(2010). Language Policy, Multilingual Education, and Power in Rwanda. Language Policy, v9 n3 p191-215 Aug. The evolution of Rwanda's language policies since 1996 has played and continues to play a critical role in social reconstruction following war and genocide. Rwanda's new English language policy aims to drop French and install English as the only language of instruction. The policy-makers frame the change as a major factor in the success of social and education reforms aimed at promoting reconciliation and peace and increasing Rwanda's participation in global economic development. However, in Rwanda, the language one speaks is construed as an indicator of group affiliations and identity. Furthermore, Rwanda has the potential to develop a multilingual educational policy that employs its national language, Kinyarwanda (Ikinyarwanda, Rwanda), to promote mass literacy and a literate, multilingual populace. Rwanda's situation can serve as a case study for the ongoing roles that language policy plays in the politics of power…. [Direct]
(2007). American Transgressive Interventions: The Question of Genocide. College Quarterly, v10 n4 p1-8 Fall. This author, a teacher of political science and liberal studies, states his belief that challenging students to examine and analyze radical ideas develops their capacity to think clearly and skeptically. Following in this spirit, this essay examines the discrepancy between the stated objectives of American foreign policy and its practice. The author contends that this discrepancy is best exemplified by the apogee of war crimes: genocide. In support of his belief, he presents an analysis of two cases: Iraq and East Timor. The former is an example of direct guilt, the latter of complicity…. [PDF]
(2009). Using Simon Wiesenthal's \The Sunflower\ to Teach the Study of Genocide and the Holocaust. College Teaching, v57 n3 p167-176 Sum. The author discusses a project called \\The Sunflower\ Symposium,\ named in honor of Simon Wiesenthal's \The Sunflower\ (1998). The project was a catalyst for discussions on legalized discrimination, the infringement of civil rights, (in)justice, (in)tolerance, and civic responsibility, influencing students to connect the Holocaust to other world events. It proved an effective pedagogic method for examining critically and taking action on important global issues. Evidence of the effectiveness of this message is presented and suggestions for integrating literature into courses are offered. (Contains 3 notes.)… [Direct]
(2007). Teaching about Genocide in a New Millennium. Social Education, v71 n1 p21-23 Jan-Feb. The \Darfur is Dying\ website was the winning entry of a contest called Darfur Digital Activist, launched by MTV's 24-hour college network (mtvU). The site describes the winning game as \a narrative-based simulation where the user negotiates forces that threaten the survival of his or her refugee camp. It offers a faint glimpse of what it is like for the more than 2.5 million who have been internally displaced by the crisis in Sudan.\ In this article, the author expresses his views on the appropriateness of using computer-based simulation as a way of teaching students about genocide. The author stands by his position: the use of the \Darfur is Dying\ simulation was inappropriate. His hope is that the way new technologies are used will help students to access authentic information from primary sources. Placed within the context of multiple authentic experiences, game-like simulations may aid the process of dialogue and subsequent critical consciousness that leads to action. Even the… [Direct]
(2008). Power to the Pupils. Teaching Tolerance, n34 p52-53 Fall. Anyone who laments that American young people are apathetic, uninvolved or not sufficiently outraged clearly is not up on the news. This article presents some news illustrating that young people are involved on some issues concerning the environment, the improvement of their schools, justice, the affordability of higher education, fairer immigrant wages, the war, and genocide…. [Direct]
(2006). The Tenth Commemoration of the Srebrenica Genocide. Social Education, v70 n4 p209-214 May-Jun. The genocide in Srebrenica was the largest single act of genocide in Europe in 50 years, or since the Naziperpetrated Holocaust. In this article, the author was invited by the Bosnian foreign ministry to attend a 10-year commemoration of the genocide on July 11, 2005. It was followed by an international conference in Sarajevo, "The International Scientific Conference on the Genocide against the Bosniaks of UN Safe Area Srebrenica in July 1995–Lessons for Future Generations," on July 12-14 2005. The author states that the focus of the conference had been, in part, the lessons learned from the tragedy of Srebrenica. Many scholars considered this angle, both in their talks and during informal conversations. (Contains 4 notes.)… [Direct]
(2007). Gender, Genocide, and Ethnicity: The Legacies of Older Armenian American Mothers. Journal of Family Issues, v28 n4 p567-589. Women use legacies to help family members articulate family identity, learn family history, and provide succeeding generations with information about family culture. Using feminist standpoint theory and the life-course perspective, this qualitative study examined the intergenerational transmissions that 30 older Armenian American mothers received and transmitted to succeeding generations within the sociohistorical experience of genocide. Mothers passed on legacies that included family stories, rituals/activities, and possessions. Because of multiple losses during the Armenian Genocide, they emphasized legacies that symbolized connection to family, underscored family cohesion, and accentuated ethnic identity. Tensions were evident as well because women's sense of responsibility for legacies clashed with their limited cultural knowledge, few inherited possessions, and the inevitable assimilation of their children and grandchildren into the dominant U.S. culture…. [Direct]
(2011). Nothing Exceptional: Against Agamben. Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies, v9 n1 p96-125 May. Giorgio Agamben's work has become widely influential as a guide to explaining the extra-constitutional powers assumed by governments under the rubric of the War on Terror. His formulations, such as Homo Sacer and State of Exception, have been extended to apply to a wide variety of experiences of repression of liberties or social control, including the repression of Roma in Europe, of undocumented immigrants, and others. This essay argues, however, that Agamben's approach, while insightful and well-meaning, is potentially disastrous for the defense of the very liberties that those utilizing them seek to protect. By demonstrating that Agamben's categories were developed without reference to crucial historical experiences, including slavery and anti-slavery, genocide against indigenous peoples and enclosures of common land and resources, fail to provide either a convincing explanation for the rise of the phenomena he critiques, or a plausible strategy for confronting or reversing them…. [PDF]
(2011). Posttraumatic Psychological Distress and Resettlement: The Need for a Different Practice in Assisting Refugee Families. Journal of Family Social Work, v14 n1 p43-53. Social work practitioners are increasingly confronted with couples and families who have come from war-torn countries. Refugees may have experienced genocide, organized violence, ethnic wars, displacement, and losses of various kinds. Such experiences will often be carried through the post-migratory period and obscure legitimate individual and family processes that are often evaluated through a psychopathology lens. In this context, there is a pressing need to be attentive to refugee situations around the world and to issues related to forced migration and its impact on families. In an attempt to fill the gap in the literature on intervention with refugee families, this article presents two of the most compelling aspects of the refugee experience that can have a lasting impact on families and couples: premigration traumatic events and their potential impact on the refugee resettlement experience, and postmigration social and psychological experiences. The concept of \trauma\ is… [Direct]
(2013). Toward Democratic Education and Transformational Learning: An Examination of Students' Experiences at Kigali Institute of Education. ProQuest LLC, Ed.D. Dissertation, Northern Illinois University. This dissertation examines the experiences of Kigali Institute of Education students using a framework of democratic education theories. In Rwanda, the discriminatory and non-critical education system is believed to have been one of the major causes for the civil strife that has characterized the country, beginning in its post independence to its culmination in the 1994 genocide. These injustices have been associated with the colonial education system that promoted cultural supremacy over the indigenous populations. Also, such injustices can be blamed on education's failure to incorporate issues of social justice during the educational reconstruction in post-colonial times. After 1994, Rwanda instituted educational reforms, in part, to facilitate the process of democracy, peace building and active citizenship. By reviewing curriculum documents and conducting in-depth and focus group interviews, this study sought to analyze students' and teachers' experiences in light of the post-1994… [Direct]
(2013). "Here's to the Crazy Ones:" Legendary Words Spark Educators and Businesses. Techniques: Connecting Education and Careers (J3), v88 n2 p48-51 Feb. During the summer of 2006, as part of a court ruling, Olympic High School of Charlotte-Mecklenberg School (CMS) District, was accused of committing "academic genocide" against its students and was threatened to be taken over by the state of North Carolina. However, in 2005, Olympic had earlier won a $1.2 million grant from a high school change agent associated with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. By the time of the ruling, the school was already deeply engaged in a transformation to become a campus of five theme-based small high schools: International Business and Communications Studies; Biotechnology and Health; Global Studies and Economics; Arts and Humanities; and Math, Engineering, Technology and Science. The school improved immediately. In fact, just five years after Olympic became a small schools campus, the CMS district conducted an exhaustive study about the performance of its schools because of serious impending cost cuts which would require closing many… [Direct]
(2007). The Grassroots Community in the Vanguard of Inclusion: The Post-Genocide Rwandan Prospects. International Journal of Inclusive Education, v11 n5-6 p607-626 Sep. More than a decade has passed since Rwanda was plunged into the most atrocious genocide of our time. Hundreds of thousands of lives were lost and many more were left in desperate conditions. The economic and social reconstruction of the country has since dominated the national agenda for recovery. It is within this reform agenda that this paper looks at the situation of the post-genocide young people with disabilities and the possible pathways for their inclusion. It points out that it is not all gloomy news. In the face of the challenging socio-economic situations, the search for appropriate inclusion models for Rwanda should be guided by two important factors: The lessons learnt from the past mistakes, and by exploring alternative prospects that may involve rediscovering the untapped potentials within the grassroots communities…. [Direct]
(2012). Rediscovering "Race Traitor": Towards a Critical Race Theory Informed Public Pedagogy. Race, Ethnicity and Education, v15 n1 p85-100. This article attempts to politically resituate Ignatiev and Garvey's conception of the "Race Traitor" within contemporary notions of Critical Race Theory and Public Pedagogy. Race Traitor has been critiqued both by those on the academic and neo-conservative right, who accuse advocates of the project of genocide and misuse of public funds, and has a number of critics on the left who consider that the project is misguided, posturing and self-affirming for guilty whites and politically untenable. There are also post-structuralist critiques of the "Race Traitor" position, which overstate its focus on embodiment and the post-racial as opposed to its concrete suggestions for resisting racial oppression. In this article we argue that Race Traitor must be situated within the politics of its time, which is within anarchist and Marxist politics, and that this contextualisation enables one to consider Race Traitor as a political form with resonance for contemporary Marxists,… [Direct]
(1992). Teaching about Genocide. A Guidebook for College and University Teachers: Critical Essays, Syllabi, and Assignments. This guidebook is an outgrowth of a 1991 conference on \Teaching about Genocide on the College Level.\ The book is designed as an introduction to the subject of genocide to encourage more teachers to develop new courses and/or integrate aspects of the history of genocide into the curriculum. The book is divided into two parts. Part 1, \Assumptions and Issues,\ contains the essays: (1) \The Uniqueness and Universality of the Holocaust\ (Michael Berenbaum); (2) \Teaching about Genocide in an Age of Genocide\ (Helen Fein); (3) \Presuppositions and Issues about Genocide\ (Frank Chalk); and (4) \Moral Education and Teaching\ (Mary Johnson). Part 2, \Course Syllabi and Assignments,\ contains materials on selected subject areas, such as anthropology, history, history/sociology, literature, political science, psychology, and sociology. Materials include: \Teaching about Genocide\ (Joyce Freedman-Apsel); (2) \Destruction and Survival of Indigenous Societies\ (Hilda Kuper); (3) \Genocide in… [PDF]
(2015). Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow: School Desegregation and Resegregation in Charlotte. Harvard Education Press "Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow" provides a compelling analysis of the forces and choices that have shaped the trend toward the resegregation of public schools. By assembling a wide range of contributors–historians, sociologists, economists, and education scholars–the editors provide a comprehensive view of a community's experience with desegregation and economic development. Here we see resegregation through the lens of Charlotte, North Carolina, once a national model of successful desegregation, and home of the landmark Swann desegregation case, which gave rise to school busing. This book recounts the last forty years of Charlotte's desegregation and resegregation, putting education reform in political and economic context. Within a decade of the Swann case, the district had developed one of the nation's most successful desegregation plans, measured by racial balance and improved academic outcomes for both black and white students. However, beginning in the 1990s, this… [Direct]