Making Social Sciences come alive

Making Social Sciences come alive

Two Auckland Social Sciences teachers with a humanitarian way of thinking have found a way to make their lessons come to life.

Sarah Wakefield and Shona McRae were teaching in the Social Sciences department at Rangitoto College on Auckland’s North Shore when the opportunity for an Asia Education Teachers’ Association trip to Cambodia arose.

The voluntary, not-for-profit organisation encourages Australian teachers to promote Asian studies in schools.

“It’s an important part of the NZ curriculum too,” says Ms McRae.

“We found ourselves with a group of like-minded teachers, visiting non-government organisations and orphanages and building houses in Cambodia. We fell in love with the place.”

The pair returned to Rangitoto College and used the videos and photos of their experience as classroom tools. The students were so enthused that Ms Wakefield and Ms McRae organised a return visit to Cambodia in January 2007, this time taking a group of 25 Rangitoto College teachers and students.

Ms McRae has been involved with the 40 Hour Famine for years and wanted to take the students to a World Vision project in Cambodia, so they could see the difference their fund-raising makes.

The group saw World Vision projects in Phnom Penh and Kampong Speu province.

“We were in the middle of nowhere; there were no power lines, the bus couldn’t get through and we had to walk the last part of the journey. But the people were there ready to greet us and sing for us. You fall in love with the children. They are so friendly and happy,” says Ms McRae.

“In the World Vision projects, you see Cambodians helping Cambodians. There were older teenagers helping younger teenagers. That peer mentoring idea is universal; it happens in our schools too.

“The students could see that their fund-raising had made a difference. In the children’s clubs World Vision has set up, the Cambodian children have access to toys, games and books,” says Ms McRae.

When they returned to NZ, the students were inspired to fund raise a further US$2,000 on top of their Famine fund-raising, for World Vision’s Cambodian projects.

Ms McRae says the experience has proved invaluable in the classroom.

“I can show students the trip video and they can see their peers building a house or going to World Vision projects and playing with Cambodian kids.

“We like to practise what we preach. As teachers we are trying to role model that it is possible for one person to do something. So we show them what we have actually done in Cambodia.”

Ms McRae recently took up a new position at Westlake Girls High School. Earlier this month, a Westlake Girls senior student, Ilana Seager, was named one of three World Vision Sanitarium Travelling Scholars. Ilana will travel to World Vision projects in India in her September school holidays.