TEIKYO SDGs reportEducation for Social Responsibility
――The value of education that creates a new world ――
Kyoko Nakayama, Professor Faculty of Education Department of Elementary Education, Teikyo University
After working as a teacher at a public elementary school and an elementary school attached to a national university, she became a full-time Senior Assistant Professor at Kyoto Notre Dame University in 2005. In 2010, she became Associate Professor at Teikyo University and obtained her doctorate. Since then, she has continued her research activities in Faculty of Education Department of Elementary Education of Education, specializing in international understanding education, multicultural education, and social studies education, alongside her teaching activities.
To summarize this report ...
The Nakayama seminar in Faculty of Education is carrying out activities focusing on Guam, which has a complex history of being occupied by various countries, but is known as a global tourist destination.
In 2013, he launched a chamorro dance group called Guma'Famagu'on Tano'yan i Tasi = "Guma'Famagu'on Tano'yan i Tasi" (GFTYT).
Chamorro are Guam's indigenous peoples, and their dances represent Guam's history.
A graduate of this group became a teacher at Teikyo University Elementary School, and together with a fellow teacher, he took advantage of inquiry-based learning opportunities to teach classes about Guam's history and culture through Chamorro dance.
It was also the first place for elementary school students to understand internationally, and it was a valuable place to experience a very deep theme.
International understanding and cross-cultural understanding are transmitted to children by educators who are graduates of seminars. This is to educate "responsibility" and can be said to be one of the best and best ways to cultivate the foundation for working on the SDGs.
Cross-cultural and education
At the seminar, we are learning the basics of related fields centered on international understanding education through literature reading and workshops. Recently, SDGs, which are closely related to international understanding education, are also in the category of learning. Volunteers who want to deepen their learning in an applied and practical manner are gathering and working on international exchange activities as extracurricular activities. In particular, I have been interested in the history and culture of Guam, and one of the themes has been how to utilize the awareness gained from the experience and reduce it to educational value. Guam is one of the most prominent resort areas and has an autonomous government as an unincorporated territory of the United States. However, its history is complicated. Originally, the indigenous Chamorro lived on Guam. Occupied by Spain during the Age of Discovery in the 1500s, it has been under control for over 300 years. There was a war between Spain and the United States at the end of the 1800s, and it became the territory of the United States after that, but in World War II, Japan occupied it and made it Omiyajima. After that, the United States regained it and continues to the present.
As part of our international exchange activities, the seminar will accept and host students from Guam. Some of them wash their cars and save money. Guam students who cannot get a passport due to immigrant families and who have never taken public transportation other than school buses also come to the campus and spend time with them. Through exchanges, Teikyo University students will get a glimpse of the situation of young people in Guam and the infrastructure of the island, and will come to realize the reality of the world. At the same time, it is also significant for the children of Guam to come into contact with the present of Japan. Leaders from Guam hope to broaden their horizons by showing the environment outside the island and the place of "university" in Japan. After this process, students will take a serious look at local life when they go to Guam. Students who think deeply are born from the experience of sharing a small amount of bread and ham and having a rich meal at a local home, away from the standard of living in Tokyo.
Experience "minority"
In 2013, when Mr. Rabon, a master of chamorro dance, visited Teikyo University, volunteer students and Guma'Famagu'on Tano' yan i Tasi = "Guma Famagu'on Tano" We have set up a group called (GFTYT). Chamorro dance is a dance that expresses the myths and folk tales of Chamorro and the feelings of modern people. Students learn history and ideas through dance, a symbol of indigenous culture. Since the Spanish Formosa is long, use Spanish-style costumes. Old dances should be primitive in order to "visualize" culture and roots. If you go to the city, there are buildings that have been invaded by Japan and have been culturally overcoated. Putting it all together, we understand that we have a “responsibility” to learn.
However, in Japan, the activities themselves are often seen with strange eyes. It is sometimes thought that they are "strange people" when they see them seriously dancing the dances of other countries and ethnic groups that Japanese people cannot hear. In fact, being in such a position is also an important educational environment. The point is that the students themselves experience being a minority in society. Most of the students living in Japan do not realize that they are "minorities". However, when they are in that position, their challenge is to become a person who has a core and can talk about culture.
Through chamorro dance, they learn to think deeply about developed countries, developing countries, Japan, and themselves. This activity is human education itself. Students will find themselves in a position to fly, drive around Guam, and consume Guam's environment. And the student becomes a teacher. I think that this is exactly one form of "education of responsibility".
Educational sprout
I had a student who enrolled nine years ago and joined my seminar seven years ago. His name is Endo, and he graduated five years ago. He is currently a teacher at Teikyo University Elementary School. During his student days, he was a key member of the group and sometimes clashed with me. In mid-2020, Endo approached me about featuring Chamorro dance in a class called "Exploration," which will run from the end of 2020 to the beginning of 2021, and wanting to have the entire grade work on it. Nakano, a colleague who had heard many things from Endo, also thought it would be worthwhile to include it as a theme for the "Exploration" class he was in charge of, and the two of them approached me.
Thus began the Guam Cultural Experiential Learning Program "What is Chamorro?", a collaborative project between Teikyo University Elementary School and GFTYT. Targeting third-graders, the program consists of three two-hour learning activities and a learning presentation. In the first session, we performed Chamorro dance, allowing students to experience Guam culture while dancing together. From the second session onward, students will explore Guam culture in groups, divided into five themes: culture, language, clothing, dance, and music. The program concludes with a learning presentation. GFTYT university students will support the children's learning, and Endo and his fellow alumni, former seminar leader Azuma (a public elementary school teacher who is currently studying Chamorro), will join to support the children's learning and the university students' activities. There is no better opportunity to share what they learned through Chamorro dance. This is truly a place to put "education of responsibility" into practice. New education will connect with the flexible minds of elementary school students. The seminar students have had the opportunity to become educators themselves.
Responsibility education
Faculty of Education is home to many students interested in working with children. Their actions to become true educators are certainly in line with SDG-like action. Counting from the MDGs, the SDGs have been around for 20 years. We must have already moved past the enlightenment stage and into the action stage. However, it seems that Japanese society has yet to reach that stage. This is precisely why we believe it is necessary to continue taking action in the field of education. In this research activity, teachers are involving grade level teachers and specialist teachers, and everyone is participating and thinking about the menu, while thinking about children. This is collaboration, and SDG-like action itself.
Teikyo University's Faculty of Education is blessed to have an affiliated elementary school located nearby. This allows students to interact with actual students and see the real lives of teachers in their fields. Many graduates of Faculty of Education go on to work in various educational settings. This personal connection allows the exchange of "education." As Endo and Azuma have already demonstrated, here we see the practical application of what we have gained from our experience of understanding Chamorro culture in the field of education. Of course, this is not easy. The topic is not trivial. Recipients' awareness does not develop quickly. It also takes time. But can the SDGs themselves be solved immediately? Do we, living in a developed country, really understand them correctly? Are we choosing the optimal solution? Will the world actually meet our goals in time? It will take time for each effect to become visible. Teaching responsibility means gaining a multifaceted understanding of the meaning of history accumulated over time and creating an opportunity to translate the lessons learned into future action. The great lessons that students will gain through Guam are certainly interspersed with the essence of the role that education should play in achieving the SDGs.
