The Drum Beat 343 - Sesame Workshop: International Initiatives and Impact

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Founded in 1968, Sesame Workshop is a non-profit organisation that partners with local writers, artists, researchers and educators in 120 countries around the world to create entertaining yet educational (edutainment) programmes with characters, sets, and content specifically designed for young children. Delivered through television, radio, film, video, books, magazines, and community outreach, these programmes are shaped by a research methodology that aims to engage and enrich children from particular cultures, in particular contexts - while also recognising the characteristics and needs that children, everywhere, share. For a summary of a journal issue that elaborates this methodology ("Global Perspectives on Children's Media"), click here. For continuing updates on the international programmes being developed, see Sesame Workshop's "Around the World" page.

This issue of The Drum Beat provides a picture of the nature and impact of Sesame Workshop's co-productions, worldwide, across a variety of domains (cognitive learning, social relations and cross-cultural understanding) and issues (hygiene, nutrition and HIV/AIDS).

For further information on Sesame Workshop's international co-productions, contact:

June H. Lee, Ph.D.
Assistant Director, International Research
Sesame Workshop
One Lincoln Plaza
New York, NY 10023 USA
june.lee@sesameworkshop.org
Sesame Workshop website

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BASIC EARLY EDUCATION: SESAME SNAPSHOTS

1.Plaza Sesamo - Mexico

This Spanish-langugage television series for preschool children premiered in 1972. Produced in Mexico with most of the content tailored to Latin American conditions, Plaza Sésamo depicts a colourful neighbourhood which is home to a mix of families, children, and Muppets. For instance, Pancho Contreras is a furry blue character who enjoys being different, knows how to read and write, and has a strong sense of self-esteem. Like its counterpart, Sesame Street, the show intertwines animation, live action films, studio segments, and original music videos that teach literacy and numeracy and share basic health information. Over the years, other media have been developed, including books, videos, toys, and a theme park.

2.Zhima Jie - China

Broadcast from 1998-2001 on Shanghai Television, Zhima Jie's 130 half-hour episodes use live action, animation, and colourful characters to teach children ages 3 to 6 basic skills such as literacy, numeracy, and an appreciation of the arts. To generate common as well as culturally appropriate education goals, local experts in child development, education, and media participated in a face-to-face seminar on the format of the Mandarin language series. A 2002 study found that "The program's educational goals met overwhelming love and appreciation from those children studied." One reason for this impact, the researchers speculate, is that "Zhima Jie's goals were a product of Chinese educators' thoughtful design, not a transplantation of US Sesame Street materials."

3.Sesamstraat - The Netherlands

Launched in 1976, Sesamstraat features "a dynamic studio set, animation, live-action films, music composition, a warm cast of characters, and celebrity appearances." Through the daily life activities of the characters, children are presented with a range of learning opportunities that introduce basic cognitive, literary, critical thinking, and problem solving skills. The programme includes a strong literacy component; each episode concludes with a bedtime story (the idea is that stories help children think about social and emotional topics through elements of their daily lives with which they identify.) The content is cheerful, informative, and connects with children's environments.

4.Sesamstrasse - Germany

The German version of Sesame Street has reached approximately 34 million television households and 30 million children since 1973. Sesamstrasse focuses on the importance of creative play, the value of respecting self and others, and the benefit of appreciating different environments. Quirky, animated Muppet characters are used to mirror German children's own experiences, while at the same time highlighting topics such as diversity and valuing differences. Sesame Workshop is creating off-air educational initiatives such as Sesamstrasse Live, which has visited various cities throughout Germany; through "giant-large portion fun", laughing, and dancing, children learn about friendship and tolerance.

5.Alam Simsim - Egypt

Sesame Workshop collaborates with local producers, Egypt's First Lady, child development experts, educators, and psychologists to develop this educational curriculum in response to local needs. In addition to teaching a range of literacy, numeracy, cognitive, and social interaction skills, Alam Simsim encourages children - especially girls - to be proud of who they are, appreciate different ways of life, and respect each other. Alam Simsim is also designed to help children learn about health and hygiene, the environment, and letters and numbers. A key strategy involves creating "a lively and friendly place where all children are always welcome."

CONFLICT AND CULTURAL DIFFERENCE: SESAME IN THE MIDDLE EAST

6.Rruga Sesam & Ulica Sezam Children's TV Series - Kosovo

In November 2004, Sesame Workshop launched "Rruga Sesam" (Albanian language) and "Ulica Sezam" (Serbian language), which include locally produced live-action film segments. Featuring both Albanian- and Serbian-speaking children from Kosovo, the segments communicate messages of respect and understanding in an effort to introduce children from all ethnic groups to the unique aspects of their culture and to tell their stories through their eyes. Flashcards, growth charts, and activity books were created and translated into Albanian and Serbian, in both Cyrillic and Roman scripts.

7.The Educational Impact of "Rechov Sumsum/Shara'a Simsim: A Sesame Street" Television Series to Promote Respect and Understanding among Children Living in Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza

by Charlotte F. Cole, Cairo Arafat, Chava Tidhar, Wafa Zidan Tafesh, Nathan A. Fox, Melanie Killen, Alicia Ardila-Rey, Lewis A. Leavitt, Gerry Lesser, Beth A. Richman & Fiona Yung

Designed to break down cultural stereotypes by familiarising Israeli and Palestinian children with each other, Rechov Sumsum/Shara'a Simsim integrates educational messages within an entertaining, magazine-type format that includes animation, live-action documentaries, and studio segments. Researchers interviewed 275 preschoolers about their social and cultural judgments before the programme began, and then 4 months later. When asked, "What is a Jew/Arab?", Palestinian children displayed an increase in the use of negative attributes toward Jews, while Israeli children displayed an increase in the use of positive attributes toward children from the other culture - data that "provide evidence for the power of media in...changing children's attitudes and social knowledge about another culture."

8.Sesame Stories (Sippuray Sumsum/Hikayat Simsim) - Israel, Palestine & Jordan

This multimedia project presents messages of respect and understanding to young children in the Middle East. At its core is a TV programme that combines live action segments featuring Muppet characters with animation and mini-documentaries; the purpose is to provide a "window" into local culture, helping to humanise the other and promote pride and hope. Educational materials such as activity books, teachers' guides, home videos, posters, and public service announcements (PSAs) addressing parents were produced. The first Hebrew/Arabic bilingual interactive material was developed for the project and is available online, as are educational CD-Roms.

9.Sesame Sans Frontieres

by Gary Younge

"One of Sesame Street's greatest troubles is how local versions are adapted for countries in conflict. In Northern Ireland a four-year old Protestant girl said 'Catholics are the same as masked men. They smash windows.' According to Younge, it is not a surprise that Sesame Street is having trouble starting up there. One answer is to start out in a new country with the right partners. But with separate programmes being made the show's success is contingent on the political context..."

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HEALTH, HYGIENE, NUTRITION: SESAME IN EGYPT AND RUSSIA

10.Alam Simsim Outreach Program Impact Report

To help extend the messages of the TV series Alam Simsim, an outreach initiative was launched. Working closely with local community development associations (CDAs), the outreach team developed a 2-month training component, as well as educational materials. Interviews conducted with 300 parents and 200 children ages 4 to 7 found that the outreach programme "had a significant impact on health, hygiene and nutrition practices..."

11.Impact Data - Alam Simsim Outreach Program - Cairo, Egypt

• Knowledge: 32% more parents and caregivers within the experimental group (those exposed to the outreach programme) demonstrated knowledge of the Diptheria, Pertussis (Whopping Cough), and Tetanus (DPT1) vaccine; knowledge levels of DPT1 remained relatively unchanged within the control group.
• Practices:
  
  • Nutrition: parents' increased knowledge of good nutritional practice was passed on to their children, who were more likely to report drinking milk and eating more fruits and vegetables, as compared with children in the control group.
  • Health: 29% of parents in the experimental group take their children to the doctor for regular checkups, compared to 10% of the parents in the control group.
  • Hygiene: exposure to the outreach programme was related to increases in the frequency of making sure that children washed their hands before eating (a gain of 5% over the control group); washing face with soap and water (a gain of 15% over the control group); using an individual towel rather than a shared one for drying (a gain of 24% over the control group); brushing teeth (a gain of 26% over the control group); and covering one's nose or turning away when sneezing (a gain of 34% over the control group).

12.Ulitsa Sezam - Russia

Produced by Sesame Workshop and DIXI-TV Productions, 3 seasons and a total of 156 30-minute episodes of Ulitsa Sezam CTC have aired to date. An in-school nutrition programme created by one of the project funders (Nestlé Corporation) aims to foster healthy eating habits through a full-colour workbook of stories, recipes, exercises, lessons and quizzes presented by Ulitsa Sezam characters. Creators sought to honour Russian culinary tradition while taking into account tight budgets. Children take the workbook home to show their families, which is a strategy for bringing the dietary lessons to a wider audience. Nestlé "says the response has been extremely encouraging." Roughly 170,000 schoolchildren have been exposed to the programme.

SESAME TAKES ON AIDS: SOUTH AFRICA

13.Takalani Sesame - South Africa

Takalani Sesame is designed to provide engaging educational messages to children and those who care for them through television, radio, and outreach initiatives. To develop the HIV/AIDS component of the initiative, the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC Ltd), the South African Department of Education (DoE), and Sesame Workshop worked with South African specialists in HIV and AIDS education, international organisations (UNAIDS), and the Takalani Sesame educational content team to develop a curriculum that seeks to humanise individuals with HIV and AIDS. What emerged was Kami, a 5-year-old female puppet who is HIV-positive - but asymptomatic (to counter the common misperception that all individuals with HIV are sickly and underweight). Kami is meant to be a positive role model.

14.Meeting the Challenge of Research With Very Young Children: A Practical Outline of Methodologies Used in the Formative Research and Pre-testing of the Takalani Sesame HIV and AIDS Television and Radio Programmes

by Glynis Clacherty & Ann Kushlick

This paper illustrates participatory research approaches that Clacherty & Associates and Ochre Communication have adopted for very young children, using the Takalani Sesame's HIV/AIDS curriculum as an example. Activity-based focus groups were run with HIV-positive children and with children who were orphaned or living with ill parents; a number of home visits to affected families were conducted. The principle of 'least harm' was applied by making sure that all children who participated in the study were part of an ongoing support programme. Researchers also sought to create an environment in which children could choose how much of their story they felt safe to tell. The approach of adapting research to children's stages of development was applied in the pre-testing of scripts and live action, studio, and animation inserts.

15.Impact Data - Takalani Sesame Season II Programme - South Africa

A December 2005 evaluation found that, "Although Takalani Sesame is primarily a children's programme, it achieves high awareness across all age groups." At pre-test, equivalent proportions of caregivers in the experimental (20%) and control (25%) groups spoke about or taught HIV and AIDS in their classrooms; at post-test, more educators in the experimental group (80%) spoke about HIV and AIDS with the children than did those in the control group (48%). Children were asked to identify how to treat a person with HIV and AIDS, with the alternatives "play with them", "laugh at them" or "run away from them". Within the experimental groups, average scores on these outcomes increased by 29%; in the control groups, the increase was only 5%.

* See also:

Impact Assessment of 'Takalani Sesame' Season II Programme

South African National HIV Prevalence, HIV Incidence, Behaviour and Communication Survey 2005

16.Talk to Me - South Africa

This nationwide television and radio campaign calls on South Africans to communicate with children about protecting themselves from HIV/AIDS and living positively with its effects. The project uses South Africa's "best-known five year old orphan muppet living with HIV/AIDS, Kami from Takalani Sesame." The campaign draws on real-life situations and conversations in several South African languages to show parents what type of words, tone, and settings to use when talking to children about HIV/AIDS. The series of radio programmes in 5 languages feature real conversations between parents and their children, and are followed by radio talkback opportunities with the public. Newspapers, educational supplements, and a booklet support the campaign.

17.Impact Assessment of a New Programming Component on HIV and AIDS

An independent multi-disciplinary research team assessed the process and impact of South Africa's Talk to Me. Just over one half of respondents gave positive responses (for example, respondents said that the video "taught us many things" such as "we should not shout at children"; over 80% said that it equipped them to do something new with their child). The findings also highlighted the importance of reaching boys with messages promoting stigma reduction: Girls were around 3 times more likely than boys to hold flexible attitudes about alternate family structures.

18.Impact Data - Talk to Me - South Africa

Between September and December 2004, Talk to Me materials were tested using a classic experimental design. Communication between the caregiver and any child living in the household was significantly positively associated with the intervention: 54% of the control group and 75% of the intervention group reported having spoken to any child in their household about HIV in the previous 2 weeks at follow-up. After adjusting for communication at baseline, caregivers in the intervention group were twice as likely as those in the control group to report that they communicated with a child in their household about HIV in the previous 2 weeks.

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For further information on Sesame Workshop's international co-productions, contact:

June H. Lee, Ph.D.
Assistant Director, International Research
Sesame Workshop
One Lincoln Plaza
New York, NY 10023 USA
june.lee@sesameworkshop.org
Sesame Workshop website

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This issue was written by Kier Olsen DeVries.

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