Tag Archives: social justice

Village Game – A Practice in Nonviolence

Background

This simulation is originally adapted by Karen Ridd, Training for Change, in Thailand, 1995, from a game led by Pom, Thai student and grassroots environmental activist, 1994. The exercise was sourced from 350.org, a international grassroots movement advocating for dismantling the fossil fuel industry and building a world of community-centered renewable energy for all. 350.org provides trainings and resources for facilitators already involved in the climate change movement or those just starting out.

Context

This activity is best suited for high school students, college-age students, and adults. This activity can be conducted in 45 minutes, but more time is recommended to have a more robust discussion and debrief following the activity. This simulation can be delivered as a stand-alone activity, but it is best suited as an activity in supplement to discussion of nonviolent tactics, movements, or specific group goals.

This activity is best done with at least 2 facilitators, but if the activity is delivered in a shorter timeframe (>45 minutes) there should be one facilitator per group. Groups can be anywhere 3-10 but smaller groups are recommended.

Goals

The goal of this training are to provide an opportunity for participants to experience nonviolent action. This can be utilized in a variety of ways included:

  • Experiential learning for students studying nonviolent movements
  • Opportunity for budding activists to experience a situation where their community is threatened and action needs to be taken
  • Team building for existing or new activists groups to practice collective action
  • Scenario planning for real life situations participants may face

This activity also provides groups an opportunity to build their ideal community and share their experience and values. Please note that this might not be well suited for participant groups who have experience significant community destruction that has not address as it may be triggering.

Implementation

The below implementation is the adapted 45 minute delivery of the the village game. Village game run times are typically between 1-2 hours.

Set Up: Activity should be set up in advance. Set up tables with newspaper and numerous markers. This activity can also be done on the floor if desired. If you attackers will be using markers instead of tearing newspapers exclude red marker for your participants. Attackers will use red markers during their attack. Newspapers can be prepped with landmarks such as rivers, mountains, roads as needed to get the participants started.

Introduction (3 minutes): Prime the group by establishing that there are no rules besides physical violence/destruction of property in this activity. Expanded ground rules may need to be set given the location and context, but it is imperative to emphasis creativity for this exercise especially with unexperienced groups. Divide participants into groups consisting of at least three individuals and and assign a facilitator to each group (this will be referred to as village facilitator). If participants are known before the delivery time can be saved by making assignments in advance.

Building Villages (10 minutes): Prompt villagers to begin making their dream village. This can be done in the plenary or by the village facilitator. Encourage creativity and connection to the village by prompting questions as needed. Peaceful music can be turned on to create a more immersive simulation. It is critical during this portion of that participants get ideas onto their newspaper. Inform participants that they will be presenting their village to the other village groups.

Touring Villages (5 minutes): Have groups hold their newspaper village up and talk about the important features of their village for one minute. Groups can also walk around and “tour” the other villages.

Revising Villages (2 minutes): Invite participants to return to their village and add any remaining items as desired. Ask participants to remove chairs if tables are being used. Facilitators who who are playing the role of attackers should change their outfit in some way such as adding a tie or clipboard to denote their changed role. If there enough facilitators, attackers should be in addition to village facilitators.

Village Attack/Defense (10 minutes): Music should be changed to construction, destruction, or other appropriate sound track depending on the antagonist role. Attackers should introduce themselves to the whole group and explain who/what they are. Some antagonist examples are: Oil/Fracking company, Corporation, Government group, or another group with asymmetrical power.

Attackers will then begin destroying villages by scribbling out or ripping off different sections of the newspaper village. Keep the attacks minimal to avoiding overly-distressing villagers or causing them to give up. Attackers should move away from the village to give them time to plan/recover between attacks. Village facilitators can begin prompting participants that they can be creative in their reactions or asking them questions about the attack.

Attackers should return to the village as many times as needed to destroy more sections of the village. As time continues and if participants do not take action, village facilitators can prompt the participants with ideas to prevent further attacks. Potential ideas are: negotiating, sitting on the village (if on the floor), covering the village up, blocking the attackers from the village, picking the village up and hiding it from the attackers. Attacks should continue until villagers successful stop attackers or time finishes. If there is more time is available the activity should continue until attack is successful stopped.

Debrief (10 minutes): Depending on the purpose of the simulation debrief discussion should be adjusted. Below are some example debrief ideas depending on the goal of the simulation. Since debrief time is so short facilitators should provide participants with a resources or additional ideas to explore on their own. If time allows or additional activities are planned alongside this simulation the debrief can be more expansive.

  • Experiential learning for students studying nonviolent movements
    • Ask participants about barriers to action in saving their village. Connect barriers to nonviolence movement participants have studied.
    • Explore conversation about ideas that surfaced versus reading about nonviolence versus participating and nonviolence simulation.
  • Opportunity for budding activists to experience a situation where their community is threatened and action needs to be taken
    • Ask participants about their inital reactions or feelings that surfaced in this activity?
    • Explore how participants felt during the village destruction and what prompted them to act.
    • Provide resources to nonviolent tactics or action steps if participants wish to become involved in activist settings.
  • Team building for existing or new activists groups to practice collective action
    • Ask participant how it felt to collective build their ideal village and what they learned about their fellow participants.
    • Ask participants about the group dynamics while under stress in this activity. Have them explore how group actions effect nonviolent movements.
  • Scenario planning for real life situations participants may face
    • Discuss what worked and what didn’t work and apply to participants’ context. Provide resources or ideas about nonviolent tactics.
    • Explore the differences that might occur in the simulation versus real situation. Additional role playing may be utilized or participants can share learnings from their experiences.

Resources

These resources are not expansive, but rather a starting place for facilitators that will depend on context and participants.

Inside Out: a global participatory art project


“I wish for you to stand up for what you care about by participating in a global art project, and together we’ll turn the world…INSIDE OUT.” – JR

Connecting with people across lines of difference is a fundamental goal in conflict resolution and this process has, in some ways, become more accessible due to the presence of the internet and social media tools. Through a course I am taking focusing on Art as a means of social change, I came across a project called the Inside Out Project started by a Parisian street artists known as JR. Winner of the TED Prize in 2011 (awarded annually to an exceptional individual who receives $100,000 and, much more important, “One Wish to Change the World”), this project tackles causes like peace, diversity, sustainability, and justice through photography as well are large scale displays of these works. According to the inside out project website http://www.insideoutproject.net:

INSIDE OUT is a large-scale participatory art project that transforms messages of personal identity into pieces of artistic work. Everyone is challenged to use black and white photographic portraits to discover, reveal and share the untold stories and images of people around the world. These digitally uploaded images will be made into posters and sent back to the project’s co-creators for them to exhibit in their own communities. People can participate as an individual or in a group; posters can be placed anywhere, from a solitary image in an office window to a wall of portraits on an abandoned building or a full stadium. These exhibitions will be documented, archived and viewable virtually.

This resource presents a unique opportunity to actively engage students in a global movement aimed at highlighting identity and diversity.  The project can either used a stimulated visual example in the classroom that would display the ways in which people around the world are getting involeved in social justice and human rights issues creativily, or you could chose to collaborate!  For example, this nonprofit group in Belo Horizonte, Brazil (Olhar Coletivo, an organization that seeks to empower impoverished youth between the ages of 13 and 15 through the art of photography) participated in the project.

Inside out project is an ambitious experiment in civic engagement through art and would serve to facilitate dialogue about social issues like freedom and diversity as well as actively engage student in a global initiative to respond creatively and nonviolently to response to the political, social, and religious conflicts that are prolific in our contemporary landscape.

Radical Math

POSTED ON BEHALF OF MONICA SHAH

It is a myth that peace and social justice issues can only be taught in a peace studies course. It is an even greater myth that there is no place for peace and social justice in mathematics, science, engineering or technology curricula. This post aims to bring attention to a resource for math and economics teachers of all levels who want their students to study issues of social and economic justice.  Radical Math is a site that contains more than 700 lesson plans, articles, books, charts, graphs, data sets, maps, and websites that will help lead students to not only understand issues of social, political and economic injustices through a mathematical framework, but also to learn how to develop just, realistic and mathematically-sound solutions.

Far too often students have complained about their required math courses and asked, “When will I ever use this?” Fusing social justice and math education allows students to be able to do more than memorize formulas and solve equations; they can use math as a tool to understand and change their society. Social Justice Math has two main purposes: 1) to use mathematics to teach and learn about social and economic justice and 2) to develop mathematical literacy and learn math through the study of social justice issues.  Radical Math resources can be utilized in upper elementary, middle, high school, and college classes. Such curriculum can also be integrated in community programs and classes geared to teach math, financial or computer literacy to citizens, immigrants or ESOL students.

Check out this guide created by Jonathan Osler:

A Guide for Integrating Issues of Social and Economic Justice in Mathematics Curriculum

http://www.radicalmath.org/docs/SJMathGuide.pdf

One relevant (and very current) topic that can be introduced and discussed in a math or economics classroom is the Occupy Wall Street and other “occupy” demonstrations around the nation protesting economic and social inequalities, corporate greed and injustices, and corruption. For example, students can learn about the Gini coefficient and how that is calculated, evaluate the disparities in income and wealth distribution, and calculate corporate taxes and profits.

On the site, students and teachers can search by math topic, social justice issue or resource type. Below are all of the searchable topics and themes:

By Math Topic: Algebra,  Annual Percent Rate (APR), Area, Averages, Bar Graph, Basic Math Concepts, Budgeting Money, Budgets, Cartesian, Chance, Charts, Compound Interest, Correlation, Currency Conversion, Data, Data Analysis, Equivalent Fractions, Extrapolation, Geometry, Graphs, Graphing, Fractals, Fractions, Histograms, Interest, Least Common Denominators, Line Graphs, Mapping, Maps, Mean-Median-Mode, Measurement, Net Worth, Patterns, Percent Growth, Percents, Polar, Polls, Probability, Proportions, Rates, Ratios, Real Dollars, Numbers, Sampling, Scatter plots, Statistics, Survey, Symmetry, Tessellations.

By Social Justice Issue: Achievement Gaps, African Americans, Banking, Criminal Justice System, Death Penalty, Defense Budgets,  Economic Development, Ethnomathematics, Environment (pollution, hunger, food and water resources), Financial Literacy/Education (saving, managing debt, paying for college, credit cards, loans, taxes), Gentrification, Globalization, GLTBQ, Health Care, Higher Education, Homeownership, Housing, Hurricane Katrina, Immigration, Juvenile Justice, Latino/Hispanic, Minimum/Living Wage, Lottery, Military Recruitment, New York, Poverty, Poverty Line, Predatory Lending, Prisons, Public Education, Public Health, Racial Profiling, Racism, Single Mothers, Standardized Testing, Sweatshops, Taxes, Teaching, Unemployment, Voting, Wars, Wealth, Welfare, Women

By Resource Type: Article, Book, Chart, Curriculum, Film, Graph, Map, Syllabus, Table, Website

If you have any ideas or have created a lesson plan or projects on a math topic related to a social justice issue that you would like to share with others, you can e-mail info@radicalmath.org.