Karen Malouf Ostlund
Associate Professor of English
St Louis Community College at Forest Park
5600 Oakland Avenue
St Louis, Missouri 63110
Title VI-A Year One Project
West Africa
Global Infusion: West African Cultures
Folklore, Myths and Legends of West African Griots:
Entertainment, Education, Enlightenment for the Collective
III). Course Title and Number: English 101 and English 102
In addition to composition courses, the globalization module described below will be applied to the Coordinated Studies Course being taught at St. Louis Community College at Forest Park. The Coordinated Studies Course combines the content of three focus courses: Introduction to Psychology (Psychology 101), Literature of American Minorities (English 228), and English Composition (English 101). This is a course that readily lends itself to global infusion since the underlying theme of the course is: Ways of Knowing Yourself and Others. The course has already applied the History, Family, and Culture of China and Latin America to the curriculum along with Communication Strategies of China and Asian Cultures. The addition of West African fables, folktales and fairytales will expand the global focus of the class while, at the same time, allow students the opportunity to learn more about a little known and often misunderstood part of the world.
In terms of the composition courses, there is already a focus on contrasts and comparisons of communication strategies between Collectivist and Individualist Cultures. Expanding the application to include Senegal and West African cultures will make the material more relevant to our diverse student population.
IV). Semesters Course will be offered, delivery methods, and anticipated enrollment:
Coordinated Studies is offered during Fall Semesters to attract entering freshman with the objective of helping students new to the college experience find ways to become part of learning communities. Additionally, Coordinated Studies helps students see acquisition of knowledge, skills and information holistically with emphasis on applying information and integrating knowledge into all the courses they will be taking during their college careers.
Delivery Method for the information utilizes a variety of teaching and learning strategies. There is a strong emphasis on group learning. There is application of lectures and problem solving with a high expectation of student participation. This has been the established format for Coordinated Studies and continues to be the established format for my English 101 and 102 courses.
My workload allows for two English Compositions courses each semester. In the Fall Semester, I teach with the Coordinated Studies team (Donald R. Cusumano, PhD and Ron Hughes) and our estimated enrollment ranges between 45 to 60 students. My English 101 Courses are taught both Spring and Fall Semesters and usually result in enrollments of 26 students per class.
V). Course Outcomes with the specific outcomes affected by the module highlighted.
For the specific module included in this project, the course outcomes are stated as follows:
OBJECTIVES: By the end of this teaching module, students will be able to:
1. Examine their own personal and subjective biases regarding how their own
value system has been formed;
2. Recognize the possible fallacies that may exist in some of the literature and fiction that they had not previously questioned;
3. Show how their current beliefs and biases may have been misguided by their exposure to biases developed through literature and fiction;
4. Explore their own biases against other cultural beliefs and examine the origin of those biases, the power of those biases, and the effect of the biases on our collective behaviors and choices;
5. Examine how our own popular cultures may generate bias against other cultures;
6. Examine how literature and oral storytelling of other cultures can demonstrate common goals and objectives of all human beings;
7. Examine the possible causes for the development of common story themes in any culture.
VI). Narrative Description of the Project:
AIM OF PROJECT: The aim of this Title VI-A project is to blend information from a study of both oral and written histories of the peoples of West Africa with the material already offered in the Coordinated Studies Course being taught at St. Louis Community College at Forest Park. The Coordinated Studies Course combines the content of three focus courses: Introduction to Psychology, Literature of American Minorities, and English Composition. This is a course that readily lends itself to global infusion since the underlying theme of the course is: Ways of Knowing Yourself and Others. The course has already applied the History, Family, and Culture of China and Latin America to the curriculum along with Communication Strategies of China and Asian Cultures. The addition of West African cultures will expand the global focus of the class while, at the same time, allow students the opportunity to learn more about a little known and often misunderstood tradition.
In addition, introduction of some of the legends and myths as recorded in “The Tales of Amadou Koumba” by Birago Diop will be used to make a connection to some of the early folktales of Africans transported to the Western Hemisphere during forced immigration. Students will be given the opportunity to weigh similarities between the tales of “Afro-American Folklore” and the West African folklore preserved by the griots.
This project will also be applicable to English Composition Courses which already focus on communication strategies between Collectivist and Individualist Cultures. Ultimately, it should become apparent to students that the preservation of oral folktales and legends is a necessary element of a Collectivist Culture and, by contrast, it requires elements of Collectivism to allow for the preservation of oral histories and folktales.
Experience has shown that many students entering a Midwestern college classroom have mistaken notions about the vast continent of Africa. As the same time, as seen with the cultures of Asia and Latin America, there are shared human experiences leading people to seek and arrive at the same answers to the mysteries they confront in their intellectual evolution.
It has long been my aim to demonstrate that the distrust we harbor toward unfamiliar countries, cultures and religions is founded in ignorance. Often, the unfamiliar is met with bias based on stereotypes and generalizations. The simple act of putting a human face on the unfamiliar is a beginning toward eliminating distrust and fear.
The “Other” represented by the inhabitants of a West African country such as Senegal is further complicated by the fact that the majority of the people of this country are not Christian. The majority of the people of Senegal are Muslims. Sadly, there continues to be an inherent distrust on the part of our “mainstream” American students regarding people of non-Christian regions. The focus of this project will be to educate students in the art of investigation and critical thinking to determine the causes for behaviors that might be labeled negative but which may well have a valid origin based on primitive survival.
In addition, a more thorough and analytical investigation into some of the early folktales may lead students to the realization that the motives of people who are “other” are really not so very different from the motives of the average American college student.
A classroom introduction to some of the history and practices of the people of West Africa as well as a study of the Family and Culture of West African Countries will be the first avenue for opening up awareness of “the other” allowing students an opportunity to recognize the common challenges that face all human beings.
The introduction of myths and legends as early oral literature of other cultures will offer students the opportunity to use their own analytical and critical thinking skills to determine the roots and destinies of one specific region of the “Dark” continent. Eventually, the connection may be made to other cultures including our own.
DESCRIPTION OF PROJECT: Because there continues to be an inherent distrust of the traditions of non-Christian regions, the focus of this project will be to educate students in the art of investigation and critical thinking to determine the causes for behaviors that might be labeled negative but which may well have a valid source. A scholarly study of documented history is certainly a valid strategy. However, oftentimes bias, prejudice, stereotypes and morality begin early in a child’s development through fairytales, folktales, music, myths and legends.
In the application of this project, comparisons will be drawn between the value systems of people of the West and people of West Africa. Contrasts will also be encouraged with a focus on geography and history to determine the causes that may have separated the cultures. The instruments will be two video documentaries titled “Mickey Mouse Monopoly” and “Game Over”. In different ways, these videos explore the impact of media and technology on the formation of childhood attitudes toward racism, sexism, violence, and commercialism.
The course will include brief lectures to present the background of the culture of Senegal in West Africa. Students will be assigned literature on basic themes (family, relations, coming of age) from multiple points of view including cultures of the United States and West Africa focusing on Senegal. (Eventually, this course will be expanded to include the study of more cultures such as Chinese, Caribbean, West African and the United States). Assessment of the students’ comprehension of the material will be demonstrated through essays and oral presentations which will give students the opportunity to develop their own hypothesis through research and critical thinking.
Since my own interests continue to return to the study of communication strategies and the environments that form those strategies, the bottom line regarding communication between people of diverse cultures and religious traditions is, from my point of view, dependent on understanding and respecting the causes of communication strategies.
The 2007-2008 Title VI-A Project will be applied to the Coordinated Studies Course as well as to all other English Composition courses that I teach. Its aim will be to focus on polishing the students’ research strategies, critical thinking skills, writing skills and communication skills.
PROJECT OBJECTIVES: The objective of this project is to infuse information about other countries, cultures and religious traditions into the information already scheduled for presentation into an existing course.
Infusing new international and intercultural material into a composition course offers a natural direction for the course to take. For the most part, the students are learning the skill of writing which can best be taught with the assignment of topics that challenge them to exercise their critical thinking abilities, go beyond their traditional beliefs, set aside their own biases, and employ objective observations.
Furthermore, the language of folklore, fairytales, legends, oral histories and fiction is more universal that one might think. Perhaps one reason for this universality is the function of stories not only as historical records but also as teaching instruments. Following a critical analysis of “children’s” stories from various countries and cultures, a common thread becomes evident. The stories are designed to instill values in children which will be carried to adulthood and which will school the child in the acceptable behaviors that will best conform to the rules of the collective. It is also apparent that even an Individualist Culture, such as the one found in the United States, is still dependent on fairytales and cautionary tales to direct individual behaviors. Barbara Lazear Ascher in her essay “On Compassion” wrote: “For the ancient Greeks, drama taught and reinforced compassion within a society. The object of Greek tragedy was to inspire empathy in the audience so that the common response to the hero’s fall was: ‘There, but for the grace of God, go I.’” (Ascher 185) In short, drama of the ancient Greeks was designed to keep the individual in line with the expectations of society which, in turn, kept the social structure stable.
I submit that the role of storytelling goes even further to impress upon the listener the rules and consequences that are part of any family, village, collective or culture. Integrating the stories of other cultures into a classroom discussion on fiction or literature provides an additional opportunity to expand our students’ comprehension of the countless similarities that link us together as human beings.
The culture of West Africa presents a number of challenges. The current climate of many people in the West is one of distrust of Africans and the Islamic Religion. That distrust prevents students from learning to appreciate the history, art, literature and culture that make up the region. The same distrust may well prevent the students from recognizing the influence that West African cultures have had on our Western culture.
As I pursue my interest in other countries, I have come to realize that any new and “foreign” culture should be integrated into a broader course experience. Toward that end, I am also proposing to create a Capstone Course to integrate the materials gathered during focused studies on China, Latin America, West Africa and hopefully the Middle East. It is my hope that such a course would be able to explore some of the causes for breakdowns in communications as well as the commonalities that provide threads to build bridges in the form of communications between varied cultures.
VII /VIII). Basic Outline of Learning Unit and Student Assessments:
Title VI-A Project
2007-2008
Global Infusion: West African Cultures
Developing Modules for an Existing Course: Coordinated Studies and English Composition – Folklore, Myths and Legends Shared by West African Griots Which Have Served as Teaching Tools and Oral Histories
Sample Teaching Module I
RATIONALE:
Before introducing legends and folktales of a new culture, it is important that students have the opportunity to explore their own exposure to the legends and folktales of their own cultures. Many younger students have not given much thought to the origin of some of the simple folktales they grew up on. Many of those students will claim that the fairytales, folktales, Disney characters, and stories from the sanitized Brothers Grimm have had no effect whatsoever on the value systems the students now subscribe to. The purpose of this early Teaching Module is to help students recognize the power of the storyteller in any social grouping.