OBJECTIVES
The Department of Black Studies, in co-operation with International Studies, will expand on previous international partnership initiatives Overseas and Portland metropolitan area organizations and institutions to include educational and cultural institutions in selected African countries, to help students fulfill their senior capstone experience. Student participants will start their projects in Portland tapping the facilities of local institutions and develop them in selected African country working with accredited educational institutions and partners. Projects include development of cultural resource management and community educational development programs, conduct ethnographic and oral interviews, participate in ongoing archeological excavation and laboratory analysis, build temporary and permanent exhibitions as partner schedules might permit. The main objective is to give students opportunities for community-based and service learning, as well as, international cultural and educational experience. Students will be expected, on return to Portland, to share their experience and findings with Portland communities through displays, seminars and public educational programs.
CONTENTS
** Cultural/Learning Experience - will provide opportunities for first-hand interaction with traditional leaders, office bearers, chiefs, queens and queen mothers and also for exploring of a wide variety of traditional cultural events in African countries (Ghana, South Africa, Senegal, Togo, Cote D’Ivoire etc) areas as well as attend village and town events to observe and take part in such traditional activities as festivals and festivities, ritual, drumming music and dance, craft and other creative aspects of African culture. These festivities or events will give PSU students the opportunity to obtain a deeper insight into the cultural concept and values of the groups or societies they will be living in. The initial sites will be those in Ghana, West Africa where a pilot project conducted in 1998 proved very successful.
** Historical/ Learning Experience – this will involve participation in educational excursions and tours of historical and traditional cultural sites such as museums, shrines, historical towns such as Kromantse, monuments, forts and castles of the trans-Atlantic slave trade (Fort Abandzi, Elmina and Cape Coast Castles for example), cultural centers, palaces, traditional herbal institutions and selected educational institutions.
** Academic Experience – students participate in talks, seminars and demonstrations on traditional social, political and religious expressions, to be given by academic and traditional specialists of both rural and urban Ghana; also undertake a field project on an approved topic or subject based on direct interaction, interviews, archival, museum and/or library research, to be written up at the end of the program. The goal will be to study and experience the social and cultural life of people in Ghana and adjoining countries. The central theme of African culture.
DEVELOPMENTAL HISTORY OF PSU INTERNATIONAL PARTNERSHIPS
The development of programs that offer short and long-term community-based overseas experience to PSU students began in 1991mainly in the Caribbean and eventually have proven to be self-supporting. In 1998 a similar pilot program to Ghana , West Africa , directed by Kofi Agorsah, was equally successful. In both geographic areas themes covered included archaeology, public resource management, religion, public health, community policing, dance, youth and modern technology, women of color, art and artistic expressions, politics, pre-school issues etc. Led by Black Studies Faculty, these efforts have provided service learning opportunities for many students in partnership with several international institutions and agencies such as Museums, schools and colleges, the media, traditional herbal institutions and hospitals as well as other Portland-based local groups and institutions such as The Caribbean Cultural Association, Ghana Association, Association of African Students and selected Portland Public Schools. The Department continues to work closely with the International Exchange Program Office and International Studies at PSU and had also received development grant from the Center for Academic Excellence. The 1998 pilot program in Ghana also prepared the way for institutional collaboration between PSU and the University of Cape Coast and the Ghana Museums and Monuments Board where basic infrastructure and facilities are available for all planned student service-learning programs including capstones and future internships.
Approved related courses: INTL/BSt 471 (Understanding International Experience) and the Intl 499 /UNSt 421 (Senior International Experience) have been designed to accommodate expansion of the overseas programs and fit in well with the BSt 406/506 (Overseas Experience) programs. The overseas program provides opportunities to all majors especially students who have completed the Sophomore Inquiry course or cluster (African or American Studies, Latin American Studies etc) and wish to apply knowledge of their interdisciplinary programs in a community-based service-learning setting. The availability of multiple sites for the PSU Overseas experience would make it possible for students to test their knowledge in the most appropriate and suitable setting and environments.
PARTNERS
Cultural Partner
The Historical Museum of Cape Coast - Formerly called The West African Historical Museum, this institution is a regional branch of the Ghana Museum and Monuments Board and performs two functions: curatorial including conservation, and research (archaeological, ethnographic, and historical) on West African culture in its relationship with the African Diaspora, particularly the Caribbean and North America. It houses and displays both archaeological and archival material and its research emphasizes historical and cultural research. It is also involved in restoration of the monuments (forts and castles 32 of which dot the coast of Ghana . Previous contacts by a Faculty of Black Studies, PSU with the Director, Education Officer, Conservator and the staff of the Historical Museum of Cape Coast will be reactivated should this proposal be approved.
Educational Partner
University of Cape Coast, one of the four tertiary educational institutions in Ghana offers course for degrees, certificates and conducts research on Education. The University is one of the top two in Ghana and is being re-organized as the country's economic and political atmosphere improves. The University is located in an area with many High Schools which have produced the most leading educationist in the entire West African region and, over the years, has maintained that national and international prestige. It continues to harbor its traditional outstanding faculty and distinguished alumni many of who will be valuable assets to the partnership with PSU.
Accra and Cape Coast, Ghana will be the project sites. Although the major rendezvous site will be Accra, the capital city of Ghana, participants will spend much of their time interacting with communities in other cities, towns and villages. There will also be opportunities to observe Ghana's vibrant agricultural system, production of textile, baskets, woodcarvings, pottery and leather goods. These experiences will give participants the opportunity to observe the distinct differences in Ghana's several ethnic groups.
The University of Cape Coast Library and archives, the national Archive in Cape Coast, Cape Coast cultural center and craft market, the Cape Coast castle and Historical Museum, the palaces of the paramount and sub-chiefs, the monuments (Forts and Castle) in Elmina, Abandze, and the old site of Kromantse the will be some of the areas that will be used to facilitate student learning experience and research. By extension the regional administrative facilities are available.
CAPSTONE EXPERIENCE
Groups of 10 to 12 will travel to Ghana (for a total of 21days), landing in Accra, the capital city and after a day's orientation and familiarization session, travel by road from Accra to Cape Coast with five stops of half-hour each at selected historical monuments along the route. Students will have a choice of being housed with local students or individual home stays with selected families in the Cape Coast and will be given the opportunity to make contact with a cross-section of the population and attend at least eight (four at the University) presentations by experts from a variety of fields. There will be a mixture of group program and internships for the first four days. The group will tour three selected regions where student projects will be based. Thereafter, students will be placed according to their interests and regions, in brief internships with professors, researchers, museum staff, chiefs and traditional elders. It will be an opportunity to experience first hand the changing traditional culture of Ghanaian society and also contribute to breaking down stereotypes on both sides of the Atlantic. By listening to the local views, of the young and old alike, the differences in cultural values and experience will become apparent in the individual PSU student’s intimate contacts with their host friends, families and others. Supervised individual mini field research assignments will be required from each student in order to properly document field data and the experience for the PSU service-learning program through presentations, seminars or cultural and other relevant activities, on return.
ELIGIBILITY AND REQUIREMENTS
This program is open to all PSU students in all fields and who have fulfilled the basic requirement as generally set out. No experience in any particular field is required but research assignments will take previous knowledge and interests into consideration. The Faculty of the University of Cape Coast and the Director and staff of the Museum should, from previous experience, be fairly flexible with the program and deployment of PSU students. Eligibility requirements include good academic standing, motivation, maturity, good health and emotional stability as well as, seriousness of purpose. Marks will be awarded for (a) Research design (20%) – prior to overseas trip (b) Material and participation (40%) – service-learning project on site overseas and (c) Presentation –back in Portland – share experience with the Portland community (40%). Collecting data for the award of grades will be built into the program and should make it easy to build up data during the course of the program. Marks obtained in the end will be converted into letter grades. The program cost includes airfare, accommodation, program ground transportation, and food. Required health and other insurance coverage, passport and visa costs and personal expenses, are not included in the cost of the program