Learning is a Social Activity 1

Teaching in the Sharing Cultures Project has been an effort in the first years, since we had to sit down as two teams and share ideas for a common curriculum. We all agreed that writing should be preceded by reading, and we chose culturally relevant readings for themes. Then we had to implement the ideas in the classrooms.

It was not easy for South African students as they had an existing English for Academic Purposes curriculum. Reading and writing for Sharing Cultures Project was extra work for which they were not credited. We noticed that this fact was causing dissatisfaction and de-motivation amongst the students. The solution to ease the discomfort of two curricula in one semester was to develop a curriculum for the Humanities group of students in the project, one that included the project's themes. Dr Silverman was in South Africa, and she assisted us to start developing it.

Even before this new inclusive curriculum, our South African students were finding it difficult to read at the pace of the American students. When I communicated this problem to my colleagues in America, I discovered that the students at CCC were required to read 700 pages per week, something, which was impossible for our students. Although our students were also second language speakers of English, their level of competency in English was very low. The incentive that retained much of their original charm in the project was the opportunity to work on Internet. At that time, students had to pay for Internet, but the University paid for those in the Sharing Cultures Project. Today using the Internet is not an incentive anymore as it is free for all the students in the university.