Education in Global Classroom

Student blog list 2013 Spring

admin — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 07:59:19 +0000

SOCI 3330 S10 – 2013 Spring Contemporary Soci. Theories

Simranpreet Kaur Badesha
Melinda Kachina Bige
Aaron Chin
Emma Kathryn Cleveland
Gregory Wilson Cocking
Lison Daubigeon
Nicolas Desjardins
Sean E Grant
Melissa Doreen Rose Long
Lindsay Elizabeth Mussell
Katherine Elizabeth Papiernik
Faaria Patel
Jashanjit Sandhu
Neelma Singh
Andrea Chong On Szeto
Zeenat Kariman Taki

SOCI 3275 R10 – 2013 Spring Sociology of Popular Culture

Jusdene Kaur Badh
Brendan Lamont Calnan
Mark Ricardo Cervantes
Jean Nicolas Chretien
Emma Kathryn Cleveland

Colby Candice Jessica Priya: http://candicecolby7.wordpress.com

Guoman Liao
Lindsay Elizabeth Mussell
Alexei Orlov
Amanda Oujla

Sivasubramaniam Sarujah Seema: http://sarujahsiva92.wordpress.com

SOCI 4310 S50 – 2013 Spring Terrorism and Globalization

Adlin Babantaj
Dannielle Lita Batisse-Kelly
Emma Kathryn Cleveland
Lison Daubigeon
Crystal Jennifer Dodd
Celine Marie Henson
Jeff Hao Chun Hung
Shane Dallan Kubeska
Bin Lee

Desiree Diana Hannah Menning: http://desiree9833.wordpress.com

Marla Marie Mulholland

Emily Lucille Paquet: http://epaquet.wordpress.com

Neelma Singh
Puneet Sooch
Gagandeep Singh Sran

Aklowa Kane (Village Light)

admin — Sat, 20 Oct 2012 20:02:01 +0000

Articles

Food Security and Sustainability in the Global South

admin — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 09:35:03 +0000

By Evelyn Robinson

By 2050, the world’s population is estimated to have grown to 9,000,000,000. That is 50 percent larger than the current population. Much of this population
growth is expected to happen in the developing world as living standards improve and mortality rates decline. In the North, the developed world,
populations are expected to grow slowly and in the case of Japan actually decline. The vast majority of people living in the world by this time are
expected to live in urban centres.

It is a fact, however, that all countries need to ensure that their people have access to clean water and food. Amina Mohamed, who works as deputy executive
director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) told a forum that food security and environmental sustainability will be the watch words for
the global south in the next half century. This means that developing nations while trying to eradicate poverty through economic development, will also
have to balance ecological protection policies.

Rio+20 Summit

This balancing act has already begun in a number of developed countries with differing degrees of success. It became even more important after the Rio+20
Conference on Sustainable Development in Brazil during June, 2012. The summit marked the 20th anniversary of the first conference on sustainable
development in the same city. The objectives of the Rio+20 conference were as follows:

1. Securing renewed political commitment for sustainable development

2. Assessing the progress and implementation gaps in meeting previous commitments.

3. Addressing new and emerging challenges.

There were also two main themes. These were “how to build a green economy” and “how to improve international coordination.” The primary outcome of the
conference was the publishing of a working paper entitled The Future We Want. It restated many old goals, supported the idea of Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs) and gave aid to UNEP in order to make it a global authority on sustainable development.

Food Security

One of the important recognitions the conference made was recognising the fact that people are going to have to change the way they produce and consume
food and other products. The idea is to ensure all people have food security, rather than a relative minority over consuming. The World Health Organization
(WHO) defines food security as food availability, food access and food use. The stability of these facets is important over time.

At the moment food security is unbalanced in the world. Naturally some areas are more productive than others, but it does not explain fully why one billion
people are overweight while 800 million are undernourished. An estimated two billion people do not live in an environment with food security. This one
third of the world’s current population. Six million die of hunger every year. The challenge facing the global south is how to help each other improve
conditions if the developed world is either unwilling or unable to help.

Sharing Knowledge

Since the inception of the idea in the 1970s, south-south cooperation has been centred around developing countries help one another solve problems without
the help or interference of developed nations. With 192 countries signed up to the food security and sustainability ideals of Rio+20, south-south
cooperation has taken on a more important role for member countries. Previously, this kind of cooperation centred around economics, politics and security.
Now it will develop into finding ways to increase food productivity in difficult landscapes while protecting the environment. As many countries are still
relatively poor, the sharing of ideas will become the most important aspect of this programme. Sharing knowledge, says Amina Mohamed, should be used to
help with capacity building while south-south alliances should be fostered to help pressurise richer nations into giving more funding to sustainability
projects around the world.

Tripartite Deals

One way some developed nations have been helping south-south cooperation has been through tripartite deals. This involves using a United Nations agency to
help broker deals between two members of the global south. One agency that has helped to create dozens of such south-south deals has been the UN’s Food and
Agriculture Organizations (FAO). This includes the Food Security
support programmes run by the organization. One example is a deal
brokered by the FAO with China and Senegal. As part of the deal China will send 26 experts and technicians to Senegal to provide assistance with food
security programmes.

Involving Youth

Crucially many UN programmes and agencies understand the importance of educating future leaders about the importance of these projects. There are a variety
of programmes that include south-south dialogues and global south cooperation as a central tenet of their education. An example being an adult and youth programme on south-south
cooperation for Portuguese speakers.

Sharing knowledge is key to good education and it is hoped future innovators from across the globe may one day find the solutions to today’s problems. To
aid this forums and groups organise international adult and youth meetings in different countries. This has helped to foster international relations and
cooperation between youths from across the globe, but particularly from the global south. The youths have learnt about the benefits of cooperation and some
of the road blocks too. This ranges from being told to avoid changing money in the wrong places, showing how complex
international cooperation can be at times, not to mention how corruption can cause problems, to drawing up resolutions and reports of their own after
international meetings.

Lanterns for learning

admin — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 23:31:45 +0000

Surrey students bringing solar-powered light to
rural Ghana so youth can study at night

Late on a Friday night in a small basement suite in Surrey, five university students worked on a project that may improve education for students on the other side of the world.

As part of their coursework for a sociology class at Kwantlen Polytechnic University, Peter Vo, Andrew Suitner, Alise Scott, Kerri Chistensen and Andrews Owusu are building portable solar-powered lanterns that will be taken to rural villages in Ghana this summer.

Working late is no problem for these five, but in Ghana, where villages can experience blackouts that last for several days, finishing homework is a luxury many people don’t have.

“[Light] is one of those resources that we take for granted out here,” Suitner said.

The idea for the lanterns came suddenly for Kwantlen instructor Charles Quist-Adade, who knows firsthand the struggles of being a young student in Ghana. Quist-Adade grew up in Ghana working in the cocoa fields of a small community.

“I experienced the difficulties of studying in the night,” he said. “Sometimes I would come home late and you’d have two kerosene lamps in the village and sometimes I would be using one to do my homework and somebody would come and borrow it and would never return it.”

Quist-Adade had no way to finish his homework and would often be lashed the next day at school.

“If I had these lights I would have been a genius. I was always reading – if I’d had something like this in the night I would have read until dawn,” he said.

After coming to Canada, Quist-Adade made several trips back to his home country but was shocked to see conditions had not changed over the past 30 years. This prompted him to take action and moreover it was a perfect opportunity to get his students involved, too.

Students at Kwantlen began building the home-made lanterns in September and will be taking them to several villages in central Ghana as part of a three-week field school, starting on June 29. They will also be raising money to provide needy students with school supplies and scholarships. An instruction book with detailed photos will also be provided, as well as some supplies and training for students in Ghana to build their own lanterns.

But the project doesn’t stop there. Quist-Adade has plans to conduct a three-to five-year ethnographic study that will track the academic progress of the students who receive the lanterns. He also hopes to be able to expand the field school to other countries such as Haiti and Sierra Leone.

He quotes Kwame Nkruma, the first president of Ghana, as he describes his philosophy toward the project and teaching.

“‘Knowledge for knowledge’s sake is not good enough,’” he said. “Theory without practice is blind, and practice without theory is empty, so what I do is I give my students an opportunity to translate the theoretical knowledge in to practical – especially to help the helpless,” said Quist-Adade.

Students will be hosting a workshop at Kwantlen on Thursday at 2 p.m. to finish the final lantern and raise money for scholarships and other charitable donations.

For more on the project and to find out what you can do to help, visit www.quist-adade.com.