Welcome to the second Diversity Centre Blog!
A huge thank you to all who supported the successful Diversity Centre launch! (see video on the website)
This is one of my most favourite times of the year for so many reasons which includes that eThekwini (yes in Durban where I stay) we are beginning to get some respite from the scorching heat and humidity. YEAH!!!!! Major reason for celebration!
This period of the year is also my stark reminder of the diversity in our South African community, which is actually a microcosm of the wider diverse global community. That is also a huge cause for celebration! I am sure you have deduced by now that you can count me in for any form of celebration! It is true; life is too short and the COVID period enhanced that more than ever for me.
During this time of the year, two major religious celebrations occur. I am making reference to Eid (Muslim celebration) and Easter (Christian celebration). Ramadan Mubarak to all my Muslim Blog readers and Blessed Easter to all my Christian Blog readers. Thank you for continuing to support this website. I trust that it continues to reciprocate that support by providing knowledge and resources for our diverse population. My goal is for this website to achieve S.E.E. (Support, Empower and Educate), thereby helping me to fulfil my M.A.D (Making A Difference) mission.
I know that at this point Speech-Language Therapists (SLTs) currently reading this blog must be reprimanding me saying “poor narrative pragmatics skills Thandeka!” I admit. Guilty as charged or on a more colloquial note as my daughters would put it “my bad!” If you ever work or get reports from SLTs I am sure you must have seen the term narrative pragmatics. Sounds fancy doesn’t it? It is actually quite simple. It merely means that when relating a story there is a clear beginning, middle/core/main part and ending/closure, and the story flows. Earlier in the writing of this blog I jumped around from religious celebrations to the goals of the blog. Uxolo! (my apologies in isiXhosa!) I continue my skipping as I revert back to the issue that excites me i.e. religious festivals. I regard them as crucial due to the diversity lessons they provide.
I must confess that the Muslim religion celebration of Eid holds a very special place in my heart. Whenever one of my best friends, Gadija, relates to me what they do when celebrating Eid, I am reminded of how I celebrated Christmas as a little girl. All the food, coming together as a family, visiting family members, new clothes etc. leaves me reminiscing of all those good times. The Muslim culture (way of life) is a different culture from mine i.e. there is intercultural variation. However, my children no longer celebrate Christmas the way that I used to i.e. there is a variation within our culture of celebrating Christmas ( intracultural variation). I often think that as a society we allow any kind of variation or difference to overwhelm us rather than embrace it. However, a starting point to embracing is acknowledging that there is a difference.
My reminder of acknowledging and embracing of this difference was highlighted a couple of years ago when I was assessing a Grade Two child using a subtest of the CELF (Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals), one most commonly used assessment tools in the profession of Speech-Language Therapy. The Subtest is called Following Directions. I asked the child to show me the second circle. He looked down, paused, kept quiet for a couple of seconds and then put his index fingers horizontally facing opposite directions. He then muttered to himself, “at *Madrasa right to left (as he moved his right hand in that direction) and at school left to right (as he moved his left hand in that direction). He then looked up and pointed to the second circle. His self-talk reminded me of the variation between English and Arabic) i.e. that Arabic is read right to left and English is from left to right. He needed to remind himself that he was in a context that was left to right to be able to accurately answer the question. His response left me with a lesson in variation that has made me more cautious and sensitive to how our children interpret what is presented in the assessment tools. I trust that my lesson will help to highlight to every professional who administers tests that there is a variation in interpretation that is influenced by each child’s background, experience and frame of reference!
On that rude awakening note, let me close off. I look forward to getting feedback using www.thediversitycentre.com
Happy reading until the next Blog!
*Madrasa refers to an Islamic educational institution offering education which includes the Quran ( Muslim Holy Book). The Quran is written in Arabic and read from right to left.