Teaching for Understanding

Anti-bias in the post-September 11 classroom
A Teachers' Workshop
June 14 - 15, 2004

Educators for Social Responsibility (ESR) is a national organization founded in 1982 that aims to make teaching social responsibility a core practice in education so that young people develop the convictions and skills to shape a safe, sustainable, democratic, and just world.

Visit their website at: www.esrnational.org

 

The events of September 11 and its continuing aftermath have dramatically increased the need for teachers to have a deeper understanding of Arabs, Muslims, and South Asians, and to have new and more effective strategies and resources for teaching their students about these cultures and religions.

Educators for Social Responsibility is partnering with the Center for Middle Eastern Studies and Office of Resources for International and Area Studies at U. C. Berkeley to sponsor a two-day institute for middle and high school teachers that aims to address this need by equipping local educators with tools and strategies for understanding these communities and interrupting bias and discrimination in their schools and communities.

This institute will facilitate a process for participants to explore their own cultural background and personal experiences with prejudice and discrimination, as well as provide a historical context for how racism, ethnocentrism, religious prejudices, and other oppressions impact our understandings of current cultural dynamics. The second half of the training will be focused on providing teachers with concrete tools and strategies for deepening their students' understanding about Arabs, Muslims, and South Asians. The training also will include sharing best practices and effective strategies for interrupting bias in their schools. Finally, we will conclude the training by helping participants plan the best ways to implement these tools in their classrooms.

The institute will also feature a cultural event during the evening for teachers, families and other community members in order to encourage support for the goals of the training.

  • Where: University of California, Berkeley
  • When: June 14 -15, 2004

    • June 14 - 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM
    June 15 - 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM

    June 14 - 4:30 PM: Evening Cultural Program
    free and open to teachers and their friends and family but registration required 510-642-8208 or <cmes.berkeley.edu>

    Film screening of
    Silences du Palais     by Moufida Tlatli
    and sampling of Middle Eastern food.
  • Cost: $25 includes meals and curriculum materials
  • To Register (deadline June 1st):

    • Mail registration form (pdf) and application fee payable to "Educators for Social Responsibility" to:

    Michele Delattre at ORIAS
    University of California Berkeley
    2223 Fulton Street Rm 338 #2324
    Berkeley, CA 94720-2324
    orias@berkeley.edu

Sponsored by the Educators for Social Responsibility, Cambrige Massachusetts, and University of California at Berkeley Office of Resources for International and Area Studies (ORIAS) and Center for Middle Eastern Studies.

The workshop is open to all interested educators. Wheelchair Accessible.