TEACHING GEOPOLITICS, CULTURAL IDENTITY, MULTICULTURALISM, TOLERANCE, AND ENHANCED COLLABORATION BETWEEN AND AMONGST PEOPLES AND NATIONS

Ms. Tara Seger
Scituate High School, Scituate RI, United States of America

Abstract

It is critical for students to understand geopolitics in order to be able to participate fully in college discussions, become informed voters and ultimately grow to be fully tolerant and productive members of a global society. Yet, how does an educator teach tolerance, acceptance and international camaraderie without teaching opinion? I approached this question by first writing a course entitled Current Middle East Conflicts. My first step was to inform students about the truth of the many conflicts happening in their world, with a particular focus on the Middle East. To further enhance instruction, I retained a grant to study in the United Arab Emirates. The results of having fully informed students witness their teacher travel to the Middle East, and communicate with them via technology the entire time she was there, were fascinating. American students became more accepting of the reality that there are peaceful, and in fact luxuriant, parts of the Middle East that are safe and, in reality, enticing to travel to. To conclude, the blog and lesson plans that I created while traveling through the Middle East, as well as the curriculum that I wrote for the class on Current Middle East Conflicts, can be used by any teacher to fully inform students about geopolitics, culture and to demystify the Middle East. In conclusion, preventing religious bias, without teaching opinion, occurs when a teacher presents students with the truth of their world. Thus, the teacher is not teaching belief, he or she is informing students about the facts. Knowledge is the power that combats religious bias. In an effort to spread the word to other teachers worldwide, I sought out this opportunity to share the standards-based curriculum on Current Middle Eastern Conflicts that I have written as well as the blog and lesson plans that I have developed on the United Arab Emirates at the SOCIOINT 2019- 6th International Conference on Education, Social Sciences and Humanities.

Keywords: Current Middle East Conflicts Course, tolerance, United Arab Emirates