Objectives
This part of the project is designed to provide a space in which to consider the following:
| • | What have people in general done to help improve conditions for asylum seekers? |
| • | What could students in particular do in their schools? |
What have people done?
The project has illustrated a few examples of what people have done to improve the conditions for asylum seekers and students are asked to think about them critically and demonstrate a good understanding of the purposes of each action. References could be made here to Option 4, the Dover Case-Study, or to what local organisations in your area have done. Option 5 would be further enhanced by adding information collected by the teacher or students about a broad range of organisations which are involved in asylum issues in different ways.
Option 5 also provides a good opportunity to ask visitors into the class to talk about what their organisations do and how they try to make a difference to asylum seekers.
The Refugee Council Directory 'Refugee Resources in the UK' is a useful starting point to locate local or national groups.
Links to a number of UK agencies and organisations are available on the website
www.ecre.org
The tasks in Option 5 focus students' attention not merely on what the organisations have done but also on why they have followed a particular kind of action. This is an important strand to draw out in feedback, presentations and discussion. Students should be able to reflect on the aims of various groups and understand that clarity of purpose is important in influencing the methods that citizens adopt to achieve their aims, and their chances of success. They should also think about the external factors which may influence the likely success of action.
What could students do in their schools?
There are two approaches to take here: the first is to ask students to plan a campaign or event that will help them achieve their own aims in relation to the topic. This will encourage them to think clearly about the purpose of the campaign/event, and to consider a range of strategies they might employ.
The second approach will then be to undertake the action that flows from this process. This may take more time and detailed planning. If students have been motivated by this resource and the information they have discovered while working on the activities, it will have provided an ideal foundation on which to build active citizenship projects.
These citizenship projects can be related to the kinds of campaigns described in the examples in Option 5. They could lead to on-going activities, such as a befriending scheme or a homework help-club. Alternatively, they could simply take the form of a one-off event, such as an awareness-raising campaign or producing information for the library. The Diaspora example outlined below shows what can be achieved if staff and students work with local organisations and LEA support staff to provide opportunities for fun and active awareness-raising campaigns.
There are several other sources of information which will support citizenship projects. Some suggestions appear in the Teacher Starter File in the Activate! Online range of resources. Other advice and case-studies are available from Community Service Volunteers www.csv.org.uk. The lesson plans given in this option provide students with an analytical framework for planning campaigns and it is important to structure any additional activities so that students can think about the individual skills they can bring to their groups, the different roles necessary for the success of a group, and how groups work together.
Diaspora
| The whole month of Diaspora was launched with a conference for teachers in Hackney, at which there were also representatives from a number of relevant organisations and services. The day provided an opportunity for staff to find out more about topical issues affecting the borough's intake of refugee children and to share information. | |
| One of the longer-term projects at www.hackneybroadband.com is on the theme of Citizenship and takes refugees and asylum seekers as its focus. It has been developed in close collaboration with students, so as well as creating a useful educational resource, it also represents the work of young people in the borough. | |
| A key feature of the activities during 'Diaspora' was student participation in dance and drama performances, as well as in interactive poetry and story-telling workshops. A theatre-in-education group worked with one school on a performance based on the true story of one refugee child's journey to safety. This in turn became part of another performance, held at a local arts venue for over 650 children, which involved the choirs from two other schools and the children's author, Valerie Bloom. The same venue then housed an experiential exhibition, 'Fortress Europe', from Global Link in Lancaster, for four days. After visiting it, one child wrote, 'Now I know what my Mum went through when she came here'. |