Narratives and stories are all around us. How do we as participants in civic life make sense of these stories? What do we do with the information that we receive? How do we decide what to filter out versus let in? And how can educators help students make sense of these stories to foster greater understanding of global challenges?
During the first week of August approximately 35 educators from across the country attended “Journalism: Production and Consumption across the Globe,” sponsored by the Global Studies Outreach Committee (GSOC), a cross-university consortium of which the Incubator is an active member and sponsor. GSOC’s annual workshop targets middle school, high school, and community college educators in the humanities and social sciences. This year, participants explored the intersections of journalism and global studies, examining both the influence of American journalism (i.e. both produced within American contexts and/or written from American perspectives) on the understanding of events and communities inside and outside the United States; as well as the ways journalism differs and remains the same in diverse global contexts.
Journalists spoke to participants throughout the week. Joshua Benton, director of Harvard’s Nieman Journalism Lab, presented the keynote address, “The State of the News in 2016.” Other speakers discussed the tension of presenting a story and creating a narrative while not stepping (or stumbling) into advocacy, the challenges and potential of comics as a journalistic medium, and the power of storytelling to construct a global health narrative.
Speakers also explored the importance of perspective and inclusion in journalism. South African photojournalist Greg Marinovich discussed how the Marikana miners’ strike was covered in the press, who told the story primarily through the eyes of the mining company and neglected the perspectives of the striking workers. The New York Times reporter Farah Stockman spoke about how American newspapers cover news abroad. The complete workshop program is available on the GSOC website.
Additionally, attendees participated in hands-on activities that explored methods to present such material and content in the classroom. These activities—based on the “thinking routines” developed by Harvard University’s Project Zero—supported deep conversations around curriculum and pedagogy. Each morning and during the workshop, small groups of teachers, led by GSOC facilitators, had the chance to both experience a routine as it might be used in the classroom and then discuss how they might adapt it to their own teaching settings. The thinking routines drew upon Project Zero’s diverse research-based initiatives, “Educating for Global Competence,” “Teaching for Understanding,” “Making Learning Visible,” and “Making Thinking Visible.” Activities were chosen to showcase how different routines could foster different types of discussions. Organizers explicitly emphasized the importance of choosing a routine that works well with the topic and material to be taught.
In addition to working with images, words, and texts, the participants were encouraged to explore their thinking through other mediums. At the beginning of the workshop, facilitators introduced three “throughline” questions, or conceptual puzzles, which touched on how stories and their telling influence our and others’ worldviews, how journalism differs based on context and setting, and how journalism empowers (or disempowers) people in different global and local contexts. Participants were asked to select one of those questions as an anchor for their reflections throughout the week.
On the final day of the workshop, they worked in small groups organized around their throughline question to create a physical representation of their reflections using everyday art supplies. While some teachers confessed that they had initially resisted such a hands-on activity—often chuckling as they noted the irony—they found themselves surprised at how much they enjoyed the process of representing abstract ideas through a physical process and working with their fellow participants. The facilitator, a teaching veteran with 35 years of teaching experience in the Cambridge Public Schools, also commented that it was good for teachers to step outside of their comfort zones, since that is what they as teachers often demand of their students.
Finally, the workshop kicked off GSOC’s second “Globalizing the Classroom Fellowship.” This program is a professional development opportunity for select participants to engage in ongoing conversations—with GSOC and each other—related to journalism and global studies throughout the 2016-2017 academic year. Read more about the program and learn about last year’s recipients and their projects.
“Journalism: Production and Consumption across the Globe” was offered by the Global Studies Outreach Committee, which is sponsored by the Asia Center, Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Center for African Studies, David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, and Harvard’s Global Health Education & Learning Incubator; it was developed in collaboration with Project Zero.