On 29th January, 2020, a videoconference was held as a part of Global Generation initiative on the topic ‘Identity and Belonging’ between students of class VIII, IX of Podar World School, Sherkhi and Syed Pannah Ali Shah Model School, Pakistan, Mahatma Azhagar Koli School, Tamilnadu, and Delhi Public School, Noida, U.P.The video conference started at 11:30 a.m. sharp with the Coordinator Ms Somaya Tarawneh instructing the participants about rules to be observed while the videoconference is in process such as it has to be in dialogue form, so use of ‘I’ or ‘me’ will be preferable ; one has to value what others have to say; one should not try to dominate but speak up and try to have a healthy interaction etc. Mr Sanjay Bareja was the technical support for the video conference.
The videoconference started with the first question being posed to D.P.S. Noida as to ‘What do they think Identity is all about?’ The students of different school responded as it is not only the behavior, attributes, skills that has been nurtured being in a family but it is sum of one’s achievements, talents and the experiences that one has gathered having travelled to many places. A student of grade VIII from Podar World School responded that it is the amalgamation of one’s attributes, one’s self esteem, one’s academic achievement and one’s special talent that makes up one’s identity. Thereafter a few more students from Podar World School added as to what they think ‘identity’ is all about. Having exchanged by 4 to 5 students from all the four school about what ‘identity’ is all about, for 20 to 25 minutes, the facilitator instructed the schools to ask questions related to ‘identity’ among themselves, keeping the rules in mind. It was Podar World School that initiated the talk posing the question that ‘Do we have more than one identity moving from one’s family, to one’s school, then the society and to the nation at large?’ The students from D.P.S, Noida responded positively and posed another question that ‘How are identity and belonging different from one another?’ It was again a student from PWS that responded promptly explaining quite explicitly,as ‘ both are co-related and it is based on one’s attributes and talent or special skill that you may belong to a group or kept away from a group’. It was at this juncture, the facilitator interrupted and asked the schools not to divert from the point of discussion and remain rooted to queries regarding ‘identity’ alone.
One of the students from D.P.S posed the question as to ‘How difficult is it to express identity in open’?A student from Podar World School, was the first to respond . She said that it is at times difficult to express one’s identity in open as what the individual believes as to what makes his identity may not be the same as believed by somebody else. So it becomes difficult to convince everyone about one’s identity as opinions differ. There were questions posed as ‘Does money influence one’s identity?’; ‘When and where you feel or have felt more discriminated, can share one’s experiences too?’ and ‘How can one overcome discrimination?’ The students of Podar World School were quite vociferous through out the session and responded and commented quite intelligently and satisfactorily to the questions posed during the session.
Reflection was shared by one of the students of Podar World School and also by other schools that participated in the video conference. On the whole it was a highly interactive session. The thought provoking questions helped the learners to ponder deeply about the topic and share their ideas gathered from their own experiences and from the research work carried out by them.
