Global Education in the EFL Classroom: Narratives of Forced Migration - Single View

Please note that the seminar times indicated on Puls are not correct. The correct times are those given in the course description.

Please note: 

This project seminar takes place as a block seminar on the specified dates.  It is a COIL (Cooperative Online International Learning) seminar with international partner universities in South Africa, Mexico and the USA. Attendance is compulsory and online learning is required. 

Schedule: 

07.02.2020, 14.00-16.15

28.02.2020, 09.00-12.00

06.03.2020, 09.00-16.00

20.03.2020, 09.00-16.00 

17.04.2020, 14.00-16.15

08.05.2020, 14.00-17.00

International experience is of high importance for student teachers of English because they often teach in culturally diverse learning groups and, as foreign language teachers, also take on the role of 'cultural mediators': In our society, which is characterized by migration, cultural diversity and globalization, it is important that secondary school students develop communicative and intercultural competences in foreign language teaching, which enable them to communicate interculturally and to assume responsibility as 'global citizens'. In order to support and monitor such educational processes, foreign language teachers themselves must possess (inter-/trans-)cultural competences. Learning across national borders can be an essential key for students to understand and reflect perspectives and patterns in the perception of global phenomena and thus further develop their '(inter-/trans-) cultural competence’. 

Therefore, in this project seminar we will exchange ideas on the subject of forced displacement and migration with international partners from South Africa, USA, and Mexico. This topic is of global importance and, due to a number of different migration movements (e.g. Africa, Europe, Central America) it is currently also very much present in national discourses. The special value resulting from the international discussion in the planned project seminar with students from the respective countries is the possibility to view the phenomena of forced displacement and migration from different perspectives. 

Questions like the following allow for discussing and reflecting the topic with our international partners:

• Is there a 'different' way of thinking about displacement and seeking refuge in the respective countries? This addresses different experiences at the respective 'places' before, during and after displacement (e.g. life in one’s country of origin, causes of displacement, experiences in transit, arrival in (new) host country). 
• How does the subject of displacement manifest itself in the media and also in learning materials? Which voices are represented or silenced (labeling)? Here in particular the representation of refugees in pictures/photographs/videos, in statistics, in factual texts, in "refugee narratives" (life writings), in fictional texts and in social networks (Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, etc.). 
• How can different perspectives in foreign language teaching be experienced by learners?
• What activities allow for a critical understanding of the issue in the classroom? 

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