URACCAN-York
Update
Volume
2, Issue 1 May 1998
Reports
from York
URACCAN
Faculty studying in Toronto
Diala
Lopez and Amelia Urbina
In spite of our difficulties
in getting used to a climate different from that in our country,
we have had a positive experience here in Canada and at York University.
Getting acquainted with people from other countries and with other cultures
has been great since we have the opportunity of sharing ideas, experiences,
and knowledge. This helps to the development of social and cultural growth
of human beings. Also, we participated in York International Week.
It was amazing to see how many people were interested in knowing more about
URACCAN and the project.
Classes are very dynamic.
Students have the opportunity to participate actively in their learning
process. We have acquired new methodology for teaching and some techniques
at the lab, thus improving our skills and strengthening our capacities.
Therefore, when we return to our country we will be better prepared to
contribute to URACCAN's main goal of strengthening its capacity to educate
and train local residents. Local residents then will be prepared
to work to promote the development of the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua.
Report
from the York Project Office
Members of the York
team have been very busy since the last Newsletter. We have enjoyed welcoming
Diala and Amelia to Toronto, but were sorry to see Amelia leave. Members
of the team have participated in the York University International Development
Week with an information table. An information session on volunteering
possibilities was also held. Harry Smaller discussed various opportunities
for volunteering and showed slides of previous trips to Nicaragua.
As many of you may
already know, Kaushalya Bannerji resigned as Project Coordinator. Alyson
King has been working as the Interim Project Coordinator, and will do so
until Felipe Stuart returns from Nicaragua to take up the position.
The project team has
also been very involved in preparing the applications for submission to
York University and organizing supervisory committees for those in the
Interdisciplinary Studies Master’s Program. We are also preparing for the
arrival of Carlos Aleman at York in September.
York
Graduate Students involved in the project
Kirsten Iler and Rebeccah
Nelems have been involved in the York-URACCAN project since its inception
and continue to be active participants in the project. Kirsten spent last
summer on the Atlantic coast in Nicaragua, assisting with the York-URACCAN
project in various capacities, while carrying out her own academic research.
Spending time at each of the three campuses, she assisted in both the ESL
component of the project and in the pre-Masters course, along with Marianne
Kelly and Nadine Judd. She will also be representing the York-URACCAN linkage
project at a conference on URACCAN in Chicago in early June. Her
thesis assesses the impacts of the Moravian Church's historical presence
in the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua on ethnic and gender relations in the
region. She is currently completing her Masters Degree in Women's Studies
at York and will continue to work in the field of international development
in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Last spring, Rebecca
had the opportunity to visit two of URACCAN's campuses and participate
in one of the gender seminars facilitated by Susan Heald. Most recently,
she has been involved in election observation in Belize and Paraguay. She
is currently completing her Masters Degree in Social and Political Thought.
Her thesis addresses the colonial context of several key issues facing
indigenous peoples in Canada today.
Report
from Nadya Weber in Bluefields
Every morning from
7:00 am until 8:30 I have a class with non-York docentes at CEDEHCA.
This class has been going rather well; a few of the students show up everyday!
Anywhere from 3 to 10 students attend this class and they range from beginner
to intermediate. At 9:00 I meet with Lola and Zarifeth at Tia Irene for
a 2 hour class. However, for the last two weeks Zarifeth has been in Guatemala.
She will resume classes when she returns. Lola and I have watched and discussed
two documentaries from the NFB: Marilyn Waring's Local and Global Politics
and Power (the Crees against Hydro Quebec). Other classes have been
spent working on grammar. Last month we spent quite a bit of time on reading
and pronunciation. I meet with Socorro and Nubia on Mondays, Wednesdays,
and Fridays for a two-hour session. In the beginning of last month Nubia
worked on writing skills and higher level grammar. Over the past month,
Nubia has been given a lot more work by the university and our classes
have been sporadic at best. The last few classes were spent on listening
comprehension with the TOEFL tapes. Most recently we agreed that she would
write her paper for Liisa North's class in English, but unfortunately she
has been too busy for us to get together. Socorro, as you might have heard,
has resigned from URACCAN because of some unfortunate circumstances. However,
she would still like to stay in the master's program. Tanya and myself
are also coordinating a children's reading program every Sunday afternoon
at Tia Irene and hoping to initiate more programs in other barrios.
Report
from Tanya Chung in Bluefields
Considering the less
than optimum conditions here in Bluefields for a computer lab (very limited
software and maintenance resources, electrical surges, dust and humidity),
Eric and I have been managing to maintain a limited, but adequate, computer
program. When the docentes are able to break from their busy schedules,
I have computer class on Monday and Wednesday evenings with Valerie and
Tanya Mente - both of whom are English teachers. On Tuesday and Thursday
afternoons, I have a computer class with Socorro and Nubia. With Socorro's
recent resignation, she is not able to come up to campus anymore. Soon
I will be teaching basic computing to fourth year Marine Biology students
on Wednesdays from 6:00 until 7:40 pm. On Fridays, I teach second
year English for three hours to both Creole and Spanish-speaking students
which at its best, can be an exercise in patience. Most mornings
I also teach Tae kwon-do classes to a group of very keen students. On Saturdays,
I assist with a feeding and reading program at a school for children whose
families cannot afford to send them to the regular primary and elementary
schools. Also, as Nadya has already mentioned, we have been co-ordinating
a reading and painting program at Tia Irene for neighbourhood children.
I am also going to be involved with an environmental law project co-ordinated
by the human rights law office in Bluefields - regarding monitoring of
the dry canal project, a project that carries severe implications for the
people of this region. Well, I believe that is all, so we will say "adios"
for now and send our best regards to everyone at the York end.
News
from URACCAN
URACCAN
WELCOMES CANADIAN TEACHER-INTERNS
[From URACCAN Update]
In early March two
new Canadian teacher-interns arrived in Nicaragua to assist with the work
of the York-URACCAN Linkage Project. Tanya Chung and Heidi Mehta were contracted
to work with URACCAN teachers helping to upgrade their computer and Internet
skills. They are part of a CIDA (Canadian International Development Agency)
program for recent Canadian university graduates. "Interns" contracted
by this program work for a six month period abroad in their specialties
to acquire practical experience before returning home to the Canadian job
market. The two new arrivals join Rosanne Gasparelli, Tim Hansell, and
Nadya Weber, Canadian ESL teachers already working as part of the Linkage
Project. Ms. Chung is assigned to work in Bluefields and Ms. Mehta in Bilwi
and Waspam. Prior to initiating their teaching, they spent a couple
of weeks at a Spanish-language school in Esteli.
YORK-URACCAN
MASTERS PROGRAM
FIRST
CREDIT COURSE – A REAL SUCCESS FOR ALL
The first credit course
for URACCAN teachers enrolled in the York University-URACCAN Masters Degree
Program took place for three weeks this February at the Kambla-Bilwi campus.
York’s Dr. Liisa North, a specialist in Latin American history and development
issues, taught the course. She came to Nicaragua direct from Peru where
she is conducting field work in collaboration with Peruvian scholars and
researchers.
All course protagonists
- the students (URACCAN professors), Dr. North, academic leaders of URACCAN,
and others collaborating closely with the project were unanimous in their
evaluation of the session as a real success for the students and the program
itself. This can be said not only about the excellent academic quality
of the experience and student rendition, but also about the process in
which those responsibility for Program continuity acquired important experience
that can be applied to taking the Program forward.
Special thanks to
Liisa North were expressed by her students and by URACCAN personnel when
the course was adjourned. The Program is a pilot experience both for York
University and for URACCAN. Many facets, if not carefully considered and
monitored, could end up being seen as obstacles, rather than assets to
the process.
Aspects such as language
(acquiring English), the multilingualism and multiculturalism of class
members, cultural disparities between Canadian academics and Nicaraguan
students, logistical difficulties -- all this makes for an impressive challenge.
Naturally no project of this scope unfolds without creases and snags. The
Kambla-Bilwi experience, however, showed marked progress over the first
non-credit session on several fronts.
The Program is being
evaluated, under the terms of the agreement with the Association of Canadian
Universities and Colleges, by independent evaluators: a team of one Canadian
and one Nicaraguan, professionals in this area. The in-tandem, participatory
evaluation process is much more beneficial to the Program than traditional
midway and term end evaluations because program leaders can take criticisms
and suggestions into account and in time to make appropriate changes and
improvements.
The York-URACCAN Linkage
Project leadership team is now in the process of discussing the next stages
of the Program, in particular, details for the next credit course to take
place this July-August. Below we carry a report of the inauguration of
Dr. North's course.
*****
On March 8 URACCAN
inaugurated the first credit course of the York-URACCAN Linkage Project
Masters' Program with a special celebration at its Kambla-Bilwi campus.
Dr. Liisa North of York University, who traveled to Nicaragua from her
field work in Ecuador, was guest of honor. The occasion was also used to
"Spirit" (dedicate) buildings on the campus recently constructed with Canadian
funding.
March 8 -- The ride
out to the Kambla campus is courtesy of "Granny" – the van donated by the
Canadian Trucks for Nicaragua Initiative to local folks and family members.
Following the National Anthem, Amanda Puhiera -- URACCAN's Academic Secretary
-- introduced the inaugural theme, explaining the aims, content, and activities
of the York-URACCAN Linkage Project.
Next, Dr. Ray Hooker,
co-director of the York-URACCAN Linkage Project, set the tone with his
usual style and depth. He drove home the vital importance of linking
study, research, teaching, and analysis on a global level. It is
not possible for a university to function well in any part of the world
if it is not drawing on the resources and experiences of other universities
and scholars from all continents. He reminded docentes and students
that although knowledge is power, its impact can be for better or worse,
depending on who wields it, who shapes it, and to what ends. He challenged
them to do their best to succeed and obtain that power, but to acquire
as well the wisdom to put it to good purposes on behalf of their people.
URACCAN Rector Dr.
Myrna Cunningham followed, relating some of those same concepts more concretely
to the goals of the course and the challenges faced by URACCAN participants
– both docentes and administrators. She introduced Canadian ESL and computer-skills
teachers present who are working with URACCAN teachers enrolled in the
York Masters' Degree Program.
Dr. Liisa North, of
York University, brought greetings from URACCAN supporters in Canada. She
spoke both in Spanish and English - perhaps with unintended irony that
may have reminded Program docentes that learning English is a vital element
for obtaining the York Masters Degree.
URACCAN docentes chose
professor Yuri Zapata (Bilwi) to speak for them from the head table. His
comments met those expressed earlier by Ray Hooker -- affirming their commitment
to keep on applying their academic conquests to the defense of autonomy
and the betterment of communities in the Caribbean Coast regions.
The plenary was followed
by an outdoor, stand-up reception and a tour of the campus computer center.
New computers for the use of docentes in the York Program had just been
installed, an important step forward towards the goal of establishing an
interment link with York. Classes began the next day.
URACCAN
Faculty at YORK
Vol. 2, Issue 1 May 1998