This presentation from 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, Dr Manteaw’s 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 Fairtrade Foundation’s work 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.
This event has taken place. You can watch a recording of the event on the link below.