Job Discussion Forums

[Guy Courchesne]

Following another thread here...

How many of us out there find the topics of religion or politics useful or common in our classes?

Current affairs are often discussed in conversation classes I have/had in Mexico EFL work, though religion not.

Students I've had have often had a great interest in talking about politics and having their say, which, has been great to spur communication in a class. I find that most of the Mexican EFL students I've had, young and old, have had negative opinions about the Bush asministration, but at the same time, I feel they often reflect a lot of the local media.

How does this work out there in another classrooms around the world? Does religion ever come up as a class topic where you are? I work in a predominantly Catholic country...

[Nagoyaguy]

Those two topics are minefields at the best of times!

IMHO, as teachers we have to remain as impassive as possible on topics like this, and stick to the business of teaching our language as much as possible. There are a number of factors to consider;

1/ Age of students. In my case, I teach junior high school mainly. My students lack both the language skills and maturity to discuss these kinds of things in more than a cursory fashion. They are at a double disadvantage, in terms of the power relationship between adult and child, and also between teacher and student.

2/ the teacher/student relationship. When marks or grades are involved, the danger is that students will parrot the teacher in an attempt to curry favour and get higher marks.

3/ cultural factors. Many places, the students will just go along with the teacher. It really isnt a fair discussion when one person is arguing in their native tongue and the others are not.

I also teach adult EFL classes, and even in classes where the students are fairly high level, I try to deflect those questions. The best thing to do is to get the students to answer each other, rather than using the class as a captive audience for our personal agendas.

[merlin]

quite often students want it explained to them the why of all these crazy events and I explain the various points of view - conservative, liberal, etc. I try to use the third person as often as possible, not really giving my personal opinion unless directly asked - and then I say "but that isn't the way most people in the US think."

Of course, the sudents need to be at least upper-intermediate level and mature adults interested in the topic for this. It's always at their request, never a lesson planned by me.

[Glenski]

[ChinaMovieMagic]

Check out National Issues Forum materials. Some are available for free via Download. The Format for all their topic follows the same pattern, with 3 positions for all of the topics, which include US political/social issues, as well as international issues. The focus is upon understanding the perspective/value system of others. NIF is well-developed in USA, and has been used in EFL classes. I participated in NIF Forums on the same issue, in 3 different communities of the LA area:
*coastal-Liberal >>Santa Monica
*Breeding ground of Rap Stars etc.>>Compton
*mixed Chinese-Chicano suburb>>>San Gabriel

The NIF Format can have a protective element, in that folks can argue/discuss/dialogue a position, within the framework of a Role Play. That is, they're not necessarily identifying themselves with that position. This can be useful in countries/cultures in which discussion of controversial issues in public/class is not customary/accepted/approved of/etc.

Another element...using segments of movies for Role Plays based upon issues--political/religious/social/economic etc. Check out
www.filmsite.org
www.script-o-rama.com

If there are folks out there who are interested in this approach (which is supported by International TESOL as well as JALT in Japan--see BELOW) then we can use the Internet/develop a FORUM section... to share out learning experiences.
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[leeroy]

Politics? In the class? Generally not - my students either don't care (the majority) or are distressingly ill-informed (Chinese). On occasion, though, I've been known to use George Bush as casual examples for certain types of elicitation...

Religion? Hell no.. I wouldn't want to get dragged into that - and what with my own position of anti-theism, things could get ugly quickly. There are enough other topics to warrant class attention!

[iraqikiwi]

Quite a thoughtful question at the very beginning.

Even though students may not bother to make their statement about religion and politics, it is important for teachers, or professors to understand it themselves and involve it in your teaching.

Being a teacher is like a guide to the students. What you teach them should be considered by the students to think about, even though it may not have anything in what paper or subject you teach. Teachers should be open to have outside topic discussions that they should try to absorb and also open up to, with their given opinion involved in the conversation.

You may know I'm still a student at university but I work as a volenteer
teacher at a high school. I have a pretty good relationship with my professors at university. Most know I'm Iraqi and sometimes when I ask for some help with a couple of assignments, we would end up talking about politics and religion for quite a while. I would ask for their opinion because of their high qualification and intelligent level of thinking and they would do pretty much the same. I also had the same thing at my work in high school where even high school students asked a couple of questions that were wrongly misinterpreted. Making a career at a university level is also learning about reality even though it has nothing to do with their degree they're studying.

It should be of everyone's interest, in my opinion.

Regards,
Sara.

[Nauczyciel]

Politics or religion may be a good topic to raise when the class is somehow jaded. It may be tricky though. Once I tried a discussion like that with my adult students, some of them in fact actively involved in politics, and after that the students were looking daggers at one another! It was a bit difficult for me as well, because as a moderator I had to be impartial, but some of the matters cried for response

[merlin]

An interesting way to do it with interested adults would be though DeBono's CoRT method.

Do a google search.
You'll either understand or you won't.
Most won't.

[Nagoyaguy]

Speaking of politics............


where did the Mexico thread go, with everyone's political scores and the quiz? I found it quite relevant, as I have a theory that teaching, particularly teaching abroad, attracts a farther left wing crowd than many other jobs. Now, it is gone.


Am I in the twilight zone?

[jpvanderwerf2001]

[Boy Wonder]

Silvio Berlusconi and Alessandro Mussolini form an integral part of my lessons.
I am grateful to them both...not only for their in-yer-face combative style of politics and views on crime/immigration but also for providing loads of class discussion whenever the need arises.

[Guy Courchesne]

[moonraven]

I feel it depends on what the goal of the use of political discussion in the classroom is. And who sets the parameters. It's very easy for teacher to abuse their authority in this area.

It's even easier for teachers to abuse their authority in the area of religion. We've even had some posters brag about doing so here on Dave's. I don't touch religion in any of my classes.

That said, political discussions can help students to develop mature perspectives. (NOTE: students, not posters on Dave's.) Four years ago at the junior high school where I was teaching I took a group of 8th graders to participate in a model United Nations event in San Antonio, Texas. And then we sponsored such an event, which was completely organized by the 9th graders and was attended by students from 8 other junior high schools here in Mexico. Some of the debate topics were: Security Council Reform, What to do about WMDs, Is There a Solution for the Israel/Palestine Conflict, and about a dozen more. It was a great event--many students were very involved in the topics and resolution of world problems.

My students prepared for the event by debating the Pinochet case, the Fujimori problem (he actually fled to Japan while the students were debating--and a group of them announced his flight to the whole school first thing in the morning), the futility of UN resolutions against Israel, and other appropriate topics.

I disagree with Nagoyaguy (surprise?): junior high students clearly have the maturity to take on and deal with sensitive, complex and controversial political topics. We could learn a lot from them.

[Guy Courchesne]