The ideas in this activity can be transferred to emphasise globalisation of religion and culture as well as variety of religion and culture locally. It will be applicable in different contexts or/and other national systems.

Advice:

The activity could be improved by bigger displays (see pictures), or by being tailored to the preference of the teacher by using different media, eg photographs, plasticine, etc.

The work aims to reduce or eliminate racist, cultural and religious prejudice, by empowering and valuing all pupils, not just the disadvantaged and vulnerable. The activity is not just multicultural but develops a collaborative approach where the community of pupils sets the scene for constructive discourse and valuing of diversity. An analogy with a flower may be helpful. The flower represents education. A flower’s quality becomes apparent when it has fragrance. The fragrance of education is its ‘hidden’ curriculum promoting respect and flourishing common to all humans. Education and intercultural valuing go together like a flower and its fragrance. Not only does the teacher have to achieve the highest standards of education for her pupils, but she has to educate them in relation to emotional intelligence, social codes, relationships, citizenship, tolerance and respect, whilst retaining identity and religion, in order to achieve this. The twin concepts of community and diversity, allowing for unity and difference, are vital for future citizens to live in harmony. The controversies, which are inherent in this, need to be turned into assets and opportunities.

Contact details:
Naina Parma
Earlham Primary School, Earlham Grove, Wood Green, London N22 5HJ
+44 208 888 2780
N108p@msn.com

Commentary

This is an easy-to-understand example that can be replicated wherever there is a opportunity to use visitors to the classroom, especially from different backgrounds. It focuses on one set of themes which makes it manageable in a short time. Potentially, this example can be turned into (or lead on to) another example that illustrates the use of visitors in inter-religious and intercultural education.