100 days to the World Cup - and the mid-point of my stay

With the World Cup now a mere 3 months away, soccer is everywhere (of course, cricket and rugby still get plenty of coverage too). The South African Premiership (the top national league) is wrapping up play this week, and European and UEFA Champions league results are followed closely. The big question in the media is whether or not South Africa is - or will be - "ready" for June 11th, (according to the papers yesterday, "we're 80% there!"), and many comparisons, favorable and not, are being made with past host countries of both World Cups and African and European tournaments. The most interesting soccer-related items in the weekend paper were a piece about South Africa's homeless soccer team, about which a movie, "Streetball," has been made (perhaps it will make it to SIFF?). Check out this great trailer! There was also an article with an attention grabbing headline: "Stars to wear old plastic bottles at World Cup." Yea, recycling!


My own soccer life has quite active these past two weeks, although not with playing. I am, for the moment, the assistant coach of the UCT men's first team. We took four try-out days to whittle almost 120 guys down to around 25. We're training at 6:45 three mornings each week, and we've already played two practice matches (a loss and then a win). It's fun so far, and the field has a quite dramatic backdrop!



I am continuing to visit more high schools - and to return to some as well. Besides my inquiries into the degree to which they offer a global, or international, curriculum and program (my general research topic), I am also working to support environmental, or "green," clubs in the schools. These clubs are, in most cases, just starting up. I am sharing ideas from how such clubs work at NWS and through YESC, and I am also helping connect clubs and advisors both to each other and to the "Green Campus Initiative" at UCT, a relatively new venture itself but also a potential resource for the high schools.

Regarding my project, here's an expanded excerpt from an email response I sent this past week when asked about it:

My project... well, I've spent at least part of 15 of the last 20 days visiting schools, and in each school I am looking for effects of globalization on curriculum, mission, teacher training, and other programs. I've found a wide range. The private schools and the wealthy (fee charging, so basically also private) state schools are well connected to international learning and teaching networks (Internet lessons, exchange programs, etc.). In contrast, I've met teachers at some of less-resourced schools who don't have email and are not even versed in web surfing; the other day, for example, I introduced a teacher to both Explorer and Google (and mouse clicking!) so that I could show her a resource for South African teachers hosted by an in-country organization and designed to support the national curriculum. It's comparing apples and... not even oranges, let's say ducks. This digital literacy and access divide occurs at the teacher, student, and school levels, and it is a big problem, not just as an obstacle to global information and connections.

Another problem is that, even though there is a unit on "globalisation" in the grade 12 national curriculum (and it is an assessed competency at grades 10, 11, and 12), the topic is not tested in the history section of the matriculation (high school graduation) exams. As a result, the topic is not generally taught, as teachers are under considerable pressure to prepare their learners for the exam, and it has even been dropped in the latest revision of the national teaching guidelines for grade 12. When you add to all this that neither history nor geography is compulsory after grade 9, the prospects are dim for widely attaining a high level of global literacy among South Africa's students.

So, I'm not sure what form my final project will take, but at least it's all been very stimulating - and I feel like my small contributions are at least helping the teachers and schools that I'm working with. Overall, everything is going well here. It is simultaneously a stressful and rewarding environment.