GW Expands ‘I Am Malala’ Resource Guide to High Schools

Free online guides are available for university and high school instructors.

May 26, 2015

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GW students, faculty and staff hold their hands up in solidarity with Nobel Peace Prize recipient Malala Yousafzai in University Yard.

The George Washington University’s Global Women’s Institute, in partnership with the Malala Fund and Little, Brown and Company, has expanded its free online resource guide, “I Am Malala: A Resource Guide for Educators,” to include a supplement for high school students and teachers.

Originally developed for college-level students, the guide focuses on eight themes from “I Am Malala,” a memoir written by Malala Yousafzai. The book chronicles the Pakistani teenager’s journey from schoolgirl to women’s rights activist.

The guide, which launched in November 2014, is designed for teachers to choose the themes that apply to their course. The themes were designed by a group of GW faculty from the Elliott School of International Affairs, the Graduate School of Education and Human Development, the University Writing Program and women’s studies and religious studies programs in the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences. Its latest version includes new materials tailored specifically to teenage students.

The guide’s themes are:

  • Memoir as literature and history
  • Education: a human right for girls
  • Cultural politics, gender and history in Malala Yousafzai’s “I Am Malala”
  • Religion and religious extremism
  • Malala and violence against women and girls
  • Malala leadership essay
  • Malala and the media
  • Global feminisms: speaking and acting about women and girls

“Malala’s message of equality and the importance of education needs to be heard by people of all ages,” said GWI Director Mary Ellsberg. “By providing this additional material we are reaching more students at a crucial age when they are starting to learn about the world around them and can take on the important role of being aware global citizens.”