Social, Political, and Academic Growth for Teachers

I used to think of computers and writing and feel fear of losing my job deep down in my stomach, but now I know that computers can never replace teachers. I say so because I have seen how students need our help in the computer labs. We have to plan the tasks in advance so as to be able to facilitate learning in the labs, while we also have to be democratic and allow them to move from one corner to another in search of what they need to know in the labs. Sometimes they understand better when they learn from each other.

Through sharing of cultures knowledge and teaching methods, the project has led to social, political and academic growth of the teachers involved as well. I always felt the change in me when I dress in my cultural clothes and did not know why and what it was. But through the discussions of Neale Hurston's story "How it Feels to be Colored Me," I realized that my cultural clothes take me back to my roots, to my "inner self," and make me feel as powerful as a rock.

The shared reading and discussion between the Sharing Cultures Project teachers at NNMU and Columbia College Chicago makes us different from teachers who are not in the project at NMMU. Learning about democracy in the classrooms from Ira Shor's Empowering Education has opened our eyes; we approach teaching and learning in classrooms differently. We feel part of the global village because of Nussbaum's (1997) Cultivating Humanity and her advice about how we should regard all human beings as our fellow citizens and local residents. We have hope of sharing and gaining even more from the project. And without computers, this communication would not be possible.