First class

Dear students,

Welcome to the course! This semester, we will study the main cultural tenents of the British and American culture. The aim of the course is to foster your critical thinking and an understanding of the importance of cultural diversity for a more egalitarian educational system. As a future English teacher, you will need to understand how the British and American civilizations have emerged and consolidated. Also, the relationship between culture, civilization, language and power will be discussed.

For the first class, please get a photocopy of the introduction to the book Ways of Seeing by John Berger. We will discuss it in the first class along with the course programme. Think of how your own beliefs influence the way you see and approach new things. How have history and works of art been presented to us? By whom?

Also, you will be asked to create your own blog as a way to keep a log of what you do in this course. This will be done together in the first class so don't worry. Some of you may have created a blog for other courses already, or for personal reasons. Whatever is the case, this is going to be a shared blog so that we learn from one another. Therefore your blog will be linked to mine so that everybody in the class has access to everybody's blog. I hope you find this collaborative way of learning useful.
See you soon,
Claudia