Are you a globally focused youth?

Posted on October 5, 2012 by laura.schaack

Do you consider yourself a global citizen? Would you like to become more involved in global issues? The organization New Global Citizen (GNC) provides globally conscious youth with opportunities to make their reach go farther and their impact stronger in relation to some of the world’s greatest challenges. It’s an organization for youth– and by youth!

One youth team focused on the right to education for all children around the world.

GNC offers a wide range of global projects, such as providing sanitation and clean water, shelter, education and doing many more important works to improve vulnerable populations around the world. Their main focus is sustainable development that is not the “cookie-cutter” approach. Instead, they hope to find solutions while keeping the population and culture in mind.

For those of you in education, they also have initiatives for you to use in your classroom, including team building exercises and curriculum to develop intercultural competency.

If you are a youth interested in global causes, this is an organization you might want to explore! Learn more on their website: http://www.newglobalcitizens.org/ or their blog: http://newglobalcitizens.wordpress.com/

Connecting Young People Worldwide | The GNG Youtube Channel

Posted on August 27, 2012 by charlotte.steinke@afs.org

The Youtube channel of the Global Nomads Group (GNG), an NGO that fosters intercultural dialogue and understanding amongst the world’s youth, offers 272 free videos that portray how young people from all over the world live, what they think, and how they discuss and cooperate with others from different countries. Many of the videos show how groups of young people (usually secondary school classes) from two completely different countries meet each other, listen to each other, and learn about each other’s realities through online classroom exchange, known as Exchange 2.0. Many other videos also show interviews with young people and portraits of their lives in the US, Uganda, Haiti, Spain, Vietnam, and many other countries.

AFS-USA, AFS Indonesia, AFS Malaysia and the US Embassy in Hanoi, Vietnam have cooperated with GNG for a media literacy project called the Global Connections: one LENS program. This program is sponsored through the State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Through this project, opportunities were offered to students and educators from Indonesia, Malaysia, the United States, and Vietnam to develop their media skills and to get to know each other better through working towards a common goal. The students met online (through video conferences and social networking), and later also in person. The project ended with a local media festival, where students had the opportunity to showcase their public service announcements or digital stories. On the Youtube channel below, you can find videos that were taken during the completion of this project.

This cooperation of AFS and the Global Nomads Group was a big success. It has become more and more common for us, especially for young people, to connect to others via online tools and video conferences. AFS and the Global Nomads Group have pioneered in the area of facilitating youth exchange using these tools, and their positive and very successful experience lets us hope that there is more to come in this area.

UNESCO Guidelines on Intercultural Education

Posted on August 13, 2012 by charlotte.steinke@afs.org

UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization) offers online Guidelines on Intercultural Education. These guidelines provide an overview and fundamental understanding of an intercultural approach to education.

The document defines culture, education, language, religion, and diversity (among other concepts) and explains how their interrelation can help clarify what Intercultural Learning means and how best to approach it. UNESCO addresses the question: What is the role of Intercultural Education? and indicates four main objectives:

1) Learning to know. This objective highlights the value of a obtaining a general education, which brings learners into contact with other areas of knowledge and encourages communication.

2) Learning to do. This involves helping learners find their place within society and cultivates specific skills as well as an ability to develop and apply a broad range of new skills in diverse environments.

3) Learning to live together. Acquiring knowledge, skills and values that contribute to a collective spirit of collaboration allow learners to co-exist in societies rich with diversity.

4) Learning to be. Solidifying one’s sense of personality in order to act with autonomy, judgement and personal responsibility. Regard of a person’s potential and right to cultural difference strengthens identity and builds cognitive capacity.

The document proposes three main principles for Intercultural Education:

I: Intercultural Education respects the cultural identity of the learner through the provision of culturally appropriate and responsive quality education for all. This means that the learning content should relate to, and build on the learner’s background and the resources they have access to; also, the knowledge transmission should be culturally appropriate, incorporating local pedagogy and traditional ways of learning and teaching. This way, learners can become deeply involved in the learning process.

II: Intercultural Education provides every learner with the cultural knowledge, attitudes and skills necessary to achieve active and full participation in society. This should happen by providing equal access to all forms of education, eliminating discrimination in the education system, facilitating the integration of migrant workers into the education system and respecting their special needs. It should also happen by eliminating prejudice about culturally distinct population groups within a country and by promoting an inclusive learning environment.

III: Intercultural Education provides all learners with cultural knowledge, attitudes and skills that enable them to contribute to respect, understanding and solidarity among individuals, ethnic, social, cultural and religious groups and nations. This should happen by encouraging learners to struggle against racism and discrimination. It can also occur through the development of curricula that promote knowledge about cultural backgrounds and their impact. This means that learners should be aware of how our way of thinking, feeling, and evaluating is shaped by our own cultural background and experience.

By understanding how our background has shaped our values, assumptions, and judgments, we build a base for effective, reflective communication and cooperation across cultures and social boundaries – thereby developing the knowledge, skills, and understanding to create a more just and peaceful world.

The Guidelines on Intercultural Education are a part of the UNESCO online library, where you can also find other materials to learn more about ICL, Human Rights, Education, Culture, and more.

All Different-All Equal: A Wealth of Education Materials Online

Posted on July 10, 2012 by charlotte.steinke@afs.org

On its website, the European Youth Center in Budapest (supported by the Council of Europe) provides a wealth of interesting, useful, and free materials – one of them is Compass: A Manual on Human Rights Education With Young People. Compass is a resource that can give you a lot of interesting ideas for how to conduct workshops with young people, and how to support them to find out more about world issues. Detailed session plans and materials are available to you – to facilitate sessions on globalization, social rights, peace and violence, discrimination, gender equality, and many other topics.

Another tool that is offered by the the European Youth Center in Budapest is the All Different – All Equal Education Pack. It provides basis for intercultural education, and can be very useful for facilitating sessions on the meaning of difference and how we deal with it across cultures of age, gender, ability, social class and ethnicity. Topics that the Education Pack touches on are discrimination, economical inequalities, and the way we think about and classify the world around us. An awareness of these differences is important for us to manage them effectively and appropriately.

In addition to an introductory discussion of these issues, more than 30 activities are listed and explained. They can help to explore what it means to be truly open to those from different backgrounds. You can also find a list of movies to illustrate the content and help facilitate discussions. The All Different – All Equal Education Pack is a resource that helps us take a deeper look at how we live together and how we can develop the curiosity that is needed in order to overcome the fear and uncertainty that often goes hand in hand with being confronted with difference. These tools are useful to support an AFS experience with the political and intercultural awareness that can help young people to really learn about the world we live in and have the knowledge, skills, and understanding to create a more just and peaceful world.

AFS History & Archives

Posted on July 2, 2012 by laura.schaack

As AFS Intercultural Programs approaches its centennial in 2014, we should all take a moment to reflect on the history that has led AFS to become what it is today!

Originally an ambulance service that was active during both of the World Wars, AFS, or American Field Service at the time, rescued wounded soldiers from the front lines, regardless of their nationality, and brought them to a hospital to be treated. Soon after the end of the Second World War, AFS changed its focus to become an exchange program working to increase global peace and international understanding. Today, AFS still upholds intercultural interconnectedness as a standard practice as it provides intercultural learning experiences to a wide range of audiences. To learn more about AFS’s rich past, visit the AFS Archives online, or in-person (at the AFS-USA New York office) where you can see World War I and II helmets, uniforms, photos, letters and other types of memorabilia.

This is a photo of Howard Brooke, just after his ambulance collided with a tank going in for attack. It was taken in the winter of 1943 – 1944 near Ortona, Italy. (Photograph by John C. Cobb II)

A group of U.S. American volunteers and British soldiers in Tunisia in 1943. Pictured from left to right: Bill Cobb, Gordon Ellis, Bombardier Jones (Medical Orderly), Bob Orton (AFS Volunteer), Dick Corse, Doc Brown, Tom Jones. (Photograph by John C. Cobb II)

These are just a few examples of the images that are available in the AFS Archives. If you wish to view any of this material in person, or learn more about the archives, you are welcome to contact Nicole Milano, the AFS Head Archivist (nicole.milano@afs.org) or call (212) 479-1129.

The CONTACT Program – Conflict Transformation Across Cultures

Posted on June 12, 2012 by charlotte.steinke@afs.org

Are you interested in a combination of Intercultural Learning, Peace Building, and Conflict Transformation? If you are, the CONTACT program, offered by the SIT (School for International Training) is worth knowing about! It is a program that offers learning opportunities that aim to make transformation of conflicts across cultures possible. The program has a special focus on the intercultural conflicts that we are confronted with and which often need special attention in an increasingly globalized world. In many cases, they are more difficult to transform than conflicts that occur with people from familiar contexts. In addition to this, many of them are even further compromised by stereotyping and other challenging intergroup dynamics.

The CONTACT Program deals with dynamics of intercultural conflicts, and with how these conflicts can be transformed. More specifically, the program introduces participants to the tools that can be used to achieve this. In the 3-week Summer Peacebuilding Program that takes place every year in Brattleboro, VT in the United States, practitioners from all over the world come together to learn more about intercultural conflicts and to share their experiences. The Contact program also offers a 2-semester-distance Graduate Certificate Program, which includes a field seminar. In addition to these two options, CONTACT now offers a Program in Kathmandu, Nepal, for South Asians who are interested in learning about the topic. Participants take part in a process which combines theory, self-reflection, community building, and collaborative problem solving which, within a multicultural learning environment, is extremely powerful.

The Contact program can support us in achieving the goals that we as AFSers have set ourselves: to provide intercultural learning opportunities to help people develop the knowledge, skills and understanding needed to create a more just and peaceful world. This may be a reason why more AFSers than ever are signing up for structured Intercultural Learning opportunities around the world. Find out more!

Interview with Tatsushi Arai, Professor in Peacebuilding and Conflict Transformation

Posted on April 23, 2012 by charlotte.steinke@afs.org

How do you deal with complicated conflicts, when two or more contradicting positions make a solution seem impossible? How can you transform the conflict so it becomes easier to manage?

Tatsushi Arai, professor at the SIT Graduate Institute, has recently given an interview to the SIT Graduate Institute Blog about his new book, Creativity and Conflict Transformation: Alternative Pathways to Peace. In the interview, he explains how creativity can help to transform intergroup conflicts.

Arai’s idea about what creativity means regarding conflict transformation is very different from a standard understanding of creativity that may come to mind – Michelangelo, maybe, or Einstein. To Tatsushi Arai, creativity for conflict transformation is not something of individual capability, but something that happens in a group. How so?

Tatsushi Arai, Professor in Peacebuilding and Conflict Transformation

Creative conflict transformation, as Arai sees it, happens through continuous dialogue and continuous interaction. It is shown when a small number of those who are involved in a conflict come up with unconventional ideas about why the conflict exists at all – with a different story about the causes of the conflict. When others feel they can accept these new explanations, the conflict can be transformed: goals shift, the evaluation of the conflict changes – and new solutions become possible.

Arai presents and analyzes 16 examples of how intergroup conflicts have been transformed in the past. The cases he looks at range from conflicts on the community level to international conflicts. He shows how the breakthroughs of conflict transformation became possible and what the elements are that lead to a re-evaluation of the conflict, and consequently to its transformation.

In the interview, you can learn more about Tatsushi Arai, his book, and find examples of what creative conflict transformation can mean. His ideas can inspire our work as AFSers, and improve how we help others connect. To understand the underlying principles of conflicts and how to transform conflicts is to have access to a very powerful tool. When we combine it with our awareness of cultural differences, possible misinterpretations and different ways of how conflicts are approached in different cultures, we can be even more successful and responsible in our day to day lives – in the intercultural environment of AFS and elsewhere.

Engaging with Difference: The Essential Work of AFS

Posted on January 22, 2012 by Anna.Collier

By Christian Kurten, Chairperson of the AFS Board of Trustees

The following is a transcript of remarks given by Christian Kurten in his address to the Intercultural Competence and Conflict Resolution Symposium organized by AFS Sweden in Stockholm on 21 October 2011 and attended by various dignitaries including the members of Sweden’s royal family. Read more about the Symposium in the Intercultural Link Newsletter, v3, i1.

Your Royal Highness Crown Princess Victoria, distinguished speakers and honored guests: In 1998 John Hume, a Nobel Peace Prize winner and Irish politician said “All conflict is about difference; whether the difference is race, religion, or nationality the European visionaries decided that difference is not a threat, difference is natural. Difference is the essence of humanity. Difference is an accident of birth and it should never be the source of hatred or conflict. The answer to difference is to respect it. Therein lies a most fundamental principle of peace: respect for diversity.”

Our AFS statement of purpose says that we help people develop the knowledge, skills and understanding needed to create a more just and peaceful world, and we do this by reaching out to a diverse community of global citizens determined to build bridges between cultures. As we prepare to begin our discussions today on the role of intercultural education in contributing to peace building, I cannot help remarking on the number of our distinguished speakers and guests who have done so much to work towards building a more peaceful world. Many of you are former or current AFS participants and volunteers and I believe that your presence here is not mere coincidence.

As an educational organization, AFS believes that learning about another culture through immersion in a school, family, and daily life in a community teaches us at a very human level that there is more than one way of looking at the world, more than one truth, and more than one way of being right. Intercultural learning thus helps us embrace diversity. When we become interculturally competent, we are more willing and able to engage appropriately and effectively with those who are different from us. AFS helps people develop intercultural competence by fostering knowledge, skills and attitudes that broaden our cultural perspectives. These skills are increasingly important in today’s interconnected world where we interact so widely with people from many cultures.

If all conflict is about difference, as Hume said, then helping people to develop intercultural competences that translate into a willingness to positively engage with others who are different from us is essential work, and that is the essential work of AFS.

Thank you.

20,000 Dialogues: Watch a Film, Start a Dialogue, Make Peace Happen

Posted on December 12, 2011 by laura.kline-taylor

20,000 Dialogues is an initiative that uses discussions about films to promote pluralism, dialogue, and civic engagement. Films always spark great discussion, almost everyone has an opinion about a film and no one needs to be an expert to join in. Watching a film and discussing it is a common yet powerful experience, a practical, meaningful way of helping people share ideas and build new perspectives. 20,000 Dialogues equips grassroots people with the films, tools, and resources to turn dialogue into action.

The idea of 20,000 Dialogues started after the release of UPF’s first film, Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet. People around the world viewed and discussed the film in their efforts to understand Muslims and build relationships after 9/11. The 20,000 Dialogues initiative was launched in August 2007 with the national PBS broadcast of UPF’s Cities of Light and the endorsement of the World Economic Forum’s Top 100 Council of Religious Leaders. It has subsequently been supported with grants from the U.S. Institute of Peace, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, One Nation, a special project of the Rockefeller Philanthropy Associates, and other institutions and individuals.

Find a film here or select one of the ICL films listed on this page and see how 20,000 dialogues suggests starting a living room dialogue to promote peace!