Introduction

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Naomi A. Moland
Keyword(s):  
Multicultural Education ◽  
The United States ◽  
Sesame Street ◽  
United States Government ◽  
Boko Haram ◽  
Western Education ◽  
Cultural Aspects ◽  
Nigerian Children ◽  
Extremist Group

Chapter 1 introduces the book by discussing the key dilemmas that arose during the creation of Sesame Square, the Nigerian version of Sesame Street. It outlines the program’s goals to teach tolerance and peaceful coexistence to Nigerian children and the challenges of promoting these goals in the Nigerian context. This chapter introduces two dilemmas that form the central arguments of the book: first, that multicultural education and celebrating diversity can inadvertently exacerbate stereotypes; and second, that a violent and unjust context can undermine tolerance messages. This chapter reviews historical, political, and cultural aspects of the Nigerian context, including the rise of the extremist group Boko Haram, whose name means “Western education is forbidden.” It also explores what the United States government (which funds Sesame Square) believes the program might do to build stability, peace, and American goodwill in Nigeria. The chapter closes by previewing the content of the following chapters.

Can Big Bird Fight Terrorism?

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Naomi A. Moland
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Multicultural Education ◽  
International Development ◽  
Soft Power ◽  
The United States ◽  
Sesame Street ◽  
State Fragility ◽  
Internal Conflicts ◽  
Daunting Task ◽  
Agency For International Development

Sesame Street has a global reach, with more than thirty co-productions that are viewed in over 150 countries. In recent years, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has provided funding to the New York-based Sesame Workshop to create international versions of Sesame Street. Many of these programs teach children to respect diversity and tolerate others, which some hope will ultimately help to build peace in conflict-affected societies. In fact, the U.S. government has funded local versions of the show in several countries enmeshed in conflict, including Afghanistan, Kosovo, Pakistan, Jordan, and Nigeria. Can Big Bird Fight Terrorism? takes an in-depth look at the Nigerian version, Sesame Square, which began airing in 2011. In addition to teaching preschool-level academic skills, Sesame Square seeks to promote peaceful coexistence-a daunting task in Nigeria, where escalating ethno-religious tensions and terrorism threaten to fracture the nation. After a year of interviewing Sesame creators, observing their production processes, conducting episode analysis, and talking to local educators who use the program in classrooms, Naomi Moland found that this child-focused use of soft power raised complex questions about how multicultural ideals translate into different settings. In Nigeria, where segregation, state fragility, and escalating conflict raise the stakes of peacebuilding efforts, multicultural education may be ineffective at best, and possibly even divisive. This book offers rare insights into the complexities, challenges, and dilemmas inherent in soft power attempts to teach the ideals of diversity and tolerance in countries suffering from internal conflicts.

scholarly journals Boko Haram Disgrace: Urgency for Renewal and Reform in northern Nigeria Supported by the Muslim Leadership

ICR Journal ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 595-578
Author(s):  
Daud Abdul-Fattah Batchelor
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
Female Students ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
Northern Nigeria ◽  
Boko Haram ◽  
Security Forces ◽  
Western Education ◽  
State Security ◽  
The Earth ◽  
The World

The infamous Boko Haram sect erupted on the world stage in 2009 with their aim to establish an Islamic State. Since its subsequent radicalisation resulting from heavy-handed treatment - including torture and murder - at the hands of state security forces, it now targets the army, police, and those associated with propagating western education. It has even degenerated into attacking the weakest participants, innocent civilians, especially school children. The most infamous act of Boko Haram was the abduction of nearly 300 female students in April 2014 from a government-run high school in the Christian town of Chibok. Over 70 percent of the girls were Christian, and reportedly a number were forcibly ‘converted’ to Islam. In February, 58 students mainly teenage boys, were burnt to death, shot or had their throats slit in a school attack. The mayhem continues as security forces seem incapable of containing the violence. 2050 people were killed in the first half of 2014 alone. The Paris Summit held in May led to a renewed military push from neighbouring countries with support from the United States, to contain Boko Haram. The Nigerian ‘ulama have condemned Boko Haram’s violence and language of arms as a fitna and cited it as “corruption on the earth” - one of the most serious crimes in Islam.

Can Big Bird Fight Terrorism?

2019 ◽  
pp. 159-188
Author(s):  
Naomi A. Moland
Keyword(s):  
Gender Equality ◽  
Soft Power ◽  
Educational Television ◽  
School Attendance ◽  
Television Program ◽  
Boko Haram ◽  
The Public ◽  
Western Education ◽  
Public Curriculum ◽  
Extremist Group

Chapter 6, “Can Big Bird Fight Terrorism?,” examines some creators’ hopes that messages on Sesame Square—particularly messages about school attendance, gender equality, and tolerance—could counter Boko Haram’s messages. This chapter addresses both of the book’s overarching arguments. First, as creators decided what messages northern children needed to hear to make them less susceptible to extremist ideologies, they sometimes stereotyped northerners as all being connected to Boko Haram—supporting the book’s first argument that multicultural efforts can reproduce stereotypes. Second, the public curriculum in Nigeria undermined Sesame Square’s antiterrorist messages. Moreover, some creators seemed skeptical that an iconically American educational television program could be a match for an extremist group whose name means “Western education is forbidden.” The current conflict is further eroding intergroup trust and reinforcing stereotypes between groups, making Sesame Square’s messages seem increasingly unrealistic. This chapter explores the particular challenges that terrorism poses to educational soft power efforts.

Cold War Exiles and the CIA

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Tromly
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
The United States ◽  
West Germany ◽  
United States Government ◽  
Home Base ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Secret War

During the height of the Cold War in the 1950s, the United States government unleashed covert operations intended to weaken the Soviet Union. As part of these efforts, the CIA undertook support of Russian exiles, populations uprooted either during World War II or by the Russian Revolution decades before. No one seemed better prepared to fight in the American secret war against communism than the uprooted Russians, whom the CIA directed to carry out propaganda, espionage, and subversion operations from their home base in West Germany. Yet the American engagement of Russian exiles had unpredictable outcomes. Drawing on recently declassified and previously untapped sources, Cold War Exiles and the CIA examines how the CIA’s Russian operations became entangled with the internal struggles of Russia abroad and also the espionage wars of the superpowers in divided Germany. What resulted was a transnational political sphere involving different groups of Russian exiles, American and German anti-communists, and spies operating on both sides of the Iron Curtain. Inadvertently, CIA’s patronage of Russian exiles forged a complex sub-front in the wider Cold War, demonstrating the ways in which the hostilities of the Cold War played out in ancillary conflicts involving proxies and non-state actors.

Labor’s Cold Warriors: The American Federation of Labor and “Free Trade Unionism” in Cold War Japan

2003 ◽  
Vol 12 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 207-224 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Gerteis
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
The United States ◽  
Central Intelligence Agency ◽  
United States Government ◽  
American Federation Of Labor ◽  
Intelligence Agency ◽  
American Federation

AbstractDuring the 1950s, the American Federation of Labor (AFL) led a global covert attempt to suppress left-led labor movements in Western Europe, the Mediterranean, West Africa, Central and South America, and East Asia. American union leaders argued that to survive the Cold War, they had to demonstrate to the United States government that organized labor was not part-and-parcel with Soviet communism. The AFL’s global mission was placed in care of Jay Lovestone, a founding member of the American Communist Party in 1921 and survivor of decades of splits and internecine battles over allegiance to one faction or another in Soviet politics before turning anti-Communist and developing a secret relation with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) after World War II. Lovestone’s idea was that the AFL could prove its loyalty by helping to root out Communists from what he perceived to be a global labor movement dominated by the Soviet Union. He was the CIA’s favorite Communist turned anti-Communist.

scholarly journals Assessing Student Learning Outcomes in United States Government Courses

2010 ◽  
Vol 43 (01) ◽  
pp. 127-131 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leonard Champney ◽  
Paul Edleman
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Student Learning Outcomes ◽  
The United States ◽  
United States Government ◽  
Science Majors ◽  
Student Knowledge ◽  
States Government ◽  
Current Events ◽  
Males And Females

AbstractThis study employs the Solomon Four-Group Design to measure student knowledge of the United States government and student knowledge of current events at the beginning of a U.S. government course and at the end. In both areas, knowledge improves significantly. Regarding knowledge of the U.S. government, both males and females improve at similar rates, those with higher and lower GPAs improve at similar rates, and political science majors improve at similar rates to non-majors. Regarding current events, males and females improve at similar rates. However, those with higher GPAs and political science majors improve more than others.

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