Eugenics and Australia case study

The Eugenics workshop was presented by Gill Sutton and Roy Hellenberg

 The workshop covered the following  topics:  ‘The Individual and society’: who am I? What shapes my identity?

‘We and they’: The power of words – what do they mean when discussed in relation to identity and belonging? Which words unite and which separate?

A Play clip that demonstrates ‘how British divided the world into us and them’.

Comparing Neville’s views to ‘Social Darwinism & Eugenics ‘- where is it similar and where is it different?

Reading Theatre – ‘The myth of eugenics.’

Judgment, Memory and Legacy: How is this Lost Generation been remembered? How should they be remembered? What monuments should be built and why.

Teacher Responses:

“Firstly, I found that it focused my attention on the topic in a manner that is different from when I’m preparing for the learners. Secondly, it forced me to exam the CAPS document, for Grade 11, more closely and consider how it framed the historical knowledge for our learners. Thirdly, it is always fantastic to connect with colleagues and learn from what other people are doing in their classrooms; and finally, interacting with colleagues, with a wide range of classroom experience and who work in very different settings from my own, reminds me of how difficult history teaching is in a society engaged in social and economic transformation. I am left humbled, challenged and inspired.”

FTP Seminar 5:
Ideas of Race: Introduction to Eugenics and US Case Study
Wednesday, 18 April 2012
16H00 – 18H00

FTP Seminar 6:
Ideas of Race: Australia Case Study
Wednesday, 02 May 2012
16H00 – 18H00

Date	Event	Theme	Details
26-Jan	Afternoon Seminar                       4 – 6pm	Homophobia	Homophobia in the South African context
09-Feb	Afternoon Seminar                       4 – 6pm	Identity in South Africa	Africa and Afrikaner Nationalism
23-Feb	Afternoon Seminar                       4 – 6pm	Choices and Human behaviour in apartheid South Africa in 1960s	Focusing on choices made when apartheid laws were introduced
08-Mar	Afternoon Seminar                       4 – 6pm	Choices and Human behaviour in apartheid South Africa in 1970s and 1980s	Bystanders, resistors, perpetrators
Possible Saturday event- date to be confirmed	Professional Development	Passing Matric within second language context workshop
April school Holidays- to be confirmed	2 Day CAPS Content Conference	FET Gr 11 Content/Curriculum Support
19-Apr	Afternoon Seminar                       4 – 6pm	Judgement and Legacy	TRC
03-May	Afternoon Seminar                         4 – 6pm	Ideas on Race	Introduction to eugenics and Us
17-May	Afternoon Seminar                                 4 – 6pm	Ideas on Race	Case Study: Australia

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.”

” I found the workshop useful because it made me think of issues I’ve never thought of before. there are strategies that I can now implement. I will pass on this informationto my colleagues.”

“yes, certainly this ia very silent enemy in our emerging society- I ha d the chance to consider the impact in our school enviroment and think more deeply about how to address it positively- a very stimulating workshop, Thank you!”

Identity in South Africa: African and Afrikaner Nationalism

The second of the Facing the Past seminar series explored issues of identity and nationalisms in South Africa in relation of African and Afrikaner nationalism. This was a significant day for the seminar as it was the opening of parliament and in the evening the President gave his annual state of the nation address!

The session began with creating individual identity charts. In the feedback the aspects of individual identity that could be linked to nationalism were highlighted. Participants then created identity charts for South Africa. There was intense debate during the feedback as we grappled with the broad concept of nationalism as well as what might constitute South African nationalism.

The discussions highlighted the complexities of the concept of nationalism, particularly when coming to grips with nationalisms within a country. While the curriculum directs us to engage with positive and negative aspects of nationalism, there was a feeling that nationalism can never be positive. Some of the questions and issues that emerged were:

• Is there ever a moment in the development of nationalism in any context in which nationalism could be considered to be positive?
• Could it be said that nationalism was positive when it rallied the British to the cause of a War against Hitler??
• Or positive when it helped construct Afrikaner identity in response to British colonialism and defeat in ‘the War’??
• Or the development of African nationalism in response to colonialism and apartheid???
• Is it inevitable that nationalism becomes destructive to others??
• What is the difference between patriotism and nationalism??
• Can we have a nationalism located in African tradition, in ubuntu, that accepts diversity and is inclusive – an interesting thought!

The discussion was rounded off by reading an extract from an article by Katy Hughes, ‘What is nationalism?’ http://katy-hughes.suite101.com/what-is-nationalism-a53052. The extract concluded with these words: Even nationalists cannot agree on exactly what constitutes nationalism, as beyond this shared desire for the success of the nation, they have very little in common.’

Teacher Responses:

” Very useful- information was relevant it brought some light of how to tackle the question of nationalism on looking at the negativity as well as the positivity of  it. How it was presented was so well and I got a lot of support.”

” The seminar has helped me in preparation on how you tackle the complexity of such themes”

” I found it useful, especially because I was forced to think about an issue I thought I knew: Nationalsim”

” It was relevant because the concept of nationalism has been unpacked with is complexities.”

Choices and Human Behaviour in apartheid South Africa in the 1960s

The third Facing the Past seminar was led by Janine Kaptein, an experienced and inspiring teacher. Janine has been part of the Facing the Past programme for many years, and spent six months sabbatical working with Shikaya. Janine teaches at ID Mkize High School and her approach to teaching and use of sources to engage with human behaviour and choice with learners is innovative and engaging.

This seminar explored the choices that were made when apartheid laws were introduced. A number of issues emerged from this session – the teaching of apartheid history is a complex and challenging process. Some of the challenges mentioned by the teachers are the negative emotions that pupils feel about the past: sadness, anger, guilt, disbelief; continuing racialisation – the challenges of past racial inequality and present-day social inequality; their pupils’ inability to understand how ‘we’ could have accepted it; the legacy of parents’ thinking on their children; stereotyping of people from the past/adults: black people victims – white people perpetrators, instead of hearing the ‘multiple voices’.

Teacher Responses:

” My experiences, using theories of racism made me  discover apartheid and its origin. I never understood apartheid in the manner I was made to understand it by the theories of racism. I never understood the motives of the architects. I always believed that they were protecting their group from other groups.

Teaching apartheid without the background of racism as a theory would be very difficult. When I started working in 2006 I was fortunate to have attended a Facing the Past workshop and I faced the class having been prepared. My interpretations were making it easy for learners.”

” I have learned to adopt and develop various ways of teaching. This has made my lesson very interesting to learners”

” These seminars keep us teachers abreast and in line with the new curriculum.”

Shikaya has put together  a list of  the resources from our library. These resources are available for all our Facing the Past teachers. The Resource list consists of  Books, Dvd’s, classroom sets as well as teacher guides that can be used in their classrooms.

Click here to access the Resource List

Contact Lauren at our offices on 021 671 7200 for more information on the availability of resource material.

You may also contact Nicola Frick regarding ideas for resources to use.

Congratulations! to all those who decided to be a part of creating the vision for South Africa 2030.

The structure, content and expectations of this essay writing and oral presentation opportunity will be explained below.

Context:

President Jacob Zuma appointed the National Planning Commission (NPC) in April 2010. At the inaugural meeting of the NPC on 11 May 2010, President Zuma stated:

“The mandate of the commission is to take a broad, cross-cutting, independent and critical view of South Africa, to help define the South Africa we seek to achieve in 20 years’ time and to map out a path to achieve those objectives. The commission is expected to put forward solid research, sound evidence and clear recommendations for government. The commission will also work with broader society to draw on the best expertise, consult the relevant stakeholders and help to shape a consensus on what to do about the key challenges facing us. Government has often taken a sectoral and short-term view that has hampered development. Taking a long-term and independent view will add impetus, focus and coherence to our work. The establishment of the National Planning Commission is our promise to the people of South Africa that we are building a state that will grow the economy, reduce poverty and improve the quality of life of our citizens.”

Question:

How can South Africa achieve its vision for 2030?

Expectations:

The essays will be based on the National Planning Commission’s Vision for 2030.

Answer the essay question in the light of ONE of the following three areas of the NPC’s Vision:

1              Transformation and Unity

2              Economy

3              Education

Participants need to choose one of these three and then write about how they understand the problem, what solutions they can think of to implement and how they think these solutions will improve the state the Economy/ Education/ Transformation and Unity in South Africa. In explaining the solutions that they proffer, they need to put the challenges in this area into their historical context. The  essay, however, needs to be more focused on the solutions. It is important that these solutions are practical; take into account the impact of the past on present-day experiences and attitudes; and are aligned to and would help implement the NDC’s Vision for 2030.

Workshop

Shikaya held a workshop to provide inspiration, insight and input to the participants. Speakers were invited to provide in-depth knowledge on the relevant areas of the National Planning Commission’s vision for 2030. They provided the participants with information and guidance on how to think about their essays.

A session was held on how to write the essay. They were also given input on how to structure their argument, the layout of the writing and the most effective ways to get their ideas across to the reader.

LAND OF HOPE

Milton Mphangwa is a Facing the Past teacher. He teaches history at a school in the Western Cape Province of South Africa.  His history course uses Holocaust and Human Behavior as a foundational case study, and then moves into a study of South Africa’s history of apartheid.  Milton has created a project about anti-refugee and immigrant violence that has plagued the country, including the school’s area.  His students will interview local people, including refugees and local government people.

Land of  Hope is a short film about  how Milton together with his students started to educate themselves and others about xenophobia and brought change in their community.

The letter was published in the letters page of a local Afrikaans newspaper which was where we discovered it. With much coercion, we eventually convinced Arno to allow us to make a short film of his letter so that others, in various ways, would be inspired to action as well. At the end of 2010, Nelson Mandela sat down after lunch with his daughter Zinziwe and his close friend, Ahmed Kathrada, and watched the film of Arno`s letter. We are told that he was moved and wanted to keep a copy of it to watch it again.

Many other South Africans have now joined the movement, writing letters to Madiba that show their commitment to nation-building. View these letters, or write your own, at letterstomandela.org.

Engage with your students and share with us. We are keen to hear the thoughts of our teachers and our future leaders.

Post your comments on our facebook page, telling us how you have chosen to LIVE OUR CONSTITUTION in your classroom, school, and/or community.  We would like to use these discussions and comments as the foundation for a movement of UPstanders to emerge within your schools and communities. More importantly, we feel it would encourage broader thinking of our human rights, tolerance and acceptance of our differences, and an embracing of a diverse human culture, society, and future.
Follow the #LiveOurConstitution trend on Twitter by posting comments to @ShikayaOrg. Engage the masses in discussion and create a platform for all voices to be heard.