Stereotyping
Class description
Course Topic: Graduate course on working with children from culturally and socially diverse backgrounds
Student composition: 2nd year MA university students (domestic student only)
The situation in which the controversy occurred
When teaching this course, one of the challenges I face is overcoming the focus on Western-framed perspectives, introducing postcolonialism, and diversifying students’ knowledge. To that end, I try to select reading materials that would enable a fruitful classroom discussion (Markowska-Manista 2016). Another challenge is the lack of intercultural contact (Markowska-Manista and Zakrzewska-Olędzka 2017) and intercultural experiences among students.
In one of our classes the topic was how to properly discuss with young children and adolescents texts from the so-called literary canon of literature that contains stereotypical representation of certain groups. A heated debate took place about how the children’s poem “Bambo Brown” (Murzynek Bambo in Polish), written in 1934, and a short story entitled “In desert and wilderness” (W pustyni i w puszczy in Polish), written in 1912, can contribute to the perpetuation of negative stereotypes and overemphasize cultural differences in a negative way.
“Bambo Brown” is about a little “black boy” named Bambo who lives in Africa. It is a classic poem which, despite being absent from the school curriculum, is still used by some teachers, while criticized by others for instilling racism in children.
Bambo Brown
“On African land lives Bambo and the Browns
His chocolate face shines even when he frowns.
As soon as the Sun appears on the horizon
His new book is what he’s keen on.
And when he comes back home from school
He plays tricks as he thinks it’s quite cool.
“Come drink some milk” – his mummy says.
But he climbing the tree prefers.
“Come take a bath” – his mummy replies.
But Bambo does not want his skin to turn white
But mummy loves her little boy
As he is good and full of joy.
What a pity that Bambo clever and funny
Is not here to make the weather warm and sunny.”
The short story „In desert and wilderness” was written by Nobel Prize-winning novelist Henryk Sienkiewicz. This story is problematic in a similar manner with its explicit racist overtones. Both texts are products of their age and do not reflect modern reality. When discussed without a context and without sensitizing children to racism, they can indeed generate stereotypes. Today, in the era of multiculturalism, drawing on these types of classical texts without proper commentary seems harmful, as it can perpetuate schematic thinking and confirm stereotypes, which may be already rooted in people’s minds and society.
Consequently, the aim of the class was to facilitate a critical discussion on selected “typical” educational content, discuss constructive strategies to do so, and highlight the need to recognize and problematize this type of content in didactic activities – classes conducted in classroom.
How to address this situation?
Further resources on Oxford-style debate:
“What is Oxford Style Debate?” by Han-Rog Kang (Oxford University)
“Oxford-style debate guidelines” by M. Moszoro
In the case of younger students, it is recommended to discuss the poem “Bambo Brown,” while indicating the schematic thinking, negative stereotypes and colonial language. However, it is necessary to be well prepared to classes addressing this problem. They certainly require a discussion about the historical and social context in which the texts were written. Attention must be drawn to the students – what if some of them are children or adolescents whose parents from countries on the African continent? Is the instructor able to deal with non-discriminatory education in such situations?
Every country has this type of publications in its literary canon. It is worth drawing attention to how and in what context the teacher transmits the knowledge, so as to sensitise the students to diversity and avoid direct and indirect discrimination in education. It is worth wondering about why the image of Africa and people coming from countries from the African continent is a result of a negative perception and prejudice.
Works cited:
Academic sources:
Diouf, M., Igiehon, A., Karamalla, N., Rasolomampionona, D., & Średziński, P. (2011). Jak mówić i pisać o Afryce. Fundacja Afryka Inaczej, Warszawa.
Liebel‚ M. „Weiße“ Kinder – „schwarze” Kinder. Nachdenkliche Anmerkungen zu Janusz Korczaks Kinder-Roman vom kleinen König Maciuś, In: M. Liebel and Janusz Korczak (eds.) – Pionier der Kinderrechte. Ein internationales Symposium, Berlin–Münster: LIT Verlag Dr. W. Hopf, 2013.
Markowska-Manista, U. (2020) “O potrzebie dekolonizacji współczesnych badań nad dzieciństwem i prawami dziecka
w krajach Globalnego Południa i Globalnej Północy”. Rozważania wstępne, PRZEGLĄD KRYTYCZNY 2020 / 2(1): 9-20, DOI: 10.14746/pk.2020.2.1.01
Markowska-Manista, U. (2016): Walka ze stereotypami odmienności kulturowej – szkolne i pozaszkolne pola bitewne, In: Twierdza. Szkoła w metaforze militarnej. Co w zamian? Maria Dudzikowa & Sylwia Jaskulska (ed.), Wolters Kluwer SA, pp. 315-339.
Markowska-Manista, U. and Dominika Zakrzewska-Olędzka (2017):
Pomiędzy teorią a praktyką kontaktu międzykulturowego, Pogranicze. Studia społeczne, vol. 30, ss. 113-129, DOI:10.15290/pss.2017.30.08
Online sources:
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie The danger of a single story https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_ngozi_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story
“How to talk about the majority of the world” published by the Institute of Global Responsibility https://igo.org.pl/, http://igo.org.pl/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Jak_mowic_o_wiekszosci_swiata_wydanie4_-ebook.pdf
Source of the translated poem in the box is: https://blogs.transparent.com/polish/murzynek-bambo-julian-tuwim/
Zasady Debaty Oksfordzkiej http://ampdo.pl/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/AMPDO_Zasady-Debaty.pdf
