CREANDO Y RECREANDO LA CULTURA E IDENTIDAD CREOLE EN EL HORATIO HODGSON HIGH SCHOOL DE BLUEFIELDS, RAAS
M. A. Nubia Ordoñez Pondler
Resumen
Bluefields is the principal city of the South Atlantic Autonomus Region (SAAR) of Nicaragua Central America. Bluefields has a population of approximately 40 thousand inhabitants (SILAIS, SAAR:2000)1. Ethnic and cultural diversity is an outstanding characteristic of Bluefields. The city’s population is made up of three out of the six ethnic and indigenous communities that inhabit the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua.
These three ethnic and indigenous communities are Creole, Miskito, and Mestizo (The other three are Rama, Mayangna, and Garifuna.) The Creole community is either of Afro-Caribbean origin or Afro-Caribbean origin mixed with different indigenous or ethnic communities of the Region. The Creole speak Creole English. The Miskito community is one of the three indigenous communities of the Region.
The Miskito people speak Miskito as their first language, and Spanish as a second language. The Mestizos were the last people to come to this Region from the Pacific side of the country. They were mainly peasant families looking for land to cultivate. The Mestizos speak Spanish, and they arethe majority of the Bluefields population. Both Creole and Miskito are considered ethnic minorities who are struggling for their historical revindication through the Autonomous Process.
Horatio Hodgson High School is located in Bluefields. lt is the only secondary school that offers a bilingual intercultural education to Creole students in the South Autonomous Atlantic Region. 11 first opened its doors in March, 1996 to the grade six graduates of the Bilingual lntercultural Education Program (PEBI). In Bluefields, the PEBI applies only to Creole minorities; the Miskito students do not have the opportunity to study in a bilingual program in Bluefields. Before 1996, Creole youth had to go on to other secondary schools (monolingual) to further their education. The Horatio Hodgson High School currículum and program was designed by educators from the Region at the invitation of the Regional Autonomous Government.
2believe that Horatio Hodgson High School (HHHS) stands asan example of the Creole people’s determination in the SAAR to apply a model of education that will recognise their rights and differences. 1 believe it also stands as a demonstration of a people’s confidence in planning and administrating their own education system. This is why am interested in a study that has to do with Creole youth identity.
There are also several personal reasons for my interest in undertaking this study. 11 is importan! to note here that 1, myself, ama Creole woman from this region and a former principal of the HHHS. 1 have kept a close connection withthe school, especially with the principal and the teachers. My daughter studies al this school and she is an outstanding student in the ninth grade. 1 will be working as the national director of a project that will be engaged in strengthening the lntercultural Bilingual Education in both regions. This mea ns that my present job will bring me even closer to this school as a model for intercultural bilingual education. In my work I acknowledge that I am in favour of lntercultural Bilingual Education.
My present research is an ethnographic case study of Creole students at HHHS. The specific topic of my research is North American videos and movies and their implications in naming and shaping Latín American/Caribbean identities. 1 am interested in analysing how these cultural products have a direct influence in shaping young people’s identity and promoting interculturality in the SAAR. For this purpose, identity can be defined asan ongoing process, as a constan! redefinition in which one is influenced by different interactions that are established in our daily lives. (Yon, 2000:13)
1 started this research thinking that movies and videos, as products of globalization, had a negative effect on young peoples’ identity. 1 even admit that watching movies and videos is not my favorite hobby. Maybe it was out of my own initial distrust that young people were being critical when they watched movies and videos, that I decided to do this research. l have since revised myopinion. l nowbelieve that the difference in how much globalization can continue to affect minorities depends on how prepared people are to understand and negotiate their social, political and economic interests with other people, and with all the difieren! structures that can empower or weaken them as a society includingvideos and movies. The people can make the difference but they need to be aware of this.
The larger problem that I am interested in is globalization and how it is influencing the education of young people in the South Atlantic Autonomous Region (SAAR). Specifically, 1 am interested in North American movies and videos as vehicles of globalization. 1 am interested in the messages that young people receive from movies and videos and how these help to shape and name their identity.
These messages come in different ways: from places, communities, families, religion, work, gender, sexuality, play and pleasure. These messages are becoming more and more alike for young people over the entire planet because of a global world. But, al the same time as these influences tend to homogenize, they also facilitate interculturality. lnterculturality, for my purposes, is conceptualised as an active interaction of cultures that modifies people’s worldviews and practices. As Brummer says in his entry on “globalization” in the New Fontana Dictionary of Modern Thought, “information ... and images, having been produced in a particular nation or region of the world, enter into a global flow facilitated, for example, by the growth of transnational companies, satellite, television.” Nevertheless, he continues, “globalization highlights the cultural diversity of different nations, the cultural meanings and forms of significance attached to the western products being formulated on the basis of local knowledge and sensibilities” (Brummer, 1999:367). In Bennet’s words, “The effects of globalization ... enhance the ‘local’ differences between cultures .. .localization ascribes new meanings” (Bennet, 1999:486). The results of this research are presented in five different sections. The first section, on theory and literature, presents a setling for the importan! concepts, debates and theories in which this research takes its form. In the second section, methodology and methods, 1 take the reader through the data collection and findings that support the results of this research. The presentation of the data in this third section offers students’ voices and their analysis as they shared their experiences and lessons about videos and movies. In the fourth section, analysis, 1 try to analyse students’ experiences and positions towards videos and movies inside the framework ofthe theory of importan! concepts like “identity,” “race,” “culture,” “hybridity” and “globalization.” The final section of this research paper is a conclusion that summarises the overall achievements of this research.
THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVE
The theoretical perspective I take here is intended to situate my research in the context of curren! debates around popular culture and processes of globalization that lead to hybridization. 11 also states my position with regard to concepts like identity, culture, race, and reconversion that are importan! conceptual compone nis of this research.
The social meaning of popular culture and its implications in shaping or naming identity has been a major concern of the Latin American sociologist Néstor García Canclini. García Canclini says, popular culture is “always changing ... it is a theoretical nolion that varíes according to who seis the scene” (García Canclini, 1996:61 ). Canclini identifies three basic changes in the life of this concept. In the first, a period of Fundamentalist lllusions, “sorne view lhe popular as the reservoir of various traditions of a local popular culture that actas agents of resistance to globalization. The reviva! of nationalisms, regionalisms, and ethnicisms during the latter part of the twentieth century tends to reduce the incessant, historie work of building and reshaping identities to a simple praise of local traditions” (Canclini, 1996:62). Fundamentalist lllusions encloses the value given to popular culture as guardian of a static culture, fastened to place and space. 1 do agree with the direct reference he makes with Latín America. His position is that “thinking of Latín America, 1 would say that such a way of resolving the questions of identity are unrealistic in countries with a heterogeneous socio-cultural makeup, which have for centuries interacted with the processes of modern internationalization” (Canclini, 1996:63). This reference is also appropriate for the South Autonomous Atlantic Region in the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua, where I will undertake research that address
Naming identities and how cultural productions contribute to this.
As Canclini says “new challenge ... involves understanding how the local customs of distinct societies intermingle and influence each other” (García Canclini, 1996:63) 1 believe that recognizing the interactions and processes of modern internationalization is an appropriate starting point to be able to embrace the intercultural relations that people are constantly making in spile of the political structures or practices that fail to acknowledge them.
In the second phase of the life of the concept of popular culture, E pie to Melodrama, the author explains how people negotiate and play an active role in naming their identities.
“ ... Power is won and renewed through a multipolarity of initiatives disseminated from the center and through the adaptation of the actions and messages by the variety of receivers who in each case establish their identities ... “
(Canclini, 1996:64). Toexplain his position he refers to Levi Strauss, a French antropologist who brings to discussion the making ofidentities in all different social environments, rather than only inside the context of class conflict.
Levi Strauss declares that “identities are constituted not only within the polar conflict between classes but also in the context of an institution. a factory, a hospital. a school - that functions to the extent that all its participants, hegemonic and subaltern, accept it as a negotiated order” (cited in García Canclini, 1996:65). 1 find this position importan! to understand the context of my research that is, understanding the making identities in the Horatio Hodgson High School. García Canclini invites people “to live the cultural differences”.
He acknowledges that:
Al the same time that the immigrants reinforce their original identity in specific spaces and ritual s. they also reformulate their cultural heritage as they acquire knowledge and practices that permit them to resituate themselves in new sociocultural, political, and labor relations ... Their identity is polygot and cosmopolitan with flexible capacity to process new customs in relation to old symbolic patterns. (1996:66).
García Canclini sees the process of change and exchange of knowledge and practices between people of different culture as tying people to transnational cultures, formed through both migration and media. He draws on Renato Ortiz’s idea of the “international - popular”: cultures which defines their position acknowledging that people are practicing intercultural relations because,
The strong tiesto transnalional culture formed via migrations and daily acces to Mass media, reposition national traditionsn a process of interaction that led Re nato Ortiz to speak of the “international- popular”: local or national cultures that define themselves less in opposition to what is foreign and which reconfigure - hybridize- their original elements with those of other societies. (1996:66).
The social meaning given to popular culture al the moment when my research is taking place is situated in what García Canclini named Post- Politics: From Melodrama to Video game: He conceptualized this as “ ... the study of communication processes, which addresses how videopoliticis is reorganizing social interactions ... “ (Canclini, 1996: 67). He continues to explain that “ ... the reality of everyday life is exacerbated when communications industries replace direct interactions with electronic mediation ... “ (Canclini, 1996:67). Nevertheless, he understands the social meaning given to popular culture al this moment to be a conflict of peoples’ mediation when he states that.
Despite its all- encompassing intentions, videopolitics does not create a unitary culture. The massive reverberation of melodrama in television and other media, like the persistence of critica! reflection and oppositional social movements, keeps open questions of recognition among people and of conflict among groups.
The effectiveness of popular actions will depend on the capacity of social movements to break free of the monolithic fundamentalist epic and devise flexible strategies of intervention, appropriate to the multicultural character of new modes of local and global participation.
This is a matter of rewriting popular cultures in lower case letters, and of finding ways to narra te them that validates their place within controversies and negotiations – within the dramas and not only the simulacra of the end of this century (1996:69).
Many authors are debating “the contention that advanced capitalism has radically transformed culture, language and daily life and represents a qualitatively different stage of industrial society” (cited in Surto and Franco, 1978:5) This debate leads to the analysis of the “new media”, in which television plays an outstanding role. 1 say outstanding, beca use of the diversity of information it covers, the mass public that it addresses, especially children, and the interaction they have with television. 1 find this importan! to bear in mind because in my studies I will be inquiring about how cultural productions, especially movies and videos that come through the television, are helping to shape young peo ples’ identity inside a Creole environment.
Drawing from Canclini’s position about popular culture 1 believe that it is necessary to conceptualize globalization as the context in which hybridization leads to a constan! naming and shaping of identities. Globalization for the purpose ofthis MRP as Yon says,
Signa Is the internationalization of capitalism and the rapid circulation and flow of information, commodities, and visual images around the world ... These late - twentieth- century developments have also challenged belief in culture as tied to place, instead to pay attention to “cultural flows”, “creolization”, and !he “deterritorialization” of culture. The dynamics of globalization are seing as contradictory because while globalization erodes national identities, these and other identities are also being strengthened as resistance to globalization ... new identities of hibridity are taking their place. (2000: 15).
11 is my intention to merge the ideas of Canclini and Yon to analyze, interpret and understand young people’s interpretation ofvideos and movies in shaping their identity. Yon helps to understand how the concepts of culture, race and identity are historical. The identity of each person is been shaped by place, community, religion, and race, as well as by gender, sexuality, work, leisure, play and family.
Yon delineates the concepts of culture, race, and identity, their conceptual distinction. and relations, and also how sometimes one functions as another. Using these convergences to explain his point of view he shows that culture, race, and identity are not stable nor bounded entilies; rather they are “slippery and shifting.” Yon explains that:
ldentity is a process of making identifications, a process that is continuous and incomplete. ldentity is a constructed and open- ended process. ldentity offers coherence and completion to relationships between the subject and the social world, but this sense of unity, security, and coherence is, Hall points out, a fantasy in a world where identities multiply, fragment, become contradictory, and remain unresolved (cited in Yon, 2000:13}
Understanding identity in this manner, then. as Hall states, mea ns that “subjects are no longer perceived as fastened to cultures and externa! social structures” (cited in Yon, 2000:14}.
Both Hall’s and Yon’s work help to understand these importan! concepts of identity, race, and culture in the context of globalization. 1 understand race to be discursive and socially constructed. 1 will keep in mind Yon’s statement, “thinking about race as discursive means understanding that races have been socially created and therefore have no intrinsic meaning outside their histories” (Yon, 2000: 1 O}. This
will seive me to analyze students’ position about race in the Horatio Hodgson High School. In my research, 1 will be addressing similar questions to those asked by Daniel Yon, though his is a much more thorough study. While it is hard to rnaintain a distinction between identity, culture and race nevertheless I will work more on the topic of identity. Addressing the concept of identity will permit me to accornplish this research in the time frame that I have defined.
“Cultural Reconversion” translated from García Canclini by Hally Staver provides a key word for my MRP. because “cultural reconversion” explains how the concept of culture, its expansion, producers and consumers have changed in this historical mornent that is conditioned by globalization, specifically with the era of comrnunication and information. García Canclini addresses this process as “cultural reconversion”. This is in my point of view another way to explain the concept of hybrid or hybridization. 1 understand from García Canclini that in the process of hybridization,
lnstead of the death of traditional cultural forms, we now discover that tradition is in transition, and articulated to modern processes. Reconversion prolongs their existence ... to reconvert cultural capital means to transfer symbolic patrimony from one site to another in order to conseive it, increase its yield, and better the position of !hose who practice it.” ( 1992: 31 )
Cultural reconversions, then is a strategy that bring to the surface hybrid changes that covers all different kind of cultural manifestations. García Canclini says that:
Cultural reconversions in addition to being strategies for social mobility, or for following the movement from the traditional to the modern, are hybrid transformations will seive me to analyze students’ position about race in the Horatio Hodgson High School. In my research, 1 will be addressing similar questions to those asked by Daniel Yon, though his is a much more thorough study. While it is hard to rnaintain a distinction between identity, culture and race nevertheless I will work more on the topic of identity. Addressing the concept of identity will permit me to accornplish this research in the time frame that I have defined.
“Cultural Reconversion” translated from García Canclini by Hally Staver provides a key word for my MRP. because “cultural reconversion” explains how the concept of culture, its expansion, producers and consumers have changed in this historical mornent that is conditioned by globalization, specifically with the era of comrnunication and information. García Canclini addresses this process as “cultural reconversion”. This is in my point of view another way to explain the concept of hybrid or hybridization. 1 understand from García Canclini that in the process of hybridization,
lnstead of the death of traditional cultural forms, we now discover that tradition is in transition, and articulated to modern processes. Reconversion prolongs their existence ... to reconvert cultural capital means to transfer symbolic patrimony from one site to another in order to conseive it, increase its yield, and better the position of !hose who practice it.” ( 1992: 31 )
Cultural reconversions, then is a strategy that bring to the surface hybrid changes that covers all different kind of cultural manifestations. García Canclini says that:
Cultural reconversions in addition to being strategies for social mobility, or for following the movement from the traditional to the modern, are hybrid transformations
METHOOOLOGY ANO METHOOS
This study is primarily an ethnographic case study. 1 have chosen this methodology because I wished to observe student life al Horatio Hodgson High School (HHHS) as it occurred in a “natural” way. Ethnography helps to priorize the quality of the information rather than the quantity. 1 believe that this methodology is the bes! when dealing, as I have done, with people and their feelings and with historical concepts such as “culture” and “identity.” As stated in the New Fontana Oíctionary of Modern Thought, ethnography helps to produce a “dialogic product involving colleagues, informants, friends and past theories” (Harris, 1999:286).
Al Horatio Hodgson High School, 1 interviewed friends and colleagues and they were the ones to give the information that I was looking for. As Mac an Ghaill points out: “Ethnographers, rather than being over concerned with the notion of objectivity, should attempt to describe the social system from several perspectives” (Macan Ghaill, 1993: 149).
In this research, 1 attempt to describe the social reality that movies and videos help to create from the student’s perspective.
1 observed student life at the Horatio Hodgson High School for about one month. 1 spent time jusi visiling casually, lalking with students, teachers, and administrative workers without going into details about my project. 1 wanted them to see me as a student doing research rather than the teacher that 1 actually am. 1 observad as muchas possible of what was happening at school, sharing as an active participan! in what was taking place. 1 applied different ethnographic techniques such as focus groups, interviews, and participatory observation to understand the young people’s critical/active or non-critical/passive interaction with films and movies. Each ofthese techniques will be described below.
1 chose to do an ethnographic case study at HHHS far the following reasons:
To be able to accomplish this study I first sal with the Vice Principal of the school to explain the purpose and intention of my research. 1 asked her for her co-operation and support. 1 also discussed with her the organization of the school and the extracurricular plans that they were carrying out to be able to fil in and do my field work.
The first technique that I applied was observation and documentation of things that occurred and were commented about or lived in a normal way al the HHHS. For this reason, 1 jusi visited and kept around the school for one month. 1 would come at recess time, general assemblies, during the change of the morning to the afternoon shift and also during sorne lectures. 1 took notes of things that occurred and were of interest to me, even when they had no direct relation with my studies as I felt that might help me to find ways to get closer to the students. 1 never heard students talking about movies except when I asked. Their main topic of conversation was the closing of the semester, and the last partial (period corresponding to a bimester) and semestral exams.
Everybody seemed to fil in and understand each other. 1 observed good communication, open and direct communication with the Director of the school, with teachers, with students and parents who found time to visit. 1 saw people taking interest in the things that they like doing and interest in trying to do things the best they can to preve to the Atlantic Coast society, a society that struggles with ethnic tensions and racism. that they actually can create a successful bilingual secondary education. 1 saw teachersand students holding high confidence in “friends” from other places (e.g., NGOs, individual donors) that had promised to help the school to keep its doors open, to keep growing and progressing.
Before doing the interviews and focus groups, and after approximately two weeks visiting the school on a regular basis, 1 felt it necessary to go into the ciassrooms and explain what I was doing. 1 did so asking the students for their co-operation and support. 1 explained to them that I was interested in talking with a range of students, including girls and boys, those considered to be the ‘rude’ ones, the uneasy ones, the busy ones, the ones who the group considered outstanding students who could represen! them through qualities such as “natural” leadership and organizational leadership, students of poor academic achievement, and the ones who actually love to watch movies and videos.
After my visit to each classroom, 1 asked for volunteers as interviewees. From these volunteers I selected a total of ten students for interviews. The remaining seventeen, were selected for focus groups. My first source of information to guide my selection was my notes from previous observations. 1 commented on these students to the Principal to get her suggestions. But the main criterion was my talk with the students when I asked for volunteers.
The interviews, which were conducted in Creole, were semistructured to enable me and the research participants to talk with as much confidence and openness as possible even though I was guiding the sessions. Sorne of the questions that I addressed were: How do you value the influence of videos and movies in your lives? Do you believe that these cultural products help to define your personalities and identities? What are sorne of the positive effects of these products? The negative effects? What if we, black, Creole Coas! people, were to produce movies and videos-how would we picture ourselves in these? How do you identify yourself? (See appendix A) 1 did all of these interviews al the school, but outside of the students’ nonnal class schedule. Sorne were done in the library ata time when nobody else was there and others in the passage between school buildings. Because students were in exams, and leaving classes very early, it was convenient to mee! and we had the opportunity to work with no disturbance or hindrance. Before interviewing the 10 students who were chosen, 1 practised with my daughter, who is also a student, to validate the guide that I had prepared.
Later3, 1 organized three focus groups of students (5 to 6 students in each group) to discuss movies and how they influence people’s culture here in the SAAR. These students were selected from the remaining lis! of volunteers that I had received. Using the method of focus groups’ 1 inquired about how students interact critically with movies and what they interpret the “messages” of different movies to be. Also 1 inquired about how movies can be used inside the education system as a positive too! to analyse and understand social relations and social constructions and whether they think that movies have a direct influence in shaping a young person’s personality and identity. (See appendix B)
1 formulated the questions for the focus groups after holding the interviews with the 1 O students selected for that purpose. One focus group was formed up of 5 boys and 1 girl. However, this girl participated very little. 1 believed she felt intimidated among a majority of boys. A second group wasa balanced between boys and girls. The third group was only girls. The best results as far as participation was concemed carne from the balanced group and the girls-only group.
1 intend to make this study become a written account of young people from HHHS about how they are forming their identity themselves and also how, through movies and videos, other people are helping them to shape their identity. 1 also hope that this study can present sorne suggestions for the teaching-learning process with regard to culture, identity and interculturality.
PRESENTATION OF DATA
My first interest of inquiry about cultural products and how they help to shape or name Creole Young People’s identity emerged from reading García Canclini, in Consumidores y Ciudadanos: Conflictos Multícultura/es de la G/obalízacíón. [Consumers and Citizens: Multicultural Conflicts of Globalization]4 García Canclini says that they are:
Dos maneras de concebir la cultura. Para los Estados Unidos los entretenimientos deben ser tratados como un negocio ... En los debates motivados por las negociaciones del GATT, las asociaciones de trabajadores del cine europeo defendieron su empleo, pero también argumentaron que las películas no eran únicamente un bien comercial. Constituyen un instrumento poderoso de registro y autoafirmación de la lengua y la cultura propias, de su difusión más allá de las fronteras.
[there are two ways to conceive culture. For the United States entertainment should be treated as a business ... European cinema workers confronted with the debates around the General Agreements for tariffs, trade and commerce, defended their jobs, but they also argued that movies were not only commercial goods. Movies constitute a powerful instrument for registry and self reaffirmation of one’s language, culture, and how it spreads beyond the frontiers) (1995:118)
The findings that I present after working with Creole young people in Bluefields, Nicaragua, in many ways confirme that cultural productions are not only importan! as a business, but that they are also importan! instruments to enhance educational and moral values, and to reinforce cultural values and identity. These findings show that kids value movies in many positive ways, without ceasing to be critica! about movies being racist, and also acknowledging the negative messages that these cultural productions can bring to young people.
The following section will present the data according to these categories in turn, educational values, moral values, messages related to drugs, violence, racism, identity, and culture. Movies and videos for Creole youth educational values are means, among other things to, “learn bout other children and people from other place”. They are means to keep in touch with what is happening around the world. As the youth I spoke to said, “well if New Era have movies we wouldnu get a child to see the outer world then, because looking on a movie, maybe you cant see the outer world, but on the movie you see the outer world right here in Bluefields.
lf wasn’t through movie a person would can’t see beyond what e seing here.” (lf there were no movies, a child thatdoesn’t have the possibility of travelling, could never see beyond his home town. Movies and videos permit children to ‘travel’)5 They relate movies with real happenings, as a source of information, saying, for example, “sorne movie talk about, show thing what is happening in our life” and “movie mean plenty to me because it teach me part of my history.” As a means of socialization. they mention learning from movies to “socialize with people” and “when somebody in trouble and ne help ne to come out ah it”. (When somebody is in trouble and they help them to come out] To summarize the educational value that young people place on movies they expressed the dimension and consequences if they did not have the access to these cultural productions, using these words “Well it woulda be no message sharing round” [Well, the cost would be no sharing of knowledge). Nevertheless, they are very critica! and point to both positive and negative messages.
The students al Horatio Hodgson High School consider that no movie or video is ‘bad’. In their words, “is how you tek it” (lt’s how you interpret it]. The positive messages about moral values outnumbered the negative messages in their opinion. The positive messages ranged from self- esteem to family unity. In their way of voicing these positive values they said.
“ ... Sorne children now a day the parents no tell them how special they are, maybe by looking on a movie maybe ne see someone in da movie, maybe people treat him da way but, da person look down in himself and see dat he is a special person
The person who is watching da movie may look on himself and say maybe the person who watching da movie look in himself an say he is special, maybe I can say am special to” (Not all parents help children to realize that they are special. When children suffer from poor selfesteem sometimes they identify their story with an actor/ actress that helps them to make sorne helpful reflection, and acknowledge that they are special]. Others talked about “movies showing the people ne they should really accept who they are an try to be something good so da people could look u pon them, could be an example no just look and take the insult wat people give them. lnsult go always be there. lfyou have a goal go for it, no give up fa nothing, keep pressing on” (Movies help people to accept who they are, to set goals and wor1< towards their achievements in spite of all the difficulties that can occur]. Positive messages about moral values also include friendship and peace: like” sorne movie talk about peace, sorne show love and them is the kind a thing ne show you in school, how to be peaceful with you friend.” [Sorne movies talk about peace, sorne show love, these are sorne of the things we learn in school, to be at peace wilh our friends].
Behaviorwas addressed when they mentioned, “Yees man! Sorne movie whe you does see ne does learn you, show you how you to respect the students, the teacher, you classmate, you mother” [Sorne movie teach respect for fellowmen. teachers and parents].
Another student said: “ ... movie talk about behavior “Lean On Me dat relate .. with how you must act, how you must respect...you mus! show you values respecting yourself’. They also find encouragement and self empowerment in movies when they menlioned, “well he show lhing what is happening in our life, to keep up your courage, sorne movie showing, beca use like say you passing the same, if you are passing de same thing like da woman is passing in the television and how you must react and no give up ... yes to empower themselve” (Sorne movies are related to real life stories, people get encouragement and new strength to deal with their problems after seeing similar situations in movies]. Movies are also seen as a way of teaching people about family unity and how families are importan!: “ ... everybody need a family ... thattalk about unity of family, we should keep united as family”. Empowerment was also emphasized: “I value movie good because it show me how to build up in sorne ways what maybe I no know and I lry to bring il out and 1 can’! bring it out. E sho•:; me a lot and influence me a lot, because it really, really, really show people how to value themselves and how to see lhings through positive and negative thoughts”. The students also said that sorne positive messages would be that, we recognize ourselves as human beings and that ali of us have feeling and that we are to do good things and we gol to really, really gel up and do what is right because in sorne way wat we no do right it might affect usa lot in the future”.
Students are very critica! about movies. They discussed the positive and negative messages they gol from movies and videos. On !he whole, the positive outweighed !he negative messages. The following is a positive message about race, that students mentioned when watching the movie Malcom f: “Malcom X is like when you watching you own history ... it mean a lo! to me because it show me that it no go by !he color you have, bu! e also go by the inside part of you”.
When they address !he issue of drugs and movies the positive messages about drugs were expressed in this way. “Sorne movie like se ne learn you how fa no drugs up yourself.” [Sorne movies encourage you not to use drugs They point to “messages with picture well telling them that these drugs no do nothing good fa ne, only destroy ne life.” They talked about pictures with messages that clearly state that drugs are no good for young people. They only destroy their lives. They said, “sorne picture whe do show the young people ne not to fall in drugs, nor in the alcohol, and the cigarette. Like sorne do show how the young people ne dead with that, and sorne do stay crazy trying to come out, 1 feel like these are the positive effects.” They consider movies that give examples of victims dying, or struggling to gel off drugs, going crazy, to be effective and positive messages.
They also talked about positive messages in relation to violence. They mentioned, for example. “when ne help out the next people wha ne have”. Referring to captives, abused, or mistreated people, they observed that there is always someone who appears to help people who need help. A similar position to this is that they also see movies and videos as teaching young people not to steal: “like se ne learn you how fa no thief ... “ [movie teach you not to sleal).
Students mentioned sorne negative messages regarding drugs. They pointed out that, “sorne people copy how to traffic drugs.” They were critica! and they related this with what they observed in sorne of their own neighborhoods.
Negative messages about violence were more widely addressed. The most criticized and condemned expression of violence was murder. They talked about “people killing up people”, “ne kili people” and “we see how ne gel gun shoot bout the place and harrasing up next people, and well sorne a wee boys try to practice it and dat damage we, because we try to be what is no!” [We see how they use guns to abuse people and sometimes we copy that. They point to “messages with picture well telling them that these drugs no do nothing good fa ne, only destroy ne life.” They talked about pictures with messages that clearly state that drugs are no good for young people. They only destroy their lives. They said, “sorne picture whe do show the young people ne not to fall in drugs, nor in the alcohol, and the cigarette. Like sorne do show how the young people ne dead with that, and sorne do stay crazy trying to come out, 1 feel like these are the positive effects.” They consider movies that give examples of victims dying, or struggling to gel off drugs, going crazy, to be effective and positive messages.
They also talked about positive messages in relation to violence. They mentioned, for example. “when ne help out the next people wha ne have”. Referring to captives, abused, or mistreated people, they observed that there is always someone who appears to help people who need help. A similar position to this is that they also see movies and videos as teaching young people not to steal: “like se ne learn you how fa no thief ... “ [movie teach you not to sleal).
Students mentioned sorne negative messages regarding drugs. They pointed out that, “sorne people copy how to traffic drugs.” They were critica! and they related this with what they observed in sorne of their own neighborhoods.
Negative messages about violence were more widely addressed. The most criticized and condemned expression of violence was murder. They talked about “people killing up people”, “ne kili people” and “we see how ne gel gun shoot bout the place and harrasing up next people, and well sorne a wee boys try to practice it and dat damage we, because we try to be what is no!” [We see how they use guns to abuse people and sometimes we copy that. Bul it does not necessarily mean giving up your own.) There were sorne strong and positive positions towards behavior that they considered to receive from movies: “I would say keep your head up, always look forward and no look fa back. lf you buck you foot, well try fa get up and continue to be somebody in this world, you really have to struggle for it.” (1 would sayyou must keepyour head high, nevergive up, and when you stumble do not stay there, keep moving.) They acknowledge that maybe if they never had access to movies: “we wouldn’t dress the waywe dress now. maybe we wouldn’t have the type of hair cut now ... we wouldn’t having make up .. .” Here they are saying that their way of dressing, hair cut, and make up styles are somethings that people gel from movies on a regular basis.
The strongest criticism among the group I worked with towards movies addressed the fact that movies and videos are racist. Their position towards racism and discrimination againts black people was expressed as, “ne consider black man as the lowest, you find that most black people in the ... gang movie, most black people ne use to act that part.” lt is so, “yes, because according to ... black people bad, you kno. People take black people like bad ‘picture’ you know. In movies: “black man is use to traffic drugs.”
They also point out “the difference dat ne showing between the race them, the difference whe the White showing to the blacks and sometimes ne jus show you in ne movie, ne jus show you cursing, like black is ugly, black is dirty ... “ “white people feel like them over the black people them when we were slave and everytime we had to serve the white people and be always below the white peo ple them.
They went on saying, “it means plenty to me because it teach me part of my history an so ... like how black people act lhe picture the majority a the time ... black people is define as nothing, as the leas!. But the importan! thing is that they also said, “I no feel like dat is just, because of the coloryou have to be worse. Because I no feel like dat is right. Because one a we white and one a we dark, dat no mean nothing difference. E could be se the black man more smarter than the white man to. But, as he always got the Creole or the nigger as the leastjust through the color.” (The majority of times black people are given the parts of the bad guy, because they actually believe that black is the worst, is violen! and ugly. 1 do not agree with this, because the color of our skin does not make anyone worst or best. At times we can prove to be better than white people.)
In spite of young people acknowledging that movies and videos are racist this is how these young people talked about their identity at this moment. “I consider myself a Creole girl anda really feel proud of it.” They ranged their identity from ‘the blood’ to the “way how you dress.” They declared “l like the way how ne talk, the dance, the dressing”, “!he customs, and culture that we have, and the traditions we have,” and “We gol different religion like !he Moravian , the Catholic, Anglican, Baptist.” Dancing was anotherway of identifying the Creole people: “dance a like it, the food, the talking. 1 talk Creole and everything den”.
They believe that if they had the opportunity they would “like show to ne people is how my hometown (Bluefields) is then you know like how ne does say that em ... the Nicaragua country is poor. 1 would try to build up that we is not so then you kno, we is good country, not say we rich, but we rich in ne how you call it recursos naturales, (natural resources] ... “So I would tell them about my country and my home town, and show them how we is then, you know” [lf given the opportunity I would like to use movies and videos to tell otherpeople about my country and home town. Many people have a wrong concept of my country, for example as being ‘poor’ when we are so rich in natural resources.]
The young people I spoke with kept using the term “Creole Culture” to be able to identify themselves, name themselves, while reflecting on movies and videos.
They reaffirmed that, “Creole culture is a very special culture to me because I consider myself as a Creole girt anda really feel very proud of it, because it bring usa lot ... if it brings us a big history and is a very interesting culture through what fa what all the things them .... “ Palo de Mayo (May Pole}, “the way you act and treat people”, make Creole culture different from other culture. With laughter they said that “Creole culture we talk it, the dressing, the food, Creole culture is everything we do, our favorite food, Rundown and Rice and beans”. They also added, “plenty thing what I never know about my culture l learn it over tv {lelevision) then you kno”.
ANALYSYSOF DATA
Students al Horatio Hodgson High School show that whal McDonnell say about kids and popular culture is also true for Creole young people in Bluefields Nicaragua. McDonnell says:
The posilion of the author serves asan invitation to seriously consider the benefits that young people acquire from cultural productions. 11 is an invitation to situate ourselves as adults who are willing to listen and learn from young people.
As the students I interviewed talked about their experiences and lessons from cultural productions, they unfolded a wide variety of academic, social and personal values that they acknowledge to be receiving from popular culture. Students, sometimes from quite different perspectives, other times in very similar ways talked about educational values, moral values, identity, positive and negative messages about violence, racism, drugs and behavior.
Basing my analysis on students’ arguments and contributions, and the theoretical framework that has been constructed around popular culture, 1 invite !he reader to shorten the ‘cultural gap’ to enable us to understand the importance of videos and movies in naming and shaping young peoples’ identities.
Videos and movies are mea ns of ‘travelling’ and getting to know people and places. As the students say they are a way to “learn bout other children, and people from other place”. Students say:
Here I use the students’ voices about negative and positive messages that they gel from movies and videos, as an example of being creative, analytical, open minded, and ‘embracing il all’ from these cultural productions. The students say:
The range of positive and negative messages that students gel from movies and videos can be understood when they say that “no movie or video is bad, is the way you tek it”. They give both positive and negative examples of behavior that sorne young people are copying. Evidence of young people’s critica! and varied view of movies include:
Movies “like se ne learn you how fa no thief ... “. [They teach you not to thief]. Movies show “people killing up people”. “We see how ne get gun shoot bout the place and harrasing up next people, and well sorne a wee boys try to practice it and dat damage we, beca use we try to be what is not” [We see how they use guns to abused of people and sometimes we copy that, it damages us ]
With these quotes I would like to cal! attention to the gender differences in the way students analyze and copy from videos and movies. “Sorne ah ne boy when ne see ne want do watne see in tv forcing lock, thieving bout and forming ne little pandilla”. (Sorne boys want to practice what they see on tv
like forcing locks, go around stealing, and forming gang}. They were referring only to older boys when they talked about forming ‘pandilla’. Then they referred only to little boys when they said” ... you kno cause I see my little cousin when ne watch ne violence ne does tek ah waa fith and so ... dat is wat dem do, but e no have to be so” (You know I have seen my liltle cousins alter watching a movie they look to fight, it’s a negative effect even though it does not have to be so]. In this respect, the gangsters movie and Goku (cartoon, but it is only based on fighting, violence ), help to promete violence especially among the boys. There are gender differences in the movies that boys and girls enjoy.
This has to do with the role that is being given to them in these cultural production. The students were a ble to point to these even when they never mentioned the word gender or ‘gender gap’. The students question why boys and men are always given the role of cheaters in their relations with their wives and girl friends. This question helps us to realize that they are being critica! about videos and movies as means of social construction in regards to men’s behavior in respect to fidelity.
The students at the Horatio Hogdson High School who, so openly talked about their lessons and experiences with cultural productions help to understand García Canclini when he talks about the changes in the concepts of popular culture. This concept responds to historical moments. This is why he says that “popular culture is a theatrical notion that varíes according to who sets the scene” (García Canclini, 1996:61 ). In the case ofthe students at Horatio Hogdson High School and this research, 1 am tempted to say that the students ‘set the scene’.
This research is about how North American movies and videos are helping young people to name and shape their identities. 1 situate it in an historie moment called globalization, and in regards to the debates and negotiations over the social meaning of popular culture, 1 situate it as what Canclini calls “Post- Polilics: From Melodrama to Video Game”.
We are hearing students who have never traveled outside the frontiers of their country, and sometimes their region, take a stand, a position towards their identity and their culture that is not necessarily !he one that comes to them through these videos and movies. We are seeing positions of students who openly criticize and do not recognize the ‘newer form of racism’ that intend to discriminate against them through these same cultural productions that they highly approve and value. As García Canclini says:
Still dispite its all-encompassing intentions, videopolitics does not crea te a unitary culture. The massive reverberation of melodrama in television and other media, like the resistance of critical reflection and oppositional social movements, keeps open questions of recognition among people and of conflict among groups(1996:69).
The students believe that they can take, and have been taking, lessons and learning from other cultures without loosing their own culture. The answer to Could you actually pickup without losing your own? was, “yeee I feel so yes, because just by seing the things and l like and feel like wa do my bes! fa gel it because I really like it... you see other people have it ande coming in style and you want it, 1 a try.” [Yes I believe so, jusi seeing something that is in style 1’11 do my best to gel it if I really like it).
The experience of these students who are open to embrace other experiences, fashion, and style can be explained and understood when we reflect on the concept hybridity. 11 is a process of interaction and interrelation that takes form in different ways and is always in movement, in constan! change. Canclini addresses itas the notion of culture or identity as opposite to the idea of homogeneous nuclei, coherent beliefs, or social behavior pertaining to a community, group or nation:
That would not have the coherence that has been attributed to it, nor would it refer to a static body of products or specific multiple forms, genres, or formats and that are in permanent transformation ... always fragmentary. 11 pul into question the homogeneos character of the operative conception of culture and its implicit notion of identity as an immovable nucleus. (1993:78)
With these perspectives in mind I bring to my analysis the fact that young people’s strongest criticisms towards movie address the fact that movies and videos are racist. Young people “are not merely the passive receptacles of pop culture, but active spectators and participants in creating their own version of it” (McDonnell, 1994:18). They claimed that “Ne consider black man as the lowest, you find that most black people in the ... gang movie, most black people ne use to act that part.” [They consider black man as the lowest, most black men are use to act the part of the gangster). lt is so, “yes, because according to ... black people bad, you kno.
People take black people like bad ‘picture’ you know”. “Black man is use to traffic drugs. • They also point out “the difference dat ne showing between the race them, the difference whe With these perspectives in mind I bring to my analysis the fact that young people’s strongest criticisms towards movie address the fact that movies and videos are racist. Young people “are not merely the passive receptacles of pop culture, but active spectators and participants in creating their own version of it” (McDonnell, 1994:18). They claimed that “Ne consider black man as the lowest, you find that most black people in the ... gang movie, most black people ne use to act that part.” [They consider black man as the lowest, most black men are use to act the part of the gangster). lt is so, “yes, because according to ... black people bad, you kno.
People take black people like bad ‘picture’ you know”. “Black man is use to traffic drugs. They also point out “the difference dat ne showing between the race them, the difference whe he white showing to the blacks and somelimes ne jus show you in ne movie, ne jus show you cursing, like black is ugly, black is dirty ... “ “I no feel like dat is jusi, because of the color you have to be worse. Because I no feel like dad is right. Because one a we white and one a we dark, dat no mean nothing difference. E could be se the black man more smarter than the white man to. But, as he always gol the Creole or the nigger as the least jusi through the color.” These analyses of racism and discrimination towards black Creole people, must be analyzed as witnesses to a process of hybridity, that embraces changes, and differences without losing connection with their culture and identity. They also show that it is hard to address identity without talking about culture and race. 11 makes us realize that, as Daniel Yon says:
“I consider myself a creole girl and a really feel proud of it.” They ranged their identity from ‘the blood’ to the “way how you dress.” They mention “l like the way how ne talk, the dance, the dressing”, “the customs, and culture that we have, and the traditions we have.” “We gol different religion like the Moravian, the Catholic, Anglican, Baptist..”
Dancing was another way of identifying the Creole people, “dance a like it, the food, the talking. 1 talk Creole and everything den”
They believe that if they had the opportunity they would “like show to ne people is how my hometown is then you know like how ne does say that em ... the Nicaragua country is poor. 1 would try to build up that we is not so then you kno, we is good country, not say we rich, but we rich in ne how you call it recursos naturales, [natural resources] ... So I would tell them about my country and my home town, and show them how we is then, you know”
Young people kept addressing the Creole Culture to be able to identify themselves, name themselves, while reflecting on movie and videos. They reaffirmed that “Creole Culture is a very special culture to me because I consider myself as a Creole girl anda really feel very proud of it, because it bring usa lot ... if it brings usa big history and is a very interesting culture through what fa what all the things them .... “ Palo de Mayo (May Pole ), for example, and “the way you act and treat people”, make Creole culture different from other culture. With laughter they said that · Creole culture ... we talk it, the dressing, the food, Creole culture is everything we do, or favorite food, Rundown and Rice and beans. They also mention ... plenty thing what I never know about my culture 1 learn it over tv (television) then you kno”
CONCLUSION
This research about the implications of North American movies and videos in naming and shaping young people’s identity in the Horatio Hodgson High School is a written account of young people’s creation and recreation of Creole culture and identity in ‘global times’. This research teaches
us to trust the students’ critica! and analytical stand towards the cultural productions that permits them to know more about other people, place and culture.
The research also teaches us that there is no such process of homogenization taking place with students who embrace the wild variety of information that reaches them through videos and movies. The analysis of these results then, should help as Montecinos say to “reconceptualize the number of established views” that we might have about movies and videos. Because, “rather than being eliminated by development “many traditional cultures” survive through their transformative engagement with modernity.” (Escobar, 1995:220)
This research can also serve as a reflection for teachers who teach in multicultural setting, to be able to address “types of knowledge and pedagogy that an open - ended, dialogical view of culture suggest for multicultural teacher education” (Montecinos, 1995:292). They can also reflect on how engaged they are with ‘modernity’, with the opportunities that communication and information offer including videos and movies to be able to help students to survive the teaching learning process putting up front the students’ and the teacher’s differences.
The teachers who embrace concepts and ideas of culture as static, and identity as fix and stable are likely to encounter greater problems than those who do not. Because, as Montecinos says, “ this conceptualization of culture and cultural life and the assumptions they engender among teachers are untenable and are, therefore, destined to provide an inadequate account of a group’s cultural lite in multicultural societies (Montecinos, 1995: 292).
BiBUOGRAPHY
Brummer, Alex. 1999. “Globalization.” In Bullock, Allan. and Trombley, Stephen. (eds.), The New Fontana Dictionary of Modern Thought. Hammersmith, London: Harper Collins.
Burton, Julianne. and Franco, Jean. 1978. “Culture and lmperialism.” Latín American Perspectives. 5/ 1:2-12.
Escobar, Arturo. 1995. “Hybrid Cultures and Postdevelopment in Latín America.” In Escobar, Arturo. Encountering Development: The Making and Unmaking of the Third World. New Jersey: Princeton University Press, pp.217-222.
García Canclini, Néstor. 1995. “Las Identidades Como Espectáculo.” Consumidores y Ciudadanos: Conflictos Multiculturales de la Globalizacion. México: Grifaldo.
García Canclini, Néstor. 1993. “The Hybrid: A Conversation with Margarita Zires, Raymundo Mier, and Mabel Piccini.” In Beverly, John. and Oviedo, Jose. (eds.), The Postmodernism Debate in Latín America: A Special lssue of Boundary 2. Darham, NC: Duke University Press, pp.11-42.
Garcia Canclini, Néstor. 1992. “Cultural Reconversion.” In Yudice, George, et al (eds.), On Edqe: The Crisis of Contemporary Latin American Culture. Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press, pp.29-43.
Hall, Stuart. 1996. “lntroduction: Who Needs ‘ldenlity’?” In Hall, Stuart. and du Gay, Paul, (eds.),
Questions of Cultural ldentity. London: Sage, pp.116
Harris, Mark. 1999. “Ethnography.” In Bullock, Allan. and Trombley, Stephen. (eds.) The New Fontana Dictionary of Modern Thought. Hammersmith London: Harper Collins
Kitzinger, Jenny. 1994. “The Methodology of Focus Groups: The lmportance of lnteraction Between Research Participants.” Journal of Sociology of Health and lllness. 16/1: 107- 117.
Macan Ghaill, Máirtin. 1993. “Beyond the White Norm: The Use of Qualitative Methods in the Study of Black Youths’ Schooling in England.” In Woods, Peter. and Hammersley, Martin. (eds.), Gender and Ethnicity in Schools: EthnographicAccounts. London and NewYork: Routledge, pp.146-161
McDonnell, Kathleen. 1994. ‘’The War with No Winners, or How I Leamed to Stop Worrying and Trust the Kids.” In McDonnell, Kathleen, Kid Culture: Children and Adults and Popular Culture. Toronto, Ontario: Second Story Press, pp.9-20
Muller, Peter. 1999. “Localization.” In Bullock, Allan. and Trombley, Stephen. (eds.) The New Fontana Dictionary of Modern Thought. Hammersmith London: Harper Collins.
Montecinos, Carmen. 1995. “Culture asan Ongoing Dialog. lmplications for Multicultural Teacher Education.” In Sleeter,Christine E. and Melaren, Peter L.(eds.), Multicultural Education, Critica! Pedagogy, and the Politics of Difference. Albany, New York: State University of New York
Wise, Sue. 1990. “From Butch God to Teddy Bear?Sorne Thoughts on My Relationship with Elvis Presley.” In Liz Stanley (ed.), Feminist Praxis: Research. Theory and Epistemology in Feminist Socioloqy. New York: Chapman and Hall, pp. 134-143
Yon, Daniel. 2000. Elusive Culture: Schoolinq. Race and ldentity in Global Times. New York: State University of New York.
CREANDO Y RECREANDO LA CULTURA E IDENTIDAD CREOLE EN EL HORATIO HODGSON HIHG SCHOOL6
M. A. Nubia Ordóñez Pondlef’l
Los resultados de esta investigación con relación a las preguntas directrices formuladas, demuestran que los Jóvenes Creole de la Escuela Horatio Hodgson son muy críticos con relación a los videos y las películas. Ellos/ as ven en los videos y películas recursos muy valiosos de información, socialización, cultura, identidad y raza.
Los cuestionamientos planteados en mi investigación fueron preguntas concernientes a videos y películas y sus implicaciones para definir y moldear una identidad Latinoamericana/ Caribeña. Cómo los videos y las películas ayudan a promover la interculturalidad en la Región Autónoma del Atlántico Sur (RAAS)
De manera más amplía y general de qué manera la globalización está influenciando la educación de los jóvenes. Específicamente de qué manera las películas y videos Norteamericanos están sirviendo como vehículos de la globalízación. Estuve interesada en los mensajes que los jóvenes están recibiendo de las películas y los videos y cómo estos ayudan a moldear y definir su identidad.
INTRODUCCIÓN
Horatio Hodgson High School, es una escuela secundaria, intercultural y bilingüe. Es importante señalar que esta escuela es un logro político y educativo y también un desafío para la Comunidad Creole, en especial para los educadores de la RAAS. El Sistema Educativo nacional, a pesar del marco legal y constitucional todavía mantiene un solo currículum nacional para la secundaria.
Este es monolingüe y monocultural. La Comunidad Creole en Bluefields, donde se desarrolló la investigación, ahora son minoria (en cantidad). La concepción de identidad para una gran mayoría y en especial para los que definen leyes y toman decisiones es la de “una identidad nacional”, entendido como una nación, un idioma oficial, un pueblo contrario a la concepción de respeto, reconocimiento y la
valoración a las diferencias, de unidad en la diversidad.
Entonces, cómo concebimos la creación y recreación de una cultura e identidad Creole en un contexto de una política nacional que no necesariamente es favorable y en el contexto de un mundo global.
La Educación lntercultural en la RAAS no es únicamente un asunto de idioma, es un asunto de encontrar reconocimiento, valores y respeto por un pueblo con sus propias dinámicas, formas de vida y valores.
METODOLOGÍA Y MÉTODOS
Sobresalieron algunas perspectivas teóricas tomadas de Néstor Garcia Canclini, por ejemplo: “la cultura popular estásiempre cambiando y varía de acuerdo a quién establece la escena”. Y por ejemplo, “las películas constituyen instrumentos poderosos de registro y reafirmación individual personal del lenguaje de uno, de su cultura y de cómo estos se extienden más allá de las fronteras”.
Entonces tenía la inquietud de:
¿Qué es lo que está ocurriendo con la Comunidad Creole?
¡Sin duda no establecemos las escenas!
Después de leer el libro ELUS/VE CULTURE de Daniel Yon, pude tomar y hacer referencias importantes a esta obra. Daniel Yon me ayudó a entender el concepto de cultura, raza e identidad como elementos históricos. La identidad de cada persona se va formando por el medio ambiente, lugar, comunidad, religión y raza así como género, sexualidad, el trabajo, la recreación, los juegos y la familia.
Entonces fusioné la teoría de Canclini y de Yon para analizar, interpretar y entender e interpretar la versión y asimilación de estos conceptos por parte de los jóvenes. (Pág.9)
Decidí realizar un estudio de caso de tipo etnográfico en el colegio Horatio Hodgson High School de Bluefields, Nicaragua por las siguientes razones:
Apliqué métodos y técnicas de observación y documentación de lo ocurrido en el centro. Hice entrevistas y Grupos Focales. Estas fueron semiestructuradas y conducidas en Creole.
RESULTADOS
Los estudiantes señalaron valores educativos, morales, mensajes relacionados a las drogas, la violencia, el racismo, la identidad y la cultura (pag.18 a la 25). Los estudiantes demostraron que los productos culturales pueden ser recursos valiosos de aprendizaje, de interculturalidad y pueden ser instrumentos que contribuyan a la formación de jóvenes críticos y analíticos de lo que acontece a nivel internacional y en todos los diferentes campos del saber humano. Sin embargo, quiero señalar que la crítica más fuerte que los/as jóvenes hacen a los videos y las películas es que son muy racistas.
CONCLUSIÓN
Concluyo diciendo que esta investigación nos enseña a confiar en la actitud crítica y analítica de los estudiantes y que no existe un proceso de homogenización por parte de los que abrazan la gran variedad de información que les llega a través de estos productos culturales. Nos ayuda a reconsiderar los puntos de vista que teníamos al respecto.
La investigación también sirve como una reflexión para los/ as maestros/as que enseñan y aprenden en contextos multiculturales para abordar diferentes tipos de conocimientos y una pedagogía con un enfoque de diálogo con las culturas aprovechando los beneficios de la “modernidad”. Porque, los docentes que abordan los conceptos de cultura e identidad como estático y estable siempre enfrentarán problemas e interpretaciones inadecuadas de la vida cultural en sociedades multículturales
1 SILAIS stands for Local System of Integral Attention for Health
2 The people of the Caribbean Cpast of Nicaragua have an autonomous law that give them the right to an autonomous government since 1990.
3 Focus Group in this research is a group interview, where members of the group exchanged their ideas about the tapie according to the Questions that I used to guide the discussion.
4 AII rranslation are mine
5 The transcription that I offer of the Creole language used by these kids is based only on the sound that I identified. lt does not relate to any special structure of Creole language and its only for the purpose of this resear ..
6 La investigación fue realizada y presentada en Creole e Inglés para efectos de participación en la Jornada de Investigación y Desarrollo Científico el CNU presentó ésta versión de una traducción al español .
Investigación presentada a ta Facultad de Estudios lnterdisciplinarios, Programa de Maestría de York, Candá y URACCAN, Nícaraghua, Julio del 2000.
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