SRIS Newsletter - March 2021 (Plain Text Version)

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In this issue:
LEADERSHIP UPDATES
•  LETTER FROM THE CHAIRS
•  LETTER FROM THE EDITORS
ARTICLES
•  QELTI-AN INITIATIVE TO DISRUPT HETERONORMATIVITY IN ELT
•  A MATTER OF SOCIAL JUSTICE: THE ISSUANCE OF STUDENT VISAS
RESOURCES
•  LESSON PLAN: INDIGENOUS PEOPLES AND ENVIRONMENTAL CONFLICTS
POETRY
•  WHO AM I? (A 2020 REFLECTION)

RESOURCES

LESSON PLAN: INDIGENOUS PEOPLES AND ENVIRONMENTAL CONFLICTS

Helen Margaret Murray, Institute for Teacher Training, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway

Introduction

This lesson, for intermediate to advanced learners of English, uses a discussion of environmental conflicts to increase pupils’ awareness of issues that affect Indigenous People’s homelands and ways of life. Pupils will read and use different types of authentic source materials to discuss and reflect on current environmental conflicts. The topic of Indigenous Peoples and environmental conflicts is relevant for course plans and curricula which include topics relating to culture in the English-speaking world. The structure and questions in this lesson can also be used for teaching about other types of conflict where multiple perspectives are involved. This activity can be found on the author’s website for teaching about Indigenous Peoples, Teach Indigenous Knowledge (Murray, 2017).

Theoretical Influences on Lesson Plan

This lesson plan is one of multiple activities in the classroom that encourage pupils in the development of intercultural competence, that is, in the knowledge and skills needed for meaningful communication with people of different cultural and linguistic backgrounds, and an understanding of how other peoples’ and the pupils’ own cultural background can affect their ways of living, ways of thinking, and communication patterns.

In teaching about Indigenous Peoples, pupils should have access to as wide a range of perspectives as possible. When collecting source materials, the teacher should aim to have pupils engage with “diversities” rather than a single “diversity” (Dervin, 2016, p. 28), as teaching about Indigenous Peoples as a homogenous group can encourage stereotyping, rather than meaningful interaction with the complexities of the conflicts and the multiplicity of perspectives involved.

This lesson plan is also a step towards an “indigenization” of teaching materials, that is, an approach to teaching in which Indigenous voices are given equal weight to those from the mainstream society (Olsen, 2017, p. 72). In this lesson, authentic materials made by Indigenous Peoples themselves are included to give pupils insight into different Indigenous perspectives on the conflicts.

As well as learning about the status of Indigenous Peoples in the English-speaking world, and comparing conflicts in different areas, this lesson encourages pupils to relate their newfound knowledge to conflicts within their own area and reflect on their own society and worldview. This insight into one’s own culture and society is a step toward developing pupils’ critical awareness of their own culture, which is an essential component of developing intercultural competence (Byram et al., 2002, pp. 11-13).

Lesson Plan

Part 1: Starting-Off Activity

After a brief general introductory text, pupils are asked to discuss:

1. Maybe you have seen some conflicts in the news between Indigenous Peoples and the government of their countries?
2. What were these conflicts about?

The aim of these two questions at the start of the lesson is to activate pupils and encourage them to reflect on what they already know about the topic. At this point, useful vocabulary and phrases can also be introduced.

Part 2: Working with Authentic Source Materials

After discussing the questions in Part 1, pupils choose one of two conflicts involving different Indigenous Peoples to study in-depth. On the author’s website, the two conflicts presented are fishing rights for Sámi people in northern Norway and the Standing Rock pipeline conflict in the United States. However, any conflicts involving Indigenous Peoples can be chosen for discussion, for example, mining on Aboriginal land in Australia, pipeline building on Indigenous lands in Canada, or the building of wind farms on Sámi reindeer grazing land in Norway. This means that the topics for study can be kept up to date, as recently occurring conflicts will also fit into the plan for this lesson.

Pupils are asked to read, listen, and watch a range of authentic source materials on the conflicts. These materials are of different genres and give multiple perspectives on the conflicts. They can be, for example, pictures, posters, podcasts, newspaper interviews and reports, video clips, and literary works such as poems or short stories. The aim should be for most sources to be made by Indigenous Peoples themselves.

Part 3: Classroom Presentation and Discussion

After working with the source materials and making notes, pupils are asked to present the conflict in class and discuss:

1. What is the conflict? Give a factual summary of the conflict, including background and a timeline of important events (where relevant).
2. What is the conflict about? Focus on why the conflict has arisen. Explain your reasoning. Some questions to consider: Is it due to different peoples having different economic interests? Is it due to a difference in how people view land ownership? Is it a conflict between traditional ways of living and modern industries/ways of life?
3. What possible solutions to the conflict do you see? Which solution do you think would be best? Do you think this is likely to happen? Why/why not?

All three questions are given to pupils in advance so that pupils with weaker language skills can prepare before the classroom discussion. The first question starts by focusing on the factual details of the conflicts and is aimed at giving EFL pupils practice in describing situations in English. This can be useful practice for pupils with lower levels of language skills. The second question requires the pupils to move away from the reproduction of information, by asking them to reflect on what they have learned and to engage in the ideas behind the conflicts. The “questions to consider” are given as an aid and a prompt for pupils in thinking over why the conflicts might have occurred. The third question requires pupils to engage in finding realistic solutions, which can give them a greater awareness of the complex natures of these conflicts. By working with ongoing conflicts in the present day, the pupils can follow the situations as they progress and see if their solutions are those that are chosen in real life and, if not, to discuss why that might be.

Part 4: Further Discussion and Reflection

In the final part of this lesson, pupils relate what they have learned to what they have learned in previous lessons about Indigenous Peoples’ societies and worldviews.

1. What is a good way of life? What do you think should be the aim of a society? Do you think the society in which you live is trying to reach that aim?
2. How much personal responsibility should people take for the society in which they live?
3. Do you think people currently take responsibility or do changes need to be made?

In Part 4 of this lesson, pupils are encouraged to see the conflicts from a wider perspective and to relate what they have learned to their own perspectives and cultural influences. At this point, they can also discuss conflicts in their own area and what possible solutions there might be for these conflicts. These final questions are aimed at pupils with advanced levels of language skills, to give them practice in explaining their thoughts and opinions in English.

Conclusion

This lesson plan uses specific environmental conflicts to raise pupils’ awareness of issues that affect Indigenous Peoples across the English-speaking world and to encourage them to discuss the complex nature of these issues and begin to reflect on possibilities for solving them. While this lesson plan has been used for teaching about a specific topic for intermediate and advanced learners of English in Norway, the ideas behind and the structure of this lesson can be used to discuss other forms of conflict in modern-day society in which multiple perspectives exist. This lesson can be a means to encourage the use of the English language in the classroom to discuss and debate real-life issues that are relevant for pupils all over the world.

References

Byram, M., Gribkova, B., & Starkey, H. (2002). Developing the intercultural dimension in language teaching: A practical introduction for teachers. Council of Europe.

Dervin, F. (2016). Interculturality in education. Macmillan.

Murray, H. (2017). Indigenous peoples and environmental issues. Teach Indigenous Knowledge. https://teachik.com/indigenous-peoples-and-environmental-issues/

Olsen, T. (2017). Colonial conflicts: Absence, inclusion, and indigenization in textbook representations of indigenous peoples. In B. Andreassen, & S. Thobro, Textbook violence. Equinox.

Helen Margaret Murray taught English at lower and secondary schools in Norway for about 17 years before starting work in teacher education. She is the leader of the research group Indigenous Topics in Education at NTNU. Her primary research focus is on the teaching of topics relating to Indigenous Peoples.