TEIKYO SDGs reportEducation for Social Responsibility
――The value of education that creates a new world ――
Kyoko Nakayama, Professor, Department of Elementary Education Faculty of Education Education, Teikyo University
After working as a teacher at a public elementary school and an elementary school attached to a national university, he became a full-time Senior Assistant Professor Kyoto Notre Dame University in 2005. In 2010, he became an Associate Professor at Teikyo University and obtained a doctoral degree. Since then, in the Department of Department of Elementary Education, Faculty of Education of Education, he has continued his research activities specializing in international understanding education, multicultural education, and social studies education, in addition to educational activities.
To summarize this report ...
Although it has a complicated history of being occupied by various countries, activities focusing on Guam, which is known as a world-famous tourist destination, are being developed at the Nakayama Seminar of the Faculty of Education.
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 who is also from this group became a teacher at Teikyo University Elementary School, and took advantage of the opportunity for inquiry-based learning with a colleague teacher to teach 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
There was a student who enrolled 9 years ago and came to my seminar 7 years ago. Mr. Endo, who graduated from university five years ago and is now a teacher at Teikyo University Elementary School. When I was a student, I was a key member of the group, and I had a chance to collide with me. In the middle of 2020, Mr. Endo asked me to take up the chamorro dance at the time of "inquiry" that will be held from the end of 2020 to the beginning of 2021, and to work on it for the whole grade. Mr. Nakano, a colleague who heard various stories from Mr. Endo, also thought that it was worth treating as the theme of "inquiry", and they approached me.
In this way, as a collaborative project between Teikyo University Elementary School and GFTYT, Guam cultural experience learning "What is Chamorro?" Has started. It consists of 3 learning activities and learning presentations for 3rd grade elementary school students, 2 hours each. In the first session, we will perform a chamorro dance and meet the culture of Guam while dancing with the students. From the second time onwards, we will explore different cultures in Guam culture by dividing into groups of five themes: culture, language, what to wear, dance, and music. Finally, we will have a learning presentation. GFTYT college students support children's learning, and support children's learning and activities of college students by joining Mr. Endo and Mr. Higashi, a former seminar chief (public elementary school teacher, who is still learning Chamorro). To do. There is no better opportunity to convey the lessons learned through chamorro dance. This is exactly the place where "education of responsibility" is carried out. New education will be connected to the flexible minds of elementary school students. The seminar students had the opportunity to become educators themselves.
Responsibility education
There are many students in the Faculty of Education who are interested in interacting with children. Their actions to become true educators definitely match the SDGs-like actions. The SDGs have been 20 years since the MDGs. The enlightenment stage must be completed and the action stage must be reached. However, it seems that Japanese society has not reached that level. That is why I think it is necessary to continue to act in the field of education. In this inquiry activity, teachers involve grade teachers and specialized teachers, and everyone participates in thinking about children and thinking about menus. This is the form of collaboration, and the SDGs-like behavior itself.
The Faculty of Education Teikyo University is blessed with the fact that there is an affiliated elementary school nearby. You can get in touch with the children who are actually learning and get to know the real appearance of the teachers who are active as educators. And many of the graduates who leave the Faculty of Education of Education go to various educational settings. This connection of people communicates "education". As Mr. Endo and Mr. Higashi have already shown, there is a practice here to put what we have gained from the experience of understanding Chamorro culture into action in the field of education. Of course it's not easy. The theme is not light either. The consciousness of the recipient does not grow immediately. It can also take time. But can the SDGs themselves be resolved immediately? Do we really understand correctly as we live in developed countries? Have you been able to select the optimal solution method? Will the world really be in time? It takes time for each effect to become visible. Educating responsibility is a multidimensional understanding of the meaning of history that has been accumulated so far, and it is also an opportunity to turn the lessons learned into future actions. The great learning that students gain through Guam is certainly studded with the essence of education in the SDGs.
