Brock students experience off campus learning, Cuban style

For Brock University students, not all learning happens in the classroom. A prime example of this learning is the course offered by the Faculty of Education “Global Education: The Perspective of Others”, which took 15 students to Cuba last year for two weeks. Brock partnered with the University of Havana, which offered daily lectures ranging from Cuban history to the role of race and gender in Cuban society. But it was outside of this class time that many students found they garnered the most personal knowledge, in the form of the friendships they forged with the Cuban students who accompanied the Brock students for the duration of their stay in the country. “The students would go out with the Cubans during a free afternoon or in the evening, and they would come back telling me things about life in Cuba I didn’t know,” said program coordinator, Professor Mike O’Sullivan who has been going to Cuba off and on for over 30 years. “They would take what they had heard in lecture to their Cuban friends and use that as a starting point for asking them questions and engaging them in discussion. Our students were exposed to a variety of political perspectives ranging from the firm believers in the Revolution, to those who felt their aspirations could not be met unless there were significant changes in Cuba.” “The students,” he noted, “were unanimous in their appreciation of what the experience offered them.” O’Sullivan is preparing to lead a new group to Cuba May 3-17, 2009. For more information about the upcoming trip please see www.ed.brocku.ca/cuba2009. The application deadline is December 15th, 2009.