Workshop for Teachers Discusses Cultural Sustainability
Sally Lee
On July 1 and 2, 2019, the annual International Studies
Summer Institute (ISSI) workshop, hosted by the South Asia Center and Cornell’s
South Asia and Southeast Asia Programs, brought together K-12 teachers from
fourteen different New York school districts to learn content, tools, and
strategies for internationalizing their curricula. Engaging teachers of
subjects ranging from Spanish to art to social studies, the workshop explored
the theme of cultural sustainability across many disciplines and world regions.
Presenters discussed how diverse cultures both preserve and adapt their
traditions in the face of environmental, economic, social, and political
change.
Carol Babiracki, Director of the South Asia Center at
Syracuse, whose research explores the ways in which hereditary musicians in
India navigate a changing social and economic landscape, discussed how
different scholars have defined sustainability. The most well-known is the one
outlined by the UN World Commission on Environment and Development—“meeting the
needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to
meet their own needs.” Professor Babiracki argued that any definition must
include attention to the cultural practices and institutions of communities
around the world. Professor Karim-Aly Kassam, International Professor of
Environmental and Indigenous Studies at Cornell, added, in his keynote, that
“cultural sustainability is based on trust and building relationships.”
Spanish teacher Nora Schapira from Lehman Alternative
Community School in Ithaca said that, while she teaches Spanish, she also
teaches about immigration and the relationship between humans and climate
change. Previously a farmer, she found a personal connection to Kassam’s
presentation on biocultural diversity with the central idea that one cannot
preserve culture without also being mindful of taking care of one’s habitat.
Schapira also said ISSI provides her a space for growing her professional
network. After attending a previous ISSI workshop, she reached out to Carol
Hockett, Coordinator of School and Family Programs at Cornell’s Johnson Museum
of Art, to arrange a field trip for her students to visit the museum.
“ISSI is very different from typical teachers’ trainings,”
said Meghan Wright, an English as a New Language (ENL) teacher from the Utica
City School District. “Many of my students are refugees that come from
Southeast Asia, so the content covered today is very helpful and invigorating
and stimulates me with the bigger picture.” Wright further explained that the
content she learned in the workshop helped her better understand the culture of
her refugee students and that she will always keep cultural sustainability in
her mind while teaching.