Workshop on Teaching About the UN

Lesson Plans with Routes through the Internet

The Committee on Teaching About the United Nations (CTAUN) has offered a program of workshops to help teachers develop lesson plans that integrate the U.N. — its work, its ideals, and its principles into the classroom. Many schools already offer extra-curricular activities that include learning about the U.N. The CTAUN workshops are aimed at helping teachers include an international and U.N. perspective in the curriculum subjects they teach.

The importance of that perspective to students' understanding of the world cannot be underestimated. The work of the U.N. touches the most critical problems facing humankind. Furthermore, teaching about the U.N. goes beyond simply disseminating information; it engages and empowers us, developing values of respect for human rights, compassion and responsibility. Finding ways to bring a U.N. perspective into already overstressed curricula is a daunting task. However, with the help of resources that are increasingly available on the Internet, teachers in a group setting can discover sites that would be useful in teaching about the U.N., identifying obstacles, providing feedback and supporting each other in achieving those educational goals.

The most recent workshop was held at the United Nations International School, on Saturday, January 31, 2004 the day after the CTAUN “Poverty – Partnerships – Peace: The Role of Educators in the 21st Century” conference. Other recent workshops were held in both February and April 2003.

On April 26, 2003, participating teachers were able to join together in the school's computer lab and work in a supportive, hands-on setting. It was led by Bill Yotive, Program Manager of the United Nations Cyberschoolbus, with a presentation by Jennie Tranel, teacher and former aide to the Conference of Non-Governmental Organizations with the U.N.

Bill introduced the Cyberschoolbus (http://www.cyberschoolbus.un.org) website as an excellent guide to learning about the U.N. This site offers projects and lesson plans on a wide range of issues from the U.N.'s agenda including human rights, landmines, Model UN, child soldiers, health and the environment among others. Each of these has links to other sites, possibilities for an interdisciplinary and interactive approach, and ways in which students can pursue individual projects.

Jennie presented a case study on her development of an international perspective for her course on Women's Literature. Using various U.N. websites, she showed how U.N. documents articulate the ideals for women worldwide. She used other online documents and articles to illustrate women's position in different societies and to generate student discussion about the gap between the ideal and real for women. She chose the career and writings of Eleanor Roosevelt as a link between the concerns of the U.N. and those of women writers. She found, after unsuccessful searches on other sites, that the Public Broadcasting System has a special site dedicated to the former First Lady (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/eleanor/). She also designed an assignment in which students used the internet to research and report the status of women in countries of their choice. Jennie's report was very important in illustrating the process of the kind of curriculum development this workshop hopes to encourage.

The participants then worked together in small groups while Bill and Jennie were available to help them. First they chose a topic that they taught in which they wished to include a U.N. perspective. Then they clarified the objectives of the lesson plan and the questions to be raised. They went on to explore the range of Internet sites and bookmarked those that looked as though they could be interesting. They returned to the original objectives and revised them according to the information they found.

Several ideas for lesson plans were explored and shared by the groups. For instance, two teachers with courses on the European impact on the Incas and Aztecs, and the effects of the Westward Movement in U.S. History on Native Americans, looked at U.N. sites on Indigenous People. Students can see the problem of culture clash and the loss of human diversity as one society gave way to a more powerful one. They could ask questions about such problems in the past and present, what solutions were possible then and are available today.

Another group found that the study of Poverty — causes, effects, solutions — is a rich area for interdisciplinary studies, and would certainly develop a greater understanding of the U.N.'s Millennium Development Goals. It would require time for a group of teachers to plan the parameters of the course, the content of the independent disciplines and where they relate to each other, as well as discovering the many relevant U.N. websites. A study of the Environment was found to be equally appropriate for several school disciplines, not only the Sciences and Health, but also Geography, History, Politics, and Sociology. Both projects would go beyond the academics and encourage students to become partners in the inquiry, developing critical thinking and respect for their ability to take action in applying solutions for the problem raised.

These are only some examples of what future workshops and collaborative activity by teachers could achieve. The participants in this workshop rated it highly and hoped that more teachers would be able to have this hands-on and cooperative experience.

CTAUN will offer further workshops and encourage schools and school districts to organize their own. Please add your comments, suggestions and inquiries by visiting our and we will respond as soon as possible.

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