In partnership with the Fowler Museum and the UCLA Center for Southeast Asian Studies, the workshops in this series are aimed at fostering a deeper understanding of the diverse cultural practices and religious beliefs within MENA communities in the region and beyond, as well as global Muslim communities. These free professional development opportunities are designed to learn about global cultural traditions and provide instructional materials for classroom use.
This free development opportunity for K-12 teachers provided an overview of The Art of Knowing project, a pedagogical intervention and research project that utilizes non-Western, specifically Indigenous Muslim storywork, as the foundation for an extracurricular science curriculum to engage elementary school children in multiple ways of knowing, and diverse orientations toward knowledge.
Presenters situated the study geographically and temporally within the local community context to understand the school site and the community in which it is located. Next, they explained and demonstrated the application of social critiques of modernity and coloniality to the design of curriculum and pedagogical strategies that forward culturally responsive and revitalizing relationships with, and understanding and production of knowledge and our world. Finally, they provided a model lesson using the story of Hayy ibn Yaqzan, a classical tale from the MENA & Muslim work that provides a theory of knowledge, as a curricular and pedagogical foundation.
Curriculum Materials:
Ibn Tufayl’s Hayy Ibn Yaqzan: A Philosophical Tale
The Animals’ Lawsuit Against Humanity: a 10th century tale
Kalīlah and Dimnah: Fables of Virtue and Vice
Lesson Plans:
Introduction to Havy Ibn Yaqzan / Arshad I. Ali, Ebtissam Oraby, Samuel Burmester
“Teaching Histories of South and Southeast Asia through the Visual Arts” was a free development opportunity for educators instructing upper grade levels 6-12. This institute focused on Jain, Buddhist, Hindu, and Muslim communities from South and Southeast Asia, and their diasporas in Los Angeles.
Participants explored the ways individuals and communities express their key beliefs and practices through the arts. Scholars, community leaders, and curators, as well as K-12 teachers versed in differentiated learning styles, will lead teacher participants through curriculum activities that support the teaching of World History, Culture, Geography, and Language Arts. Educators were introduced to a wealth of Los Angeles resources–museums, murals, and religious sites- for integrating into their curricula.
The institute convened over three Saturdays in the Winter of 2023. LAUSD teachers had the opportunity to receive one LAUSD Salary Point with Multicultural Credit. It accompanied the Fowler Museum’s exhibition Visualizing Devotion: Jain Embroidered Shrine Hangings (November 20, 2022- March 26, 2023).