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One Road: Learning and Teaching Between Dalun, Ghana and Bryn Mawr and Haverford Colleges, USA

Submitted by alesnick on Wed, 04/24/2013 - 4:06pm

Ghana: Learning

This is a reflection, dialogue, and resource page for a group of projects, including summer internships, held in common by community leaders and learners in Dalun and Bryn Mawr/Haverford. Please find spaces here for sharing ideas, making connections, and posting links.

Below are some resources to inform you about the village of Dalun; NGO partners of the Bi-Co in Ghana; education in Ghana; Ghanaian history; issues of representation, access, privilege, and colonialism; and approaches to cross-cultural collaboration. There is also a discussion forum for blogging, cross-talk, and sharing links. Welcome!

DALUN and NORTHERN GHANA

Dalun Community Overview: Dalun Community Overview, by Alhassan Sumaila and Yussif Abdul-Hafiz

Introductory Dagbani instructional video. This video by a Volunteer for Sight volunteer also contains basic introductory material about the North. http://www.uniteforsight.org/volunteer-abroad/ghana/tamale-preparation/dagbani

Dagomba Dance and Drumming

A Drummer's Testament: Dagbamba Society and Culture in the Twentieth Century http://www.adrummerstestament.com/

https://wikis.uit.tufts.edu/confluence/display/DagombaDanceDrumming/Welcome

Ethnographic Accounts

John Miller Chernoff, African Rhythm and African Sensibility: Aesthetics and Social Action in African Musical Idioms (1979)

Martin Staniland, The Lions of Dagbon: Political Change in Northern Ghana (1975)

Wyatt McGaffey, Chiefs, Priests, and Praise-Singers: History, Politics, and Land Ownership in Northern Ghana (2013)

PARTNER ORGANIZATIONS

Titagya Schools http://titagyaschools.org/wordpress/

Ghana Venskabsrupperme http://ghanavenskabsgrupperne.dk/oplysning/film/kone-nr-2/ (includes the documentary film "Wife #2" and other highly relevant materials)

Campaign for Vulnerable Children https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.485205628190967.119872.163696677008532&type=3

Dalun Youth Centre http://blogs.haverford.edu/titagya/2012/07/10/youth-center/

Dalun ICT Centre http://btghana.wordpress.com/tag/safianu/

Ghana Developing Communities Association http://www.gdca-ghana.org/

APPROACHES TO CROSS-CULTURAL COLLABORATION; ISSUES OF REPRESENTATION, ACCESS, PRIVILEGE, AND POWER

Reflections (via Prezi) by Bi-Students and their teacher

Ivan Illich, "To Hell With Good Intentions" http://www.swaraj.org/illich_hell.htm

Teju Cole, "The White-Savior Industrial Complex" http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/03/the-white-savior-industrial-complex/254843/

Peggy McIntosh, "White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack" http://ted.coe.wayne.edu/ele3600/mcintosh.html

Eve Tuck, Suspending Damage: A Letter to Communities

Leslie Dodson, Don't misrepresent Africa

Chimamanda Adiche, "The Danger of a Single Story" http://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story.html

Be the Kind of Volunteer an NGO Wants http://matadornetwork.com/change/be-the-kind-of-volunteer-an-ngo-wants/

EDUCATION IN GHANA

Johnetta Wade Morrison, Teaching Training in Early Childhood Education: The Case of Ghana, West Africa

Peter Darvas, World Bank, Ghana Education Report http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtdqYGCON_E&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Olivia Castello of Canaday Library has created an amazing course guide of resources about education, childhood, literacy, and development in Ghana: http://triportal.brynmawr.edu/guides/Education/1379/ .

GHANA: HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, CULTURE

John Dramani Mahama, My First Coup d'Etat: And Other True Stories from the Lost Decades of Africa (2012)

Ghana Government Official Portal, http://www.ghana.gov.gh/

US Dept of State background note on Ghana http://www.factmonster.com/country/profiles/ghana.html

SOCIAL MEDIA

Visit the Connecting Facebook page Connecting Communities/Intertwining Futures for more resources, and to add there as well as here.

WHAT IS PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION?

Notes on Progressive Approaches to Education: A Workbook by Shelley Nash

Groups:

Dalun Summer 2013

Comments

Reaction to the Handbook

Submitted by Victoria P on Sat, 06/08/2013 - 4:19pm.

I too am excited to get things started in Ghana. The closer it gets the less I feel nervous and the more I look forward to meeting everybody! I just went shopping for some things the other day and I'm trying to get everything in order before we go. I am also wondering what a typical day might be like once we get settled in.

Reaction to the Handbook

Submitted by BlueBird on Thu, 06/06/2013 - 1:43pm.

Hi Everyone!

I am not enirely sure exactly what I am thinking right now, or if there is anything that I should be thinking about in specific. I am excited to go, but really very nervous at the same time, but I am sure that that will be okay. Right now, it is just a little overwhelming but that is largely inevitable. I guess I really just want to know more of the specifics of what I am going to be doing.