Research in Cape Verde the impact of colonialism on its culture and language to work toward creating a welcoming and social justice-oriented school community where students emigrating from there feel valued and empowered.
I have become proficient in basic conversational Cape Verdean Kriolu which will allow me to better communicate with my students and their families. I have also increased my knowledge of Cape Verdean anti-colonial history, culture, and contemporary politics through readings and lectures given during our URI class, in particular with regards to how global economic systems have impacted Cape Verde. In addition, as a team, we have strengthened our curriculum's cultural and linguistic relevancy.
My instructional practice will change because I now have a repertoire of texts written by Cape Verdean artists/writers to use in our unit called "Identity, Power, and Story-telling." In particular, we will incorporate songs, poems, and short excerpt to reflect the experience of Cape Verdeans whose lives are impacted by emigration to the United States. We will use the writings of Amilcar Cabral to enhance our school-wide focus on building student academic and socio-emotional independence.
The greatest personal accomplishment of my fellowship would be the establishment of greater connections to Cape Verdean teachers from Amilcar Cabral High School who I can count on for their expertise when I need recommendations as to which texts might fit our units of study as well as insight into how English is taught in Cape Verde. Because I stayed with a family of Cape Verdean teachers, I was able to build the professional and personal relationships needed for an ongoing collaboration.
My experiences will allow all students to analyze the voice of Cape Verdeans both abroad and in the diaspora in order to better understand how immigration/emigration impacts families in a global context. It will allow my Cape Verdean students to see their own experiences honored and reflected in an academic setting as well as all students the opportunity to make personal connections to the themes of survival, economic hardship, and family separation.
Due to our common experience of studying, traveling, and visiting the families of our students in Cape Verde, we will be able to incorporate Cape Verdean culture, history, and literature into an already existing high degree of collaborative curriculum writing. In addition, we plan on sharing our experiences and recommendations with our whole staff during professional development so that teachers in all departments have access to what we learned.
I envision celebrating the students' new learning in a publishing party showcase of their own poetry/memoir which has been inspired by the texts we analyze. Ideally, we could invite families, as well as Cape Verdean leaders and artists in Boston to exchange knowledge and performances. I envision video-taping their readings so that we could use their stories as exemplars for future years. In addition, I imagine that Cape Verdean cuisine would be featured at the celebration.
My students and I might make a difference for the challenge of how under-represented the voices are of immigrants from oppressed socio-economic backgrounds. Especially given the current hostile political climate, it is all the more important that the targets of violent legal provisions with regards to the poor and undocumented be given the chance to document and voice their experiences and perspectives. Through story-telling, leaders have the chance for more empathy and accountability.
The most fundamental ways in which the fellowship has changed my perspective has been how important it is for teachers to study the culture, history, and language of the students they teach. Teachers must be life-long students to become more empathetic and effective as educators. It emphasized for me the need for culturally and linguistically sustaining practices. Lastly, I was inspired by the creativity and struggle of Cape Verdean educators to change their community despite injustice.
FUND FOR TEACHERS ©