Towards the end of 2017, Mindburst Workshop was approached by Sacred Heart and Three2Six with the idea of creating a resource for teachers that made it easier for them to incorporate lessons surrounding refugee issues into their classroom.
The aim of the book was to provide all the background information a teacher may need in order to start discussing the global refugee crisis in an informed manner. Including background information on the law and legal processes related to migrants, as well as information on human rights and human trafficking.
Rather than being a prescriptive set of lessons, the intention was to inspire teachers with lesson ideas of the kinds of generative discussions and exercises that can be facilitated in the classroom. The book provides full lesson plans as well as all the resources required for the lesson, but is also fully open to being adapted and changed to suit the needs of individual classrooms. Ideally, the resource would be used to stimulate teacher’s own ideas about how to integrate an understanding of refugee issues in a relevant manner.
The resource covers three phases: Intermediate Phase, Senior Phase and FET, with six lesson plans for each phase, as well as other ideas to try if teachers feel the need to take the ideas further, including links to videos and other resources, exercise ideas and other activities to try.
Many teachers face the problem of not being able to complete the national syllabus in the allocated time, and asking them to cover material over and above what they already have to complete may be too demanding. To combat this, the resource covers many subjects, including poetry, art, history and others, still all within the theme of migrant issues. This way teachers can still cover a portion of the syllabus, while simultaneously discussing contemporary issues that impact on young learners lives.
In 2020, Three2Six asked us to create a digital version of the resource. You will find this digital version linked to below. The digital version includes everything found in the book as well as extra video explanations from teachers from Three2Six.
View the online version of the resource here.
One of the artworks produces by a refugee child during a MindBurst workshop.