Changing lives through education

• Show Slide 2 and/or invite learners to reflect on the role of education in a person's life. They might say that education allows people to use written language to interact with others, to learn more about the world, acquire professional skills, be an active citizen, and have more future opportunities, among other things.
• Ask the class to consider whether everyone has the same educational opportunities and encourage learners to identify who might not have the same access to education. They might refer to groups who have less power because of their economic situation, gender, race, religious beliefs, geographical location or disability, for example. 
• Tell learners that they are going to watch a short TED Talk video in which Laura Boushnak, a photographer, talks about her work. 

Note: Laura Boushnak is a Kuwaiti-born Palestinian photographer whose work focuses on women, literacy and education reform in the Arab world. 

• Show Slide 3 and/or give each learner a copy of the worksheet and ask them to work in pairs to complete Exercise 1. In this exercise, learners should complete the questions with a word that expresses the meaning specified within parentheses. (All the words in the box are from the TED Talk video that learners will watch in the next task.) 
• Monitor and provide help, if necessary, before checking answers with the whole class. 

Answers

a. illiteracy

b. role models

c. ultra-conservative

d. barriers

e. activism 

• Show Slide 4 and/or tell learners that the title of the TED Talk that they are going to watch is 'For these women, reading is a daring act'. Check learners' understanding of 'daring' and ask them to suggest reasons why reading could be a daring act. 
• Tell learners they are going to watch the introduction of the video [1:40 minutes] and ask them to consider the following questions: 

1. What is the name of Laura's project?
2. What was the aim of her project? 
3. What problems did she face? 
4. How did she overcome those problems? 

• Play the introduction and ask learners to share their answers in pairs before checking answers with the whole class (Slide 5). 

Answers 

1. I read, I write 
2. To tell the stories of women who had changed their lives through education and highlight the barriers they faced. 
3. It wasn't always easy to convince the women to participate. 
4. She explained that their stories would help other girls and women and that they would become role models in their communities. 

• Show Slide 6 and/or refer learners to Exercise 2 on their worksheet and explain that they are going to hear Laura talk about three women who she interviewed for her project. As learners listen, they should complete the table with specific information about the three women: Umm El-Saad, Asma, Fayza. 
• Play the video again, from the beginning, so that learners have a second opportunity to hear the introduction, before they have to focus their attention to complete the table in Exercise 2. If needed, you might want to stop at 2:35, 3:06 and 3:58 so that learners have time to write down their answers. 

Note: If you think your learners will find this activity too challenging, you could have them work in groups of three, with each one noting down information on a different woman and then sharing answers with each other afterwards. 

• Put learners in pairs to compare their answers. Here, you could give them a copy of the video transcript if you think they need more support. 
• Show Slide 7 and/or check answers with the whole class. 

Answers 

1. Umm El-Saad 

What? – A nine-month literacy programme run by a local NGO [non-governmental organisation] in the Cairo suburbs. 

Why? – To gain control over simple daily routines, small details that we take for granted, from counting money at the market to helping her kids with homework. 

2. Asma 

What? – Bioengineering 

Why? – She had always dreamt of discovering new bacteria. 

3. Fayza 

What? – Business 

Why? – She wanted to find a job, rent a place to live in, and bring her kids back with her. 

• Divide the class into small groups. 
• Show Slide 8 and/or ask the groups to discuss the questions that they completed in Exercise 1 on their worksheet. Encourage learners to give examples to support their opinions. 
• Monitor the discussions and give support as/if needed. Learners' answers will vary depending on their specific contexts and their world knowledge. 

Suggested answers: 

a. Illiterate girls and women find it difficult or impossible to engage in everyday tasks such as getting the bus, counting money, reading signs and following instructions. 

b. Role models are important because they show others what is possible to achieve even if the circumstances are difficult, and they help to inspire and motivate others to imitate their behaviour/actions. 

c. Ultra-conservative societies might oppose girls/women being taught about sex, gender and sexuality (e.g. the existence of contraceptive methods, the freedom to express one's gender, and the naturalness of same-sex relationships). 

d. Girls and women might be out of school because their families prioritise the education of boys and men, because they are forced to get married or get pregnant, because they lack a female role model in their families, and so on. 

e. Support non-governmental organisations whose mission is to facilitate girls' and women's access to education, help to educate girls and women in your neighbourhood, and encourage girls and women in your family to pursue an education. 

• Draw learners' attention to the final quote in the video as reproduced in Exercise 3 on the worksheet (Slide 9). 
• As a class, invite learners to share their ideas on what the quote means to them and if they agree with it. Learners might comment on the fact that girls and women must pursue their education and that they must not be limited by social stereotypes of any kind. This means not only attending school/university but also being free to decide what to study. 
• Optional: If learners have internet access, ask them to search for similar inspirational quotes related to the education of girls and women and share them with the class. Slide 10 gives some examples. 

• Ask learners to interview a woman in their family or neighbourhood to find out how education has changed her life, and prepare a short presentation (2–3 minutes) on their story for the following class. 
• Ask learners to write a short biography about Laura Boushnak's life and work (200–250 words). Direct them to her website – https://www.lauraboushnakofficial.com – which also contains more information about the project 'I read I write'.