DERC Seminar: The Pedagogy of Chocolate. 

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This short seminar, part of ANGEL partner organisation DERC's seminar series, explores the use of chocolate as a teaching and learning resource in global learning and sustainability education.

Dr Bob Manteaw (University of Ghana) will look at how, as an African, from Ghana, Dr Manteaw has employed chocolate as a teaching and learning resource in his global learning and sustainability education efforts in higher education in Canada and the United States of America.

While sharing his cultural experiences from the perspective of his ‘otherness’ in predominantly white communities, the presentation will also foreground the philosophical and pedagogical imperatives of what it means to use cocoa and chocolate to educate for sustainability and global awareness in culturally diverse settings.

In doing so, Dr Manteaw will aim to demonstrate, through narrative descriptions, how he used cocoa production in Ghana, and chocolate consumption around the world as a pedagogical avenue to deepen understandings of larger issues around production and consumption, as well as the linkages between learning, society, and sustainability.

More importantly, he will also use his experiences with chocolate in learning settings to highlight students’ reactions and ‘moments of learning’ to critically deconstruct underestimated or taken-for-granted assumptions about production and consumption dynamics and what they mean for people behind production processes in distant places.

Unavoidably, discussions will touch on the impact of the work of the Fairtrade Foundation and similar initiatives, as well as issues of traceability, certification, sustainability and child labour as emergent critical discourses in the cocoa supply chain - and why they should matter in education and learning.

Choose the World you Want Festival & Respondent

This seminar is being held to coincide with the Fairtrade Foundation's 'Choose the World you Want' festival, held to mark the annual Fairtrade Fortnight (21 Feb - 6 Mar) - 2 weeks of activity around social, economic and environmental justice. This connection reflects a continuing relationship between the Foundation and DERC which has resulted in a report and a seminar that looked at the work of the Foundation in UK schools.

Claire Arnott, Senior Education Campaigns Officer at Fairtrade Foundation, will be joining this seminar as a respondent.

International Journal of Development Education and Global Learning

Dr Manteaw's presentation relates to his recent article in the International Journal of Development Education and Global Learning, the journal founded at DERC and edited by DERC's Dr Clare Bentall. It publishes the outcomes of educational research and current debates on development education, global learning, global education, and global citizenship education.

Format

This event is to be hosted via Zoom. Register here or via the button below. Registered participants will be emailed a link in the days before the event, and also 30 minutes before as a reminder.

Time after the presentations will be given over to a Q&A with participants.

Intended audience

This webinar is intended for all who are interested in issues of Fairtrade, social justice, and sustainability issues in the cocoa supply chain. In particular, students, teachers, and educators (at all levels) of global citizenship education and learning for sustainability.

Speaker & respondent biographies

Dr Bob Manteaw is originally from Ghana but has lived and worked in England, the USA, and Canada, where he holds citizenship. Prior to moving back to Ghana in the last few years, Bob worked as an adjunct Assistant Professor at the Kings University in Edmonton, Canada, while he led the Province of Alberta’s Climate Adaptation Strategy processes within the Government of Alberta. He also previously worked as an Assistant Professor at the Eastern Washington University in Cheney, U.S.A. where his research interests in the social dimensions of global environmental change deepened his subsequent roles and in climate change adaptation. Back in Ghana now, Bob works at the University of Ghana where he is a transdisciplinary Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Climate Change and Sustainability Studies. He works mainly with graduate students with both his teaching and research focusing on diverse, but interrelated themes around sustainable development, climate adaptation, social innovation, socio-ecological resilience, water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) and many others. Dr Manteaw is particularly interested in the roles of education and learning in the global quest for climate and sustainability transitions. Bob had his undergraduate training in Ghana and continued in England where he prides himself of being among the second cohort of London Southbank University’s ground-breaking graduate program in Environmental and Development Education. He later moved to the United States to pursue another graduate program in International Affairs at the Ohio University in Athens and had his doctoral training at the Washington State University in Pullman. Bob comes into his different roles with a 360°worldview drawn from professional experiences in academia, private sector, government policy and international development practice. He describes himself as a critical global sustainability educator.

Claire Arnott is Senior Education Campaigns Officer at Fairtrade Foundation, UK. Claire produces education resources for schools on the topics of climate justice, globalisation, trade, ethical consumption and sustainability. She has a Masters in Education and International Development from the UCL Institute of Education. Claire was previously a Primary Teacher in Aberdeen (Scotland) and has also taught in Romania, Italy, Finland and Uganda. She joined the Fairtrade Foundation in August 2019 to champion global learning for a more just, sustainable and compassionate world.

Seminar Series

As part of its mission to provide learning and networking opportunities for professionals and students of development education, global learning and global citizenship, the Development Education Research Centre runs this ongoing seminar series. Events are held around the Bloomsbury campus, and are free and open to staff, students, alumni and the public. All are welcome to attend. You can view details of previous seminars, including some videos, here.