Workshops AGAINST RACISM
edited by Anna Kucharska
Table of Contents
3 Introduction Anna Kucharska 5
Similarities above Differences. “Opener” Workshop Framework
Anna Kucharska, Margaret Amaka Ohia
and Diversity. “Opener” Workshop Framework 7 Equality Hilary Orpin, Andrew Carpenter, with help of Przemysław Witkowski – It Does Not Hurt! “Opener” Workshop Framework 9 Diversity Sebastian Górski, with help of Kimberley Dixson, Emma Randall, Oluwa Kemi Bamuyi
Corners of the World. “Opener” Workshop Framework 16 Four Marc Leckie, Ewa Sidorenko, Paulina Kida, Monika Kaczmarek
18 Ten Commandments. Policies for Local Authorities
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Opener – youth workers against racism
Introduction Anna Kucharska
From 8th to 14th November 2014 – as the Association of Critical Education along with youth workers from Charlton Athletic Community Trust (UK), students and lecturers form Greenwich University – we were thinking how to minimise racism among the young generation. Attitudes of being open and tolerant are not something one can acquire in a short time. The process of their formation should start in the early years, when what appears in our reality becomes a part of it; is no longer alien, becomes familiar. Multicultural education is a way to build society on respect for freedom and dignity of others, regardless of their race, ethnicity, nationality or confession. For us, it is the starting point of social actions, which build bridges. We do not pretend that there are no differences, but we try to turn them into something that enriches us as European society. We think that the only possibility of real openness for otherness is in meeting and getting to know one another. That is why we believe in change rooted in Multicultural Education. Using our experience with youth work, we learned about issues connected to discrimination and racism in Poland and United Kingdom. It was an amazing time of broadening horizons. Our aim was to exchange experiences in the area of racism prevention, especially among sport fans and youth. Together we were getting to know the context of racism in UK and in Poland – to give universal tools, examined in our everyday work with youth groups. If you are a youth worker, teacher, educator, etc. we want to give you good, simple tool, which you can use in your work, which will be
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helpful in teaching about differences in a way that affirms them. In this brochure, you will find four workshop plans, which are build around the topic of tolerance and understanding. It is not a complete educational program, it is more of an inspiration to develop your own scenarios based on our propositions. We hope this material will be helpful and if we can change only that little, we will not hesitate to do it.
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Similarities above Differences “Opener” Workshop Framework
Anna Kucharska, Margaret Amaka Ohia
TOPIC Similarities above Differences
AGE GROUP 7–13 years old
NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS Maximum 20, in small groups of 3–4 people
DURATION 45 minutes
AIMS/OBJECTIVES ➤➤ Help children recognize differences among ethnicities, name their
linguistic associations and prejudices. ➤➤ Enhance understanding of feelings and cognitive representations people have while facing otherness. ➤➤ Shift focus from differences to similarities.
PREPARATION ➤➤ Pictures, billboard photos, leaflets, advertisements, pictures from
books etc. showing representatives of different ethnicities.
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➤➤ Paper, ➤➤ Big sheets of paper, ➤➤ Crayons.
SCHEDULE ➤➤ Divide group into small working groups. ➤➤ Ask children to pick one picture from what you prepared. ➤➤ When groups gather together around the picture, ask them first ➤➤ ➤➤
➤➤ ➤➤ ➤➤
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question: “What do you see in the picture?” and tell to write down as much as they can. Then ask second question: “What do you feel when looking at the picture?” and also tell them to write down their answers. Say few words to sum up this part – seeing otherness may cause fear but also curiosity; may make you smile or make you sad; we usually see differences first, because that is how we identify ourselves – through comparison. Next task is to find all possible similarities group can see between them and person/group in the picture. Sum up – similarities are not so obvious, but when you think for a moment you’ll find that there are much more of them than differences. Last part is making a poster of a person. To do this, one person needs to lay down on a big sheet of paper so others can draw around him/ her. Now they draw everything they found is similar between them and ethnicity they chose. Then ask to include a thing that represents them and one thing that represents ethnicity or particular person on the picture. Put the posters on the wall. Let children tell others what they learned during this workshop.
Opener – youth workers against racism
Equality and Diversity
“Opener” Workshop Framework Hilary Orpin, Andrew Carpenter, with help of Przemysław Witkowski
TOPIC Equality and Diversity
AGE GROUP 12–15 years old
NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS 25–30
DURATION 45 minutes with 45 minute extension
AIMS/OBJECTIVES ➤➤ Support young people in identifying positive differences amongst
their peers.
➤➤ Encourage cohesion and cooperation within the group. ➤➤ Demonstrate that differences are positive and strengthen commu-
nities.
RESOURCES Multi-coloured post-it notes, paper and pens.
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SCHEDULE ➤➤ Give three post-it notes to each young person in the group. ➤➤ Have them write one positive word that describes young people in
their community (5 minutes).
➤➤ Have the young people stick the post-it notes in a random order on
the wall at the front of the class/room, reading them aloud as they go (5 minutes). ➤➤ Young people then select five words (not their own), which they can use to write a sentence about themselves (10 minutes). ➤➤ Now separate the young people into groups of five to firstly share their sentences before developing one that can be used to describe the whole group. The facilitator should try to ensure each group’s sentence is representative of all young people (20 minutes).
EXTENSION ➤➤ Each group in turn feeds back to their peers the sentence that they
have developed to describe their whole group (15 minutes).
➤➤ Facilitate the conversation in the group about the challenges of
making sure their sentence was representative of everyone, the contribution they all made, any conflict that occurred, dynamics and exclusion (20 minutes). ➤➤ Final group reflection – have each young person take one post-it note off the wall at the front of the class that they can use to describe what they have learned. ➤➤ Facilitator leads the conversation and reinforces the key learning objectives of the session: what have they learned about community, what have they learned about identity, what have they learned about cooperation. Participants should also talk about identifying differences and similarities within the group and how they make up their community.
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Diversity – It Does Not Hurt! “Opener” Workshop Framework
Sebastian Górski, with help of Kimberley Dixson, Emma Randall, Oluwa Kemi Bamuyi
TOPIC Diversity – It Does Not Hurt!
AGE GROUP 9–13 years old (Primary School, second level)
NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS 20–30 (one class)
DURATION Two lesson (90 minutes)
AIMS ➤➤ Show that diversity is not a threat – it doesn’t hurt! ➤➤ Realize responsibility for spoken words and presented attitudes ➤➤ ➤➤ ➤➤ ➤➤
(you have to suffer the consequences of what you do). Develop awareness of cultural diversity, promote tolerance and respect for difference. Break the stereotypes and prejudices. Develop a sense of empathy. Strengthen cooperation in the group.
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RESOURCES ➤➤ Flip-charts, markers, post-it notes. ➤➤ Cardboard (carton), glue, scissors, ruler, pencils.
SCHEDULE ➤➤ Divide pupils into 4–5 groups. ➤➤ “Flying posters” – each group is given a flip-chart, on which there ➤➤
➤➤ ➤➤ ➤➤ ➤➤ ➤➤
are the names of the inhabitants of the different continents: American, African, European, Asian, Australian (optional). Ask students to write on the posters everything that, in their opinion, combines or associates with these keywords – each group has one minute to fill in the words, after that they exchange the posters between groups. The exercise ends when each group has their first poster back. Discuss with students why those specific words and terms appeared on the posters. Why are they there? What do they mean for them? Discuss what are the stereotypes and why they often inspire us? Why are we directed by them? Divide all students into two groups and play “The Derdians” game with them (rules and description of the game can be found below). Discuss with students “The Derdians” game. Focus on the auxiliary questions. Summary and evaluation.
The Derdians1 This game is a simulation of a meeting of two cultures. Find the key to foreign cultural behaviour, analyse the effects of meeting with a foreign culture. A team of engineers goes to another country in order to teach the people there how to build a bridge. 1 The game was originally published in Intercultural Learning. T-kit, Council of Eu-
rope, Strasbourg 2000, available at: https://www.salto-youth.net/downloads/ toolbox_tool_download-file-112/t%20kit%20intercultural%20learning.pdf.
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Resources needed Strong paper (cardboard), glue, scissors, ruler, pencil, game descriptions for Derdians and engineers. Two rooms.
Group Size Minimum: 12 people, who are divided into two groups.
Time 1.5–2 hours, including debriefing.
Step-by-step ➤➤ Depending on the size of your group, have 4–8 people play a team
of engineers, who will teach the Derdians how to build the bridge. They receive the instructions for the engineers and are brought to a separate room. ➤➤ The rest of the group will be Derdians. They receive the Derdian instructions. If you have too many people, you can also make a team of observers, who just watch and take notes. These observers should not be introduced to the Derdian culture beforehand, so keep them with the engineers in the beginning.
Reflection and evaluation. Debriefing After the game the two groups of participants take a piece of flip-chart and note their comments to the following three points: ➤➤ Facts, ➤➤ Feelings, ➤➤ Interpretations. The following points should be discussed in plenary: ➤➤ We have a tendency to think that others think the way we do. ➤➤ We often interpret things right away, without being aware of the differences in cultural behaviour.
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➤➤ How were the roles distributed/What role did I take? What does
that reveal of my identity? Did I feel comfortable with my role?
➤➤ Is that image I have the same that was perceived by the others? ➤➤ What influence did my cultural background have on the role I took
on?
Cards See below.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE DERDIANS The Situation You live in a country called Derdia. The village you live in is separated from the next city where there is a market by a deep valley. To reach the market you have to walk for two days. If you had a bridge across the valley, you could get there in 5 hours. The government of Derdia made a deal with a foreign firm to come to your village and teach you how to build a bridge. Your people will then be Derdia’s first engineers. After having built that first bridge with the foreign experts you will be able to build bridges all over Derdia to facilitate other people’s lives. The bridge will be built out of paper, using pencils, rulers, scissors and glue. You know the materials and tools, but you don’t know the construction techniques.
Social behaviour The Derdians are used to touch each other. Their communication doesn’t work without touching. Not being in contact while talking is considered very rude. You don’t have to be in direct contact, though. If you join a group, you just hang on to one member and are instantly included in the conversation. It is also very important to greet each other when you meet, even when you just pass someone.
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Greetings The traditional greeting is a kiss on the shoulder. The person who starts the greeting kisses the other on the right shoulder. The other then kisses on the left shoulder. Every other form of kissing is insulting! Shaking hands is one of the biggest insults possible in Derdia. If a Derdian ever is insulted by not being greeted or touched while being talked to, he/she starts shouting loudly about it.
Yes/No Derdians don’t use the word no. They always say yes, although if they mean ‘no’, they accompany the ‘yes’ with an emphatic nodding of the head (you should practise this well).
Work behaviour While working, the Derdians also touch a lot. The tools are gender-specific: scissors are male, pencil and ruler are female. Glue is neutral. Men never ever touch a pencil or a ruler. The same goes for women and scissors (I think it’s got something to do with tradition or religion).
Foreigners Derdians like company. Therefore they also like foreigners. But they are also very proud of themselves and their culture. They know that they’ll never be able to build the bridge on their own. On the other hand they don’t consider the foreigner’s culture and education as superior. Building bridges is just a thing they don’t know. They expect the foreigners to adapt to their culture. But because their own behaviour is natural to them, they can’t explain it to the experts (this point is VERY important). A Derdian man will never get in contact with another man unless he is introduced by a woman. It does not matter whether the women is Derdian or not.
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INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE ENGINEERS The situation You are a group of international engineers working for a multinational construction company. Your company has just signed a very important contract with the government of Derdia in which it committed itself to teach Derdians how to build a bridge. According to the contract signed, it is very important that you respect the deadline agreed, otherwise the contract will be cancelled and you will be unemployed. The Derdian government has a great interest in this project, which is funded by the European Union. Derdia is a very mountainous country, with many canyons and deep valleys, but no bridges. Therefore it always takes many days for Derdians to go from the villages to the market in the main city. It is estimated that with the bridge the Derdians could make the trip in only 5 hours. Since there are many canyons and rivers in Derdia, you can’t just put a bridge there and take off again. You’ll have to instruct the Derdians how to build a bridge themselves.
Playing the simulation First you should take time to carefully read these instructions and decide together about the way you are going to build the bridge. After a specified time, two members of your team will be allowed to go and make contact for 3 minutes with the Derdian village where the bridge will be built (e.g. to check the natural and material conditions, make contact with the Derdians, etc.). You will then have 10 minutes to analyse their report and complete the preparations. After this the whole team of engineers goes to Derdia to teach the Derdians how to build the bridge.
The bridge The bridge will be symbolized by a paper bridge. The bridge will link two chairs or tables over a distance of approximately 80 cm. It has to
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be stable. At the end of the building process it should support the weight of the scissors and glue used in its construction. The pieces of the bridge cannot just be cut out and assembled in Derdia because otherwise the Derdians would not learn how to do it themselves. They have to learn all the stages of the construction. Each piece needs to be drawn with pencil and ruler and then cut out with the scissors.
Materials ➤➤ The bridge will be made with paper/cardboard. ➤➤ You can use for the planning and building: paper, glue, scissors, rul-
er, pencils.
Time For planning and preparation before going to Derdia: ➤➤ to teach the Derdians: 40 minutes, ➤➤ to build: 25 minutes.
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Four Corners of the World “Opener” Workshop Framework
Marc Leckie, Ewa Sidorenko, Paulina Kida, Monika Kaczmarek
TOPIC Four Corners of the World
AGE GROUP 7–13 years old
NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS Maximum of 20
DURATION 15 minutes
AIMS/OBJECTIVES This game will teach the basic skills used when dribbling and controlling a ball in football whilst helping the participants learn more about the countries of the world through a fun game.
PREPARATION Mark out a square 20×20 with four smaller (5×5) squares in each corner. Use different coloured cones to differentiate the corners if possible.
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SCHEDULE ➤➤ Ask the participants to name four countries and assign one to each
corner.
➤➤ Players begin by dribbling around inside the square, using different
parts of their feet. ➤➤ The coach will shout out a country and all players must dribble their ball to that corner and control their ball inside the small square. ➤➤ There can be a fun forfeit for the last person. ➤➤ The coach can then start asking the participants to provide him/her with the following information related to the countries: ⚫⚫ languages, ⚫⚫ capital cities, ⚫⚫ colours on the flags, ⚫⚫ famous sports people, ⚫⚫ famous landmarks, ⚫⚫ continents they are on.
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Ten Commandments
Policies for Local Authorities
During those few days we spent together, we tried to better understand cultural contexts in which we live, to create universal policies for local authorities. In our opinion, introduction of those policies will prevent growth of racism and discrimination. We limited ourselves to ten major points, we claim are crucial: 1. Create connections between people. 2. Recognise issues around diversity/racism. 3. Zero tolerance policy towards racism. 4. Structures for communities to be heard. 5. Create opportunities for integration of minorities. 6. Multicultural education through workshops to raise awareness of teachers and community workers. 7. Work with the most vulnerable groups. 8. Create partnerships. 9. Work directly with the group. 10. Education about religions. In this way, we summarised our discussions about what is the role of local authorities in creating friendly environment for minorities, in which racism and discrimination will diminish.
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Opener – youth workers against racism
This publication is a part of the project “Opener – youth workers against racism”. Editor Anna Kucharska Layout and cover design Aleksandra Snitsaruk
