#artifact4

Reflection:

ARTIFACT 7: Logo from the150logo.ca

http://the150logo.ca/

ARTIFACT 4: Parks Canada Webpage

As part of Canada 150 festivities, free admission is offered to all Parks Canada locations. This is an explicit government program and appears in the Liberal Party’s 2015 election platform (44). This clearly supports the theme of reconnecting Canadians with the natural environment by encouraging them to visit national parks. The purpose of promoting domestic and international tourism is explicit, and items (such as the Discovery Pass) can be unpacked. Symbols related to Canada’s natural environment often contain implicit messages of nativism grounded in a metanarrative of Euro-Canadian environmental imperialism, conquest, and transformation (Osborne 2006, 164). The name ‘Discovery Pass’ continues to evoke this image, whereby Canadians “discover” their natural environment, and the promotion of tourism frames national parks as a commodity or tool to generate revenue.  As Osborne notes, tourism plays a formative role in the creation of identities (2006, 162). Such programs allow Canadians to project environmentalist values externally while also aligning these values to economic interests. By marketing this initiative internationally, this program also allows Canada to be branded for this audience, further entrenching certain brands. Overall, this initiative creates a brand that promotes Canada as one inline with its natural environment, and this has underpinnings of environmental imperialism where Canada’s natural environment exists to be exploited for economic gain. This artifact creates a disconnect between image and policy, albeit on different layers: while the policy contained within the webpage reflects the environmentalist theme, it cannot be easily reconciled with other environmental decisions such as the approval of the Kinder Morgan pipeline. This also reflects the dilemma faced by neoliberal centrist and centre-left parties: while their voter base may desire strong environmental protection, business interests seek to curtail environmental regulation and exploit the natural environment (Harvey 2005, 66). While this predominately applies to the Canadian energy sector, it is also evident in the tourism sector in this example (though in an admittedly more innocuous way).

Critical reflection and relation to other artifacts:

ARTIFACT 1: Department of Canadian Heritage Priority One

http://canada.pch.gc.ca/eng/1456860096099/1456860154244

The main artifact chosen for this scrapbook is the first priority from the Canadian Heritage Report on Plans and Priorities (RPP). As mentioned in the introduction, this priority highlights the core themes of promoting diversity and inclusion, engaging and inspiring youth, promoting reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples and connecting Canadians with their natural environment. Outcomes, such as promoting tourism, and key departmental activities, such as working intergovernmentally to engage youth, Indigenous Peoples, and ethno-cultural communities, are also noted. Priorities are plans or initiatives that a department focuses on for a given planning period, and articulate what is important for a given timeframe (Treasury Board Secretariat 2015: http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/hgw-cgf/oversight-surveillance/ae-ve/cee/pubs/lex-eng.asp). In a high-level fashion, this priority articulates how the Government of Canada is organizing Canada 150 celebrations through its bureaucracy, along with the key values the government wishes to promote through the festivities. As a whole, the priority reflects the modern process of Canadianization outlined by Edwardson, wherein cultural vitality is aligned with economic interests and that there is a diversion of attention towards developing a Canadian identity promoting the myth of the ‘Peaceable Kingdom’ in spite of reality pointing to the contrary (2004, 25). While values such as multiculturalism, engagement, and environmentalism are promoted, other ‘Peaceable Kingdom’ values such as equality, social welfare, and peacekeeping are not explicitly or implicitly noted. This priority directly links Canada 150 with economic growth, demonstrating that attention is paid to the economics underlying cultural politics and identity formation. Within the priority, it is also explicit that these values are being projected both domestically and abroad. Through this artifact, it is clear that the machinery of government is being leveraged to promote certain values even if they are at odds with actual policies being implemented. Since the core themes are to be reflected in the projects that get promoted, there is a degree of hegemony in which values are promoted. This evokes Bruce Curtis’ argument, where administration and bureaucracy can be used to create an identity (2001,316).   Overall, these values present a framework that can be used to assess other artifacts in this scrapbook.

Critical reflection

        I seem to be pulling a lot on Freire, and even though sometimes I feel as though he’s operating in this utopia where everything is great and his students are great, this quote has wormed it’s way into my head and I believe is in itself an argument for connecting STEM and humanities. It embodies a lot of what I’ve said, whether in the opening essay or in other Artifact Reflections. It also reminds me of one of my favorite readings we did for class, an article written by Alison Cook-Sather titled “Movements of Mind: The Matrix, Metaphors, and Re-Imagining Education”. Both explore this issue of new perspectives and new innovations.

        We need to “free [our] mind[s]” (1) if we want to change how we view education and the different areas of study. There may be more than one way to end up where we think we want to be. Taking a leaf out of Cook-Sather’s book, and using The Matrix as an example, you could leap across to another building, or ride the elevator down and walk across the street. They are different paths but ultimately end up at the same place, however the lessons learned will be different. This is similar to how I believe we should look at studies. Let the student end up where they may, but this path is theirs to learn from. The only thing we can do is provide them with a general base to help them discover which path they would like to take.

        This in itself is something that needs to be taught, that maybe doesn’t traditionally get taught in STEM classes, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be utilized there, that it can’t be useful. If we avoid intertwining these disciplines, forever dooming ourselves to stick only to ideas and skills “traditionally” taught in these areas, we automatically put ourselves at a disadvantage. It’s akin to simply ignoring half of the information we know, and saying that there’s only one way to get to our destination. I told a story that we all heard in class, the one about the boy who discovered his interested in neuroscience through music. If that wasn’t an alternate route, I’m not sure what is. The important part is that we need to recognize that, while we can provide them the basic tools, just because we give them the freedom to choose their own path, whether it starts in the humanities or STEM, doesn’t mean it will stay in that discipline.

         “To teach is not to transfer knowledge but to create the possibilities for the production of construction of knowledge” (Freire 30)

My fourth artifact is some of a sample schedule from The Quadrangle, an assisted living home I visited this semester in Haverford. The specific building I visit has residents from 50 years old to 90+ years old that are mostly independent and choose how they want to spend their day. They can choose to do nothing but watch tv all day, they can walk around the buildings and talk to people, they can go out on planned outings (like to the farmer’s market or a grocery store), or they can participate in these type of activities listed. I find the similarities between an assisted living home and a preschool really intriguing. Both places have different types of activities to learn new information, or new skills. Learning through play is not only reserved for young, pre-school aged kids; anyone can learn through games or discussions, and anyone can continue learning no matter one’s age. There are also some lectures and movies. Those are more passive learning environments, but you can still absorb information. This also brings up the idea of who you learn from. Many of these activities have a person that works at the Quadrangle sit in and participate in the activities, while also helping make it an enjoyable environment. They are a type of teacher in this situation. They make it so the residents participating in the activities safely and enjoyably do the things they want to do, just like teachers do in classrooms. For example, when participating in current events or reader’s group, the staff members make sure the residents understand what is being talked about and allow them to add in their two cents, while also further pushing their knowledge through asking questions. Because the goal is a gratifying and educative experience, the residents learn a lot. They learn actual new information and ideas, but also they learn and hone their social skills when talking in discussions with the other residents.