SAHA invites applications from history educators to attend the first SAHA In The Classroom Spring School from October 3 to 6, 2016 in Johannesburg. This Spring School programme is intended to reach those educators who have not been able to attend SAHA workshops previously because they are not based in the Johannesburg area.
ABOUT THE SAHA IN THE CLASSROOM WORKSHOP PROGRAMME
SAHA’s longstanding workshop series for educators draws on existing SAHA archival and education materials for history educators, aiming to support quality education, in line with curriculum requirements, enabling educators to work with learners to:
- Develop oral history and heritage projects around often previously marginalised community histories;
- Use primary sources to explore and discuss recent South African history;
- Draw on the archive of the TRC to discuss issues of reconciliation in the South African context.
- Commemorate key events and moments in South African’s history.
This education programme is located within SAHA’s ongoing efforts that aims to use history education to help young people learn to become active, tolerant and responsible democratic citizens who value diversity, human rights and peace.
SAHA’s pilot summer school will run over four days at SAHA’s offices in the justice precinct of Constitution Hill, and will comprise 6 half-day workshops:
1. APARTHEID AND THE RISE OF RESISTANCE (pre-1976)
2. RESISTANCE UNDER APARTHEID (1976 onwards)
3. TRANSITION TO DEMOCRACY
These three workshops focus on using a broad range of primary sources from SAHA collections relating to South African history from 1976 - 1994, in order to encourage and support the critical analysis of key aspects of this period of history, making use of the following SAHA resources:
4. TEACHING THE TRC
Drawing on SAHA's publications 'The battle against forgetting: human rights and the unfinished business of the TRC', 'Between life and death: stories from John Vorster Square, and the SAHA / SABC Truth Commission Special Report web portal, the aim of this workshop was to:
- Empower history educators to critically examine the TRC and the role it played in healing South Africa and in nation-building.
- Provide educators with a more in-depth understanding of the concepts, principles and workings of the TRC.
- Build on educators' knowledge of the TRC through engagement with content and concept development, mastering skills of teaching, and exploring human values in order to promote a humane approach to teaching the TRC.
- Engage with a variety of different sources, including written sources, cartoons, film and witnesses' testimonies.
- Explore the moral lessons that can be learnt from the TRC process and consider the ongoing implications of the unfinished business of the TRC. Teachers were encouraged to deal with topics sensitively in order to develop humane and aware learners.
5. ORAL HISTORY IN THE CLASSROOM
This workshop uses the SAHA resource 'Meeting history face to face' (book and DVD), showcasing a ground-breaking oral history and memorial building project undertaken by schools in Bethal, Kroonstad and Polokwane in 2007. With input from participating students and teachers, the book and accompanying DVD uses this project as a mechanism to introduce oral history methodologies and assist secondary school students and teachers to prepare for the Nkosi Albert Luthuli annual oral history competition.
6. EXHIBITIONS IN THE CLASSROOM
This workshop focuses on using SAHA's Exhibition in the Classroom booklets to commemorate key dates in the South African calendar with their learners. These booklets are based on three SAHA's portable exhibition kits, in which artefacts from SAHA's archives provide a lens into the various ways in which women, workers and young people struggled against apartheid, and for democracy in South Africa.
Each Exhibition in the Classroom booklet can be used (along with either the related physical exhibition kit or virtual exhibition) by schools interested in hosting commemorative events such as:
- International Women's Day - 8 March
- South African Human Rights Day - 21 March
- South African Women's Day - 9 August
- Worker's Day - 1 May
- International Human Rights Day - 10 December
This programme is aimed at educators currently responsible for teaching history to Grade 10, 11 and / or 12 learners.
TO APPLY - UPDATED
To apply, please complete the online application form on or before Monday 12 September 2016 – successful applicants will be notified by 16 September 2016.
DEADLINE EXTENDED: Educators from provinces other than Gauteng interested in attending the Spring School must apply by FRiday 16 September 2016
SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE
SAHA has secured funding to provide scholarships covering the cost of transport to and from Johannesburg, as well as accommodation and subsistence for the duration of the programme, to history educators currently working in government schools in provinces other than Gauteng. Priority will be given to educators in their first 3 years of employment, working outside major city centres.
Educators working at private schools are also welcome to apply and, if accepted, will not be charged to attend, but will be responsible for organising and cover the costs of transport and accommodation.
This Spring School programme is funded by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation.
