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After reading a memoir about a child soldier in Sierra Leone,

Kimberly’s classes created an advocacy campaign to support a survivor of the

South Sudanese Civil War.

BoGuM yoon, Column Editor

CRITICAL GLOBAL LITERACIES

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learning” (Yoon et al. 205)— can look like in an ELA classroom.

Kimberly particularly drew from two dimensions of the critical global literacies framework for her unit: “developing global awareness with an interconnected world con-cept” and “taking actions on global and multicultural issues” (Yoon et al. 206). By centering A Long Way Gone within the framework, Kim-berly invited students to consider their social responsibilities as they examined issues in and beyond the book. As they read and conducted independent research, the students were alarmed that they had so lit-tle knowledge of Sierra Leone and the impact of armed conflict. In her classroom, Kimberly worked to provide students with opportu-nities to participate in social praxis, “action and reflection of men and women upon their world in order to transform it” (Freire 79). In this unit, the students discussed how to critically examine social issues from the text: (1) to expand crit-ical global perspectives, (2) to fos-ter global responsibility, and (3) to act beyond the book. The stu-dent responses in the column were drawn from an article published in

Beyond the Book: Taking Global ActioncRyStaL chEn LEENorth Carolina State UniversityRaleigh, North Carolinacchen32@ncsu.edu

KIMBERLy dIcKStEInHaddonfield Memorial High SchoolHaddonfield, New Jerseykimberly.dickstein@gmail.com  

We’re coming to understand that there’s more out there. . . . But through this experience and through understanding that we’re all humans, we see the need to change ourselves.

— TENTH GRADER IN

KIMBERLY’S CLASS

Social transformation can happen when students reflect on them-selves in relation to their world (Freire). In this column, we, as teacher educator (Crystal) and high school ELA teacher (Kim-berly), share how Kimberly’s tenth graders developed critical global perspectives as they read A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Sol-dier by Ishmael Beah. The mem-oir recounts Beah’s experiences of

becoming a child soldier and his rehabilitation and escape from violence. Beah demonstrates the resilience of children and the po-tential for hope after traumatic experiences. To engage in social action, the students also developed a friendship with Garang Buk Buk Piol, a former child soldier from South Sudan, now a human-itarian aid worker and graduate student. We hope that sharing Kimberly’s experience of teaching the text illustrates what critical global literacies— “practices that integrate global and multicultur-al dimensions in teaching and

FIGURE 1.

A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah was first published in 2007.

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cRItIcaL GLoBaL LItERacIES

in development to serve the people in South Sudan. Ultimately, his goal was not individual, but global.

The students supported his global goal. They learned that it was not enough to read a book and lament the world’s cruelties. As global citizens, they were respon-sible for engaging with the local and global communities for social action. As one student, Kathleen, explained, “[Garang] ultimately is coming here not just for himself, but for his country. He’s going to go back to South Sudan and help his own people” (NJEA). Connecting the students with Garang helped them develop global responsibility and explore South Sudan’s needs as part of the global community.

ACTING BEYOND THE BOOKTo make Garang’s mission a reali-ty, it was important for the classes to act beyond the book and prac-tice the kind of social responsibil-ity they were learning about. In spring 2018, Garang was accepted to Emory University, but he did not have the financial resources necessary for a student visa and tuition expenses. Garang had surmounted incredible obstacles and was living in a remote village outside of a conflict zone in South Sudan. To the students, Garang’s goals were not too different from their own: to pursue higher edu-cation and improve their commu-nities. They expressed that edu-cation is everyone’s responsibility and that we must be accountable to each other. As Natalie reflected,

the New Jersey Education Association Magazine, which interviewed them about their social action (NJEA).

EXPANDING CRITICAL GLOBAL PERSPECTIVESAs they read, the students tracked cultural inferences such as the “prevalence of storytelling” and “family as a form of strength” and made connections to their own community despite the ob-vious differences. Students told the interviewers that before read-ing the memoir, they did not take the time “to read the newspaper or watch the news,” but reading the book fostered an interest in learning about international social issues (NJEA). Natalie, for exam-ple, said she realized “our worlds are so closely connected” (NJEA).

own research. In small groups and online discussions, the students shared their findings about specific regions of the world and related topics. By conducting research projects on current issues, students no longer saw the story in the text as representing an isolated inci-dent. Instead, researching similar incidents allowed them to make additional connections to the text and their world.

FOSTERING GLOBAL RESPONSIBILITYKimberly wanted to make the per-spectives in the memoir personally relevant for students (Azano 109). To simply learn about atrocities was not enough (Darragh and Boyd 143). Instead of distancing “glob-al,” she encouraged students to see the need for multiple perspectives. Through a mutual friend, she con-nected with Garang Buk Buk Piol, a former child soldier and human-itarian aid worker in South Sudan, to share his experience with her classes. The class set up a virtual exchange with Garang, and the students crafted questions about his experience in the Second Suda-nese Civil War (1983– 2005) and his current humanitarian work. Students applied their understand-ing of Beah’s experience and also learned about another culture and conflict from their exchange with Garang. The first conversation oc-curred in 2015, but Kimberly con-tinued their relationship through 2018. Through the exchange, the students discovered that Garang desired to pursue a master’s degree

they learned that it was not enough to read a book and lament the world’s cruelties. as global citizens, they were responsible for engaging with the local and global communities for social action.

To further develop critical engagement, the students read supplemental texts to support their study of the memoir. They found articles from UNICEF on the political context of Sierra Leone and other armed conflicts. Kimberly encouraged the students to see the human behind the story by coupling the memoir with their

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BEyond thE BooK: taKInG GLoBaL actIon

WoRKS cItEd

Azano, Amy P. “A Place for Local in Critical Global Literacies.” English Journal, vol. 108, no. 3, 2019, pp. 108– 10.

Beah, Ishmael. A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier. Sarah Crichton Books, 2007.

Boyd, Ashley S. Social Justice Literacies in the English Classroom: Teaching Practice in Action. Teachers College P, 2017.

Darragh, Janine Julianna, and Ashley S. Boyd. “‘We Were Dangerous, and Brain-washed to Kill’: Death and Resilience in A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier.” Moving beyond Personal Loss to Societal Grieving: Discussing Death’s Social Impact through Literature in the Secondary ELA Classroom, edited by Michelle M. Falter and Steven T. Bickmore, Rowman and Littlefield, 2018, pp. 137– 48.

Freire, Paulo. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Translated by Myra Ramos. Continuum, 2009.

NJEA. “If You Can Help You Must.” New Jersey Education Association. 31 Jan 2018, www.njea.org/if- you- can- help- you- must/.

Yoon, Bogum, et al. “Critical Global Liter-acies: A New Instructional Framework in the Global Era.” Journal of Ado-lescent and Adult Literacy, vol. 62, no. 2, 2018, pp. 205– 14.

program at Emory University in August 2018. The students and the community later organized a Global Citizen Dinner for Garang to share his story. Since then, Garang has earned additional scholarships, secured an intern-ship at the Task Force for Global Health, and found much success in his program. Together with Kimberly, Garang continues to lead and mobilize students and the community to advocate for people in South Sudan.

The students attribute their critical social action to the initial reading of Beah’s memoir, which opened their eyes and helped them think of their duty to themselves, their communities, and their world (Boyd). To take action is to human-ize the issue of our global neighbors and citizens. Social transformation begins with individual transfor-mation, and Beah’s memoir and Garang inspired that.

“Once you start to educate yourself and become more engaged, you re-alize how easy it is to help and have an impact” (NJEA). The students were inspired to use their writing, digital, and media skills to act.

In June 2018, the students mobilized #TeamGarang and ini-tiated the “Get Garang to Emory” advocacy campaign. They can-vassed door- to- door; wrote blog posts, articles, and letters to the editor; and designed a profile logo and recorded videos for YouTube distribution. They even lobbied local press and organized fundrais-ing events. The literacy skills they learned in the classroom were put into practice and moved a com-munity to action. With Garang’s powerful words and the students’ socially responsible actions, the community raised $51,000 to help secure Garang’s tuition and achieve his higher learning goal. Garang began his master’s

cRyStaL chEn LEE is an assistant professor of English education at North Carolina State University. She has been a NCTE member since 2015.

KIMBERLy dIcKStEIn is a high school English teacher in New Jersey and has been teaching at Haddonfield Memorial High School since 2009.

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