Outreach and Education in the Caribbean

In the frame of the NEXUS 1492 research, one of the key areas of attention is outreach and education in the Caribbean region. Furthermore, it is also of interest to share experiences in the Netherlands and Europe. This way participation and collaboration with other disciplines are promoted to explore the applications of research in Archaeology in fields such as education.

Eldris Con Aguilar, a researcher within NEXUS that studies teaching indigenous history and heritage in the Caribbean, together with Dr. Stephan Klein, a Teaching Methodologist for History at ICLON, organized a workshop for the History Day aiming to provide teachers materials to study different historical perspectives from the Caribbean.

Teachers were very curious to explore educational materials that are used in the secondary level of History classes in the Caribbean, and to compare with their own practice of how topics such as Colonization and Slavery are represented in the curriculum, and consequently in the textbooks.

Eldris indicated that it was a great experience to have participated in the History Day and to work together with Dutch history teachers. “I always get enthusiastic when teachers engage in making history content more accessible to their students. Teachers I have met so far in the Caribbean and in the Netherlands have a very proactive approach to their practice”.