Joanna Hallac

Joanna Hallac: Reaching the World, One Classroom at a Time

by Laura Bishop

This winter, we came together as a community of colleagues to explore some ways we might be able to incorporate global competencies into our curricula.  A lot of excellent ideas and brainstorming took place that day, and it became quite evident that we have access to so many resources at Hun that could be harnessed to expand both our students’ and our own understandings about the many dimensions of life in other countries.

Joanna Hallac's 9th Grade World Studies Class

Since it is not possible for all students and teachers to fly off to parts unknown to explore cultures abroad, the next best thing is bringing someone into the classroom who either has experienced life in another part of the world, or is currently experiencing it. Reach the World, is one such example of a program that grants schools in the United States that opportunity. Joanna Hallac has been utilizing this program for her 9^th grade World Studies class, and to great effect!

Reach the World pairs classes with graduate and undergraduate students (most of them American) in countries around the world. Classes develop a dialogue with that American abroad about what they are experiencing as an American immersed in another culture. The dialogue is student driven, with students constructing questions related to what they are most curious to understand more about.

At first, Ms. Hallac's class was paired with a graduate student living in Morocco, with whom they had several conversations. They then moved on to speaking with Clayton, an undergraduate studying in Hong Kong through the Gilman Scholarship program, and continue to be in touch with him.

I had the opportunity to sit in on one of their Skype chats with Clayton and found the experience really enlightening.  Students engaged Clayton with questions on a wide range of topics, including Hong Kong’s colonial past, the cultural mix and interchange between Hong Kong and mainland China, family life and customs, public transportation and infrastructure, Hong Kong’s major role in world business and the financial markets, among others. One of the most interesting threads in the discussion focused on Hong Kong’s “Umbrella Movement.” Clayton gave a really succinct explanation of the conflict, the related issues, and the student activists’ demands.  

I sat down with Ms. Hallac to ask her about the experience from a teacher’s perspective.

LB:  What is the aim or goal of the program, as you see it?

JH:  To build curiosity and a desire to travel and experience other cultures...Cultural enrichment and to build interest in our immersion program…In History, to make sure students are culturally competent, globally aware, and have an understanding of what’s happening in places that are not “normally” visited; these places may be outside our students’ comfort zones.

Americans traveling can lend an American perspective or lens to their experiences. They can offer alternate perspectives of recent, major events (for example, the Moroccan reaction to the Paris attacks was different than those here). It’s also great modeling for the students. Overall, it speaks to what we’re trying to achieve with our strategic plan for global cultural competencies.

LB: How do you build these interactions into your curriculum?

JH: I have the students research background for each place—focusing on the history, and intersection of Western influence or relationship between these two places. It has been a useful vehicle for discussing Imperialism. What are the obvious remnants left from those imperial relationships? What are the connections between a country’s past and present?

LB: Can you describe the result you see with your students?

JH: They enjoy it. They come with questions for each session. It’s important to keep following up with it. For example, the recent clashes between street vendors and police over the lunar NYE; it’s good to use current events to build off of it. These discussions have lead to curricular connections when studying 19th century China. It is challenging to not make it an isolated experience, so care and mindfulness needs to occur where choosing the specific countries of contact is concerned. This will help to ensure that the sessions can be successfully embedded into the curriculum. The Umbrella movement is tied to history...How? We have the history of oppression from legalism and the Cultural Revolution, and then Communists re-exerting their control over people looking for answers elsewhere, and trying to practice free speech.

LB: What have you learned from these experiences?

JH: Be deliberate in how you connect the sessions to the curriculum and the broader missions of our department, and our school. Embed it thoughtfully. Looking at the current event piece is more interesting for the students; work back from that to look at the history. If we are going to move forward with this, all teachers need to be on board for embedding it in a meaningful way. Developing more concrete goals and objectives, for example, will be necessary, moving forward. A framework is important in order to utilize these experiences effectively.

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I was curious to know what some of the students thought about their experience of the Reach the World program, so I was fortunate to grab a few minutes with two students from Joanna’s class: Martin and Kendall.

Martin was intrigued by what he learned about Hong Kong: “I’ve never been to an Asian country. So, he introduced that part of the world to me. My experience was very vague before. He has spoken to locals about the protests and he was able to share opinions they gave him; these are things you don’t hear about, so it’s nice to learn about those opinions we don’t hear about. It’s the closest thing we can get to Hong Kong without going there…”

“In general.” Martin explained, “it opened my eyes to learning from people in other countries. It opens up your eyes.”

Martin’s participation in the dialogues with Clayton led him to pursue the topic of Britain’s colonial rule over Hong Kong: “For our Imperialism paper, I focused mainly on Hong Kong and how their interactions with and colonization by the Brits affected their country’s trade, and overall interaction with the world. The causes of the Opium Wars were a major focus of my paper.”

Martin endorses the program, and hopes other students will, too. “It really piques your interest,” he said. “Maybe this kind of stuff isn’t really your thing, but even if it isn’t, it opens your mind and it’s more fun than just taking notes on a lecture and reading. It gives you a cultural perspective.”

When asked if he could name another country he’d enjoy learning more about through Reach the World, Martin did not hesitate with his answer: “A Middle Eastern country such as Lebanon or Iran…or a predominantly Islamic country, like Indonesia. I’m Lebanese, and my mother is a practicing Muslim. People always talk about women being oppressed by Islam, but in Indonesia there are a lot of women in government. It would be interesting to focus on what life is like for women and others living in countries that are not radical or extreme. The depiction of Muslim countries is radical and oppressive, when in reality there is a much wider variety of experience in the Muslim world.”

Kendall also felt that the experience was especially worthwhile due to the chance it gives students to learn about a country through someone’s firsthand accounts in real time: “It’s interesting because instead of reading about something, you’re getting an idea of what day to day life is like there from someone’s experience…It’s just really helpful and more interesting. I like that we can ask him a variety of questions about his experience. I learned a lot about the Umbrella Protest, the TPP—I did not know what that was before-- the Lunar New Year conflicts… and I learned a lot about our country, too, throughout.”

For Kendall, the conversations with their contact in Morocco were particularly engaging. “I would recommend this program to other classes because it changes up your day, and because it gives us a chance to learn about countries that we normally wouldn’t learn much about like when we took two days out of our schedule to discuss Morocco.”

“After this experience I became interested in visiting Morocco at some point in the future.” she said with a smile.