Learning to Read the World Through Other Eyes (2008)

Abstract:

In recent years, strategies and initiatives that aim to build global and development awareness have proliferated in the educational sector in the European context. Educators are encouraged to ‘bring the world into their classrooms’ by addressing global issues such as social justice, interdependence, diversity, human rights, peace, and international and sustainable development. However, very often, approaches to this kind of education address the agenda for international development in a manner that leaves assumptions unexamined and ignores how the agenda itself is re-interpreted in other contexts. Not addressing these different interpretations may result in the uncritical reinforcement of notions of the supremacy and universality of ‘our’ (Western) ways of seeing and knowing, which can undervalue other knowledge systems and reinforce unequal relations of dialogue and power. 

Through Other Eyes (TOE)  is an international initiative that offers a free online programme of study to enable educators:

  To develop an understanding of how language and systems of belief, values and representation affect the way people interpret the world
  To identify how different groups understand issues related to development and their implications for the development agenda
  To critically examine these interpretations - both Northern and indigenous - looking at origins and potential implications of assumptions
  To identify an ethics for improved dialogue, engagement and mutual learning
  To transfer the methodology developed in the programme into the classroom context through the analysis and piloting of sample classroom materials (using creative arts and other strategies)
Based on postcolonial and poststructuralist theories, TOE focuses on indigenous knowledge systems as epistemologies (or ways of knowing) that offer different ontological choices (or choices related to the ways we see reality and being) to those of the so-called ‘Western’ mainstream cultures.

TOE offers four learning units comparing indigenous and mainstream perpectives on education, development, poverty and equality. TOE also offers extra resources for the primary and secondary classrooms.

TOE's primary target audience is student teachers in England, however, the resources have been piloted and used in several contexts, including: in-service teacher education, adult education, language classes and higher education courses in several disciplines.

The programme of study is available in two formats: online and in print. The online course is free of charge: participants need to register to use the course and they can send their electronic learning journals to their lecturers by email through the website. The printed classroom sets (of 10 books or more) can be purchased from Global Education Derby using a  purchase request form.

TOE was authored and is coordinated by Dr Vanessa Andreotti (University of Canterbury, Aotearoa/New Zealand) and Prof Lynn ario T. M. de Souza (University of Sao Paulo). A reflection on TOE's theoretical framework and the development learning journey can be found in the article:

Andreotti, V., Souza, L. (2008) Translating theory into practice and walking minefields: lessons from the project ‘Through Other Eyes’. International Journal of Development Education and Global Learning, 1(1):23-36