A glimpse of Oaxaca from the Oaxaca Regional Museum of Anthropology & History
Artisans from Oaxaca and surrounding towns exhibit their work along cobblestone streets near the exquisite 16th century church of Santo Domingo, while children dart in playful games, and music trills from a nearby park with a beat that insists you take salsa steps. As you wander towards the zócalo, through open shop doorways you see woven carpets in sun-warmed colours from the village of Santa Ana del Valle, glistening black pottery and figurines from San Bartolo Coyotepec, and fantastical neon-painted wooden creatures from San Martin Tilcajete. The streets are crowded with people, both locals heading to the marketplace or to meet family and friends, and tourists who have returned to this culturally rich city located high in the Sierra Madres near the ancient Zapotec centre of Monte Albán.
These are glimpses of the Oaxaca that Dr. Stephen Smith and I found when we visited in March 2007, to reassess the site where SFU's Professional Development Program (PDP) has based their International Teacher Education Program for the past nine years--except in 2006. While in Oaxaca, we visited schools, spoke with teachers and administrators, and met with colleagues at Benito Juárez University and the Centro de Idiomas.
We had many informal conversations too, with people we encountered in shops and restaurants, in bookstores and libraries, at cultural events and parks. We wandered for hours through the areas of Oaxaca where the political unrest of last year was centred, and although on the façades of some buildings there remains telltale graffiti from those months of unrest, a normalcy and a sense of peace seem to have returned to the city.
That peaceful ambiance is evident in the crowds of local people who meet evenings to attend free musical events in the parks and theatres, in the relaxed gatherings of families we saw celebrating with their children as they danced outdoors during ‘El Día de las Familias'. It is evident, too, in the way both men and women, locals and tourists, singly and in groups, day and night, walk comfortably through the streets of Oaxaca.
This piece of narrative was provided by Anne Souther, a faculty associate with Professional Programs in the Faculty of Education who works with our student teachers in the International Teacher Education Module. Simon Fraser University, along with many other North American universities that based programs elsewhere during the political restlessness of last year, is returning to Oaxaca for the coming school year.
"We are thrilled to be able to offer, once again, an exceptional international location to PDP students in the International Teacher Education Module," said Anne.
For more information about the International Teacher Education Module, contact:
Anne Souther, Faculty Associate
E-mail: asouther@sfu.ca
Alternate e-mail: asouther@firstclass.educ.sfu.ca
Or
Jana Milloy, Program Assistant
E-mail: janam@sfu.ca
Phone: 604.291.4149