Life is a Classroom

Throughout my life, I have gotten in the habit of learning from doing. I have laughed, and lamented, this fact on a number of occasions. I started as an elementary education major in college but I had been working in a classroom for six years by the time I got to college, so was frustrated by the 'research' instead of 'reality' approach I felt occurred in the classroom. One of my favorite academic semesters in college was living and interning in Washington, DC with the Washington Semester Program because the classes and content directly connected to the reality I was living. I have become rather passionate about service-based learning, alternative learning, whatever you want to call it. The idea of taking education out of the classroom and learning from practitioners alongside academics has long been a side interest.

Photo borrowed from Laura H of Macquarie Uni

For the past six months, I have had the privilege to collaborate with a number of other NGOs through a project with Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia called Classroom of Many Cultures. Macquarie puts great emphasis on internships and learning outside the typical classroom (those crazy folks picture above are just some of this team).  Each year, they send dozens of student interns to NGOs around the world (including the Deaf Development Programme). A group of very intelligent professors, dreamed up this idea of co-creating curriculum to be used pre-departure, while the students are in their placements, and after their return to maximize their understanding of the complex social justice and life challenges they face. All to help the students be the best interns (and global citizens) possible – even with issues of culture shock and cross-cultural communication.


When DDP was given the opportunity to be one of the collaborators on this curriculum development, I jumped at the opportunity and then lobbied hard to bring along one of my Deaf colleagues for the adventure. He is the one with the real 'experience' of Cambodia and intimate knowledge of the culture. Plus, as someone who is Deaf in a culture where that is still hugely limiting in many facets of life, his wisdom is mind-blowing.  Fortunately, the team at Macquarie shared my desire to have him involved and put great effort into making that possible (big thanks to them).


I have to admit, my longing to be involved was not a purely altruistic motive. I knew it involved collaborating with folks from around the world and there are few things I love as much as learning about other people's experiences and cultures. There are also few things I love as much as helping others to expand their understanding of the world, tolerance of differences, and passion for exchange.


Bringing along my colleague has been one of the most rewarding parts of my ministry work here in Cambodia. When we went to Australia, he had only ever traveled outside the country to Macau. Needless to say, Australia, seemed to leave his head spinning (literally, as I saw him constantly looking around at all the different 'new' things). This same project took us to Malaysia last month and, again, we were both exposed to many new things while learning of the indigenous community there. One of the biggest contributions I felt in having him there came in his interactions with others. I have been lucky enough to be surrounded and warmly accepted by the Deaf community for more than a year. During this time, I have learned SO much and been forgiven, no doubt, for many dumb hearing blunders. Now, all our fellow-collaborators have been given that same opportunity.


I can imagine it would be rather difficult for my colleague being the only Deaf person surrounded by a bunch of hearing folks, yet he didn't complain.  He found ways to connect with these folks and learn about their cultures and challenges.  I was there in Malaysia primarily as his interpreter, so did my best to interpret anytime conversation was taking place but sometimes I had to break to shovel food into my mouth or rest my arms (I think sometimes he would also need a break as he would sit on the opposite side of the room from me, or when asked if he wanted interpretation, he would say "That is ok"). Because of the nature of the group, many of the other participants were very enthusiastic about learning even basic signs so they could start to communicate on their own. A good number admitted never having had the opportunity to meet a Deaf person and a desire to invest time in learning their national sign language or at least find out what life looked like for Deaf folks in their society.

One of the activities that was led by my colleague was to consider the power structures of each country, because my colleague is Deaf, it forced people to consider where those who are blind, Deaf, or struggling with physical or cognitive differences fall within their society's hierarchy. Most had to come to the realization that they are not included and this made some start to question how that could be shifted.


This whole collaboration experience has indeed been amazing. With representatives from Peru, Malaysia, Fiji, Vietnam, Cambodia, India, Philippines, and, of course, Australia, the perspectives and insights are mind-blowing. We look at the interconnectedness of social justice issues, work place norms, norms around food, gender roles, power structures, team building, child protection and so many other important issues. While all of us involved are social justice minded folks, the 'solutions' and perspectives are varied.


So, why do I share this with you? I thought some of you may be interested in both the outputs and some of the adventures we have had along the way. The great team in Australia has been working tirelessly to put all the knowledge into individual lessons that fall within key modules. All of this will be open-source curriculum. This means, if you are work with students, young people, or adults doing preparation for trips overseas, you can use these resources – developed collaboratively with the NGOs, students, some 'beneficiaries,' and academics. While the target audience is for folks traveling overseas, many of the lessons could be used in domestic social justice programs (so all you post-grad service friends, keep a look out). Or, if you are just involved in social justice activities and interested in seeing opinions from around the world, I promise you will not be disappointed.


You can check out the Vimeo channel now to get a taste of what this experiment has been about and learn about some diverse cultures as you go!  Below is one of my favorite videos but there are dozens more you can access through that link.


Jane Gavel of Peru's Challenge on Food, custom and hospitality from Greg Downey on Vimeo.


If you are interested in receiving access to the completed curriculum, we have helped develop, send me an email. I am putting together a list of people that want to know when it all goes public sometime around August. Enjoy the lessons your life has to offer today!