20 Responses to Virtual Roundtable: Teaching Tolerance

1. Mary Anne says:

   July 22, 2012 at 11:53 pm

   Students today, more than ever, interact with people of differing ethnicities, religions, and cultures. Classrooms are increasingly diverse, reflecting the communities where families live and work.

   1.    Does the person who learns to be open to differences have more opportunities in education, business, and future aspects of their life choices? If so how are educational institutions fostering that education
2. Jim Wynn says:

   July 23, 2012 at 12:32 am

   A common reaction from politicians can be seen here http://bit.ly/Nr524G. When we get into situations of conflict zero tolerance is perhaps justified to stop people harming one another but when the dust has settled can we not be tolerant.  In the riots a boy stole something of very little value, gave himself up and showed remorse, yet he still received a gaol sentence. Can that be right? 
3. Jim Wynn says:

   July 23, 2012 at 12:36 am

   When I was a Headteacher in England in the 1990s an 11 year old was brought to my office. He’d punched another boy in the face, apparently for no reason. After investigation it turned out that the aggressor had been thrown down the stairs at home, that morning, by a drunken father. The bou came to school an took out his anger on a random student. The victim’s parent’s wanted punishment, they demanded that the aggressor to be expelled from school.  I wonder what would you do in my shoes?
4. Gavin Dykes says:

   July 23, 2012 at 1:39 am

   I wonder how far we should think of life choices in your “teaser” Mary Anne.  In High Noon, J F RIschard talks of the 20 Global Challenges that we face and must somehow overcome.  Global Warming, Deforestation, Infectious Diseases and so on.  They form a familiar list, by it’s very nature a list full of challenges that know no boundaries.  At that level and, in my opinion, we should recognise interdependence. My failure will lead to your failure.  My success depends on your success.I’m not sure that I’ve seen it articulated in that way, but perhaps it’s recognition of interdependence that is helping drive increasing focus on collaboration, which seems to be happening in organisational contexts as companies hire staff.  Similarly for 21C skills at school and forthcoming inclusion of collaboration in the OECD PISA scores, used by so many countries to assess the relative performance of their education systems.I think there is much more for us to do to foster collaboration in learning, and would love to hear more of good examples from across the globe.
5. Jim Wynn says:

   July 23, 2012 at 1:53 am

   Technology, in the form of social media technologies, have been adopted by younger people across the whole planet, like no other technology before.  At the recent “Education Fast Forward” debate #EFF5 young people debated peace and looked forward to Peace One Day on September 21st.  The participants were from totally different backgrounds, from central Africa, London and New York, Cairo, South Africa to the Middle East- yet they carried a very very similar message. It seems that they, the youth are already tolerant of each other- so does the problem of tolerance get worse as we all get older? Are we less tolerant the older we are?
6. Gavin Dykes says:

   July 23, 2012 at 3:54 am

   Makes me wonder, is intolerance something that is formed by nature or nurture?  Are there times when intolerance is something that can be viewed as good – such as intolerance of cruelty?  For a more tolerant world, what steps might we take to address nurture or influence nature?
7. Kate Gatto says:

   July 23, 2012 at 7:26 am

   What an awful situation, Jim. Knowing what we know about the aggressor, I can’t help but feel sorry for both students in your story. What did you do? I’d suppose that a suspension at least would be required, but this would not aid a situation in which a cycle of abuse seems to be present. Perhaps community service is a viable alternative – although we don’t want students to see service as punishment . . .
8. Kate Gatto says:

   July 23, 2012 at 7:35 am

   Gavin, I really like how you’ve framed your response around interdependence. In today’s economy (and this often transfers over to our education system) that centres on competition, it is easy to lose sight of the need to collaborate. Our schools must recognize this necessity and teach our students real collaboration skills that cross boundaries of difference. One example of a set of projects that attempt to tackle this is Challenge 20/20, which is based on the book you mention by Rischard. Classes around the world choose one of Rischard’s identified 20 challenges and embarks on a collaborative project with another class from a different country. Educators can learn more, and get their classes involved this school year on the Challenge 20/20 website.
9. Kate Gatto says:

   July 23, 2012 at 7:48 am

   I agree, Jim – it struck me how the youth involved in EFF5 seemed to be united in their calls to action towards peace and the acknowledgement of the power of youth voices. Youth like this give me real hope for the future, and it is events like this that make me feel so lucky to be doing the work that I do. For those who missed the debate, here is a link to the recording. I do wonder though, how much my experience with these youth and the many young members of TakingITGlobal, a social network of youth around the world interested in learning about global issues and affecting positive local and global change, is reflective of the global youth population as a whole. Certainly, the potential for all youth to be active global citizens is there, and is evident in many inspiring stories around the world (the Arab Spring, for example) – you don’t need to look far for inspiring examples, but is this the norm? How do we engage and inspire the at-risk students who might not see their potential to be change-makers? How do we foster a sense of responsibility and confidence in them to build a better tomorrow? There are so many ways to answer this question, but I wonder, from your perspective Gavin and Jim – where do we start? Are our schools on the right track to empowering youth to really use their voices to solve global problems?
10. Mary Anne says:

    July 23, 2012 at 10:41 am

    I like this line of thinking…collaboration is becoming a bit of an over used word these days but fostering cultural understanding is a key component to collaboration. It’s interesting to note the forthcoming inclusion of collaboration in the OECD PISA scores… how are they tracking this ?
11. Gavin Dykes says:

    July 24, 2012 at 1:41 am

    Mary Anne, I agree. Cultural understanding is a key component of collaboration. Fostering cultural understanding is something that I think should be encouraged both within schools and in life beyond schools. I’d go further though. I’ve recently been involved in a number of discussions where we have reflected on the importance of empathy and humility in work and life in general. Empathy is required for development of cultural and personal understanding. Humility builds on the empathy. So to suggest a light hearted answer to Kate’s question where do we start? How about a course in humility…one in which we start as experts and we all learn how to be students?
12. Gavin Dykes says:

    July 24, 2012 at 1:53 am

    On PISA and collaboration. My fear is that in our efforts to draw collaboration into our current predominant languages and structures of education (for example to enable us to translate it into test scores of some kind) we risk diminishing its value. I hope I am wrong. I like the research by Elizabeth Murphy that suggested a hierarchy of online collaboration. It progresses through several stages from “online presence”, through “accommodating or reflecting the perspectives of others” to “building shared goals and purposes” and “producing shared artefacts”. I think that action of producing something real (and valuable) together can really have a positive impact on inclusion, equality and justice.
13. Kate Gatto says:

    July 24, 2012 at 7:45 am

    I agree that cultural understanding is critical to collaboration these days, and I really like your points about humility and empathy, Gavin. This reminds me of a conversation from a previous Education Fast Forward debate on “Making Learning Relevant” that I had with Sir Tim Brighouse about the role of teaching values in education. I feel that we often shy away from this in our discussions/debates about education because the consensus seems to be that we shouldn’t teach students what to think; rather we should teach them how to think. The values of humility and empathy is important ones to promote though, and are cornerstones for teaching how to be truly collaborative.

    I also find Elizabeth Murphy’s hierarchy of collaboration model really useful – our team was just talking about this the other day, in fact! Our student video conference program, Global Encounters is a good example of the top rungs of Murphy’s collaboration model, where students are “producing shared artefacts” by collaborating on documents relating to participant’s positions on pressing global issues like climate change and sustainable development.

    In terms of how collaboration can be “tested” for PISA, I’m not too optimistic either . . . Jim, what do you think?
14. Jim Wynn says:

    July 25, 2012 at 1:34 am

    I’m pretty convinced that collaboration is an essential part of TRUE learning. That is you know when you know something when that piece of knowledge, that skill or that understanding is used in a social context. So, unless learning scenarios involve opportunities for collaboration then we can argue, that we stifle learning. IF collaboration is an essential part of learning and if collaboration needs people to tolerate others’ views- does this mean collaboration and tolerance are essential building blocks of learning?
15. Jim Wynn says:

    July 25, 2012 at 10:54 pm

    I think Kate raises a really good point that I first thought about when “citizenship” was included in the English curriculum. Should citizenship be tested and if I don’t pass an I a bad citizen or am I simply unable to recal a fact about the Kings and Queens of England! So if we allow collaboration to be tested do we Condemn people to be loners that when applying for jobs fail in their application because they filled their collaboration skill test?? This might be a moment to re assess what we mean when we try to assess if someone really does have a skill or not and rather than grade that ability reflect on how that person can improve their journey to enlightenment. Kate has hit a crucial point around assessment that we must mature past a point where we must stop telling learners that they have passed or failed. The lion test, where passing and failing was pretty clear after entering the arena, should be left in the past where it belongs.
16. Gavin Dykes says:

    July 26, 2012 at 5:26 am

    I’m just reading Planet Word by Stephen Fry and J P Davidson. The beginning of the book includes discussion about what happened to language learning where children, for one reason or another, were starved of the opportunity to listen and learn from (and collaborate with) adults or peers. It certainly made me wonder about collaboration and learning. One example, where children could not speak to each other, had communication develop through a unique sign language.

    In another, through particular circumstances, a child was starved of language learning throughout her younger years and despite finally coming into contact with people, she never fully developed her language skills.

    These cases, of course, are a bit unusual and invariably sad. I wonder if more analytical reflection on them might be reveal more of a link between collaboration and learning?
17. Kate Gatto says:

    July 26, 2012 at 7:39 am

    Gavin, I think this points to the fact that learning, in so many cases, is definitively SOCIAL by nature. As Jim alludes to in his example of citizenship education often being more about memorizing historical facts than anything else in the past, I think that education has not always done a good enough job of integrating the social nature of learning into the classroom. To truly recognize the social aspect of learning, we must integrate more collaborative projects, and value successful collaborations more.

    I think there may be a flip side to this coin though . . .

    In my experience at TakingITGlobal and elsewhere, I’ve worked with a lot of people like me who thrive in team settings. I’ve also worked with people who prefer to work independently, and are most effective when they take time for themselves. I think that introverts have a tough time working in places that are dominated by extroverts, and can imagine that this is true in a classroom as well. How do we practice tolerance of different personality types and learning styles in the classroom?
18. Gavin Dykes says:

    July 26, 2012 at 11:28 pm

    Kate, you put your finger on an important and challenging point when it comes to teaching and learning, and particularly personalised learning. For some, personalising learning means playing to the learning style preferences of students. However, is it true that learning style preferences are static, or can they change? I think they sometimes change from day to day. Some students might be encouraged to change from a solitary style to something more social, given support and encouragement. There is certainly something really important about supporting those who are naturally more introvert especially when working among extroverts. One strategy might involve paying attention to the development of empathy and humility within the classroom or workplace – as we discussed earlier (and above). This line of thinking brings to mind another point associated with inclusion. I love the expression “amplifying the quiet voices” which Mike Gibbons introduced to me. Amplifying the quiet voices of innovation might be really important in a work context, because it is not always those who shout loudest who have the best ideas. In a classroom context, perhaps we should always look out for tools and techniques to amplify quiet voices so that everyone learns and develops well.
19. Jim Wynn says:

    July 27, 2012 at 3:54 am

    Let’s pick up this learning style stuff. Do people really have a preference for a learning style or is it that certain leanings are more suited to one learning style over another. For example I can’t pronounce a new word in a foreign language until I hear it. Does that mean I’m an auditory learner or that the context meant I needed to learn with the use of my ears. Educators should be thinking this way, ie what suits the learning objective. I don’t believe we have a favourite way of learning but we should be seeking the best way of learning that suits what we are trying to learn. To ensure we are able to take that learning out of the context we developed our understanding I do believe, however, that a collaborative learning scenario has to be always present. Collaboration is the Higgs boson of learning.
20. Kate Gatto says:

    July 27, 2012 at 12:27 pm

    I agree Jim, that a person’s learning style is largely situational, but I do think that some are more inclined towards certain ways of learning, including collaboration. While I think it’s important to recognize and value different learning styles, I agree that it’s important to really value collaboration and to help students develop this critical skill set. It’s about flexing in directions and areas that we might not be good at yet. One way of valuing different contributions is to reinforce the notion that in group work, not everyone has to do the same thing for their contributions to be equal.

    I’ve really enjoyed this conversation, Gavin and Jim! Thanks for moderating, Mary-Anne!