EIL Intercultural Learning

Here we are and I am in last week in Ghana.  I don’t want to talk about my feelings about how difficult it is to leave Ghana.  Simply I try not to think about it and enjoy that little time I have left.

I have some news.  First of all I have a new colleague and we’ve started running summer school.  Last three weeks were quiet busy.  I’ve been occupied with organizing and planning lessons, teaching and performing my usual duties.  Especially planning requires a lot of effort - you constantly have to find something new for children, as they get bored so quickly. The books and my experience in creative studies help me a lot.  Especially art is useful as we have few children with special needs, and art helps them to participate equally.  I can conclude that including children with special needs is most challenging task I have faced so far.

We have one HIV positive girl in our summer school and other children tend to avoid her.  They are unwilling to share toys or sit beside her.  I am trying hard to be positive role model and give the girl extra hug or just spend some time with her.  Spending time only with her actually brought another issue, as her best friend the girl with physical disability got jealous.  She demanded her friend to leave the classroom, other wise she would leave it herself.  I was able to resolve the issue by simply reminding that everyone is welcome take some time out and leave classroom, and come back when they are ready.  She didn’t want to leave.  Time out technique is the best technique ever!!! We use it a lot and it always works.

The experience helped me to change my approach to child welfare and work with children all together.  As part of my college work, I had to prepare and deliver art project in one of local schools.  I didn’t do too well.  My tutor said that sometimes I need to be strict and manage challenging behaviour in more appropriate terms.   Back than I had no idea what she is talking about, now I realize how permissive I was!  Now I understand that there is huge difference between discipline and child abuse!  Discipline involves establishing the rules and fallowing them, while child abuse is exploitation of one’s power over the child.  The discipline always gives many chances to improve, while child abuse is perceiving child as incapable of personal growth and ‘bold’ anyway.  The discipline provides plenty of positive reinforcement for good behaviour and effort, while child abuse is only about punishing any behaviour.

These new realizations helped my to change some of my personality traits as well as understand what ‘authoritative parenting’ means.