Award-Winning Projects Use Intercultural Learning to Make an Important Social Impact in their Communities
Over the years, many AFS Network Organizations have embraced changemaking and launched social impact projects to promote the importance of intercultural learning and the power of cultural understanding within local communities. In 2014, AFS launched the Intercultural Learning (ICL) in Our Own Backyard awards to showcase our most outstanding programs. This network-wide initiative encourages AFSers to extend their transformative AFS learning experiences (gained from study abroad, host family and volunteer opportunities) to local communities. Over the past two years, AFS volunteers, staff, alumni (and sometimes partners from other local organizations) have facilitated more than fifty relevant, educational and public events that addressed intercultural issues with a national context.
We would like to share with you the winners of the 2015 ICL in Our Own Backyard contest, announced at the latest AFS Network Meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
This year’s winners were selected by an international panel of judges representing UNESCO, the UN Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC), the European Federation of Intercultural Learning (EFIL) and AFS. Twenty-five projects were submitted for consideration from AFS Network Organizations in 15 countries. We would like to thank all the jury members for taking on this challenge and for supporting the ICL in Our Own Backyard contest. We congratulate the four winning entries and encourage you to consider how intercultural learning can help you address local issues
The Connect team asked each of the leaders of these projects to discuss the social impact and what their team learned from these initiatives.
Best Overall: AFS Turkey for Intercultural Learning Courses at Universities
AFS Turkey developed university-level intercultural courses offered at Özyeğin University and Kültür University in Istanbul that teach students how to function effectively in cross-cultural business and social settings. Students learn how to recognize cultural differences, understand what those differences are and ways to apply that knowledge in real-life situations.
Ömer Ongun, Training Coordinator & Intercultural Learning Responsible at AFS Turkey, reflected on the impact of these groundbreaking courses:
Often the knowledge, research and theories developed in educational institutions require practical support and implication. Yet, it is rarely seen that university courses are holistic enough to cover all aspects of life, creating the connection to the real world and offering implementation opportunities. On the other hand, non-governmental organizations like AFS Turkey have long been interested, yet not “confident” enough, to begin long-term and sustainable collaborations on non-traditional programs with universities. In 2014, AFS Turkey began an interesting, inspiring and impactful collaboration with Özyeğin and Kültür Universities in Istanbul to add Intercultural Communication Courses to the curriculum of these universities. The courses were designed and delivered by AFS Turkey.
These courses have influenced the communities at both universities in two ways: promoting the importance of developing intercultural sensitivity skills; and encouraging people to search out opportunities for intercultural exchanges.
Today Özyeğin University students are applying for international internship programs, considering organizing an Intercultural Learning Academy for High Schoolers with our leadership, volunteering at AFS events and working on the very first intercultural learning student club!
Since introducing the courses, AFS Turkey has received requests for speaking engagements and workshops from several high schools and universities in Istanbul. Last year, we multiplied the impact by offering intercultural learning programs to more than 700 students in the city.
Adapting AFS intercultural learning content to non-AFSers and the academic world, and then gaining recognition and acceptance from university administrators required quite a bit of preparation. We held several meetings, were interviewed by the deans and studied alternative assessment tools for non-formal learning. We are still working on the integration and customization of our approaches and putting great effort to include discussions on local realities, current developments and events taking place nationwide and regionally.
In the long-term, the courses should help increase intercultural sensitivity on the university campuses in Turkey, while increasing the visibility of AFS and intercultural learning in academia.
Most Relevant: AFS Italy for “Learning To Live Together: Humanitarianism, Reconciliation And Education For Plural Societies” international conference
Organized by AFS Italy — known as Intercultura locally, this conference convened 16 well-known international speakers to discuss case studies of reconciliation and peace education after severe conflicts in South Africa, Bosnia, the Basque countries, Northern Ireland, South Tyrol, Israel and Palestine. These stories of successes and failures set the stage for group discussions with more than 500 international participants and impressive media coverage. The May 1–3, 2015 conference was a highlight of Intercultura’s yearlong celebration of the 100th birthday of the American Field Service.
To put the “Learning to Live Together” conference into the context of the AFS mission to help create a more just and peaceful world, AFS Connect excerpted “Meaning of a Centennial” written by Roberto Ruffino, the Secretary General of Intercultura Italy and the Fondazione Intercultura, and honorary chair of the European Federation of Intercultural Learning (EFIL).
To [highlight] the importance of reconciliation for coexistence, Intercultura hosted an international conference in Trento, Italy. The topic of the conference was “Learning to live together: Humanitarianism, reconciliation, education for plural societies.”
What did we learn from the workshops in Trento? We learnt that education for plural societies is a challenging task that needs to be built day by day. [It requires] overcoming many obstacles:
- the fear of “otherness” and the unknown
- fatalism (it has always been done this way)
- personal recollections and memories that should be reconciled with the memories of others in order to find a common memory linked to the past
- the concern that “reconciliation” could mean forgetting old injustices and running against a deep sentiment of justice.
What supports reconciliation and living together? Learning to listen, putting ourselves in another person’s shoes, being empathetic, sharing common ideals, and allowing time to heal old wounds. These are the same tools that we recommend in our intercultural training.
In Trento, we also presented a play, “La scelta” (“The choice”), about nonconformist or odd decisions taken in extreme tragic situations. Over and beyond the similarities to the events that led to the birth of the American Field Service, [the play] presented “an invitation” not to give up one’s own moral convictions, even under exceptional circumstances.
Such situations hardly ever occur during our daily life, and daily tasks often prevail over ideals. Hierarchy takes responsibility away from us. (“That’s not a task I have to fulfill.” “ What my colleague does is not my responsibility.”) Fatalism makes us become resigned and takes away our desire for change.
The AFS Centennial helped us better understand that we are always involved, that we cannot just step away, that reconciliation and positive coexistence must be built up day after day and that this is an associative and social value. So our story goes on and each one of us must commit with enthusiasm, making every effort to allow our commitment to continue.
Most Innovative: AFS Philippines for “Traveling around the Philippines: Understanding Cultural Differences and Increasing Cultural Awareness” storytelling program
AFS Philippines was recognized for using creative and innovative storytelling techniques to help vulnerable, out-of-school youth (ages from 3 to 13) who survived Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) understand the importance of social progress, tolerance, diversity and living peacefully together as good Filipinos. AFS Philippines (represented by Natasha Omar, Princess Tolentino and Christin Arndt) partnered with Sangkatigan — a community organization — and the Leyte Kalipayan Dance Company to create this interactive storytelling program. The event featured travelers on a journey to experience many local cultures around the Philippines.
Natasha Omar, project head and AFS Philippines staff provided these insights to why storytelling is such a compelling healing and intercultural learning tool for young traumatized children.
The “Traveling around the Philippines” project gave youngsters the chance to get in touch with their own culture, and explore the different areas in the Philippines — an opportunity not taken by many, even by rich Filipinos who have the means to travel. Being an archipelago, the Philippines has a diverse set of cultures including different types of food, languages, dances and history. Most [Filipinos] would be very amazed, surprised even, if they explored their own country.
Among other goals, the project was also designed to raise awareness about the importance of intercultural education in our local communities, and break down prejudices through a creative immersion experience.
The program was conducted on April 2, 2015 in San Jose, Tacloban — a very remote and rural area that was heavily affected by Typhoon Yolanda in 2013. Through interactive storytelling, 200 children “traveled” throughout the Philippines, to see, feel, and even taste the many cultures of their motherland.
AFS Philippines chose an interactive storytelling activity because it was a creative and lively way for the children to live the story. They actively took part in the story, which helped them easily remember and understand the lessons.
On one stop of their journey, for instance, the children joined Elisa, an AFS German volunteer, and Juan, who teaches at Sangkatigan, on their trip to Cordillera where they watched a female and a male Igorot perform a cultural dance in their native costumes. The students were inspired by the dance and encouraged to capture the performance in drawings and make their own headdresses and necklaces.
On the last stop of their cultural journey, the students, Elisa and Juan visited Maranao. There, the travelers experienced a “local tribe” dancing the Singkil, a famous dance of the Maranao people of Lake Lanao. And, for their last activity, the travelers watched a roleplaying of a Maranao tradition where the Sultan held his Itak (a large cutting tool also referred to as a Bolo knife) and explained to the crowd that it is a symbol of protection to the conquered land ruled by a sultanate. He called on his assistant to bring a coconut, which was cut in half by the Sultan to share with his visitors, Elisa and Juan.
The story and journey ends with our travellers and all who participated in the event sharing Buko (coconut) juice as a symbol of hospitality and friendship.
AFS Philippines believes that “Traveling around the Philippines” will instill many intercultural and other values in remote Filipino communities — especially the youth. These include tolerance for diversity; knowledge about the diversity of their own country, and interest and enthusiasm towards the protection of their own heritage. AFS Philippines hopes to see more projects centered on these values initiated and sustained in the future.
Most Sustainable: AFS Russia for the Learning Course “Global Citizen”
AFS Russia was recognized for creating a course to introduce intercultural learning concepts to young teens (12–14 years old). The course, which runs for 34 academic hours, is based on AFS materials and helps students gain the knowledge, skills and understanding required to live and act appropriately in multicultural settings in their own communities or around the world. The popular course also prepares young people to become responsible citizens and work for a more just and peaceful world.
AFS Russia’s Natalia Zakharova, Organizational Development Coordinator, emphasized the importance of a Global Citizen course in helping young Russians understand the dynamics of the multicultural country they call home.
Russia is a multinational country, with people from more than 180 nations living in the territory of the Russian federation. However, new generations of Russians know very little about the cultures, languages, traditions and beliefs of other people, even when they are their neighbors. Russian young people believe a lot of stereotypes about the world and this course was designed to help break down these misperceptions.
The idea and first draft of the course came from participants of the AFS Volunteer Summer School held in Russia in 2013. Today the Global Citizen Learning Course fully meets the Federal State Education Standards and can be offered in any Russian school as an elective subject. The first edition of the course was implemented in the Kirovo-Cheptsk Gymnasium #1 in the academic year 2014–2015. At the same time, several AFS schools started to use parts of the course in their daily school life. In 2015, AFS Russia conducted several seminars (on national and regional levels) for teachers interested in joining the project and teaching the course in their schools. AFS Russia aims to make the course available to any student in the country. Several schools launched these programs in September 2015.
All learning materials were collected, selected and adapted to specifically help secondary school students learn and understand complex intercultural learning topics. The program prepares and encourages students to express their emotions and feelings for meaningful self-reflection on intercultural issues and challenges. In July 2015, Global Citizen was chosen as a National Priority Project in the field of Education and the project has received a presidential grant to continue developing and promoting the program.
Working on this challenging project has helped AFS Russia learn a few things about intercultural learning, including that:
- Intercultural learning is in high-demanded in modern society,
- Students 12–14 years old are the right audience to receive an intercultural learning course. Although they may have some intercultural experience, they have many unanswered questions about intercultural issues. This course helps them interpret and understand their feelings and thoughts — and encourages them to think differently and more deeply about intercultural exchanges.
AFS Russia hopes the course will make an impact, if not on the whole society (a lot of time is needed to see this) but at least on the people we reach. We also hope the course will raise awareness and create a positive attitude about intercultural learning. And of course, we hope it will attract more people to AFS activities and opportunities.
by Sheryl Tucker, Director, Marketing and Communications, AFS International
