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2007 Speaker Series on the Undefended Childhood: A Global Perspective
The undefended childhood global colloquia series will focus on vulnerable children around the world, especially refugee children, children with HIV/AIDS, and internally displaced children. The series will bring cohesive dialogue across various countries and disciplinary boundaries with presenters from Africa, Australia, Canada, Latin America, and America to create global awareness and understanding of the undefended childhood.
Schooling For All: Classrooms, Culture and Contradictions in Indigenous Mexico
Main Lecture:
Thursday, March 22, 2007 3:00 ?4:30 pm Heritage Room, Kellogg Conference Center
Discussion with Free Dinner:
Focus on the term “Indigenous?in the Mexican context Thursday, March 22, 2007 5:30-7:30 pm 155 Baker Hall
Jill Gnade-Munoz,
Doctoral Candidate (ABD) in Latin American Studies; National Autonomous University of Mexico, “UNAM?Mexico City
Speaker Bio:
Gnade-Munoz, a “post-modern?polyglot of sorts and a self-defined xenophile, holds a B.A. from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in European Studies, Spanish and German. She is currently a doctoral candidate in Latin American Studies at the largest, oldest and most prestigious university in Latin America, the UNAM in Mexico City. Her dissertation, written in Spanish, is entitled Raza, racismo y educaci? escolar en M?ico “Race, Racism and Schooling in Mexico.?It hypothesizes that the asymmetrical relationship between Mexico’s Educational Institution and Indigenous Peoples is caused by broader racism.
Abstract:
Globalization has unleashed a plethora of contradicting forces in our world today, one of the most poignant being the celebration or recognition of cultural difference along side the homogenization of wants through global advertising, media, and a push toward universalizing compulsory basic education. Since the 80s schools have been “invading?the small indigenous communities of Mexico. This presentation focuses on the invasion and the intersection of educational policies between three cultural contexts, working deductively from the most boisterous to the silenced, from the Western power center which generates Human Rights discourse, to Mexico, a post-colonial context and finally, to a Maya-tojolabal community in Chiapas, Mexico. Main themes are otherness, the construction there of, universalism, racism and the role of schooling as a specific cultural avenue of influence which distances indigenous children from their cultural context, leaving them effectively “culturally?undefended.
Traditional Teachings and Practices - Their Importance in Adolescent Reproductive Health
Main Lecture:
Wednesday, April 11, 2007 3:00 ?4:30 pm Heritage Room, Kellogg Conference Center
Discussion with Free Dinner:
Focus on the term “Indigenous?in the Ghanian context Wednesday, April 11, 2007 5:30-7:30 pm 155 Baker Hall
Dr. Eva Dedei Tagoe-Darko,
Senior lecturer/researcher, Department of Geography and Rural Development, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana
Speaker Bio:
Dr. Tagoe-Darko holds a B.A from University of Cape-Coast. Cape-Coast, Ghana in geography and education, and earned her Ph.D. from Brown University, U.S.A. in Sociology. Her research interest lies in the children and women’s health, and environmental issues of Ghana. She has been involved in various projects like Assessment of Feasibility, acceptability and safety of Artesunate-Amodiaquine for Home management of malaria in rural and urban Ghana (present), and 2003 World Vision Ghana ?Rural Water Project (WVG-GRWP) Phase III Impact Assessment Survey. She has written about the book on "Migration and Fertility in Coastal Ghana: An Event History Analysis", and papers about “Urbanization and the Fertility Transition in Ghana?and “Maternal education and infant/child morbidity. The case of diarrhea. Evidence from the Ghana DHS.
Tjukurpa Munkarra: Beyond the Dreaming Experiences of the Children of Aboriginal Australia
Main Lecture:
Tuesday, April 17, 2007 3:00 ?4:30 pm Heritage Room, Kellogg Conference Center
Discussion with Free Dinner:
Focus on the term “Indigenous?in the Australian context Tuesday, April 17, 2007 5:30-7:30 pm 9 Human Ecology building
Simon Forrest,
Chairperson of the Indigenous Consultative Council and lecturer at Edith Cowan University. Manager of Aboriginal Education in the Mid West Education District in Australia
Speaker Bio:
Simon Forrest completed his Bachelor of Education at Edith Cowan University, a Master of Education at the University of WA and is currently undertaking doctoral studies at Murdoch University. In 2005 he was awarded the National NAIDOC Scholar of the Year, and the WA Aboriginal Education and Training Award, Aboriginal Education Awards of Excellence. Simon has extensive experience in pre-service and in-service teacher education and research in aboriginal culture and education especially in relation to cultural domain code-switching, culture of the classroom, aboriginal identity and indigenous knowledge, in particular how indigenous knowledge can be incorporated in a local Indigenous educational service delivery model. He has also worked extensively with aboriginal community groups as a cultural advisor, negotiator and facilitator developing.
Abstract:
Based on the speaker’s experiences as a teacher in a remote aboriginal community near Victoria desert in Western Australia, the presentation will focus on the undefended childhood situations in Australia. Aboriginal communities, remote area outside Australia’s big cities and towns, are similar in nature to Native American reservations. Non-aboriginal people describe those communities in one word, “lawless.? Adult and older adolescents commit crimes on regular basis. Sexual abuse of children and physical abuse of women are not unusual. The nearest police were stationed 4 hours away on a dirt road which is un-drivable at night because of cattle and kangaroos. Police will only attend crimes, which are life threatening, and physical and sexual abuse of children is not considered life threatening. In some communities the only safe place is the school. School is a sanctuary where they can get food and sleep.