Faiths in Action in Furness - go into schools to share faiths and cultures - loans service for artefacts from different faiths
CDEC is a charity that provides training and resources for embedding the global dimension into learning – http://www.cdec.org.uk We are keen to work with partners who share our commitment to educating for a fair and sustainable world – recently working with local women in Furness who are keen to go into classrooms to share faiths and cultures with pupils.
Our main partner in the Furness project was Jo Ann Saltiga, formerly Community Learning Development Officer, who has now gone freelance and set up as a consultant in multicultural education. Jo Ann welcomes enquiries (related to any faith or culture) and has a group of local women to call on, who are happy to come into your classroom. Contact her via info@jsaltiga.co.uk
Some of the women from South Cumbria who are happy to come into schools to share cultures and faiths:
- from Hong Kong to Argentina, from Poland to Vietnam, the Philippines and Thailand
- from Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism to Catholicism across the world
It’s vital that classroom visits are more than tokenistic – that they challenge rather than reinforce stereotyping – and everyone involved in Faiths in Action in Furness has been working together to achieve the best experience for pupils. Meetings with teachers included stimulating activities to help pupils to reflect on norms and assumptions and critical examination of RE artefacts and their use in the classroom.
As one teacher said, "It was good to be able to look at resources but especially meet the visitors and see how they can be very valuable when teaching about different religions”
CDEC is pleased to announce that we have recently been given a range of artefacts from different faiths by the diocese of Carlisle, ready to lend to our subscribers. We have been able to add value to these loans boxes via handouts developed during our Faiths in Action in Furness project and are grateful to Wendy Ridley for some of this material (including advice on the main tenets and possible "sensitivities” related to specific religions, as well as stimulating and thought provoking activities).
CDEC’s office and resource centre is in Ambleside, at Low Nook (next door to the Armitt Museum). If you’d like to visit the resource centre, please phone us on 015394 31602.
A CDEC publication
It only costs from £20 for a year’s subscription to the loans service (£20 for an individual, £50 for a primary school, £85 for a large secondary school) and there is a wealth of material to borrow. To enquire about subscriptions or loans (or sales), please contact Claire on 015394 31602 or claire@cdec.org.uk
Article written by Liz Ingledew at CDEC – liz@cdec.org.uk, 015394 31602