New Military Constructions for Artillery

I was going about my business mapping North Korea when I came across an odd set of trenches, and then more of them and more. After looking at their design it became somewhat obvious that these were new hardened emplacements for artillery.

This map gives you a broad view to help you understand their location with respect to well-known cities and islands.

In all I found 21 new sites as well as 1-2 more in the process of construction. Some of the placemarks represent two sites which are side-by-side, in total there are 24 of these "tunnels."

Here is a close-up map of all of the new locations:

The one in the center of the group can be found at 37°48'23.31"N 125°28'5.17"E. All of the other ones are within 1.5 miles of the center.

They all have the same layout, a curved entrance with a "pad" in front and they're all dug into the sides of hills. This is a detailed image of several of them in a cluster.

Each entrance is 21-24 feet wide and from the entrance to the access road is around 100 feet. All of the access ramps are aligned so that the entrances are either facing the north or west.

Also, the area has had a fair amount of new construction with new roads and new buildings.

Here is the central region on Nov 25, 2011:

The same area except on June 20, 2012:

A close-up of some of the buildings:

And finally, a detailed image of the northern most region:

Based on the dates for the past imagery this entire project was built in less than a year. The location of this facility is less than 14 miles from Yeonpyeong Island, SK and less than 61 miles from Incheon International Airport and mainland South Korea.

This has been a rather unpleasant discovery.


--Jacob Bogle, 4/28/2013
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Coastal Defenses

North Korea's coasts are littered with defensive positions, a hodgepodge collection of modern defenses mixed with those remaining from the Korean War.

Their design takes a layered approach and is dependent on the topography of the area. Naturally, locations closer to the DMZ and those along the eastern coast (facing the historical enemy of all Korea, Japan) are more built up. To the southwest, the land border between North and South Korea gives way to a series of river mouths and tidal inlets, most notably at the confluence of the Imjin and Han rivers. This area opens up to the sea and is where I consider the North Korean coast in this region to being.

Within 3 miles of the Northern Limit Line (the de facto maritime border between the two countries, although it is disputed) are a series of observation posts located along the river banks, fences to the rear of the posts, a number of sand berms which divide up the patty fields, successive layers of road blocks and mixed throughout are anti-aircraft artillery sites (AAA), gun lines, trenches dug into the hills, and hardened artillery sites (HARTS). There are also ammunition caches and other storage facilities dispersed throughout.

Here is a sample region.

(click images for larger view)

The Northern Limit Line runs in the middle of the river, naturally South Korea is to the south. The wider yellow line is the area I have marked as encompassing most of the border defenses which include the DMZ. It is approximately 3 miles (with some variation) from the NLL and the Military Demarcation Line which serves as the land border. The "P" icons are small position, observation posts etc. The red circles are HARTS positions, the "S" icons are storage facilities, "F" is for fortifications, the pink icon denotes bunkers or tunnels and the "policemen" mark road blocks of the type I discussed in this post. 

Here is an example of the sand berm and fence which runs the length of this region (as well as nearly all low-lying coastal areas).

To the north of this beach, in an area about 5 miles wide, there are 8 road blocks.

Now, moving away from the NLL here is a map of some of the small coastal positions located along the coast of South Hwanghae province. 

The island to the bottom right, labeled Keunyeonpyeong-do (also known as Yeonpyeongdo), is the South Korean island which was bombed by the North in 2010 which killed 4 and wounded 18 others. 

This is a close up of one of the larger positions. 

Literally thousands of miles worth of trenches can be found throughout the county. Some are left over from the Korean War and have no real use, but others are part of their active defenses. Like these:

Both east and west coasts are intermittently lined with obstacle courses aimed at preventing any rapid movement inland during an invasion. These "tank traps" consist of row after row of concrete blocks which have been sunk into the sand. The rows, usually 10 running parallel to each other, make up a full "band" around 100 feet wide. Most of these were put in place decades ago, some have been removed and others still have simply been covered up with drifting sand and mud. Still, in some areas they would slow any advance. They tend to be found in low-lying areas which lack mountainous terrain within a few miles of the coast and they are often paired with road blocks and berms further inland as well as rows of berms along the beach itself.

In this example the obstacle band has been marked in red, you can see the multiple sand berms in nice little rows.

And a close-up of the tank traps themselves:

Next is the defensive positions around a few coastal towns. If you look at the map I gave you above this area is roughly the 4 blue places marks in a cluster, to the north of Yeonpyeongdo Island. 

The blue lines are fences and the three red lines are the tank traps. As before, the red circles are HARTS, the blue marks are small positions, "G" is a gun line and "B" is a coastal battery.

Finally, these are just three additional images of some interesting coastal places:

An AAA site with trenches - 

A close-up of a hardened artillery site - 

And a reserve fleet of 10 ships. There are a number of these types of locations dotted around the coast. Some are just sitting in dry docks like these and others are actually housed in underground naval yards.

--Jacob Bogle, 4/27/2013

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Graphics Converter Pro 2013 v3.20 + Full Patch

Graphics Converter Pro 2013 v3.20 adalah software yang berfungsi untuk meng-convert foto ataupun gambar ke berbagai format. Selain itu Graphics Converter Pro 2013 v3.20 ini juga dapat meng-convert foto ke format PDF (document).

Untuk lebih jelasnya silahkan kalian download ^_^

Screenshot :

Download :

• Download : Graphics Converter Pro 2013 v3.20 + Full Patch (32.1 MB)

Indahnya berbagi

semoga bermanfaat ^_^

Join the iSchool - New Concentration in Culture & Tech (Master's level) launching Fall 2013, still accepting applications!

For those of you who haven't heard, we've added a new concentration option to the Master's of Information program at the Faculty of Information, University of Toronto, in Culture & Technology, launching in Fall 2013. We welcome applications from students with interests in exploring the intersections of society, culture and technologies, from digital game studies and media studies, to cyborgs

News on the Nuclear Situation

According to an unclassified section of a report released by the US Defense Intelligence Agency (Dynamic Threat Assessment 8099: North Korea Nuclear Weapons Program):

   "D.I.A. assesses with moderate confidence the North currently has nuclear weapons capable of delivery by ballistic missiles; however the reliability will be low.” 

This definitely raises the stakes of the game. China has helped to funnel billions into Pyongyang (£4 billion yearly in official trade and £7.6 billion via black market activities) as well as provided them with military technology. And now, despite taking some actions against North Korea in response to UN sanctions, it would seem that the link between the two countries is anything but severed.

Chinese Embassy in Pyongyang

Based on war preparations by Kim Jong-il, North Korea has stockpiled six months worth of fuel to support any war effort they may undertake. And while they do not expect help from China should they invade or attack another country, they do expect China would come to their aid should the US or South Korea attack the north. That being said, the technology needed to hit a mainland US city with a nuclear warhead is very advanced. The north hasn't been keen on acquiring modern missile technology from either Russia or China but rather seems intent on developing their own technology as required under the Juche (self reliance) policy. The problem isn't that they lack the ability to miniaturize a bomb, it's the ability to mount it (with confidence)  and have the guidance systems needed to reliably hit something that they lack.  

Tonghae (Musudan-ri) Missile Test Center

Which leads me back to some statements I made in my previous post on the issue. Even though North Korea has thousands of tons of mineable uranium ore, they only have enough processed material to make 3-12 weapons (depending on who you ask). And while they have begun to restart the Yongbyon reactor, it could take a year or more for them to process enough fuel rods (they have 12,000 of them) to extract fissionable materials of the quality needed for a bomb. So what is a more likely threat - the threat of launching a missile at us and chance wasting the valuable materials should it fall into the sea, or the risk of them sending a miniaturized bomb in a shipping container?

Yongbyon reactor facility

North Korea runs one of the most successful smuggling programs around. They ship weapons parts to Iran, Syria, Burma  and Libya, plus drugs and counterfeit US currency to places like China and throughout Africa. Not to mention human trafficking. All of this to me says that if North Korea wanted to attack the US mainland with a bomb, they would most likely use unconventional means.


Additional Reading:
North Korea's Nuclear Weapons: Technical Issues, Congressional Research Service (PDF)

--Jacob Bogle, 4/15/2013
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Pyongyang Palace and Update

First, I have set up a dedicated "Google Site" to host my KMZ files. This way I don't have to wait for moderators to approve them and can easily publish updated versions. The following areas have been completed:

Rason Special City
The Demilitarized Zone
Pyongyang (city and district)
Ryanggang District
Ryongsong Residence

You can find them all here https://sites.google.com/site/mynorthkorea/files

(NOTE: the above areas have been substantially updated since this post was published. The new files will all be released sometime around Dec. 2015 and early 2016. Please check newer blog posts for additional updates.)

Now, I'd like to introduce you to the Ryongsong Residence (also known as "Residence No. 55"); the main palace compound of the Kim family.

Located 7.5 miles from Kim Il-sung Square in Pyongyang, the compound grounds total between 5 to 7 square miles (depending on which areas you include). You can find it by using these coordinates 39° 6′ 58.96″ N, 125° 48′ 20.94″ E

Originally built in 1983 by Kim Il-sung, the compound is heavily defended, contains multiple houses (for the Kim family and ruling elite), man-made lakes, a private train station, is supplied power via 3 (known) substations, and much more. Outside the complex lies several anti-aircraft artillery sites and within are numerous underground facilities aimed at keeping the military functioning in the event of a nuclear war. It is also rumored that there are minefields in and around the compound, but I have not been able to verify their locations.

This gives you the location of the complex in relation to Pyongyang proper and the main airport. This image also shows the outline of the main outer and internal fences. As always, simply click on an image for a larger view.

Here is the area without any markings:

A up-close image of the fences. Red is the outer fence, purple is the main fence which is actually several electrified fences, walls, firing positions, etc. which encircle the compound as a thick fortified band.

The complex is also further divided by multiple internal fences (yellow). These fences often surround high priority areas, like the official residence of Kim Jung-un.

There are other fences and walls inside the complex which usually surround various buildings, greenhouses, barracks, etc. I have not marked those as they are difficult to fully discern and are rather numerous.

This shows you the location of the defensive ring around the compound which includes 15 AAA sites and 1 HARTS (hardened artillery site) position. These are only the ones closest to the complex, if you were to zoom out there would be more and more of them which are a part of Pyongyang's overall defensive network.

Here is a map of the multiple guardhouses and gates. There are also at least 2 berms (denoted by the square icon) which would prevent tanks from being able to rush certain areas.

This close-up gives you a better understanding of where the main residences are located and the layout of the internal fencing system. The blue circle denotes a bunker.

Here you can see the main fence design as it snakes across the image:

The private train station:

The location of the 3 substations. It is possible that there are underground power supplies but obviously, you can't see them from the air.

Here is an example of a livestock area within the compound (probably chickens or pigs). The compound, like a small city, is surrounded by agricultural, livestock, and military units. The building to the right is one of the substations.

This shows you some of the bunkers and underground facilities.

The Kim family have long held a fascination with horses and so, they have their own horse track. You'll notice the single, small viewing stand.

The main horse arena with stables:

Some of the smaller residences:

These 2 buildings are the largest single residential structures that have been on the property.

Here we have the main residence of the Kim family. The man-made lakes are a staple of the many official residences scattered throughout the nation. The distinctive geometric walkways over the lakes are likewise a mainstay of the palaces.

And now we get to see a bit of fun, a pool with a rather wild looking water slide:

Over the years the complex has undergone many changes and since 2009 there have been a number of them. The structures below were built between April 2009 and October 2010. These are located immediately adjacent to the livestock area and occupy the field to the center-bottom of the image I used for that site.

A number of homes were destroyed between April and September 2011, and after the death of Kim Jong-il, Kim Jong-un ordered the destruction of many (but not all) of his father's palaces and villas, as well as those homes belonging to those who did not show proper loyalty to Jong-un after his rise to power. The demolished homes have their approximate date of demolition, two of which may be candidates for Jong-un's demo project.

This large residence was demolished after the death of Kim Jong-il. You'll notice that it is one of the larger homes I showed you earlier.

The money spent to build and maintain this complex, along with all the others, cannot fully be ascertained. But given the fact that anywhere from 1-44% of the nation's economy is spent solely on the cult of personality that pervades North Korea, one can suspect that the finances used for these palaces are placed at a far higher priority than that of the starving and tortured average North Korean.


Additional reading:
Ryongsong Residence (Wikipedia article)
Cult of personality figures: 1% (based on GDP of $40b) - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/05/kim-jong-il-cult-costing-north-korea-millions_n_2245711.html and 44.8% http://www.nknews.org/2013/04/what-to-make-of-pyongyangs-recent-political-meetings/


--Jacob Bogle, 4/11/2013
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Classroom Observation

            The future principals are those who are ready to stand at the forefront in leading teachers and students to increase their competence in the global perspective on society. Whitehead, Boschee, and Decker (2013) asserted, “Principals who are leaders of schools in a global society are expected to increase teacher quality and effectiveness and must become proficient in their ability to become instructional leaders” (p.277). In line with this, Educational Leadership Constituent Council (ELCC)¹standards number 2.2 states that school leaders need to be able to provide effective instructional programs.  Therefore, principals are expected to understand their role as instructional leaders. One of the important roles as an instructional leader is supervising teachers in order to improve professional practice and student achievement. One method of supervising teachers is classroom observation. In this article, I will discuss: Class Observation as a Clinical Supervision Process, Step to Observation, Analysis of My Class Observation, and Things I Learned.

Class Observation as a Clinical Supervision Process

Whitehead, Boschee, and Decker (2013) wrote that the aim of in-class observation by principals is to improve instruction. Observation is believed to be one effective approach to improve students learning as part of their preparation for competing in the emerging global world. There are two different purposes of conducting observations; Wilkerson (n.d) wrote that observations are for evaluation and teaching improvement. 

When classroom observation is used for the purposes of evaluation, judgments are usually summative and the teacher plays little, if any, role in making them.  On the other hand, when observation is conducted for the purpose of teaching improvement, judgments are formative and the teacher is actively involved in the assessment of teaching quality and needed improvement. (Wilkerson, n.d)

In this paper, I reported my observations for the purpose of teacher evaluation. Therefore, I do not focus on giving judgments of teaching improvement for teacher I observed. 

­­­­­

Step to Observation

Goldhammer (1960) in Whitehead, Boschee, and Decker (2013) classified five steps for conducting observations for the purpose of evaluation: 1. Pre-observation conference, 2. Recorded written account, 3. Supervisor’s analysis and strategy, 4. The conference, 5. Post-conference analysis. In addition, Wilkerson (n.d) divided observations into three steps: 1. The Pre-observation conference, 2. Observation, 3. Post-Observation conference. Meloche (2013) in her teaching material wrote that there five cycles of observation: 1. Picking a focus and planning the observation, 2. The planning conference, 3. The Observation, 4. Planning for and holding the reflective conference, 6. Synthesis of Learning.

Analysis of My Class Observation

Even though the three observation steps above basically have the similar cycle among others, I used Goldhammer’s five observation steps to describe what I have done in the class I observed.

1.     Pre-observation Conference

I observed a Math teacher in East Lansing High School (ELH), Ms. Wati (not real name). Ms. Wati has been teaching in ELH for six years. She teaches Algebra, Calculus, and Geometry. On March 7, 2013, I observed her Algebra class for ninth graders. Before I observed her class, I made an appointment with her. We discussed the goals of my observations, our mutual expectations, and the data to be collected. We used email and text (short message service) to arrange everything prior to my observation for her class. In the email, Ms. Wati shared information about her teaching goals, her lesson plans’ goal, and her students. She also asked me to focus on the area of classroom management and student engagement.

2.     Recorded Written Account

I recorded a written account of the behaviors enacted and the words spoken in the classroom by both the teacher and her students. The tool that I used to document Ms. Wati’s class was a note-taking sheet. I used a pen and some note taking sheets that I devided into two columns: teacher and students column. I write what I saw and heard from MS. Wati on the teacher column, and put what I see and heard from students in the students’ column. I used the template of note taking from Meloche’s (2013) note taking sheet. Here is the summary of my recordings:

Ms. Wati started the class by arranging the seat of the students. She wrote the name of the students on the screen board and divided them into two rows. “Please find your seat based on the names on the board, just for today.” Then, the students moved to the seat based on the seat position Ms. Wati set. After that, Ms. Wati shared the work sheet with the students and approached one student who put her feet on the table: “Put your feet down please.” The student seemed reluctant to put her feet down; therefore Ms. Wati talked to the student slowly and then the student put her feet down.

“Anyone else need calculator?” Ms. Wati asked students after one student asked her to lend the students a calculator. Two students raised their hands, but before the students got the calculator, Ms. Wati wrote the lending number on the white board. While students were doing their work individually, Ms. Wati went around the class to see whether or not the students needed her help. She also lent students a small ruler. “This is perfect… perfect….”, “Do you see the pattern…?”, “Go ahead and plug those…”, “Keep going if you haven’t done”. Those are some sentences uttered by Ms. Wati while she checked the students’ work. When the alarm was beeping, Ms. Wati started to discuss the answers of the work sheet together with the class. One student said, ”What’s wrong today?” Then Ms. Wati answered: “Yeah... it’s weird today, we are so silent, no body screaming or shouting.”

“What about number four, anyone in this side has done with number four?” Then one student raised his hand and answered question number four. After that, the teacher showed the students’ drawing (Joey’s, Justin’s, Olivia’s and Sam’s) on the screen.

The teachers asked one student a question, “What is annoying about it?” Then the students answered, “Because I don’t like it.” Then the teacher continued to do the questions together with all students in the class. When the teacher explained the questions, one student came and brought something to eat. But the teacher let the student have the meal. 

There was one student who asked a question to Ms. Wati: “How do I figure out number one?” Then Ms. Wati re-explained question number one to the students.

After the bell rang, Ms. Wati did not allow all students to leave the class. The students who hadn’t finished the work had to make a line and finish their job. After that, they had to show their work to Ms. Wati, who stood in front of the door.

The Algebra class is started on 10:46 and ended at 11.34. The objective of the class I observed was that “Students will examine the structure of linear equations and explore symbolic and graphical linear representations.”

3.     Supervisor’s Analysis and Strategy

In this step, I scanned the raw data to identify patterns in behavior that promoted or hindered learning for students. Something that went well during the lesson is that Ms. Wati, who had already known the students in grade 9 (who were always making noise in the classroom) managed the seat rotation. She divided the class into two rows, and she displayed the names of the students, based on their seat, on the screen before the class begun. This strategy was really effective and I witnessed the evidence when one student asked the class “what’s wrong today.” The student was wondering why that day the class did not make some noise. I also noticed that, Ms. Wati did not want to sit. She always walked around the class to see the students’ work. She also asked the students whether or not they needed her help.

However, I also noticed from my raw data that Ms. Wati did not really ask students to work together in a pair or group. When I observed her class, she asked students to do their assignments individually. I believe it would be better if Ms. Wati also considers asking her students to work in pairs or in groups.

4.     The Conference

After I finished my observation, I asked Ms. Wati whether she had several minutes for me to have a small conference with her. She told me that she did not mind being asked several questions. The topic of our conference was “classroom management” which is what we had decided before I observed the class. My first question was “ What went well in your lesson?” Ms. Wati answered that students were on tasks and they did not make noise like they commonly did. The students were really enthusiastic to discuss the answers together. My second question was “How do you think the topic went?” Ms. Wati answered, “ It seems like the students have developed the patterns. They seem to have a general understanding of the structure of linear equations and they explored symbolic and graphical linear representations.”

Then I continued to ask her, “What did you do during the lesson that promoted learning?” She answered, “I picked variety of the students, I drew the students’ graphical linear and showed them in front of the class as the model of the correct answers. I didn’t asked the students to voluntarily answer the questions, because I expected everyone to do everything, without depending on others.”

My fourth question was, “What did you notice about your students?” Ms. Wati answered that today she noticed her students were really quiet. Then I continued to asked her, “Besides, your classroom management that you applied today, is there any other reasons why your students were so quiet today?”  Ms. Wati answered, “I think because we missed some students today, some of them just finished their tests and perhaps they were just exhausted.”

            My fifth question was, “How do you think about your lesson? Is there anything you would change?” Ms. Wati then answered, “I am planning to change my class into being more student centered. I will apply a pair sharing activity or group work activities. However, the biggest challenge is that teaching math, algebra and calculus was just different.

            My last question was “How do you feel about the debriefing?” Ms. Wati responded: “Debriefing helps me to think back. Debriefing is my crucial think.” I closed my conversation by thanking her for having me in her class for observation. I also congratulated her for her success with her classroom management.

5.     Post Conference Analysis

I made some notes to evaluate my own supervisory activity: (a) It is important to discuss with the teacher before we start doing observations. (b) In the pre-observation phase, the supervisor/observer needs to ask the teacher what specific things the teacher needs to evaluate. (c) The supervisor needs to consider several kinds of questions, such as miracle questions, scaling questions, expectation seeking questions, and coping questions to help teachers answers our questions. (d) The supervisor needs to prepare some equipment e.g., notes, conversation transcripts, audio tape, etc. However, the supervisor also needs to ask whether or not they can use the equipment in the classroom. (e) The supervisor needs to write what they saw and heard as well as the judgmental comments. However, the principals need to keep the judgmental comments separate.

Things I learned

Since this is my first time I did my supervisory observation, I have some notes, which are really valuable for use upon completion of this study.

1.        As a future school principal, I need to be aware of my instructional leadership role. One important thing that I need to promote in my school in Indonesia is doing supervisory observation. I have been teaching for five years, in three different schools. I found that my three schools have never had observations in the classroom. Therefore, promoting classroom observation as supervisory activity will be valuable to increase students’ achievement.

2.        In doing observation, I need to focus on the steps of doing it. We can decide which steps of observation we are going to use. In this observation, I used Goldhammer’s steps of observation: 1. Pre-observation conference, 2. Recorded written account, 3. Supervisor’s analysis and strategy, 4. The conference, 5. Post-conference analysis.

3.        In doing the conference, instead of giving judgmental points to the teacher, it is better to discuss with the teacher what was going well and what was not.

In conclusion, there are some approaches that school principals can enact for the improvement of the instruction. One of the effective approaches is in-class observation. Class observation can help teachers better understand their role as a pioneer in preparing students to compete in the emerging global world. Besides, by doing observation the teachers will not feel that they are alone. The conference step in the observation process is really valuable to help teachers, and even the principal, to increase their efficacy in the instructional process.

------

¹ ELCC is Education Leadership Constituent Council. ELCC becomes the standards of principal in implementing their programs. ELCC standards can be read in “The Principal Leadership for Global Society” by Whitehead, Boschee and Decker (2013).

Reference:

Meloche, B. (2013) The observation Cycle. MSU: Unpublished (teaching materials).

Whitehead, B., Bjoschee, F., Decker, R., (2013). The principal: Leadership for a global society; Los Angeles CA., Sage.

Wilkerson, LuAnn (n.d) From “Classroom observation: The observer as collaborator.” Retrievedfrom:http://intranet.howardcc.edu/Faculty_Resources/NewFulltimeFaculty/Classroom_Observation.htm

Dion Efrijum Ginanto

Graduate Student K12 Educational Administration

Masters in Michigan State University

1550 Spartan Village Apt.G, East Lansing

Michigan, 48823

+1-313-728-8069

Social Justice and Anti-Oppressive Education

            “Race is still real; it still exists. We may question its necessity, the right of anyone to establish such markers and its validity as a scientific concept” (Rosenblum and Travis, 2012, p. 240). Race is becoming the biggest issue of social justice in today’s world. Furthermore, in their book Rosenblum and Travis (2012) write about some other issues related to social justice such as social status differences, gender, class lines, disability, and other situations of unequal power that engender oppression. There have been some approaches to dealing with social justice issues, but these issues seem to be difficult to address. However, I believe social justice issues can be deconstructed. In this paper, I discuss: social justice issues, anti-oppressive education, social justice leadership and its impact to my school in Indonesia.

Social Justice Issues

Lucas, Henze & Donato (1990) focused their study on the language of minority students as a social justice issues that needs to be remedied to increase student achievement. They found out that Latino, Asian or Afiran-American students actually have the same potential talent as White American students, but they cannot express their ideas in writing and speech. Additional English class is not enough to address this problem. The schools need also to include their cultures as the approach of learning the language. In addition, the increase of the conflicts in the globe recently has impacted the increase of the immigrants. Lopez, Sribner and Mahitivanichcha (2001) have a concern on the immigrant’s issue that educators need to focus on. The stereotype given to the immigrants’ students are those who have lower ability, lower English and lower economic status. In line with this, Ahser (2007) focuses on four issues regarding to social justice: race, culture, gender and sexuality in education. Similarly, Kumashiro (2000) expands the common classification of marginalized students in the society; he uses the term “queer” to refer to persons who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, intersexed. From those focuses of the social justice issues, I can conclude that Social Justice Issues is the term used to address some inequity treatments given by school to the students due to the some situations of unequal power such as: race, gender, social economic statues, culture, language, etc. We need an effective approach to address the social justice problems.

Anti-Oppressive Education

The term anti-oppressive education was introduced by Kumashiro (2000). He defined anti-oppressive education as an effort and commitment of the educators and or researchers to subversive views of the purposes of education, the roles and responsibilities of teachers, and how we want students and society to change especially with the issue of oppression or social justice.  Delpit (2006) supported the idea of anti-oppression by giving some approaches for social justice issues such as bringing parents and community members into the university classroom, going out to community gatherings to acquire such first hand knowledge, working hard to develop multicultural staff, expanding the curriculum by inducing cultural and diversity in the classroom. Delpit (2006) and Lopez, et. al (2000) have the same concern on parental involvement. Lopez, et. al (2000) wrote some ways to increase parental involvement at school by: (1) initiating parental contact, (2) making non-traditional strategies and means to get parents involved in their children’s education, (3) giving adult education and training for parents, and (4) being accountable to parents. In line with this, Asher (2007) has some notes on how to deal with the anti-oppressive education. She wrote three methods to unpack tensions of multiculturalism in education: (1) teachers serve as a site for modeling critical, (2) teachers serve as self reflective engagement with the difference, and (3) teachers serve as democratic participation. I do agree with the third approach that we need to give democratic participation in the classroom no matter what race, gender, or social status of the students are. Theoharis (2007) also gave some strategies in dealing with social justice leadership. He suggested all principals to: (1) raise students’ achievement, (2) improve school structure (3) re-center and enhance staff capacity, and (4) strengthen school culture and community. In addition, Lucas et. al (1990) focuses on language aspect for the social justice issue. They suggested educators to respect and acknowledge the linguistic and cultural diversity of the students and to help motivate students to gain their confidence in the classroom. The approaches and strategies given by researchers above are evident that we need to be brave to take some actions to oppose the idea of oppression and marginalization. All components in the schools should adopt the idea of some experts above in order to give impact on their buildings.

Social Justice Leadership and its Impact to my School

To implement anti-oppressive education at school, principals should be able to understand their role as social justice leader. Theoharis (2007) contended that social justice leaders are those who support a process built on respect, care, recognition and empathy. He also defined social justice as “addressing and eliminating marginalization in schools” (p. 223). From the definition given by Theoharis (2007), I can connect to the social issues in my school in Indonesia. If in the United States, race becomes the major problem in marginalization. In my school, “tribal” stereotyping is now becoming the topic of marginalization. Indonesia has hundreds tribe across the country. Each tribe has their own identity and fanatic. In my schools, Malay tribe dominates the students, and the rest of the students are Javanese tribe. Consequently, teachers tend to treat students differently. Teachers are more likely paying more attention to those who are from Malay tribe. As a result, students who are from Java score lower than the majority students. In my opinion, the idea of anti-oppressive education and the social justice leadership are considered to be the solution of the tribe marginalization in my school. Social Justice leader (principal) should be able to give the same right for the minority students in the school in order to be able to see the world as the Malay students see the world. Thus, if I become a principal in the future I will enact anti-oppressive education in my building to give a positive impact for both my staffs and my students.

            In conclusion, social justice issue still exists in today’s world. This phenomenon can occur anywhere, not only in the United States. Even though in my country, Indonesia, we do not have the kinds of racism different as in the US. However, we do practice the so-called marginalization according to tribal differences. It means the dominant tribe in the school is more likely have more privilege than those who are from minority tribe. I do believe, social justice (oppression and marginalization) also occurs in other countries with or without a tribal component as we have in Indonesia. In dealing with social justice issues, some experts in this article have a very good remedy: anti-oppressive education. One role that can be used by school principals in enacting anti-oppressive education is being social justice leader. The final outcomes of these approaches are the deconstruction of social justice issues and school effectiveness.

Reference:

Asher, N. (2007). Made in the (Multicultural) U.S.A.: Unpacking tensions of race, culture, gender, and sexuality in education. Educational Researcher, 35(2), 65-73.

Delpit, L. (2006) Other Peoples Children: Cultural Conflict in the Classroom. New York: New Press.

Kumashiro, K. (2000). Toward a theory of anti-oppressive education. Review of Educational Research, 70(1), 25-53.

Lucas, T., Henze, R., & Donato, R. (1990). Promoting the success of latino language minority students. An exploratory study of six high schools. Harvard Educational Review, 60, 315-400.

Lopez, Scribner, and Mahiticanichcha (2001). Redefining Parental Involvement: Lessons From High-Performing Migrant-Impacted Schools. American Educational Research Journal.

Rosenblum, K. and Travis, T-M. (2013). The Meaning of Difference: American Constructions of Race, Sex, and Gender, Social Class, Sexual Orientation, and Disability. New York: McGraw-Hill. (6^th Edition).

Theoharis, G. (2007). Social justice educational leaders and resistance: Toward a theory of social justice leadership. Educational Administration Quarterly, 43(2), 221–258

Videos:

1.     Pauline Lipman – 2009 NNOMY Conference.

2.     Analysis of Thomas Sugrue’s “The Origin of the Urban Crisis.”

3.     Changing Education Paradigms.

Mapping Update 3

First, I'd like to apologize for not posting lately, especially given the rising tensions. I moved into a new apartment and ran into some issues with my Internet, leaving me without it until today.

That being said, the total number of new placemarks is now over 4,000. I have also published the KMZ file for the Rason Special City. It contains 77 placemarks and you can find it here (this will take you to the Google page where you can download it by clicking the link on that page, you must have Google Earth to view it.)

I am nearing completion of Pyongyang (around 1,000 items) and I am in the process of making a special file specifically for the main palace in Pyongyang. The palace and surrounding area are well known but the descriptions and related files are incomplete. It will also be the subject of one of my next posts so you'll get to see lots of images.

Also, version 1 of the DMZ file is available. You can find it here. It has roughly 190 items marked. I am working on version 2.0 which will have ~30 new places as well as being better organized.

Finally, I have changed mapping techniques. In the past I would map a large city and work my way outward and follow rivers and valleys. This worked surprisingly well but inevitably I missed places and the shear volume of space to cover was rather daunting. So now, I've begun to divide the whole country up into 5x5 mile squares. Given GE's eccentricities this is taking up a fair amount of time, but I can easily manage the 25 sq mile blocks, be fairly confident that I have spotted everything in them and being able to "check-off" each completed square gives me a bit of a morale boost.


--Jacob Bogle, 4/5/2013
www.JacobBogle.com
Facebook.com/JacobBogle
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For Mom

Ibu

Aku begitu mencintaimu aku begitu merindukan mu
Kau begitu indah dan sempurna dimataku

Pengorbananmu begitu tulus hingga aku sulit untuk membalasnya
Doaku selalu ku panajat kan untukmu
Kasih sayangmu begitu besar

Pelukkan mu begitu hangat hingga aku selalu terjaga
dalam tidurku....

Ibu Ibu Ibu aku rindu kepadamu aku rindu saat kau membuaiku
dengan kasih sayang....
Yaa Allah jagalah Ibu ku di sisimu dan biakan lah
ia merasakan surga mu

Ibu Ibu Ibu kau apa kah kah mendengarkan jeritan ini
Jeritan anakmu yang merindukan mu
Ibu berikan ketegaran untuk anak mu ini
Agar anakmu bisa terus seyum sepeti
Senyuman mu yang tulus....