Teaching About Kony 2012

The “Kony 2012” campaign challenges all of us to understand more deeply the ongoing crisis in central Africa, especially Joseph Kony and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). At the African Studies Center, we quickly organized a popular half-day workshop for teachers on Saturday, April 13th.  We’ve also spoken on a number of radio and TV news programs. The intention is to use this teachable moment to open debate and educate, to react and respond. One development, and later outcome, of the workshop, was a guide for teachers helping them to contextualize the content and claims of the Kony campaign video.

Teaching Guide:

The 10-page teaching guide titled “React and Respond: The Phenomenon of Kony 2012” is available as a pdf below. Barbara Brown, Patrick Vinck, John Metzler and Chris Root created this guide with all grade level teachers in mind. The first 2 pages of the guide are useful for those getting started: a briefing paper on the conflict and Joseph Kony. Another two pages provide recommended resources, including film clips for use in schools and colleges. The guide also includes an essay on pitfalls in teaching Kony2012, as well as a two-page set of discussion questions for those who have seen the Kony2012 video.

The guide has been very well received, in April alone it was downloaded 1209 times from our site. From others around the country it has been seen in excess of ten thousand times. This is still a far cry from 105 million, but the hope is that this teachable moment will be well-utilitized. The guide will also enter into the print realm. An abridged version will be published in May in the journal Social Education. We also encourage you to send the guide to your colleagues and through your networks.

React & Respond Kony 2012 Guide

Further Resources:

Continue to watch this page as over time we will add other resources, discussions and links that we find either provocative or helpful–or both. For now, start here:

Making Sense of Kony: makingsenseofkony.org

Visible children: visiblechildren.tumblr.com

Association of Concerned Africa Scholars: concernedafricascholars.org

Uganda 2012: Trending Our Own Stories: ugandaspeaks.com

WBUR Radio Boston Program with Barbara Brown, Outreach Director, Speaking about Kony2012 Workshop

Kony2012 Human Rights PPT (Click to download Powerpoint file)