BNU International Culture Festival 2.0: bliss & exuberance!

By Lidia Ivone Nhamirre Isac Master student Comparative Education

in a way that even as they grow in scientific knowledge, their culture should not be affected.

As a custom, flags were paraded representing a multitude of countries present at this prestigious institution at the very beginning of the event.

This event is very interesting and I do believe

that it is very important to the international students, the reasons being that it gives students a platform to display their unique, beautiful and

rich culture. Countries such as China, Ghana, Russia, Uganda, Nepal and others colored the

festival with their traditional dance and songs, and I wouldn’t forget the wonderful African drum played by a group of kente-costumed students from Ghana with their Kpologo dance.

They showed the enthusiastic crowd that Africa’s rhythm is built on drumbeats as the dancers dazzled the stage with energy and

cultural prestige. The Mongolians wee soft and attractive, the Nepalese were |to page 2 >>

S unday, May 21, 2017, BNU had the opportunity to organize yet another

cultural festival that united more than 33 countries from all over the world. This is time around was a little different from last time’s set-up as the events happened

outside, rather than inside the main building. Nonetheless, this did not hold back the revelers from producing exceptional masterpieces in front of a hand-clapping

standing crowd and few seated university officials and guests.

The opening ceremony for the 2017

BNU International Culture Festival was done by the university’s vice-president Zhou Zuo-Yu, who in his speech talked about the globalization of higher education. He also

made mention of educating young scholars

Inside this issue:

2017 Culture Festival 1-2

ISU Publication Workshop 2

BNU/UCL Conference 4

The Legend of Kung Fu 5

Events & Wishes 5

Timeline FACULTY OF EDUCATION INTERNATIONAL STUDENT UNION NEWSLETTER

Volume 22, Issue 1

1 June, 2017

Dear Readers, We are glad to send you our newsletter for this month; please feel free to send us any feedback/news/articles/ideas or anything publishable that you are interested in. News will be shaped on your needs; you will find open calls for conferences, academic issues, activities and things that just happen to us every day...enjoy! E-mail: foeisu@yahoo.com

Congratulations to the finales for having defended their theses successfully!

Inside:

Check out the

coverage on last

month’s 6th

BNU/UCL IOE

International

Conference in

Education & the

Watching Kung

Fu Show at the

Red Theater

—Pages 4&5

FOE-ISU organizes a ‘Writing an Article for Publication ’ workshop

Page 2 Timeline

beautiful and well-choreographed, and

the colorful dance masquerade by the Rwandans couldn't go unnoticed.

Without doubt, the Chinese chefs were really amazing with their dough-

playing tricks. It is even quite difficult to describe the antics showed by them because the actions were

s i m p l y magical. It was really tough to see what

was actually chancing, all that was

divulged is that the chef remarkably transformed a large chunk of dough by appetizingly thinning it into tiny strands of noodles with his nimble fingers in

front of a salivating audience. It was a beautiful and rallying thing to watch, and some had a chance to even experience it as few commoners were invited up

stage to give it a try. One thing I liked most in the festival

is how we get to understand other

peoples’ lives; here we are given a pleasure to see it from different perspective and not from TV perspective, because we are able to

<< from front page|

World on Campus: event extraordinaire ! have one-on-one conversation with

people from different parts of the world. It is also a way which students have the privilege to learn about the world in one day.

As the festival was going on, people had a chance to test diverse kind of dishes such as jollof rice from Ghana and Nigeria,

maandazi and the

special tea from Tanzania presented at their booth. For me, this was a very

important way for the students to develop friendship. I’m saying

this because of the old quote that I have grown up listening to that says “it is through the stomach that we win peoples’ hearts”. In this process

of deepening friendship, I had the honor not only of testing the food but also to learn how to prepare the food. I remember my friend Ajara Mahmoud

telling me how to boil well the chicken soup and be very careful not to add a lot of pepper. When I asked her why she

prepared that dish she said that it is one of the most specially food in her country and especially found in her tribe.

In line with this year’s theme, ‘Culture

Bond and Development Fusion’, we all

know that a world cannot be united if there

is no good relationship, it is very important

that activities that bring people together such as this be organized not only in schools but in different sectors in our

society. At the time when others had just defended and others were about to defend their theses, sibling with those continuing who supposedly had a population of

assignments, this event could not have come at a better time for campus togetherness. Simply put, the 2017 Culture Festival was sheer bliss!

Vice President Zhou Zuo-Yu (left) giving open-ing speech and some performers (right).

By Ajara Mahmoud | Master student | Higher Education

O n May 1, 2017, which was the Labor Day, the International Students Union

(ISU) in collaboration with the Institute of Higher Education organized a workshop dubbed “WRITING AN ARTICLE FOR PUBLICATION”. This workshop was intended to educate students who are interested in publishing papers and to add more knowledge to those who already have experience in that field. The presenters for the workshop were Frank Larbi (PhD student) and Phinehas Acheampong (Masters student), all from the Faculty of Education.

The program took place at the Faculty of Education, Yingdong Building from 3:00pm. Both PhD and master students from various

departments participated. Students from other universities also had the opportunity to join this educating program. Ideas were shared amongst the participants and the presenters of the workshop concerning the dos and don’ts in writing articles. Also, participants were advised not to keep their academic term papers but to refine them in order to qualify for publication. The program was organized in sessions by the two presenters. The first session was a group activity where participants were organized into smaller groups to come up with interesting research topics and why they think those topics are important. Each group shared their ideas with others and upon deliberations, it was realized that it is important to read more about previous researches before concluding on a

specific topic. Procedure for publishing articles were also

shared by the presenters, which enlightened the participants on what to expect when papers are submitted to journals for publication. Much were discussed and others also shared their experiences when they had the opportunity to publish their paper/s.

In all, the program was a success as per the number of participants and the knowledge that was gained and shared. However, it had a challenge of time limitation since the presenters could not cover all that they had to share. Another challenge was the fact that, other interested students could not join the program since it was a holiday and they had to travel to other places.

CLASS OF 2017

Congratulations

Finale! Reaching this

milestone wasn’t an

easy task. But you

made it. Receive our

heartiest

congratulations! Your

gutsy dedication and

enthusiasm has

inspired us all.

Love, FOE-ISU Family

Page 4 Timeline

BNU/UCL preside over the 6 th IOE International Conference in Education …as Mark Freeman expatiates the wannabe publishers

I t was relatively a bright, sunny

morning of Friday, May 12 when

guests and scholars gathered at the

Yingdong Conference Hall to mark

the beginning of the 6th BNU/UCL

IOE International Conference in

Education. The event started with

keynote speeches by the President

of BNU, followed by the Dean of

Faculty of Education at BNU,

Professor Zhu Xudong, who both

welcomed the guests and presenters

to the occasion. In her remarks,

Professor Becky Francis, who is the

current Director of Institute of

Education at University College

London (UCL), said she felt pleased

to be part of the occasion and

thanked everyone who was in

attendance for taking time to be at

the opening ceremony.

After the speeches, it was time for

keynote presentations. The first

presentation was by Professor Yang

Zongkai, who is president of China

Central Normal University, who

inspirationally delved into how

technology can transform and better

the way we learn and teach in

education. His presentation was

followed by that of Professor Becky

Francis of UCL and Professor Shi

Zhongying – former Dean of Faculty

of Education at BNU, before breaking

for lunch at noon. After lunch, the

keynote presentations were divided

into seven units, presented in seven

different rooms in Yingdong by

different scholars covering a wide

range of subject areas in education.

The conference was scheduled for

two days and it finished

the following Saturday at

noon.

B N U / U C L I O E

International Conference

in Education is organized

in partnership between

B e i j i n g N o r m a l

University and UCL Institute of

Education, London, with the aim to

provide a dynamic international forum

for sharing research and good practice

in education. The theme for the sixth

conference was “Education and

Mobil it ies : Ideas, People and

By Francisco Mitumba Master student Comparative Education

Technologies”. The focus was the

intensification of movements of

people, ideas and capital in the same

time as education systems and

institutions are faced with challenges

w i t h t h e e v e r - i n c r e a s i n g

internalization of school and

university populations.

In a related development,

Professor Mark Freeman of UCL had

time on the day before the

conference, Thursday, May 11, to

give a lecture on how one can

successfully publish in English

language journals. Being the co-editor

of History of Education Journal, he

gave an insight of what it takes for an

article to reach a point of publication.

Number of words and independent

review of an article was at the heart

of the discussion, while types of

journals were also discussed. Many

attendees of the lecture had an

opportunity to ask questions as to

what constitutes publishing and most

of them agreed that it is easier said

than actually doing it – it is rigorous

p ro ce s s . T h e l e c t u r e wa s

enthusiastically attended by all levels

at BNU – undergraduates, master

and doctoral students.

Happy Birth Month: June

The Legend of Kung Fu!

O n the evening of Friday 5th of May 2017, was one of the most

sensational, experiential and enjoyable moments of my life in China. I am grateful to the BNU’s International Students’ Office (ISO) for supporting us to witness and appreciate the Chinese cultural heritage shows in and around Beijing. Beijing being a titanic city, I really enjoy exploring it using maps and sometimes, if not often, on my own. Travelling from my university (BNU) to the Red Theatre with a couple of friends to watch The Legend of Kung Fu was the beginning of my enjoyment that evening, and reaching at the venue was just a piece of cake, as compared to certain times when getting lost was part of the ordeal.

and attained insight. He takes the path of a monk in which he must face many obstacles both from his environment and his emotions to overcome his fears and become a

true master of Kung Fu. Generally, the Chinese Kung Fu is famous terms in martial arts and it traces back some 4000 years. This being the case, China has one of the longest histories of continuously recorded martial arts tradition of any society in the world. As it was well presented in the show, the aim of Kung Fu is for self-defense, hunting activities and military training and hence nation defending. Through time the Kung Fu's purpose emerged from self-defense to health maintenance and even as method of self-cultivation. China, with its rich and abundant cultures and tradition, really amuses me!!!

At the Red Theater watching The Legend of Kung Fu, presented by China Heaven Creation International Performing Arts Corporation was so astonishing, I would say Kung Fu at its best. I can’t say much about Kung Fu, but during my younger ages I really loved watching action movies that have karate or martial-arts of the famous Chinese-American Bruce Lee, Chuck Norris and others. So watching live Kung Fu arts in a theater was like a dream come true. During the show there was no speaking of the performers, just Kung Fu show,

dance and acrobatics. But occasionally there was conversation in English between an old man and a very young child that helped to follow the story line. The blending of modern dance with Chinese traditional martial arts made it unique and spectacular.

The story was about a young boy who fantasized of becoming a Kung Fu master

By Gideon Tederos G Master student Comparative Education Vice President, FOE-ISU

UPCOMING EVENTS

June 8 Conducting a Research Workshop Speaker: Prof. David Turner June 10 BNU Graduation Party Students’ Activity Center (7PM) June 21 FOE Graduation Ceremony June BNU Graduation Ceremony

Owen Maharawipa Levi