 Breaking
Stereotypes Together
Ages: Ages 12+
Languages: All
Facilitator: Kate Kharitonova in Azerbaijan
Contact: For more information about participating
in this or other iEARN projects, write to iearn@iearn.org
or see http://media.iearn.org/projects
|
|
“The issue raised in your project
'stereotypes' is quite interesting and important. We face
similar challenges in breaking a good number of stereotype
problems in Sierra Leone. Our kids within such age brackets,
as well as teachers and youth educators will learn, research
and think with you about these problems and find ways to curb
its more often awful practices that are very bad to absorb.”
Andrew Benson Greene (Sierra Leone)
|
Online camp organized by iEARN Uzbekistan
Center and School Connectivity for Uzbekistan. |
|
“I really like the idea of your project which is very
interesting and also beneficial. I would be glad to help you
as I want to know about other countries”
Mohamed Gaafar (Egypt) |
|
Breaking
Stereotypes Together
By Kate Kharitonova, iEARN Student in Azerbaijan
How came an idea of the Breaking Stereotypes
Together Project?
Stereotypes have strongly come in our life and frequently
they complicate it for us, because, creating wrong representation
about the country and about the other people, stereotypes
in many respects break our thinking, limit our actions
and opportunities... |
|
Being one of the participants of 2003 iEARN conference in Japan
I have noticed, that sometimes (unfortunately it was originally
enough frequently), even before finding out a name of the person,
it was asked, whence he/she is. And sometimes it was enough to stop
dialogue: only because the person heard something unpleasant about
this country, involuntarily connected it to any event and automatically
transferred it on the person from this country...
Certainly, further, during involuntary and usually necessary dialogue
and communication, all of us learned about each other and it was
visible, that by joint efforts we - the participants - amicably
overcame a wall of alienation, in many respects generated due to
stereotypes, wrong or very poor knowledge of the country... Despite
of the big distinctions in a ways of life and thinking, in culture,
religions and in many other aspects, all of us became good friends!
For a week we have achieved almost complete mutual understanding,
and many students could not understand any more how it was possible
to ignore the other person only because of his/her belonging to
other religion, nation, country, etc.
Then I fully realized a huge role and value of the communication
in our life! I have understood, that only together we can reach
something worth, to change the world around of ourselves and to
make it better, more purely, more friendly! Teamwork and dialogue
during achievement of any result pull people together, help them
to understand each other better, to develop a tolerance and patience,
which are so necessary for us today.
Having understood all these factors, separating people, I wanted
to create the project which would enable everyone to realize itself
as a part of the big community, and to come to the understanding,
that it is never possible to approach to anybody with ready measures,
stereotypes and prejudices…
How to participate in
the project and what are the benefits from the participation?
Nowadays in this project participate students from Azerbaijan,
Belarus, Congo, Egypt, India, Japan, Pakistan, Spain, USA,
Uzbekistan … This creates a fine opportunity not only
to conduct successful work, but also to find friends from
many interesting countries.
It’s not difficult to start the work in the project,
because all of us heard something about other countries, we
have any representation about them, associations, stereotypes.
At the beginning, to acquaint participants of the project
with each other, it is necessary to publish at a forum their
representation (introduction): age (it is desirable to specify
a gender), a place of study or work, to write about the hobbies
and interests and, certainly, to write a little about their
country, city, etc.
The further work will consist in an exchange of associations
about the various countries. Students can help each other
to determine the stereotypes, solve/ disproof them, explain
and comment…Some stereotypes or associations are correct
and right (for example, if someone has such association I
can’t deny that Maiden Tower is the symbol of Baku city),
so they don’t need to be broken. In that case it’s
possible to give to others more information(write the history,
tell it’s story or your own impression, send the photos,
etc.)
Having shared it at a forum “My Country/ Breaking
Stereotypes”, the participant can receive opinions of
others about it: to learn about their stereotypes, ideas,
thoughts about this occasion, to receive an explanation about
correctness or incorrectness of his position… Students
are welcomed to use their creativeness, imagination and fantasy
to make the work in the project more interesting and vivid.
Participants of a forum themselves have noted, that work
at a forum creates an opportunity for development of tolerance,
respect for another's opinion, helps to learn a lot of new
and interesting information. “Breaking Stereotypes Together”
project could help to the participant to know more not only
about the other countries, but also about his/her own. Because
during the work in this project pupils will need to tell about
their country, and for this purpose they should know much
about it… They will have a motivation to write to the
auditory and learn about the local and global issues and current
events. To succeed in it students will learn how to work with
different sources of information, learn their importance and
value (also it will develop their critical thinking). Improving
their writing skills by discussing each writing and rating
it students will learn how to explain correctly their point
of view. |
Activities and collaboration:
- In the end on March starting from March 23 to April 1, was conducted
Navruz – 2004 online camp which is organized by iEARN Uzbekistan
Center and School Connectivity for Uzbekistan project administrated
by IREX. Anatoly Kochnev (iEARN Uzbekistan Coordinator): “I
am writing you to ask you to participate in the camp personally.
Everyday we will have forum with project facilitators. The following
projects were chosen for the camp work: Lewin, Breaking Stereotypes
Together, and Through Youthful Eyes. We believe all these three
projects are some of the iEARN projects, which show the power
and spirit of iEARN and this is why we decided to bring it to
kids.”
- "Breaking Stereotypes Together” project is
also collaborating with an online newspaper “Junior
Journal” edited by children from all over the world
with the support of MIT. http://journal.jrsummit.net:8001/servlet/pluto
“It’s a very interesting, and
thought-provoking project… I am so happy to participate in
your wonderful project. This project will change the views of many
for the better and I will stick by this project and make sure that
the message is heard!...I think the your project has come in the
perfect time. We need a project like yours especially now, that
war is occurring and that people have misconceptions about Americans
and Middle Eastern people. In your project people can read about
stereotypes and understand that stereo typing is wrong. I can get
information from other perspectives, rather then relying on the
media or news to find my information. I can find all the information
I need about other cultures in your project.
The goal of the project I think is to change peoples mind and perceptions
of other cultures, countries and traditions. Change people’s
minds for the better, for the positive. Your project promotes learning
because it teaches students, adults and teachers that stereotyping
is wrong, the project also gives the viewer an insight of other
cultures, religions and traditions. There people can learn about
countries and languages. "
Nuria Peguero (USA)
top
|
Students
destroy or confirm stereotypes that arise when a particular
country is mentioned. 
Home