Homophobia Workshop

For the first Shikaya event of 2012 held in January, Karen Murphy, Director of International Programmes from our partner organisation, Facing History and Ourselves, gave a workshop on homophobia. This is a critical issue in South Africa and has been particularly highlighted in the Western Cape with the consistent delays in the trial of the alleged murderers of Zoliswa Nkonyana in 2006 – a 19-year-old woman who was allegedly murdered because she lived openly as a lesbian.

We looked at questions such as: What are the conscious or unconscious attitudes that we are passing on to our learners? What frame of reference does our Constitution provide for us to think about homophobia? How safe are our schools and our classrooms? What role can we as teachers play in closing the gap between the vision of the Constitution and the reality of society?

This workshop provided an opportunity to engage critically with and learn more about these important issues as well as acquire strategies for bringing them into our classroom within the context of the content in the curriculum. Participants were introduced to a range of resources for classroom use.

Teachers Response:

“It was very informative. The workshop gave me so much to think about. I want to work on making my school an intermediate space, a place where we leave our stuff behind and respect our constitution and each other’s rights!”

“It was very useful and challenging. It has provoked me as an adult to be responsible and take a lead.”

“It was useful. We do understand that there are gay and lesbian learners in our schools and we discourage them whereas the constitution safe guards their rights. The duty of teachers is to make our learners respect the constitution. Teachers need to play a role and this workshop will help  me a lot in teaching  learners to be tolerant and respect the rights of others.”

In March 2009, a follow-up workshop dealt with the American Civil Rights movement and, more specifically, the efforts to desegregate Little Rock Central High school. Teachers used Facing History and Ourselves resource “Choices in Little Rock” and the Eyes on the Prize DVD series as a catalyst for discussing the roles played by individual and group identities in Little Rock.

This case-study is particularly salient to the Facing the Past approach because it demonstrates that personal choices, individually and collectively, determine the structure of society; and, in addition, that our identities have a fundamental impact on our choices regarding others.

When faced with a moral dilemma, the individuals who make courageous choices are able to do so through an understanding that their decisions can make a genuine difference to society, and teachers in this workshop discussed how this message can best be brought into their classrooms.

Lets teach our learners, through the content, about civic responsibility, and that their choices do matter! (Janine Kaptein)

Below are  some extracts from some of the participants’ journal entries:

“When society is built, the basis upon which society is built would be the choices. Choices have consequences; the consequences would be the creation.”

“It will develop learners to be considerate and concerned about others.”

“The resources and methodology is extremely useful in helping learners to understand the importance of individual choices, even ordinary people can have far reaching consequences.”