IGSCI 2013: Fulfilling Children’s Right, Introducing sensitive issues into classes in time of responsible society

As language teachers, especially foreign language teachers, in 21st Century, we live in such critical moment. In this time, in this complex live and society, we face serious global issues of terrorism, ethnic conflict, social inequality, injustice, religious conflicts, racial segregation, and environmental destruction. How can we prepare our students to cope with these problems? What is our responsibility as language teachers in a world of war, poverty, prejudice, and natural destruction/pollution?

Guk Sueb and Niki Raga Tantri
with Prof. Budi Darma
during Sang Guru 2 International Conference
at State University of Surabaya

It is not easy task for us to provide understanding to the students about those issues. This month, Niki Raga Tantri and I have opportunity to present our paper during International Graduate Student Conference on Indonesia (IGSCI) 2013, Gajah Mada University Jogjakarta. Our paper focuses on how to bring sensitive issues in the classroom, especially language classroom of secondary level. Here is the abstract of our paper presented during the IGSCI 2013:

Introducing sensitive issues in ELT classes of secondary schools in time of responsible society

Guk Sueb & Niki Raga Tantri

Graduate School in English Language TeachingState University of Malang, Indonesia

ABSTRACT
Raising a child is probably the most gratifying job any of educators will ever have—and one of the toughest. In large part, that is because times have changed. We live in an increasingly complex world that challenges us every day with a wide range of disturbing issues that are difficult for children to understand and for adults to explain. All teachers will inevitably teach about sensitive topics in their classes, especially classes that will deal with international perspectives such international studies and English language teaching (ELT) that occurs in secondary schools in Indonesia. These sensitive topics may range from racism, forced labor or slavery to bullying, sexual orientation, gender biases, poverty, diseases, disaster — and may be completely unexpected. Any topic of a sensitive nature may make even the best of teachers uncomfortable when exploring the topic with students. Despite the emergence of the concept of cross cultural understanding in ELT, but mostly the natural reaction of the English language teachers is often to shy away from difficult or controversial topics, or to approach them from a superficial, strained or half-hearted standpoint, or even try to avoid these topics, leaving the secondary children into confusion as they will face the global challenges for the upcoming years. But many times these topics are crucially important to students’ development and awareness of the world and its social, moral, political and civic underpinnings. Students of secondary schools deserve to be taught about these topics in authentic, engaging and purposeful ways.  This is the teachers who deal with global development perspective should have foundation in introducing sensitive issues to the children in their classes.

Keywords: sensitive issues, child’s development, tolerance, responsible society

There will be more than eighty papers during this conference. Further update about the conference will follow.

At A Glance: ASEAN Youth Initiative 2013

ASEAN Youth Initiative with Secretary John Kerry

The two-day ASEAN Youth pre-Summit was held at Jerudong International School in Brunei, in the form of youth leadership initiative workshop. This workshop was intended to create initial framework for the greater ASEAN Youth Summit held on December 2013 in Manila, The Philippines.

There were 25 youth delegates from South-East Asian countries and the organizer (AyalaFoundation) of the program, discussing some issues as well as opportunities for the sustainable youth engagement following the summit. There were two main objectives from this workshop: the establishment of youth initiative as the core team and the issues to be advocated for further discussion during the summit in Manila.

The workshop was started by team-building activities as well as sharing ideas about the characteristics of the youth in each country. From this, we could set and determine the level of knowledge of the ASEAN youth in relation to youth empowerment through community engagements.

The next agenda was to determine the advocacies in relation to the (urgent) issues in South-East Asian region. Various issues were proposed; then, we classified the issues into five major headings:

1. Education: education for remote area, education about disaster prevention, and strengthening the education system through public policy advocacies, and youth leadership empowerment;
2. Environment: eco-friendly policy/lives as well as sustainability program advocacies;
3. Social issues: human trafficking, women empowerment and gender equality, religious tolerance, and freedom of speech (youth and social media);
4. Economic: economic development, health (and living cost), and discussion especially youth employment; and
5. Cultural preservation, creating understanding toward the cultural diversity and difference within the globalization.

I see the issues are very prospective for Indonesian delegates for the summit in December such as social issues in religious tolerance, cultural preservation (e.g. PlayPlus), sustainability program, and education about disaster. The method in selecting the delegates will be discussed later, especially within the alumni coordinators of each country.

Besides that, we also had great surprise visits by US Ambassador for ASEAN David L. Carden and US Secretary of State John Kerry. During the conversation with the two prominent figures, we could share our ideas and experiences in youth engagement. Ambassador Carden emphasized on inviting more youths into more serious and honest discussion for betterment, while Secretary Kerry talked about consistency in making different efforts in the heart of common people. I had an opportunity to deliver a question in relation to the US Government’s commitment dealing with sustainability program, especially in relation to tropical forest and global warming.

As the follow-up of this workshop, the twenty-five delegates and the event’s organizer keep discussing on the proper facilitation and other aspects for the summit in December. We really hope, during the summit, the youth delegates will be able to share their experience and perspectives in youth engagement they have involved as well as sustainable projects in regional scale. Can’t wait to see and share with other delegates in Manila!

“Your voice, Youth Voice!”

Bandar Seri Begawan, October 10^th, 2013