Intercultural Workshops
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Intercultural Workshops DLV 21 Deadline 31.05.2011 Language version EN-IT-PT Lifelong Learning Programme Comenius - CMP Grant Agreement No 2009-3903 001-001 Author: Prof. Sofia Gavriilidis Scientific Committee Member and WP6 Leader University of Thessaloniki, Greece The Part Three of this document has been done with the collaboration of all the participants in the Intercultural Workshop © for the whole P.IN.O.K.I.O. project: Fondazione Nazionale Carlo Collodi © for the present P.IN.O.K.I.O. project product: the partner/s that produced it (see Author as indicated in the document) Any document produced by the P.IN.O.K.I.O. project can be downloaded free of charge and by previously signing in for personal use and for personal study purpose only. It is strictly forbidden to copy, reproduce, translate, distribute it as a whole or in parts, even in a school environment or scientific/scholar environment for any purpose and use including commercial or work purposes without authorization. For authorization requests, please turn to the Fondazione Nazionale Carlo Collodi, [email protected]. "This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This document reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein." Intercultural Workshops EN Version 3 Contents I. Part one Preface or The value of narration in the life of the Intercultural Workshop 6 II. Part two Intercultural Workshop: doing together, learning together 1. Why an Intercultural Workshop? Brief Introduction 11 2. Objectives of the Intercultural Workshop 2.1. General objectives: key-skills 12 2.2. Specific objectives 12 3. Methodological proposals 3.1. The “project method” 13 3.2. Phases of the “project method” 13 3.3. “Project method” and Intercultural Workshops 14 4. Organisations of the Intercultural Workshop 15 5. Proposed activities 15 Bibliography 23 III. Part three 1. P.IN.O.K.I.O.'s testing activity in Italy, Portugal, Switzerland and United Kindom 28 2. Final Considerations 66 4 Part one 5 Preface or The value of narration in the life of the Intercultural Workshop Sofia Gavriilidis Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (GR) In his book Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature, which has caused a lot of discussion, Erich Auerbach contrasts two narrative modes: the one of the Odyssey and the other of the Bible, which represent, as he claims, the two basic styles of narration: the first one is characterized by the explicit statement, the clearness of monosemy and the restriction of human issues, while the second one by the projection of some parts and the obscurity of others, the evocativeness of the allusion, the polysemy, the need of interpretation. Alessandro Portelli (2009), on the occasion of this specific reasoning of Erich Auerbach, mentions in an article (which defends the value and reliability of oral sources in historiography) that there are two modes of “thinking”: the mode of Ancient Athens and the mode of Jerusalem. The mode of Ancient Athens, which has legated the method adopted, tried and brought out by the philosophers, means to make a logical reasoning, to clarify amphisemies. The mode of thinking of Jerusalem, which has legated the Bible, means narration of a story. Without underestimating documentation as a necessary process in the transfer of informative material, Portelli defends the value of narrating a story, not only as a source of information but as a parameter of the interpretation of this information too. In this way he invites us to think of narration as an action, not limited to information and reason, but open to new interpretations, capable of enveloping the information in the particular personal way of talking and feeling of everyone who takes part and interacts, meaning the narrator and the auditor or auditors, during the narration. Because narration is a way of communication and the auditor has an important role to play in its structure. Interaction between the narrator and the auditor is immediate and vivid. It assumes a unique personal 6 character that the specific actual conditions form. This is the reason why oral narration, or exchange of narrations, surpasses a text’s lecture. By the early 1960’s, but mostly through his recent work (1990; 1999; 2003), Jerome Bruner had set off narration, as a parameter of knowledge, thoughts and feelings, as a particular mode of thinking and argumenting, innate of the human nature. The narrative mode of thinking, which, as he points out (1990), occurs when the thought follows the mechanism of narration, coexists with the scientific, rationalistic though, but has a different function. Through scientific thought, which is necessary but not enough so that we understand the world, we explain issues and events, which we verify based on specific criteria and on “cause and effect” relationships. The narrative mode of thinking, or the narrative construal of reality, is consequently the way we structure our knowledge about the world and the human behaviour, the way of interpreting our experiences and of giving a meaning to them. In order that Bruner (1999) replies to the questioning: “what does it take to create a nurturing school culture that empowers the young effectively to use the resources and opportunities of the broader culture” he suggests the practice of “mutual learning cultures”. He claims that school environment is a place suitable “in consciousness raising about the possibilities of communal mental activity and as a means for acquiring knowledge and skill” because group activities are characterized by “mutual sharing of knowledge and ideas, mutual aid in mastering material, division of labor and exchange of roles”. In case that narrative either of a well-known story or of an experience is scheduled within the framework of “mutual learning cultures”, the narrator/pupil, apart from the content of the story, he communicates his thoughts, his vision or leaves some traces of his deepest feelings. He shares ideas and thoughts with his classmates, who complete in turn their images of human nature and study cultural codes through mental procedures. The vital importance of narration and its contribution, not only to the emotional and cognitive development of children, but to the development of intercultural conscience as well, result from various researches (Fox, 1993; Wells, 2009). Data indicate that combining storytelling with post-performance discussions enhanced pupils’ ability to clarify and examine their value systems and when they were presented with a variety of stories from disparate cultural texts, they began to examine their own biases and conceptions (Mello, 2001). Mingshui Cai (2002) mentions that, within the classroom, narrations having a common subject related to some issue of general interest can be juxtaposed (such as work or friendship) in order to conclude to the fact that the needs of all people in all societies are common. But this wouldn’t be enough. Differences should be discussed too. Because various universal issues pander, consciously or not, racist conceptions and that is where we have to focus, it is about these conceptions that we have to discuss. Cultural similarities can be considered as a means of connection with other cultures. Another interesting remark οf Mingshui Cai concerns the institution of “multicultural weeks or months” adopted by several schools in the USA. They are called the four F: food, festival, fashion, folklore. In his opinion, these holidays or 7 celebrations are characteristic of the superficial approach of multiculturalism within the classroom. He believes that the development of literature (and/or narration) has a greater dynamic in the broadening of the vision related to the culturally different. Events during multicultural weeks are pleasant, funny, festive, interesting and offer a lot of information, but they do not allow a deeper approach and a more essential understanding of diversity and everything that this results. On the contrary, he believes that folktales as well as some literature texts invented by authors in order to promote the intercultural conscience, are the most proper material on this purpose, provided that they are optimized within a chosen methodological framework, which sets the rules and the targets of narration, re narration and the activities framing them eventually. According to Jane Yolen (2000) tales are a perfect guide to the human soul because they treat eternal matters related to important issues of life, such as love, otherness, sincerity and honesty, friendship as well as problematic relationships with friends or family, death, loss, harsh punishment, threat. But also they constitute “safe” places of visit. In the Brothers Grimms’ tales, for example, the pattern of child abuse is frequent, as well as the neglecting and the abandonment by adult narrative figures (Zipes, 1995). This pattern may be an opportunity for discussion, to reveal the problematic nature of social relationships, to reconcile the children with stressful situations, to enable them to see others with more understanding and to highlight alternative ways of managing an offensive or intractable situation. In “The transactional self” of Jerome Bruner (1987) it is made clear that folk tales and stories, which serve as guidelines of behavior and thought in all civilizations, are not simple moral stories which show the right and wrong. They transmit to children some truths having sociological and anthropological dimension. They transmit also the message that some truths are common in every civilization, due to the fact that tales of various countries have common collective images, despite the cultural differences that might be registered in them. Besides, Italo Calvino (1988 [1983]), whose work comprises collections of folk tales too, claims that “there are things that only literature can give us, by means specific to it”. On the other hand, there are things that only narration of stories can give us, by means specific to it.