Midwest Conference of the Comparative and International Education Society (CIES) October 10-11,2014

It was a great experience for me to attend this conference. I learnt more information and see how researcher are presenting their papers, and responding to the comments. Only that some of them were too fast, I attended different session and came out with a good observation that draw my attention.

( Tameka Carter- Richardson, DePaul university and Wendell Philips academy High school) .Conducted a areseach "Exploring Intellectual Emancipation: The Participation of low income Black Students in Education Travel." when she chose these student as a sample in her study, they were able to contribute with money for the trip because they were eager to see other places. So they did it and the result was very good .Students learnt how to collaborate, share information, team work ,and other good experiences that they were not familiar with before, so when they came back parents realized a great changes in their children.  and the students themselves were very happy. So there is a question  moving in my mind  I want to post it you my colleagues, that back in South Sudan we have the same issue family with low income, insecurity and so on, but as teachers, what can we do to motivate the students in a similar way? how can we break the gap of low income and change the minds of the families, even if with a sample activities?.  

South Sudan history curriculum

I think South Sudan should take evolutionary approach in developing history curriculum. The current history curriculum had a positive impact and helped South Sudan became and maintains independence. However, what is required for the good future of South Sudan? I believe as a teacher, that my dear colleagues who are history teachers are giving more positive explanations beyond the syllabus in the class. They are counseling and drawing students’ attention to look at positive impacts to avoid the negative parts of ideas and beliefs. Students may develop negative ideas from home or in the community. Yet, the recent political issues and conflicts are contradicting with what they are learning at school. Therefore, we need to check and select approaches that enlighten hearts, minds, and sights, to reduce and prevent the cause of problems. We need to live as one nation with different cultural diversity. “We can't teach everything in history, because there's not enough time. Therefore we pick out something to teach about, and leave out others” (Barton, 2014). There are a lot of history many events taking place in S. Sudan, we select some to be taught in primary, and see the outcome after period of time, evaluate and think what changes and addition are needed.  By doing so, we are improving different approaches.   ​