The Benefit of Hindsight

This workshop is the product of the Learning to Disagree project. This project was initiated in response to the needs of educators who experience difficulties in addressing sensitive and controversial issues in their classrooms. The project, now in its final stages, offers trainings and support materials for teachers to face these topics head first with their students, subsequently teaching students vital skills such as the ability to listen, to consider alternative interpretations, and the ability of interacting with people that they disagree with in a constructive manner.

In August 1991, a cargo ship named Vlora arrived from Albania with 20,000 people on board in the Bari seaport, a major city of south-east Italy. The Italian Government decided to authorize the ship to come alongside the quay in Bari. After one or two days the immigrants were brought to the old Stadium in Bari called Victory. They were segregated for several days and most of them were repatriated to Albania. During those days there were also some riots  in the stadium . In the decades to come many more ships like the Vlora arrived in Italy from various places.

Valerio is one of the core members of the Learning to Disagree team and created the learning activity about the Vlora. In this workshop you will partake in said learning activity and subsequently you will be introduced to an activity that will allow students to have the possibility to compare migration in the past with migration today. Even more so, it will help students develop an understanding of the motivation of migration, empathy with the actors involved in (the history of) migration, and develop a positive attitude towards people with a different cultural background. The latter is specifically important as understanding of the other is needed to foster good dialogue and communication.