{"id":19001,"date":"2016-08-15T12:42:20","date_gmt":"2016-08-15T16:42:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/carleton.ca\/edc\/?p=19001"},"modified":"2021-08-13T10:11:39","modified_gmt":"2021-08-13T14:11:39","slug":"teaching-performance-bringing-african-culture-classroom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/tls\/2016\/teaching-performance-bringing-african-culture-classroom\/","title":{"rendered":"Teaching as performance: Bringing African culture to the classroom"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Emily Cook, TLS staff writer <\/em><\/p>\n

For Professor Nduka Otiono, the classroom is not a space for teachers to talk at students; it\u2019s a space for oral performers.<\/p>\n

Otiono grew up in Nigeria, where he says theatre is transactional with lots of audience participation, and that\u2019s how he likes to structure his courses.<\/p>\n

\u201cI see teaching as a conversation with students, there\u2019s two-way traffic all the time,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Otiono has been teaching in Carleton\u2019s Institute of African Studies since 2012 and this year was honoured with a Capital Educators\u2019 Award for inspiring his students. He says the goal of creating interactive classes is to encourage students to understand the value of their work.<\/p>\n

One of the ways Otiono does this is with \u201ccreative projects,\u201d where he provides assignment prompts with a variety of topics and a theme. From there, students devise their own project within certain criteria. These projects provide opportunities for students with different skills to express their knowledge of material and Otiono says they sometimes put even more effort into these assignments because they\u2019re passionate about that topic.<\/p>\n

\u201cI make it possible for the students who have that kind of creative temperament, that kind of attitude, to pursue their own interests within specific prompts that allow me to grade in an objective and fair way,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Otiono says he also brings a complex variety of teaching tools into his courses to reflect African culture, including film, music and cartoons. He says these tools engage students and help them interact with the subject.<\/p>\n

\u201cI try to encourage the students to reach deeply into their knowledge reservoir to make the classroom more interactive,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

In one course, Otiono invited a spoken word poet to perform and says the students shared how much this experience resonated with them. He says that\u2019s what he wants students to get from his courses \u2013 the ability to understand Africa in relation to the world.<\/p>\n

Otiono says Carleton has the only stand-alone African Studies program in Canada, offering incredible opportunities for students through conferences, co-ops and more.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt provides a truly comprehensive kind of learning experience for students,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Building on the program, Otiono says he encouraged his students when they came to him wanting to get their undergraduate work published. This led to the creation of the Carleton University Institute of African Studies Undergraduate Conference, which is now entering its second year.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt helps students appreciate the value of the work they do,\u201d he says, adding it\u2019s gratifying for him to see how the conference is already growing in its second year.<\/p>\n

In everything he does in the classroom, Otiono hopes to expand and deepen student learning.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is very important for me, and I think for my students, that their work transcends the classroom,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Emily Cook, TLS staff writer For Professor Nduka Otiono, the classroom is not a space for teachers to talk at students; it\u2019s a space for oral performers. Otiono grew up in Nigeria, where he says theatre is transactional with lots of audience participation, and that\u2019s how he likes to structure his courses. \u201cI see […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nTeaching as performance: Bringing African culture to the classroom - Teaching and Learning Services<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"By Emily Cook, TLS staff writer For Professor Nduka Otiono, the classroom is not a space for teachers to talk at students; 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