part b - activities,
methods and resources
activities, methods
and resources
I. Introduction
The activities in this part of
the pack have been written for anyone working with young
people (aged 14+) or adults in out of school or informal
educational activities on issues of equality, racism, xenophobia,
anti-semitism and intolerance.
This section is designed to be a flexible
resource for use in a wide range of contexts. For example,
you may be a youth worker, a group leader, seminar facilitator,
member of a church discussion group, teacher or adult education
tutor. You may work with the group on a regular basis or
only occasionally, you may work in a small local group or
with larger groups of people who do not know each other
well, for example at a seminar. Your group may be single
sexed or mixed, it may contain people of one culture, country
or religion, or many. Whatever your situation there are
guidelines to enable you to use and adapt the ideas and
activities to you own needs and to the needs of the people
in the group.
How to use the pack
The pack is designed to be as
flexible as possible and how you wish to use it is up to
you! Each activity could be used on its own, but we recommend
that you put two or more together as part of a programme
to explore the issues and take action.
Before you start we strongly recommend
that you look through the whole pack to gain an overall
picture of what's in it and what the possibilities for using
it are. Read through part A to get acquainted with the rationale
behind the exercises. In part A you will also find background
information about the issues which will help you answer
any questions which arise during discussions.
For convenience we have identified the
activities according to four themes that follow a sequential
educational process:
| G |
activities will help create a good group atmosphere
and reinforce communication skills and group dynamics.
|
| I |
activities which work with the images we have
of people from cultures, countries or social origins
different from our own. |
| M |
activities which explore the social, economic, cultural
or educational mechanisms that lie behind situations
of discrimination, refusal, exclusion and marginalisation. |
| A |
activities which encourage people to act to
bring about social change based on values of equality
and the acceptance of 'difference'. |
You may wish to plan to start
with some actives working with images, then move on to others
working on the mechanism of exclusion and then go on to
explore ways of taking action. However, once you get started,
and participants begin asking questions it might be more
appropriate to think of the activities as part of a web
which you can use in any order.
The aim has been to give a clear description
of each activity and ideas for what you might do next. It
must be emphasised that these are only guidelines and anyone
using the pack should feel free to adapt and use the material
to suit their own needs.
Whatever group you are working with it's
most likely that your starting point will be something that
is happening in your area or something that one of your
group members is interested in. You should use ideas in
the pack to help your members gain a better knowledge about
the issues and empathy towards the people involved. However,
understanding alone is not enough, it is important that
we work towards building an intercultural society where
diversity and difference are respected and the dignity of
the individual is celebrated and promoted. This element
of taking action is an important outcome of the activities
in the pack. Knowing about the issues is not enough; we
must try to be consistent also in our attitudes and actions.
In this respect intercultural education should be seen as
part of a wider education process around 'Education for
Citizenship' with emphasis on values such as solidarity,
tolerance, responsibility, courage and respect. It builds
on, and contributes to, experiences in Human Rights, Peace
and Global Education.
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