PEDAGOGIES FOR THE IMAGINATION

Critical Approaches to 'World Issues' Curriculum

by

NEAL CLAYTON WOLFE

A thesis submitted to the Department of Education

in conformity with the requirements for

the degree of Master of Education

Queen's University

Kingston, Ontario, Canada

September 10,2000

copyright O Neal Clayton Wolfe, 2000

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Abstract

This thesis offers critical pedagogical approaches to the teaching of 'world issues' while deconstnicting the prevalent Ontario Ministry of Education document as an example of how the subject is presently conceptuaiized. Currently, the *World Issues: Geographical hterpretations" (1988) curriculum conceptualizes a division between 'Western' and 'non-Western' and advocates 'objective' analysis, setting up barriers to understanding culture as seen through the eyes of an(other). It is argueci in this thesis that 'world issues' curriculum may benefit from the incorporation of ihree organizing principles: subjective frames of reference, an orientation toward constructivist notions of the interplay of power and knowledge and the consideration of transfomative modes of communication. The use of subjective cultural constructions enables students to 'imagine' what it may be like to be the 'Other'. A study of the relationships between power/knowledge within the 'world issues' cumculum provides imaginative possibilities for the understanding of histoncal inequalities in the ways in which race, class and culture are interpreted. An orientation toward transformation creates space from which to contemplate the possibility of change in the conceptualization of 'world issues'.

The thesis is concemed with the analysis of discourse, especially with regard to how it is constmcted by language and various cultural, political and psychological forms. It is an attempt to articulate alternative ways of seeing communication between cultures and translation between discourses. Discursive frarning and the decoding of bias in any dominant cultural perspective are pivota1 to empowering the voices of out students and fostering more imaginative approaches to complex world issues.

In this project we are encouraged to see culture in a discontinuous and relational context in which identity is constructeci through difference. Through this interpretation our environment can be seen as pluralist and representational, for culture is frarned through many heterogeneous discourses. Through the translation of culture or the (re)presentation of intercultural discourses we may be able to (re)negotiate the parameters within which we choose to think.

A central issue of this thesis revolves around the 'poststructural' conceptualization of the "other as the supplement of knowledge", especiall y as represented within Western culture and the cumculum. It is my contention that the contemplation of how cultural identity is c~n~tnicted tfirough juxtaposition with the 'other' brings up the question of how we translate between cultures and creates a spacc for imaginative modes of communication. imaginative pedagogies such as this provide insights into cultural discourse and representation and have the potential to transform the reading of 'world issues' within education.

Acknowledgements

This thesis would not have been possible without the generous contributions and

insightful suggestions of Tara Smyth, Lindy McDonald, Jay Gauthier, Lamy O'Farrell,

Glenn Eastabrook and Magda Lewis. Thanks to Shelagh Freedman for many stimdating

conversations and access to her extensive library. 1 would especially like to thank the

secretaries and libras, staff at the Faculty of Education at Queen's University for putting

up with me for many years.

Most of all, 1 would like to thank Dr. Shehla Burney for her time and energy, her

encouragement, her understanding and her sage advice. Thanks also for the loan of

many invaluable research materials, for engaging conversations and for extensive

edi torial work without which this thesis could not have taken shape.

Table of Contents

............................................................................................ Pre face v

............................................................................. 1 ) Introduction - 1

2) Conceptual Frarnework and Literat ure Review .................................... 5

......................................................................... 3) Methodology -19

4) A Critical Reading of the "World Issues: Geographical Interpretations* (1988)

............................................................... Cumculum Document 31

5 ) A Critical Pedagogical Approach to 'World hues'. ............................. 42

6) A Cultural Studies Appmach to 'World issues'. .................................. 52

7) A Power/Knowledge Approach to 'World bues'. .............................. -63

8) A Critical Postrnodemist Approach to 'World Issues'. ......................... -71

9) -4 Transfomative Approach to 'World Issues' ..................................... 80

10) Conclusions ............................................................................ -89

Works Cired ...................................................................................... 95

Appendix A: "World Issues: Geographical Interpretations"(1988) ..................... 99

Vita ............................................................................................ -112

Preface

. . . h a g i n h g is not merely looking or looking at; nor is it taking oneseif intact into the other. It is, for the purposes of work, becorning. ..

(toni momson, l992,4)

Imagination can take us on an intellectual journey to the outemost regions of

possibility. This thesis is an imaginative foray into the future teaching and cumculwn

development of 'world issues' courses. It is intended to be theoretical yet self-tefiexive,

literary yet analytical, and most importantly, scholarly yet understandable. It is

important that students and teachers be able to imagine a future that includes the 'other':

al1 the marginalized peoples who have historically been excludeci from elitist discourses

of culture. CuIture, as I define it here, penains to the discontinuous web of relations,

similarities as well as differences, that make up shared (his)tories and values among

distinct groups.

My perspective is greatly innuenced by my blue-collar background, as well by the

different cultures 1 encountered while traveling subsequent to an undergraduate degree in

Drama and Psychology. Although 1 grew up surrounded by the wealth and resources of

Ontario, I belong to that group of people known to sorne as wdisadvantaged-, commonly

categorized by Canadians as "white trash". The characteristics associateci with this

'minonty group' are generaiiy comprised within F r , rural envimnments where there is

a consequent lack of adequate employrnent, education and culturd interaction. As John

Hartigan Jr. (1997) points out,

" w h i t e trash" is not simply a stereotype or a false and mistaken preconception. Rather, it delineates a discourse of difference whereby class identities are relationally fomulated. The social differences embodied by white a h do not exist in a vacuum; they are elements that the white rniddb class relies upon to distinguish thernselves fiom the lower orders: "We are not that." (51).

Although 1 was always well fed, 1 matured feeling that 1 had been denied (by

vinue of my rural, labour-class surroundings) a critical knowledge of 'other' culture. My

experiences as a child did not prepare me for the heterogeneity that 1 encountered when 1

lefi my village to see 'the world'. It is this background that 1 bnng to the following

discussion of pedagogy, culture and 'world issues'.

My interest in the contentious arena of culture stems from disenchantment with

the way culture is framed within 'world issues' courses, which, although flawed, are an

essential element of secondary school education. Some rnay feel that my analysis is

overIy critical of the existing Ministry of Education of Ontario (1988) cumculum

document, especially considering that the Ontario ~cademic Credit (OAC) is k ing

phased out by 2002. 1 am critical for two reasons. Firstly, 'world issues', especially in a

'global' environment, is particularly important to the conceptualization of culture, and

needs to incorporate a more critical framework. Secondly, it is imperative that 'world

issues' incorporate the notions of subjectivity, equity, contestability and insight into

'other' cultures and other peoples. Although the current cumculum is in the process of

being slowly replaced, students continue to be taught to view the world through its

lenses. Through an in-depth reading of past cumculum and present teaching practices, it

appears that the replacement to the *World Issues: Geographical hterpretationsW (1988)

cumculum may contain similar limitations. This thesis, intended to be communicative

rather than contentious, takes up the challenge d integrating the conceptualization of the

'other' into 'world issues*, for as bel1 hooks (1994) argues -.. .those of us from working-

class backgrounds may feel that discussion is deeper and ncher if it arouses intense

responses" (1 87).

1 am concerned that many students do not see themselves reflected in 'world

issues' curriculum. How is one to contemplate 'world issues' without firn locating and

acknowledging one's own bias? It was my critique of the 'wealthy' or privileged classes

that originally made me question the way Canadians are represented in the c ~ c u l u m .

This eventually led me toward the development of a conceptual framework that includes

my 'culture' as well as that of others into the analysis of 'world issues'. As Johnson

(2000) points out, %tudents come to study cultural studies because they know they are

being misrepresentedW. It is not that students are necessarily unaware of the culturaiiy-

speci fic legitirnization of forms of knowledge in the classrwm; it is more likely that they

are indeed aware, and because of this, dismiss 'world issues* cumcu1um because it is

incompatible with their other cntical experiences in life. Both my experience as a student

and a teacher in primarily Mblue-collar" or ~workingclass" environments supports this

view. My students demonstrate a genuine concern with how the course content relates to

their lives, and whether they are k ing accurately represented. Concem has also been

expressed that the curriculum contains an overtly bourgeois or 'middleclass' bias that is

irnplicit within the course cumculum. On the other hand, my analysis of the curriculum

undoubtedly contains a 'working-class' bias that focuses on the concerns of gmups

perceived as 'other*.

As 1 believe in the notion that al1 knowledge is s o c i d y conanicted, my analysis

is inherently biased to retlect my background, yet 1 h o p this bias is projected clearly

rather than camouflaged. At the pnsent tirne, new cumcula are k i n g developed to

inform students about 'world issues', globalization, the global economy and the 'global

comunity'. Therefore, this thesis considers some alternatives to the way culture and

identity rnight be approached from within 'world issues' courses that replace the present

curriculum. 1 will focus on several contemporary pedagogical approaches (influenced by

poststructuralist methodologies) that may be helpful in ( r e ) e n g the ' world issues'

curriculum. 1 also address the construction and use of such a cumculum, open to the

possi bili ties of 'other' culture.

The Ontario Ministry of Education Geography (1988) curriculum, still in use

today, is the same guideline that was implemented when 1 participated in the Ontario

Academic Credit (OAC) in 1989 at Almaguin Highlands Secondary School in South

River. An analysis of this curriculum document-used as an example of a typical 'world

issues' cumculum-may be helpful in addressing some of the concems surrounding the

pedagogical aspects of 'world issues' as they are brought into contemporary classrooms.

Throughout this thesis 1 will attempt to demonstrate the naiveté and

unpreparedness with which 1 took leave of Canada to experience 'the world'. 1 felt that

rny schooling and location had denied me a critical knowledge of culture. The

alternative approaches to 'world issues' in this thesis are framed by vignettes that

illustrate my first encounten with 'other' cultures. Each of the vignettes may be

interpreted as a subjective narrative of constructive engagements with 'other' culture as

seen through white eyes. The information contained within these story-fom is

anecdotal as reported by &ers or as experienced by myself. These anecdotes are

intended merely as a point of departure from which to begin to discuss the social

construction of culture within/wi thout pedagogy and ' world issues'.

When 1 embarked upon a trip to Europe and North Africa in 1994, 1 was

surprised to discover how unprepared 1 was for the diversity of cultures that 1

encountered. To me it seemed that the empirical structure of my education-including

an undergraduate degree in Psychology and Drama-was not applicable to the study of

the cultures to which 1 was exposed. Gathering information and making an 'objective'

analysis in a situation where 1 was an outsider seemed impertinent and near impossible.

It seemed obvious to me that 1 could no more be 'objective' or 'unbiased' about the

people 1 encountered than they could be about me. After a winter in Mexico, extensive

traveling in Canada and the United States, and a brief trek around Colombia and

Venezuela, 1 came to the ultimate realization that changes are necessary in the way we

teach cultural geography in the secondary school system.

iMany experiences led me to see 'culture' and 'issues' in a way that had been

previously unavailable to me. When I was in Morocco 1 saw an old woman knock down

a small child and steal the scarf the girl had just acquired through a 'trade' with one of

my traveling companions. 1 saw dowagers get dragged away by the army for smuggling

television sets on the trains. Little girls begged not for money, but for pens so they had

something to write with when they went to school. Most perplexing of al1 was an

emaciated six-year-old girl tending her two younger siblings who continually nhwd the

money 1 offered her for bread. 1 couldn't help but think that this constituted some kind

of political statement.

In Brooklyn, New York, 1 felt for the fmt tirne what it was like to be a minority -

to feel the hostile reaction of the black populace to an aiien in their rnidst. Somehow this

was different than traveling to foreign countries, for as a North American, 1 felt I had a

right to be present, when there were obviously many who did not agree with me.

In Colombia a similar hostility was combined with an impolite subservience to

my supposed 'wealth'. The highlight of this experience was being held up on a bus by a

truckload of revolutionaries carrying M-16 machine g w . They were so desperately

poor that they had to steal food and clothes from the impoverished of their own country.

Despite this transgression, the people I talked to were w e l l - d i w tùward the "ejercito"

(the little amy) because they were fighting the Gmerican-backed rnilitia for free

elections.

In Mexico 1 learned the etymology of the word -gringoW. 'Gringo", a cultural

stereotype used a11 over Latin America to refer to a foreigner or a white American, cornes

from the phrase 'green go away", shouted at the infantry men who have waged various

'campaigns' in the south over the past century.

In Vienna 1 saw a white marble sculpture of vanous grotesque images of the

Holocaust, inciuding emaciated children and tortured men and women in distended and

painful positions. Despite its content, the sculpture was beautiful and poignant. Most

surprisingly, there was a TWd Reich soldier curled up in a fetal position with his gun

and heImet at the base of the statue, underneath the other bodies. On his face was the

same ghastly expression as on the others. It was significant to me to see a work of art

such as this pay homage to the suffering of WWII, rather than just show the pain and loss

of one side or the other. These snapshots and other such images have been pivotal in the

shaping of rny cultural imagination.

In the following thesis, 1 will attempt to articulate imaginative possibilities for the

study of 'wodd issues'. Here, 1 am attempting to present various conceptual and

pedagogical frameworks that may contribute to the discourse of culture as (re)prwented

in the geography cIassrwm. Throughout the following pages, an attempt is made to

demonstrate the desperate need fm a diferenr framing of the relationships between

'culture', 'world issues', and the conceptualization of the experiences of 'others'.

Introduction

This thesis is an attempt to discover ways of viewing culture in a 'worid issues'

cumcuhm for secondary school students that take into account a 'global' and 'plural'

environment rather than a Eurocentric or an authoritatively nationalist environment. It is

rny atternpt to fmd a pedagogical framework for cumculum which might be more

inclusive of race, ciass, age, gender and nationality, as well as more aware of historical

oppression and the exploitation of peoples around the globe. Through a greater

awareness of the diversity of the worid we can create an imaginative leaming

environment where students might begin to understand the critical complexities of using

terms like 'culture', 'world issues' and 'global community'.

My thesis is an attempt to probe the potential reiationship between pedagogy,

understandings of culture, and a 'world issues' cumculum. As such, the conceptual

framework will clanfi some of the issues surrounding conternporary notions of cultural

formation. 1 will examine how pedagogical perspectives affect how students 'see' the

global environment. To begin to define or 'shape' my conceptual frarnework, 1 will try to

define those pedagogical prspectives that have most influenceci my conception of the

issues surrounding the study of culture as they are currently represented within the

Geography cuniculum. In this thesis, my initial assumptions and definitions are based on

poststructural frames of reference that view 'objectivity* as a iiability rather than as an

asset. Appropnately, 1 propose that through frameworks that incorporate 'subjectivity*

into the discourse of culture we can begin to 'imagine' the possibilities for transformation

in the way we concepWze the pedagogy of culture, cultural exchange, or 'world

issues'. An anempt is made to probe contemporary trends in educational policy, the

concepts of hegemony, pluralism, praxis and the potential usefulness of a poststructural

approach to 'world issues' at the senior level in secondary schwl education. The

conceptual framework presented articulates some of the pedagogical perspectives which

shape my analysis; including-but not exclusive to-the viewpoints of writers such as

Pau!o Freire, Michel Foucault, Edward Said, Maxine Greene, bel1 hooks, Stanley

Aronowitz, Henry Giroux and Roger 1. Simon.

~Methodologically, this thesis is discursive, for my focus is on ways of

seeinfleing in the world. To speak of discourse is to speak of communication and

translation bet weenJamong peoples and cultures. This analysis revolves around how

discourses are created by language and various syrnbolic forms that are cultural, political

and psychological in origin, as well as how they are manifested through Foucauldian

"reg mers] of truth" (Foucault, 1980,132)- The thesis is also rnethodologically

poststructuralist. 1 make use of the tools and concepts of poststructuralism as

(re)presented by Jacques Demda, John Caputo, Gayatri Chakrovorty Spivak, and

Z y p u n t Bauman. Accordingly, the process of translation (in which two or more

discourses reiuv their respective contents to each 'other*) becornes a central issue of this

thesis

'World issues' is the ideal site for stimulating a greater understanding of out

global environment; and, as well, for encouraging an imaginative and conscientious

approach to the world around us through the analysis of cultural discowse. Adopting an

open subject positioning to 'world issues', in my view, is a liberating practice within

which one may begin to contemplate pedagogies for the imagination kom a pluralist

perspective (that is to say, one which refutes the notion of unifieci cultural identity). It

may be that by identifying possible solutions or imagining alternative futures, we can

open a space for the transformation of 'reality' as it has been constmcted in discourse.

My fourth chapter presents a critique of the Ontario Ministry of Education's

"World issues: Geogtaphic interpretations" (1988) curriculum document. In this chapter

I examine how our 'Western' perspectives have influenced the course "objectives" and

the frarning of 'world issues' as (re)presented in 'world issues' curricula. Rom this point

on, each chapter opens with a short vignette of my experiences in the world. 1 use these

episodes simply as a point of departure with which to contemplate 'world issues'. As

alternatives to the structure presented in the cumculum, chapters five through nine

present a) a 'critical pedagogical' approach, b) a 'cultural studies' approach, c) a

'power/knowledge' apptoach, d) a 'critical postmodemist' approach, and e) a

'transfomative' approach to the study of 'world issues'. These alternatives (loosely

categorized as imaginative pedagogical approaches) are meant to he indicative of 'other'

conceptual Frameworks that may be valuable in rewriting traditional positivist notions of

the 'objective' or 'neutral' determinations of culture.

These five theoretical models are presented as an illustration of how discursive

analytical frameworks and the question of 'translation' may be infiuential to 'world

issues' curriculum. It is my main contention that discursive frarning or the attribution of

bias to any perspective is pivotal to what Maxine Greene (1995) aptly calis *releasing the

imaginationw. To this end, rny concluding paragraph is an attempt to address how 'world

issues' courses may be restructured to reflect w g o g i e s of possibility" (Simon, 1992)

and to develop a more conscientious and transforrnative approach to the world around us.

Translation across cultural frameworks emerges as a difficulty that may be better clarified

by adopting criteria that interrogate the notion of 'difference'. Central to this project is

the conceptualization of a border, or meeting place for subjective cultural discourse, in

which the ruptures and discontinuities can be analyzed in the 'in-between' without the

implicit binary cornparison of one to the 'other'.

Chapter 2

Conceptuai Framework and Literature Review

What is pedagogical discourse? What are appropriate pedagogical discounes to

address 'culture', geography, or 'world issues'? What are the relationships between

cumculum and critical pedagogy? How is 'culture* implicated in the "World Issues:

Geographical Interpretations" (1988) curriculum?

Pedano~y

Defining the term pedagogy is problematic because of the plurality of

perspectives it represents. One the one hand, in the context of Paulo Freue's (1990)

Pedaaoav of the Omressed, the concept of 'pedagogy' is indicative of progressive

approaches to education that incorporate dialogue amongst the people as a means to

emancipation. Pedagogy (in its singular form) refers to the science or theory of teaching

children. Most commonly, pedagogy is used to denote teaching or instruction, refemng

to the act or process of teaching. In accordance with critical or poststructural approaches,

it is appropriate to use the term in i ts plural fonn, 'pedagogies'. Thus, 1 prefer to define

pedagogy-as does Jennifer M. Gore (1993) in The Stmnnle for Pedanonies-as a

heterogeneous field of study that incorporates multiple discourses surrounding

educational practice. Sirnilar to Gore (1993), my definition is more of an abstraction,

pertaining to a theoretical discourse of teaching, in which the terni adopts a "particular,

yet broad meaning.. .which includes both instruction and social vision" (4). Following

Gore's example, 1 will attempt to "enter into the stmggle for meaning in a way which

allows me to pose a panicular critique of discourses of radical pedagogy while retaining

my cornmitment to, and struggles with, classroom practice" (4). Like Gore, 1 am

concerned that "insufficient attention has been paid to pedagogy.. .in its broad sense of

social vision and insuuctionW (6). As well, 1 tend to focus on pedagogies that draw

attention to the politics of the educational system and the broader political contexts in

which the teaching process is implicated. 1 also espouse *greater reflexivity and humility

in the construction of discourses" (IO), but not, as Gore does, from within radical

pedagogy, but from within cumculum planning and implementation. 1 feel that the

cri t i cal dimension of pedagogy-narnely, the atternpt to constantly question the 'tmth' of

one's perceived world-is well-placed within 'world issues' curriculum as a way of

understanding the process of meaning -making or knowledge-construction across cultures.

Gore (1 993) asserts that

[mhe operative lens views "pedagogyw as the proces of knowledge production. This conception of pedagogy draws attention to both the pedagogy argued for and the pedagogy of the argument itself. Pedagogy as the process of knawledge production also begins to draw attention to a power-knowledge connection, particularly as discursive formations and practices are examined (1 1).

These discursive formations and the practices surroundhg thern have largely been

ignored in the study of 'world issues', as evidenced by the 1988 Ontario curriculum.

Dominant approaches to teaching have been criticized in recent years for their

inability to incorporate the emerging theoretical frarneworks of race, class and gender.

Stanley Aronowitz and Henry Giroux (1993) purport that in the last decade, "questions of

identity and culture have been mobilized within a largely authoritarian populism aimed at

containing the possibilities of a multiracial and multicultural democracy"(l95). This is

despite -a legacy of decolonization, the nse of new social movements, and an explosion

of theoretical discourses airneci at displacing the values and p ~ i c e s of Eurocentnsm"

(195). Emerging theoretical discourse has called into question Whiteness as the

representation of al1 that is good, human, and ciMlized"(l95). To the dismay of criticai

theorists, the debate over issues of culture and race and its pedagogical implications %as

been dorninated by neo-conservative intellectuals and public servants under the financial

backing of conservative foundauons and the power of right-wing govemment

sponsorship" (195). Within my expenence, schools and their administrative bodies are

institutional (in the sense that they are institut4 and perpetuated by authority), as well as

commercial, in the sense that they are subject to the influences of political and econornic

agendas.

As Maxine Greene (1995) asserts, schools and their administrative bodies are

"largely hierarchical, bureaucratie institutions with their own interna1 demands for self-

perpetuation and equilibriwnW(Greene,1995,56). As pointed out by Greene, these

institutions by nature m a k e it extraordinarily difficult for openings to be explored and

critical thinking to take place" (56). Aronowitz and Giroux (1991) assert that the

*emphasis on mastety, procedure, and cettainty" within dominant approaches to

education Yunctions to exclude the voices, histories, and experience of subordinate

groups from the ideologies, practices, and normative orderings that constitute the

symbolic lierarchies of the dominant school curriculum" (94). This leads to an

"essentialist" interpretation of culture which

expresses a single, durable history and vision, one at odds with the notion of difference, and maintains an ominous ideological silence - an ideological amnesia of sorts - regarding the validity and importance of the

experience of women, blacks and other groups excluded from the narrative of mainstream history and culture. . . (49).

A more useful interpretation of culture may take into account "new and contesting

versions of what Our cornmon world should bew (Gteene, l995,3). Greene (1995) points

out that "we cannot assume that there is any longer a consensus about what is valuable

and useful and what ought to be taught, despite a11 the oficial definitions of necessary

outcornes and desired goalsw (3).

The continuai insistence in consewative chcles on 'the canon', 'standardization'

and 'rnastery learning' (as evidenced by the educational refonns of the last five years in

Ontario) inherently presumes 'truth in the world' and reinforces a normative discourse

comrnon oniy to those of specific culture and privilege. As Edward Said (1994) has

noted with respect to the conservative Amencan educational agenda, "the world cannot

long afford so heady a mixture of patriotism, relative solipsisrn, social authority,

unchecked aggressiveness, and defensiveness towards othets" (360). An overly

nationalistic or authontarian cumculurn often translates into a reductionist

conceptualization of culture that perpetuates stereotypes. To contextualize cultural

distributions is to ask how they came to be as they are, why they persist, as well as what

can be done about the inequalities. After all, is education not concerned with the pursuit

of a greater awareness and the capacity to seek new or elaborated knowledges, rather than

merely the inculcation of text, form and methodology? The concems surroundhg

Canadian educational policies, in my opinion, are similar to those in the United States, if

only in the sense that we too are "stamped by ideas of Arnerican exceptionalism" (350).

Arnerican history, culture and educational philosophies are so similar to ours that a recent

scanda1 surïounding the provincial administration in Ontario was over curricuium writing

being tendered to Arnencan companies (McCann, January 9, 1998). Although we lack

the patriotism and war-mongering attitude of the 'leaders of the free world'; nevertheles,

Canadians are dubiously affected by the chauvinistic attitudes that encourage us to see

ourselves as better.

Hepemony

To counter dominant approaches to teaching, Roger 1. Simon (1992) advocates a

critical pedagogy that requires contemplation and critical analysis of %me of the

cornmonsense ways of thinking about expenencem (130). This pedagogy is engaged in

"looking for ruptures, contradictions, and fonns of counterdiscourse with which to

challenge existing f o m of ideological hegemonyw (130). Hegemony, according to

Antonio Gramsci (197 l), has two meanings. It refers, in the first instance, to the process

of domination in which a ruling class controls the perceptions of the populace through a

hierarchically organized intellectual and moral leadership. In the second instance,

hegemony refers to the use of force and ideology to reproduce the i m p e d relations

between a niling class and subordinate groups (57-58). Edward Said (1994) offers a

shorter definition in which "classical hegemonyw is characterized by "the twinning of

power and legitimacy" (352). With respect to its perceived legitimacy, cumculum has

the potentiai to marginalize groups or ideas simply through the process of presenting

certain perspectives and values as desired outcornes or objectives. Aronowitz and Giroux

point out that

[ n h e importance of the hegemonic curriculum lies in both what it includes - with its emphasis on Western history, science, and so forth - and what it excludes - women's history, black studies, labor history, in-

depth courses in the arts, and other forms of knowledge important to the working class and other subordhate gtoups (77).

It is in the conceptual frameworks of these other groups or d e r fonns of discourse that

we rnay find the tools for a more egalitanan world consciousness. Here 1 am nferring to

imaginative modes of communication like toni momson's (1992) notion of

"becomingn(4) in which we try to envision what it is like to be 'other* than we are. This

process may have the complementary quality of allowing 'other' perspectives to

influence our own. Cwently, critical pedagogy is in the proces of grappling with the

necessity of integrating 'other* perspectives into our conceptual frameworks. This is

especially important in a course Iike "World Issues: Geographical Interpretations" (1988)

which unfortunately advocates traditional ethnographie approaches based on %ecom[ing]

increasingly objecrive in the evaluation of information"(ita1ics mine, 14).

Pluralisrn

'Part A: Policy and Rogram Expectations" of the senior level Geography (1988)

curriculum States that

the policy of multiculturalism officially adopted by the govemment of Ontario accepts diversity as a characteristic of the Canadian identity and requires that schools help to prepare al1 students to live in out multicultural smiety and in an increasingly interdependent world. Everyone has the nght to be treated with respect, regardless of colour, race, religion, age, or sex (22).

However, it may be that the word 'multicultural' is not sufficient to describe the

environment within schools today. As Said (1994) has suggested, "nwne today is

purely one thing. Labels like Indian, or woman, or Musiim, or American are no more

than starting points" (407). According to Harold Troper (1999), there is a relatively long

and unique history of official multiculturalism in Canada, specifically the federal

multiculturalism statement of 197 1 introduced by former Prime Minister, Pierre Trudeau,

as well as the Multiculturalism Act of 1988. However, Troper points out that the official

multicultural policy in Canada has historically been subject to criticisrn because its main

points of application are "tilted more towards support of group cultural celebration than

such issues as fighting discrimination* (1004). As Shehla Burney (1992) asserts,

"muiticulturalism" as it is often (re)presented "bols culture down to curry and

perogies"(l3 1).

Could there not be some way to approach 'world issues' that reflects the diversity

of the members of the classrmm as well as of the 'worlds' in which they live? Should

C U ~ C U ~ U ~ not reflect the many worlds to which the coliaborators within educational

institutions corne into contact; their own, as well as those represented in various forms of

media? This is especially important considering emerging perspectives that assert that

our polymorphous environment is "postmodem" in the sense that it is constructed of

many diverse cultural discourses. According to Xin Liu Gale (1996), "the teacher's

discourse in the postmodem age resembles the age itself, diverse, cornplex, and

heterogeneous, a protest against the hegemonic power of the dominant discourse and

culture" (73). Despite this optimistic view of contemporary educational environments,

the evidence that the "World Issues: Geographical Interpretations" (1988) cumculum

(hereafter referred to as GWI(1988)) dichotomizes Western and non-Western countries is

overwhelrning (6-7, see Appendix A). What distinguishes Western h m non-western in

contemporary society? Said (1994) maintains that there is no reason "except fear and

prejudice to keep insisting on their separation and distinctiveness, as if that was al1

human life was about" (408).

Recently, in opposition to this dichotomization of Western and non-Western, we

have been encouraged to see popular culture as "plural". What is meant in this context

by "plural"? Pluralism, as defined by Said in Culture and Im~erialism (1994), is

"liberation which by its very nature involves a transformation of social consciousness

beyond national consciousness" (278). It is "a prescription for &g a transition afier

decolonization to a period when a new political order achieves moral hegemony" (284).

ILS usefulness to the GWI (1988) cumiculurn lies in eicamining the positivistic structures

(such as colonial history) that bind both oppressor and oppressed. As Said says, we are in

need of

a new integrative or contrapuntal orientation in history that sees Western and non-Western experiencw as belonging together because connected by imperialism - investrnent in a particular sort of nomadic, migratory, anti- narrative energy (337).

Within an organizational framework such as this, many different cultural frameworks

may be counterposed with one another, rather than simply one (ours) juxtaposed against

many others (theirs).

Zygrnunt Bauman (1992) describes a sirnilar (re)conceptualization of the

Western/non-Western dichotomy that he calls "pluralism of authority". Ttiis is defined as

Whe absence of an authority with globalizing ambitions" (201). Pluralism of authority

opens a space for a discussion of difference without the implicit assumption that one

particufar culture has a pnor claim to 'tmth' as gathered through 'unbiased' observation

and analysis. Recently, pluralism as an organizational structure for the study of culture

has been gaining wider recognition. Critical pedagogy, 'cultural studies', post-structural

and transfomative approaches have becorne more prevalent today within social

discourse. The advent of pluralisrn as an acceptable or legitimate theoretical framework

is rerniniscent of a quotation h m The Wtetched of the Earth (1963), in which Frantz

Fanon postulates that

m n every age, among the people, truth is the property of the national cause. No absolute verity, no discourse on the punty of the sou1 can shake this position. In this colonialist contea there is no tnithful behaviour: the good is quite simply that which is evil for 'them' (40).

The conservative objection to the notion of pluralism has k e n most notably critical of

this refutation of 'tnith'. How, in this sense, is pluralism any different from cultural

relati vism? 1 would argue that pluraiisrn (as opposed to relativism) reconciles di fference

with the project of emancipation, as the values of freedom and liberty that are (for the

most part) shared across cultures become more apparent in an environment that is

perceived to be plural. As Greene (1995) posits,

it is difficult to affim the values of plurality and difference while working to build a comrnunity of persons who have a feeling of agency, who are ready to speak for themselves. Yet, once the distinctiveness of the many voices in a classroom is attended to, the importance of identimng shared beliefs will be heightened (42).

Greene hopes that in the future, teachers will shift their gaze to "the articulation and

grounding of what we share, affirming that the mots of what we share are in a Iived life"

in such a way that "plurality can be enlarged, that more people will become willing to

choose as absolute the right of human beings to act in their freedom" (70). As Fredric

Jameson (1992) would express it, as we expand our conceptualization of culture,

accepting it as pluralist, we are engaging 7 h e collective imagina@ and disengaging its

adverse, "collective cultural repression (in a literal sense of an exclusion from

consciousness of painful or disturbing material)" (1 19).

Pluralism, in my opinion, incoprates the search for universal values among

particular cultural narratives, without requiring adherence to one ironclad meta-narrative

of universal tnith. The challenge is to follow the example of Greene (1995) and speak of

pluralism not in a relativistic sense, but 'with concrete engagements in rnind, actual and

imagined"(l55). Whether we approve of this state or not, we are "unable to deny or

obscure the facts of pluralism" (155) if we are to effectively analyze the study of culture

and geographical world issues.

Shohat and Stam (1994), posit that someday the oppressor/oppressed dichotomy

may give way to a bmader conceptual wganization. They see popular culture as %lly

enmeshed in transnational globalized technoculture" (340) a heterogeneous environment

that contains "a wide spectmm of cornplex relationalities of domination, subordination,

and collaborationw (343). With this assumption in rnind, it makes sense to see culture "as

plural, as negotiating among diverse comrnunitie. involved in a conflictual process of

production and consumption" (340-34 1). From this perspective, cultural critique needs to

see contemporary culture in a Wssured, relational context, to ask who is producing and

consuming what, for what purposes, in what situation, for whom and by what means - always with an eye on the power constellations and the emancipatory projects at stake"

(340-34 1). This contextualization problematizes competing cultural discourses in a way

that discards the binary opposition us/them in favour of a more inclusive rational

frarnework. In this way, a relational construction legitirnizes perspectives historically

excluded from the discourse of 'world issues' as 'other'.

What may shed some light on this process of 'othenng' is Said's (1978) assertion

that within cultural discourse and exchange "what is commoniy circulated by it is not

'tnith' but representations" (21). He elaborates upon this in Culture and Imrial ism

(1994), in which he argues that

no one lives in direct contact either with uuth or with reality. Each of us lives in a world actually made by human beings, in which such things as "the nation" or "Christianityw or "Islamw are the result of agreed upon convention, of historical processes, and above dl , of willed human labour expendeci to give those things an identity we can recognize (41-42).

What 1 take this to mean is that identity is largely defined through representation, and it is

through human interaction that it becornes fully rdized. Thus, the people of the world

do not essentially 'see' themselves; they are seen, and it is through a particular way of

seeing that cultural identities become fixed. As Jarneson (1992) points out, "the social

totality can be s e w d , as it were, from the outside, like a skin at which the Other

somehow looks, but which we ourselves will never see" (114). However, as

Greene(1995) has commented, we have made great strides in our tirne toward a

"(sometimes grudging) recognition on the part of many of us that those we have long

categorized as 'other' for whatever reason (ethnicity, gender, religion, education, culture,

mores, geopphic location, physical condition) share in the human condition" (3-4).

Contemporary pedagogical frameworks are beginning to come to grips with a broader

picture of what the world may look Iike when it includes those who have historically

been excluded. Although 1 would argue that it may be overly ambitious a task to

encompass anything within the concept of a "social totality" (Jameson), giving credence

to diversity is certainly a step toward a more egalitarian consciousness.

In the past, the desire to articulate a unified social theory led to "orthodox,

authoritatively national and institutional venions of history" which tended "principally to

freeze provisional and highly contestable versions of history into official

identities"(Said,1994,378). According to Said (1994), a major factor in the formulation

of the master narrative of Eurocentric history has been the "uncritical alignment between

intellectuals and institutions of power" (45). From within critical pedagogical and

poststructural approaches we may discover the tools to "pull away from separatist

nationalisrn towards a more integrative view of human community and human liberation"

(261). One of the major goals of critical approaches to 'knowing' is to foster an

atmosphere which makes space for what Goody (1997) cak a "basic ethical

problematicw, "the question of justimng the unequal distribution of life's g&" (14). In

my opinion, the discursive framing of critical pedagogy (re)asserts this as a central issue

of 'world issues' curriculum.

Praxis

bel1 hooks (1994) advocates "conditions of radical opennessw which exist in

leaming situations where collaborators within the classroom "celebrate their abilities to

think critically, to engage in pedagogical praxisw (202). Praxis, according to The New

Webster Encyclopedic Dictionarv of the Enalish Lannuaee, (1980) refers to "use;

practice; especially, practice or discipline for a specific purpose, as to acquire a specific

art; an example or form to teach practice" (651). Although the use of the tenn by hooks

is fairly ambiguou, 1 believe the act of engaging in "pedagogical praxis" is meant as

virtuall y synonyrnous to celebtating one's "abili ties to think criticallyw . In this instance,

one is exercising the freedom to question cultural constructions with the ultimate goal of

understanding between/among cultures. hooks' operational definition of praxis is closely

tied to a quotation from On Race and Voice: Challennes for Liberation Education in the

1990's by Chandra Mohanty, in which "pedagogical praxis" is attained through

"resistance". Although the onginal source was only a short article, 1 have includd the

quotation in its entirety, as 1 feel it is seminal to hooks' pedagogical perspective.

According to Mohanty (1994):

Blesistance lies in self-conscious engagement with dominant, normative discourse and representations and in the active cteation of oppositional analytic and cultural spaces. Resistance that is random and isolated is clearly not as effective as that which is mobilized through systemic politicized practices of teaching and leamhg. Uncovering and reclaiming subjugated knowledge is one way to lay ciaims to alternative histories. But these knowledges need to be understood and defined pedagogically, as questions of strategy and practice as well as of scholarship, in order to tram fonn educational institutions radically (hooks, l994,22).

h w k s believes that the orientation toward praxis is central to the practice of pedagogy.

Praxis irnplies the transformation of schools into institutions that study both dominant as

wel1 as alternative or 'oppositional' discourses.

From what may be interpreted as a l e s radical position, Greene (1995) attempts

to link pedagogical praxis (which 1 use interchangeably with pedagogical strategy and

practice) to "efforts to understand the young" and to educators' attempts at recovering

their own Yandscapes" (48). To begin to ground the educationd activities in the

classroom we are called upon to -recognize that things, truths, and values are constituted

by al1 human beings, including children, as they orient themselves to aspects of their

lived worlds". Greene (1995) feels that in order to perhaps transform the 'lived worlds'

of students, 3he pedagogies we devise ought to provoke a heightened sense of agency in

those we teach [and] empower them ro pursue their freedom" (48). Similar to hooks,

Greene suggests that questionhg Our own cultural constructions may lead to perspectives

that (re)assert the goal of understanding between cultures as central (195). Yet, as hooks

(1994) points out, educators "cannot empower students to embrace diversities of

experience, standpoint, behaviour, or style if Our training has disempowered us,

socialized us to cope effectively only with a single mode of interaction based on middle-

class values" (187). Here, the importance of identifymg o w own cultutal bias, or

recovering "landscapesw is highlighted once again. Standardized curriculum that caters to

the rniddle-class makes no room for this self-reflective process of recovery or

(re)presentation. According to hwks (1994), "bourgeois values in the classroom create a

barrier, blocking the possibility of confrontation and conflict, warding off dissentw (178).

What is desired ir, education is a framework that creates a space for the -possibility of a

learning community, a place where difference [ c m ] be acknowledged, where we [can]

finally al1 understand, accept and affirm that our ways of knowing are forged in history

and relations of power" (hooks, 1994,30).

It is through conceptual frameworks that pedagogical discourse is implicated in

' world issues' curriculum. Unfortunately, the cumculum pays no mention to critical

pedagogical issues such as the problematization of curent delineations of culture,

subjectivity or partiality within cultural constnictions, the relationship between power

and knowledge, as well as the need for transfomative approaches to the 'issues'.

Through an analysis of critical and poststmctural approaches, we may be able to integrate

pedagogical concems into the discourse of 'world issues'. This, to my rnind, is the most

important role for critical pedagogy: to secure a way to represent theoretical .and

conceptual issues within cumculum planning and implementation. It is through this

effort that we may develop a space for pedagogical praxis and a more conscientious

approach to global issues.

Methodology

In this analysis, 1 argue, as do Paolo Freire and Henry Giroux (1988), for "a view

of theory as a form of practice"; one which "points to the need for comtructing a cntical

discourse to both constitute and reurder the nature of our experiences and the objects of

Our concerns so as to both enhance and further empower the ideological conditions for a

radical democracy" (36). It is my contention that practice is often over-emphasized at the

expense of pedagogical theory in cumculum planning, leading to a mechanistic

implementation in which emergent discourse is slow to be assimilated. The orientation

toward 'theory as practice' provides a location within which to explore the distinctive

charactenstics of critical approaches as a method of inquiry. My argument also draws

upon Simon's (1992) notion that "pedagogy is never an abstractionw for it always takes a

contingent shape as a 'point of practicew from a -specific tirne and place and within

particular themes" (57). Within pedagogical frameworks, content and method are

presupposed by the particular structures with which the information is organized. As we

begin to look at pedagogy and cumculum, it becornes evident that the two cannot be

separated. Thus pedagogy is integral to the 30pics and issues to be addressed and the

concrete ways students rnight collectively engage them" (57). Throughout this thesis, 1

will be highiighting ways in which the discourse may effect world issues curriculum.

This thesis is discursive in the sense that the analysis revolves around pedagogical

perspectives that incorporate the way objects or ideas are spoken about as central to the

comprehension of culture and the study of epistemological positions. Discourse analysis

exposes the historical dichotomies entrenched within the way we speak and think

(essentialisms such as whitefblack, us/them and good/bad) and exposes the grey area

from which we may be able to ponder a more inclusive world-view. Discursive

positioning also offers a way of seeing that includes 'other' perspectives. The

methodoiogy of this thesis can also be termed poststnictural, or postmodern, in the sense

that it is constructed of discourse and critical of entrenched structures of knowing.

According to Aronowitz and Giroux (1991) postmodemism in its broadest sense

"refers to an intellectual position, a form of cultural criticism, as well as to an emerging

set of social, cultural, and economic conditions that have corne to characterize the age of

global capitalism and industrialism" (62). What is novel in the engagement of

postmodern cnticism is the way it calls attention to

the shifting boundaries related to the increasing influence of the electronic m a s media and information technology, the changing nature of class and social formations in postindustrialized capitalist societies, and the growing transgression of boundaries between life and art, high and popular culture, and image and reality (Aronowitz & Giroux, 199 1,59)

Aronowitz (1987-88) clairns that discourse and postmodem thought are inemricably

bound, as both are constructed around and signify "narratives about the world that are

admittedly partialW(93). Aronowitz would have us believe that

one of the crucial features of discourse is the intimate tie between knowiedge and interest, the latter k i n g understood as "standpoint" from which to grasp "reality." Putting these terms in inverted commas signifies the will to abandon scientificity, science as a set of propositions claiming validity by any given comptent investigatory. What postrnodernists deny

is precisely this category of impartial competence. For competence is constituted as a series of exclusions - of women, of people of color, of nature as a histoncal agent, of the tmth value of art (93).

It is this common methodological feature of discourse and pst-stnictural hmeworks to

which 1 retum time and again. The refutation of the notion of impartial competence

facilitates the conceptualization of our environment as plural, heterogeneous, and

constructed through difference.

This perspective is poised to have enonnous impact on 'world issues' curricula,

enabling students to (de)construct traditional notions of ethnography forrned by

'impartial' observation, and to (re)construct and (re)negotiate the lirnits and possibilities

of cultural frameworks in what has corne to be known as the post-modern era.

Discourse

What is discursive analysis, and how c m it heIp us to solve problems in a 'world

issues" cumculum? Finlay (1987) tells us that

in its briefest, most simple form, discourse analysis is the study of the way in which an object or idea, any object or idea, is taken up by various institutions and epistemological positions, and of the way in which those institutions and positions treat it. Discourse analysis studies the way in buhich objects or ideas are spoken about (Finlay, 1987,2).

Jim George (1994) offers a definition in which a discursive practice represents Zhe

embodiment of a particular way of frarning questions and answers, of distinguishing tmth

and reality in social and political institutions, in the dominant technical processes, and in

the general behaviour of people in their societies" (156). Thus the symbolic systems with

which we cornrnunicate are only indirectly related to 'truth and reality' because every

discourse is culturally-specific and self-referential, and can be juxtaposed with other

discourses that hold alternative ftames of reference. Discourse "connects language and

society in a way that defies dichotornized representations of their relationship, in the

sense that it is the discursive practices that constnict the subjects and objects about which

language speaks" (156). According to this theory, it is through the cultural meeting

points within conversation and dialogue that we are able to construct the world.

Discourse analysis exposes the way in which dichotornous representations are imbued

with authority by modemkt representations that differentiate, sirnply and erroneously,

between Western and non-Western, It offers a methdology for (re)presenting cultural

narratives, potentially leading to a 'global' perspective that is inclusive of diverse cultural

narratives.

Simon (1992) places discourse "within a set of 'conditions of possibility', which

organizes a particular mode of production of the symbolic" (109-110). Discourses,

according to Simon,

set a frame of reference within which we define, organize, and regulate a particular sense of ourselves and relation to others and our physical world. What discourses imply is a mode of governance over the productivity of practices of expression and comprehension. They enable particular forrns of textual production and the particular interpretive schema through which a "reading" of a text (play, photograph, and so on) takes piace. As discourses always refer back to their conditions of possibility, they should be understood as historically determinate. That is, they are constituted within the activity of men and women struggling to impose and resist particular social forrns and material circurnstances (109-1 10).

Discourse as the constnict that mediates our way of k i n g in the world is perhaps most

clearly (re)presented by Michel Foucault (1980) as a "regime of truth" produced "only by

virtue of multiple foms of constraint" (131). Foucault supports the daim that

Each society has its regime of truth, its 'general politics' of tmth: that is, the types of discourse which it accepts and makes function as tme; the mechanisms and instances which enable one to distinguish true and false statements, the means by which each is sanctioned; the techniques and

procedures accorded value in the acquisition of truth; the status of those who are charged with saying what counts as true (1 3 1).

For, as Foucault (1978) has proposed, "it is in discourse that power and knowledge are

joined togetherw (100). This orientation to the connection between power and knowledge

allows an articulation of how certain discourses have been supported while others have

been excluded in the analysis of culture. Foucault (1980) would have us believe that

the problem does not consist in drawing the line between that in a discourse which fak under the category of scientificity or uuth, and that which cornes under some other category, but in seeing historically how effects of truth are produced within discourses which in themselves are neither m e nor false (1 1 8).

Foucault proposes that the formation of discourses should be analyzed in terms of "tactics

and strategies of power"(i18). Although power cornes with many definitions, most useful

to the task at hand is the 'substantive' definition which implicates power in the

production of truth: that form of power that is "neither given, nor exchanged, nor

recovered, but rather exercised," (89). According to this definition, "we are subjected to

the production of uuth through power and we cannot exercise power except through the

production of truth" (93). From this definition, power takes on both a negative and a

positive quality, for it is implicated in both normative and resistant discourses.

Poststructuralist A~vroaches and Translation

Much of this discussion focuses on poststmcturalist paradigms that make use of

discursive framing in a way that offers a more inclusive or 'just' (and thus a more

versatile) model for the study of culture through an incorporation of subjectivity. This is

preferable to a positivist or empirical model in which the students are encourageci to be

'objective'. Poststructuralism proffers a way of identifjmg with cultures that is

compatible with what Lash (1990) cails Postrnodernism Nurnber Two (PM2). PM2 is a

framework that "fosters an open subject positioning and eo ipso the tolerance of a variety

cf other subject positions" (37). Cultural issues from this type of poststructural

perspective function not to create "invidious distinctions" but alternatively, to "consttuct

collective identity on the non-hierarchical principle of difference" (37). According to

Homi Bhabha (1994), the 'pst' in this case does not indicate sequentiality - afier-

modernism; or polarity - anti-modemism, but rather is suggestive of the ~episternological

'limits' of those ethnocentric ideas" that are Zhe enunciative boundaries of a range of

other dissonant, even dissident histories and voices" (5). What needs to be emphasized

about this perspective is Greene's (1995) notion that "postmodem thinking does not

conceive the human subject as either predetermined or fmally defined" (41). From this

perspective, our iives, cultures, and conceptual frarneworks are in a constant state of

According to Bauman (1992), a postmodern sociologist is a person who

securely embedded in his [sic] own, 'native' tradition, penetrates deeply into successive layers of meanings upheld by the relatively alien traditions to be investigated. The process of penetration is simultaneously that of translation. . . two or more traditions are brought into communicative contact - and thus open up to each other their respective contents which otherwise would remain opaque (Bauman, 1992,42).

This process of "translation" develops the human capacity for experiencing the world and

involves ourselves and others in the process of rneaning-making. According to b u i s G.

Kelly (1993), 'in passing from one language to the other translation brings about an

in terpretative rupture which represents a certain assumption of power over one's original

and an attitude towards difference, either acceptance or rejection" (2 13). Paradoxically,

in this manner, the investigation of difference within a poststmcturalist paradigrn-the

investigation of how we are constituted as subjects within the political. social and cultural

conditions in which we live-points to %olidarity, community, and compassionw

(Aronowitz & Giroux, 199 1,117) as crucial components of the discourse of cultures. An

interpretation that questions how we are constituted as subjects within cultural

constructions highlights how the study of distinct cultures can eniarge the

conceptualization of 'we' and 'us', thus enabling people from diverse cultures to 'see'

cornmon concerns within ' world issues'.

Central to the postst~cturaiist paradigm is the process of deconstruction. At this

point in history, there has been much controversy over what is seen as a 'new'

methodological framework for teaching critical thinking skills. This methodology makes

use of deconstruction as an analytical tool with which one is encouraged to ask the

question "why" rather than making culturally-reflexive value judgments that rely on the

dichotornized essences of right and wrong. What gives deconstruction its movement,

according to Demda (1997), "is constantly to suspect, to criticize the given

determinations of culture, of institutions, of legal systems, not in order to destroy them or

simply to cancel them, but to be just with justice, to respect this relation to the other as

justicew (18). Derrida is engaged in the pursuit of "justicew which to him implies "non-

gathering, dissociation, heterogeneity, non-identity with itself [and] endless

inadequationw (17). Similarly, Greene (1995) argues for the affirmation and

(re)affirmation of 9he principles that center around belief in justice and freedorn and

respect for human rights, since without these, we cannot even cal1 for the decency of

welcoming and inclusion for everyone, no matter how at riskW(43). She p k s for many

of us when she proclaims "we want our classrooms to be just and caring, full of various

conceptions of the goodW(167). Demda (1997) proposes that deconstruction has a role

to play in the (re)construction of the ideal of justice not only in classrooms, but in

(inter)national society as well. He explains that

[IJnternational law, which is a good thing, nevertheles is still rooted in its mission, in its action, in its languages, in a Western concept of philosophy, a Western concept of the state and of sovereignty, and this is a limit. We have to deconstmct the foundations of this international law, but not in order to destroy the international organization.. .we have to rethink the philosophical foundations of these international organizations (12).

It may be that deconstruction as an bterpretative framework will aid academics as well as

future tenerations of educators, politicians and activists in the achievement of a more just

human order and a more equitable conceptualization of world issues.

Deconstruction is more than simply the analyzing of ideology (dominant and

marginal) as discourse; it is also about 3he unreaiized possibilities that exist in ideology

as lived experience" (Aronowitz & Giroux,1991,102). John D. Caputo, in a dialogue

with Derrida, defines deconstruction as "respect, respect for the other, a respectful,

responsible affirmation of the other, a way if not to efface at least to delimit the

narcissisrn of the self (which is, quite literally, a tautology) and to make some space to let

the other be" (Demda,1997,44). Caputo's deconstruction denies ail claims to

"overarching, tram-historical, tramcendental, ontological, universal structuresw

(Derrida, 175). Deconstniction demonstrates through its notion of the irreconcilability of

difference across cultures (what post-structuralists cail "diiffeiaance" or cultural

incommensurability) the need for hegemonic meta-narratives to incorporate the meanings

constnicted by the -otherW (Derrida, 175). According to Demda (198 l), Mdife'rance refers

to the (active and passive) movement that consists in defemng by means of delay,

delegation, repneve, referral, detou, postponement, reserving" (8). In this interpretation,

the most important relati-hip is between ~di&;once~ and defetment or Ucspacernent"

(10). Special attention is given to the gaps through which meaning is constructed.

Derrida (1995) writes that displacements unfold -according to an embedding of

discourses of a narrative type, reported or not, of which the origin or the first enunciation

appears to be always relayed, appearuig to disappear even where it appears" (1 1 1 - 1 12).

It is only by deferring to another time and place that we can trace rneaning. Meaning is

located in the difference between contexts; the spaces and pauses that can be traced in

retrospect . Thus it is through 'translation' or the association and dispersement of

meaning that culture can be interpreted.

Central to the practice and implementation of deconstruction is the concept of the

"postmodem momentw, defined by Gayatri Chakrovorty Spivak (1987) as "tak[ing] into

account how we are ounelves caught in a time and a place, and then.. . imagin[ing] acting

within such an awarenessW(99). Integral to this conceptualization is the condition that al1

theoretical perspectives can be located within a panicular time with particular interests at

stake. Rather than choosing between perspectives on the basis of bias and impartiality,

awareness of the 'postmodem moment' ^teaches one to question al1 transcendental

idealisms" (Spivak, 1987,103). Instead of exploring transcendental truths, the prmess of

deconstruction, like 'cultural studies as practice', (the topic of Chapter 5 j provides a

frarnework within which to ponder what Richard Johnson (2000) calls the

%-ansdisciplinary momentw in which perspectives or disciplines corne into

communicative contact. As Spivak (1987) proposes, deconstruction points out the

"irreducibility of the margin in al1 explanationsw (107); that is to say, contrasting

perspectives wili not go away simply because they are ignored. Like al1 discourses, they

are caught in a time and a place within the intemices of power and knowledge; however,

they are by no means absent or irrelevant to cultural discourse as a whole.

Spivak demonstrates deconstruction to be an effective tool in the decentering of

traditional Eurocentric attitudes by imagining that niodemist perspectives, although

valuable within their moment or histoncal location, are not necessarily the best

perspectives despite k i n g inscribed in history. Thus the dependent term in the binary

opposition centrelmargin is not merely reversed, but displaceû, in that we can now

inspect both centre and margin fkom the perspective of the possibilities of explanation,

rather than simply official and unofficial versions of the 'tmth'. This brings marginal

literature and philosophy into contact with dominant notions in a way that satisfies

Spivak's (1987) requirement that culture be seen as a -heterogeneous predicament

constituted by discontinuitiesw. These postmodem discontinuities or ruptures within

social theory are the points at which objectivity has failed to reconcile competing or

'incommensurable' ideologies. Spivak (1987) believes deconstruction constitutes the

work of the humanities, as the process produces "cultural explanations that question the

explanations of culturew (1 17). Thus, this framework is self-reflexive, in that it

interrogates the constmctive activity involved in producing explanatiors of culture.

Barry Smart (1992) describes the act of deconstruction as the "inversion" of the

traditional "objectivew approach to educational, political and ethnographie studies. This

approach 'allows existing alternative forms of social solidarity and radical political

strategy to be analyzed in their own right, rather than as signs of an absent 'coherent'

collective class politicsw (214). in a discussion of Laclau and Mouffe (1985), Smart

(1992) States that the struggle for culture can be conceived of as the "constitution of a

social identity" which " i n d u c e s a division into social space, a division predicated upon

attributed relations of equivalence and difference, through which political identity and

opposition are formed" (214). With respect to this, he advocates a radically different

approach to be taken; one that lays the foundation of analysis on problemati~ng the

absence of a political identity. What is desired is an approach, like deconstruction or

discursive anaiysis that "takes account of the proliferation of political antagonimis" (2 14)

rather than positing a collective and hegemonic narrative of cultural identity in opposition

to 'others'. Laclau and Mouffe (1985) assert that deconsmiction enlarges the scope of

the study of culture, for it makes possible recognition of the "plurality of the social, and

the unsutured character of a11 political identity" (166). As Said (1994) has pointed out,

the new critical paradigrns in social theory-in addition to "celebrating" one's own

identity-also uncover "the possibility of discovering a worid not constmcted out of

wamng essencesw (277). Herein lies the importance of acknowledging the role of power

rather than the role of 'objectivity' in constructing 'culture'. Integrating power (in the

substantive sense) into this analysis may lead to a more critical hmework for discussing

'world issues' despite the hegemonic infrastructure.

As "Part F: The Senior Division Program" of the Geography (1988) cumculum

States, 7 h e careful selection of an appropriate content base is important. However, the

accumulation of facts, no matter how detailed or comprehensive, may not lead students to

understanding. Students require central ideas and organiting principles that will help

them to make sense of the information they acquireW(2). Imaginative pedagogical

approaches criticdy (re)examine the versions of 'truth' and 'reality' as they are

represented in modemist discourse as the histoty of 'great men'. One of the major

criticisms of poststmctural frarneworks (which attempt to h m e "a world not constructed

out of warring essencesw) is that deconstruction is merely engaged in the annihilation of

structure and certainty. Although this is afi astute observation on many leveis, on others

it is yet another example of how entrenched theoretical paradigms maintain a hegemonic

privilege at the expense of emerging critical frameworks. At present, recent

advancements in theory are in the process of negotiating and (re)negotiating the lirnits of

theoretical categories in curriculum discourse and practice. As Bauman (1992) asserts,

"[Rlules emerge mostly as reactions to strife and the consequences of ensuing

negotiations; still, the already negotiated rules remain by and large precarious and under-

determined, while the needs for new niles - to regdate previousiy unanticipated

contentious issues - keeps proliferating" (20 1-202). The cuttent emphasis on

postmodern frameworks and deconstruction as a methodology are relatively recent

examples of this continuing negotiation within the study of culture. Like Maxine Greene

(1995) says, "1 want to help us think in ways that move beyond schooling to the targer

domains of education, where there are and must be all kinds of openings to

possibility"(5).

A Critical Reading of the YWorld Issues: Geographical Interpretations" (1988)

Curricdwn Document

Before considering alternative pedagogical approaches to 'world issues', I

propose to look critically at an existing document, the "World Issues: Geographical

Interpretations" (1988) cumculum. This document is used in this thesis as a

representative guideline for other 'world issues' courses across the country. In this way

we rnay compare the way it is (and has been) taught and the conceptual frarneworks on

whic h i t is based with other pedagogical approaches.

in general, the GWI (1988) curriculum relies upon a conceptual and

methodoiogical framework that dichotomizes Western and non-Western, thus

marginalizing the cultural constructions of the 'other'. As well, it advocates an

'unbiased' or objective view of the world, under the assumption that one can be

politically neutral. The curriculum is also rnissing key pedagogical insights that may lead

to more praxis-oriented, 'transfomat ive' or d ynamic interpretations of cultural discourse.

The Ontario Ministry of Education cumculum guideline for GWI (1988) suggests

under the heading "Student Readinessw that "many classes will be heterogeneous,

including students with a wide range of backgrounds in geography" (4). This implicitly

suggests that sorne classes will be homogenous, something 1 have yet to encounter in my

teaching career. Within the same paragmph, teachers are encouraged to "accommodate

that diversityw (4) referred to in the preceding sentence. This seems, once again, to

marginalize the whole notion of heterogeneity into sornething that must be

'accommodateci'. This is a surprising choice of words to fïnd in the cumculum guideline

for a geography course taught in Canada, a country with an officia1 policy of

multiculturalisrn (Troper,l987) as weil as a reputation for being one of the most

multicultural nations in the world. A reading that proposes that heterogeneity must be

'accornrnodated' rather than 'assumed' has the capacity to perpetuate hegemonic

relations between/among cultures.

Fortunately, there are those who '3eject as overtly sirnplistic the view chat schools

are inherently conservative institutions whose pnmary function is to support existing

forms of social and economic relations" (Simon,1992,121). In a chapter entitled "What

Schools Can Do: Designing Programs for Work Education That Challenge the Wisdom

of Expenencew, Roger Simon and Don Dippo (1992) propose a view of schwling Zhat

rejects a "reductionist economic deterrninism" in favour of a framework that views

"schools as a site of cultural productionw in order to "help transform future possibilities

for youthw (12 1). When contrasted with the perspective outlined in the GW(1988)

curric ulurn, this constitutes a radical way of frarning cuiture.

In the section entitled "Course Rationale and Overview", it is stated that "a major

purpose" of the course is the "development of students' awareness that people in al1

countries are influenceci by events and activities in vinually al1 parts of the world, even

though many of the people affected may not be aware of the reasons for many of the

changes that affect them" (6). Firstly, this suggests an &hem discourse that is negative.

Notice that the students and the school are not implicated as a site for cultural production

- in so much as the "major purpose" is written in the third person, as if it was only 'other'

people who -may nw be aware of the reasons for many of the changes that affect rhem

[ernphasis addedr This is an example of what Simon (1992) refers to as a common

problem, that is "the failure to recognize how much of Our own histories and assumptions

shape our ability to make sense of the world" (1 32). The GWI (1 988) curriculum splits

"the great variety of peoples and their differing perspectives" into two categones;

"Canada and other developed countriesw and 'millions of people in other parts of the

worIdW(6-7). This reading sees the passage as brazenly defining ourselves as

homogenous Canadians "against some unknown, some darkness (in many f o m , not only

of skin color), some "othemess" that we chose to t h m t away, to master rather than to

understand" (Greene,1995,162). To represent 'Canadians and wealthy citizens of other

countries", as the GWI (1988) curriculum does, in "stark contras" to "millions of people

in other parts of the world" (7) is highly problematic. As Freire (1985) has discovered,

what he calls "Ihird World populations" exist in al1 countries, as does the mling class in

underdeveloped or impoverished countries (101). This misrepresentation within the

cumculum unfairly dichotomizes populations in the world geographically and

geopolitically into two 'constructedg categories that are potentially prejudicial.

The course rationaie goes beyond a simple omission of the interdependency of

nations by further perpetuating the dichotomous essentializations of 'us' and 'them'. A

prime exarnple is found in the passage that states "the disadvantaged in Canadian society

may be envied by the disadvantaged in another countryw (7). Of course this is quite

possibly true, yet the omission of "and vice versa" is a grave one, grossly

rnisrepresenting what it means to be disadvantaged. More importantly, the word envy

reduces the socio-economic and political discourse of nations and poverty to personal

jealousy between 'haves* and 'have nots'. Poverty and under-development are a result of

social and political processes perpetuated through disparate relations of power and

colonization. To use the word "envyw to describe this geu-political discourse is

inadequate. In my view, this is counterproductive to the goals of a study of culture,

geopphy or 'world issues' which would enable students and teachets to envision the

Iives of 'others*; to do as Greene (1995) suggests and "make more and more inclusive the

number of people to which %eu refers" (194).

A central aspect of this issue may lie in examining what outcornes are intended

from the leaming process. What is the purpose of the study of culture in "World Issues:

Geopphical Interpretations" (1988)? In the innoductory paragraph to the GWI (1988)

document, it is proposed Zhe leaming process in OACs should assist students to acquire

attitudes, knowledge, and skills that will help them to succeed in further education or in

the world of work"(2). This is definitely an important aspect of the cumculum, but I

would argue that at an OAC level, high schools could offer a more dynamic description

of the desired outcorne, one which includes a 'relational' definition of culture; one which

creates a space for the discursive transformation of social and cultural politics. As Simon

m e are interesteci in education for work and not simply training for jobs. Therefore we ask what knowledge, skills, and abilities do students need in order to understand and participate in changes that are taking place in the work world? This, we assert, is a question of cultural politics. Helping students to understand the economic, social, and cultural relations that shape their sense of what is possible and desirable influences the extent to which they are able to define an expanded range of possibilities for the future (123).

With the advent of systems of global communication, it becornes more and more

important to understand cultural relations and how they relate to the future of 'world

issues' as a site of inquiry. In the opinion of Greene (1995), curriculum frameworks and

outcornes do not adequately address Wie matter of our purposes as a societyw(l 70). The

cumculum stops short in the consideration of 'what it means to educate live persons, to

empower the young not simply to make a living and contribute to the nation's econornic

welfare but to live and, along with others, remake their own worlds (1 70). By drawing

attention to the process of cultural construction, we create a space for an imaginative

conceptualization of our own 'worlds' as weU as the 'worlds' of others.

To further explicate this, 1 can once again cite examples h m the GWI (1988)

cumculum. Under "Attitudinal Objectives" in "Section C: Economic and Resource

issues" two contradictory goals are presented on the same List. One the one hand,

students in the class shall be provided with the opportunities to "become inmeasingly

objective in the evaluation of informationw and on the other, to "recognize thât nations as

well as individuals may hold differing viewpoints on the same issue;" (14). It would

seem to me that an objective viewpoint would seriously impair the ability to recognize

that nations may hold differing viewpoints on the same issue. On the same page, under

"S kills Objectivesw students shall "distinguish between relevant and non-relevant

information and between fact and opinion;" as well as "determine the reliability of

sources of information and predict any potentiai bias" (14). Here the document further

perpetuates dichotomous essentializations such as organizing information into only two

categones, relevant and irrelevant or fact and opinion. Although the concept of bias is

intrduced, it is not r edy clarified that al1 messages are selective and represent the point

of view of the sender, thus perpetuating the hegemonic tradition of atvibuting bias

elsewhere.

In "Section D: Cultural and Political Issuesw, it is stated that students shall be

provided with opportunities to "understand techniques used in gathering data and

translating it into visual formats that are informative, easily rad, and unbiased;"( 16).

This 'objective' makes no attempt to address the issues of partiality, representation,

power, possibility or the pervasiveness of cultural b i s . What is missing in the

cumculum is a conceptual framework with which to comprehend subjectivity. In an

analysis of culture, the anmipt should be to understand our own biases in order to more

fully comprehend the biases of others. Aithough 1 am sure there are many learned

educators in Canada with the ability to overcome the objectives of the c~miculum, these

objectives seem to be yet another example of the way in which

... schools legitimize the dominant cultural capital through the hierarchically arranged bodies of schwl knowledge in the hegemonic curriculum, and by rewarding students who use the linguistic style of the ruling class.. . In effect, certain linguistic practices and modes of discourse become privileged by being treated as natural to the gifted, when in fact they are the speech habits of dominant classes and thus serve to perpetuate cultural pnvileges (Aronowiu & Giroux, 1993,77).

Thus we can see how schooling c m not only marginalize 'other' cultures, but also

students who speak from perspectives 'resistant' to normative discourse.

In this analysis I am citing the curriculum as an example of an empiricist body of

discourse that lacks sensitivity toward the predicament of culture. As Simon (1992) has

asserted,

[Vhere are no racist or sexist texts-in-themselves. Rather, there are exclusionary, violent, and oppressive writings and readings produced and regulated by discourses that assert a ïni th in the world." It is these discourses that can and must be contested, overtumed, and supplanted with a discourse capable of embracing a pluraiity of possibility (1 17).

What Simon is advocating are "insurgent readings" (1 15) which hold a counterdiscursive

position to normative readings, requiring students and teachers to critically evaluate the

moral and ethical b a i s for each perspective. It is hoped that "through a study of one's

responses to text, one can be helped to locate oneself (one's perceptions, beliefs, desires)

within the very "worldly" discourses that constitute a person's way of being in the

worldW(1 14-1 15). By focusing on discourse, students may be enabled to tum their gaze

to the limits and possibilities of the diverse ways of making sense of world issues "in

relation to plausible notions of a desirable future" (1 18).

The 'global' environment of the information age introduces many different

cult urall y -specific and culturally -constnicted versions of the tmth into political discourse.

To illustrate this, 1 wili return once again to the "Course Rationale and Overview" of the

GWI curriculum. In the passage discussed previousiy, it is asserted that "the media in

Canada and other deveioped countries provide immediate infornation on events taking

place half a world away.. .Sirnilarly, because of their increasing ability to travel, many

Canadians and wealthy citizens of other countries are able to visit distant countriesw(6-7).

This quotation is taken deliberately out of its assumed context (of the contrast between

'us' and "millions of people in other parts of the wor1dw(6)) in an effort to represent the

increasing pervasiveness of theories envisioning a global environment. Note that the

'other' here is represented as distant. More importantly, this is an example of how the

'world issues' environment can be misrepresented as something which is allegedly

-lobal, yet continues to (re)present the world's population as something 'other' than b

itself. It is explained further that

[qhe primary intent of the geography OACs is to provide a global perspective on contemporary issues. Studies based on global issues wili

assist students to increase their understanding of their world, recognize its diversity, and clarim their place in its varied, interacting systemsW(7).

My contention is that although this is the stated rationale, many of the objectives

(Attitudinal, Knowledge and Skills) are counter-productive to accepting the diversity of

our admittedly heterogeneous environment. Following are three examples of these

Objectives anathema to recognizing diversity. Fïrstly, to "make value judgements [sic]

based on reasoned analysis and valid evidence"(l0) when what is valid to one culture is

not necessarily valid to another. Secondly, to "identify some of the difficulties involved

in gathenng information and translating it to formats that are informative, easy to r a d ,

and unbiased"(l0) despite the well-documented notion that al1 perspectives contain their

own b i s , as "there are at least two and, most often, many points of view on a

situationU(9). Thirdly, to "determine whether information is fact or opinion"(l1) which is

the most probiematic of all, for obvious reasons, when dealing with issues that are

culturally-constructed and "global in naturew( 1 1).

What 1 am atternpting to convey is how fittle consideration is paid to the

multiracial and pluralist environment in which the students live. It is cumculum

documents such as the G W (1988) that fail to acknowledge the necessity for making

schooling "adequate to a changing economic, political and ideological environment"

(Aronowitz & Giroux,1993,13). In a cumculum document in which one is encouraged to

be unbiased, there is a tendency to assign truth value to some cultural perspectives which

seem unbiased due to high correspondence with one's own prejudices, as well as a

tendency to reject perspectives perceived as 'other' or biased. From a critical

pedagogical approach, "practices that attempt to offer the truth about a text are perhaps

best understood as a bid to hegemonically fix textual meaning" (Simon,l992,111). It is

with this in rnind that we consider imaginative pedagogical alternatives to the empirical

structure of the GWI (1988) cumculurn.

In my opinion, the real work of 'world issues' should be to increase awareness of

cultural production and analyze the role of power in the construction of previously

unanticipated political and epistemological standpoints. This is how we corne to know

'culture'. According to hooks (1994), we need to enter into the search for "different

ways of thinking and knowing that [are] crucial to creating a counter-hegemonic

worldviewu (1 7 1). She suggests somewhat allegorically that

we may learn from spaces of silence as well as spaces of speech, that in the patient act of listening to another tongue we may subvert that culture of capitalist frenzy anci consurnption that demands al1 desire must be satisfied imrnediately, or we may disrupt that cultural imperialism that suggests one is worthy of k i n g heard only if one speaks in standard English (174).

Once again, 1 will tum to cumculurn to illustrate my point. The GWI (1988) outline

states, "although it has been said that al1 individuals are part of the globaI society, many

individuals do not have equal opportunities to share the world's resources and take part h

the global society in any meaningful way" (6). Unfortunately, this statement is not

clarified with any attention to the question of why this inequality exists, how it was (and

is being) created, and what possible solutions there may be in the future. Here, the

"spaces of silence" (hooks,1994,174) are being ignominiously shoved aside. is it more

likely that 'they' contribute nothing 'meaningful', or that 'they' are not seen as worthy of

being heard? The GWI (1988) cumculum document also states (in the "Course

Rationale and O v e ~ e w " ) that "the great variety of peoples and their differing

perspectives and problems are important aspects of this coursew, without clarifjing in

what way they are important, aside ftom the assertion that "a large proportion of the

world's people may have neither the equipment to receive information nor the ability to

readU(6-7). This may be me, but the way it is presented is strikingly sirnilm to the way

"white people in Western countries were unable to credit those they called "Negroes" or

"Aficans" [Gates, 1992,52421 with ordinary intelligence or with the ability to read and

writew (Greene, 1995,3). Especially considering the conversion of many 'international*

schools to American accredited cumculum taught exclusively in English, this seems to

me to be an unjust and exclusionary interpretation of the plight of the world's

disadvantaged.

The GWI (1988) "Course Outlinew further States that "the term issue refers to a

question, concern, or problem that has reached the stage of dialoguew(9). 1 can agree with

this statement if the definition of dialogue is dynamic; if it is, as Freire (1990) would

require, "revolutionary" in the sense that it initiates "a courageous dialogue with the

people" (122). By Freire's definition,

[Tlhere is no dichotomy between dialogue and revolutionary action. There is not one stage for dialogue and another for revoiution. On the contrary, dialogue is the essence of revolutionary action. In the theory of this action, the actors intersubjectively direct their action upon an object (reality, which mediates them) with the humanization of men (to be acfiieved by transforming that reality) as their objective (1 3 1).

If we concede to discourse the power of shaping 'reality', based on the assurnption that

culture is socially constructed, dialogue takes on a more imaginative and revolutionary

character. Unfortunately, 1 don't think this definition coincides with the cumculum

definition. How can "a courageous dialogue with the peoplew be constituted within a

framework that discriminates between 'biased' and 'unbiased' information? Who within

the dialogue decides which perspective is Tact" and which is "opinion" (GWi, 1988,l l)?

Greene (1995) believes that many sorts of dialogue are implicated in *reshaping

imagination". This includes dialogue such as

dialogue among the young who come fiom different cultures and different modes of life, dialogue among people who have come together to solve problems that seem worth solving to aU of them, [and] dialogue among people undertaking shared tas ks, protesting injustices, avoiding or overcoming dependencies or illnessesw(5).

This kind of dialogue is not just an interaction between two people or two perspectives,

but represents the emergent discursive framing of what Greene later refers to as

bmultilogue" connotating translation or "the achievement of reciprocal

understanding"(195).

We need to understand the structures of history, oppression, politics and culture in

a critical way in order to more fully comprehend geography as the study of cultural

constructions. Although the G W (1988) section on "Skills Objectives" approximates a

loosely organized analysis of difference and ways of Icnowing, unfortunately the

curriculum neglects to subject these notions to critical inquiry. Although students are

encouraged to "write a description of the differing points of view held by different people

on a single topic or issue" and to "write descriptions of their own experiences and

opinionsw (16), the curriculum neglects to question the broader implications of how these

opinions and points of view are constructed through discourse and the power of social

namti ves. Imaginative pedagogical approaches provide alternative structures with

which to analyze concems surrounding the construction of culture in discourse, as well as

alIowing for the possibilities of transformation through the dynamic construction of

' world issues' as revolutionary dialogue, or discourse.

A Critical Pedagogical Approach to 'World Issues'

On the way to Brooklyn in the autumn of 1993 to visit a friend my companions

and 1 got lost near the reputedly dangerous area surrounding Fiatbush Park. From Our

white eyes it seemed that hundreds of menacing looking thugs lined the streets. A police

ofTicet stopped us and came up to the car window. Upon my inquiry as to the problem,

the officer stated fIatly "you shouldn't be heah" in a thick Brooklyn drawl. After 1

explained that our destination was on President Avenue, the officer informed us that he

would give us an escort, but he could not accompany us the whole way as President

Avenue was not pan of his b a t . Pan way down the Street we were led to, Our progress

was halted by a host of large black men. Just as my companions and 1 were reaching a

stage of near panic, our friend Justice emerged fiom the crowd. He explained that he had

instructed his "boysu to look out for us. Justice pointed three doors down, relating that

the neighbourhood crack house was known to throw Molotov cocktails at the cars of

unwary tounsts. "Nobody touch this car, hear," said Justice to his friends, These are rny

Canadian brothas".

Justice was the consumate tour guide. In the week following, he talked

constantly of urban warfare, the ghetto, hip-hop culture and the three prirnary ways for an

Arnerican black man to escape poverty: music, basketbail and the drug trade. He

instructed us in the fine points of Brooklyn etiquette and cultural awareness. He carved

out the boundaries of his 'temtory' the area within which we ( t h e white Canadians)

could expect to be protected. As well, Justice explainecl the custom of stepping off the

sidewalk to give respectful passage to the more powerful members of the comrnunity:

any Rastafarian, any "Oriental" wearing a suit, and the 'Cubansw. On a short visit to

Rockaway in East Manhattan, we narrowly avoided a territorial clash with five Cubans

through Justice's political intervention on our behalf.

Justice had 'escaped' from Brooklyn, but had returned to lend support to his

community. He had 'adopted' two teenagers, ran an amateur theatre troupe in the

surnmer, and waiked his four-year-old son to and fiom school every day. Justice had

never been inside his son's preschool as the metaI detectors prevented him from entenng

with the 'piece' he camed to protect his family. The demarcations between temtoties

were so extreme on Resident Avenue that Justice's 'boys' only 'owned' one side of the

street. The other side was held by the "Hittitesw (otthodox lews) and crossing the street

was expressly forbidden. On a trip to visit Justice's mother we encountered the skyline

of "the projects* in Lower Manhattan, a large group of twenty-story buildings built on the

decommissioned rail yards, each building considered the 'temtory' of distinct groups.

Some of these buildings were even 'off-lirnits' to the police force, which were wisely

instructed by their superiors to leave these communities to their own fonn of self-

government.

This experience demonstrated to me how misguided was the cunicular division

between "Canada and other countries" and "millions of people al1 over the world"

(GWI,1988,6), for like my rural surroundings as a child, Brooklyn did not conform to the

curricular representation of a large and 'wealthy' Arnerican city. The area was

characterized instead by poverty, unernployment, racial strife and many distinct

marginalized populations. Despite the proliferation of armaments, there seemed to me to

be a greater toletance for 'othemess' than 1 had expected. Some of the children would

even touch Our skin as they had no previous contact with 'whites'. The stnfe seemed

marked more by economic necessity than prejudice as b a t h were waged more for

temtory and resources than out of racial or cultural intolerance.

The following chapter is an attempt to demonstrate how the use of critical

pedagogical frameworks such as the ones presented by Aronowitz and Giroux (1991) and

Maxine Greene (1995) can offer a more inclusive conceptual frarnework for the analysis

of 'world issues' within secondary school cumculum. It is my belief that through critical

pedagogy a tacher can advocate a way of seeing culture as it is manifested within a

'global' environment. The use of critical pedagogy involves educators in the task of

(re)framing our traditional notions of schooling and educational practice. Through an

analysis of critical approaches to leaming we may provide alternative ways of 'seeing'

and 'knowing' the global environment implicated in 'world issues'. In this chapter 1 will

extend my discussion of discursive or pluralist interpretations of culture to the

pedagogical issue of what effect this may have on curriculum and in the classrmm. 1

propose that a pluralist approach raises awareness of historical inequalities in the

construction of culture and points to 'partial' frameworks or f o m of subjectivity,

making possible a re-animation of the student voice.

Aronowitz and Giroux (199 1) suggest that what is lacking in educational policies

is an analysis of "the structuring pnnciples of curriculum texts in order to more fully

understand how these coding structures contribute to the ways in which knowledge is

produced, mediateci, consumed, and transformed as part of the overall pedagogical

process" (88). They argue for a reading that allows teachers and students to discover how

both knowledge and social relations are constructed through the exercise of power in

ways that can silence as well as empower. In this approach, the opinion of a student is

(re)constructed and (re)appropriated as part of the analysis of the stniggle over culture.

These issues are worked out -a: the levels of cmiculum knowledge, pedagogy, and the

exercise of institutional power" (88-89).

Curriculum packages, especially those designed in an effort to standardize the

structures of teaching and learning, reproduce systems of control that may actually

disempower students and teachers by appropriating the power of cntical inquiry, rightly

situated within the classrocm. Simon (1992) reminds us that "the practice of pedagogy

cannot be developed in a fomulaic manner, for teaching is, first and foremost, a practical

activity that m u t respond to the contingencies of particular classroom encountersw (1 1 7).

BI (re)locati ng the power inherent in discursive positioning, future 'world issues'

curriculum may be able to provide a structure that moves beyond the examination of

"opinion" (GW988 ,16 ) to the more evocative question of how these opinions are

formed, laying the Yheoretical basis for transfomative modes of curriculum theory and

practicen (Aronowitz & Giroux,1993,149). Aronowitz and Giroux (1993) believe that a

project of this magnitude would require "a radically different conception of fundamental

categories such as identity, social agency, power, knowledge, and the role of teachers as

intellectualsw (1 49). They advocate challenging assumptions inscribed in the dominant

interpretation of discourse and power, making it possible for the educational institution to

add new criteria to the analysis of cultural issues, thereby restructuring the theoretical

frameworks used by teachers and administrators, (93); and, 1 would add, by the students

as well.

Atonowitz and Giroux (199 1) advocate

the development of a pedagogy that replaces the authoritative language of recitation with an approach that allows students to speak from their own histones, collective memories, and voics while shultaneously chailenging the grounds on which knowledge and power are constructed and legitimated (129).

As part of the process of developing a 'pedagogy of difference" (130), teachers need to

reclaim the power of opinion, legitimating the -plethora of voices, and the specificity and

organization of differences", thereby (re)working the constitution of the course,

classroom and cumculum "so as to make problematic not only the stories that give

meanings to the lives of their students, but also the ethical and political linearnents that

inforrn their students' subjectivities and identities" (130). In light of this legitimatization

of opinion or 'collective cultural bias', students may be empowered to voice critical

interpretations "in terms of their distinct social formations and their broader collective

hopes- ( 132). From within this discursive positioning, knowledge and power can corne

together to reaffirrn and interrogate difference, to assess cultural limitations, to tease out

the theoretical implications of culture, and "to engage a vision of cornmunityu (132).

Aronowitz and Giroux (1993) assert "the relationship between school culture and

power has suffered traditionally from the unwillingness of the conservative and critical

educators tû give senous consideration to how schools as political sites both repress and

produce subjectivities" (135). Schoois not o d y "discredit, disorganize and dismantle"

particular ways of making sense of our environment, but also function to 'constitute

subjectivities through language, knowledge, and social practices" (135). Traditionally,

educational institutions focus on the reproduction and maintenance of a modernist

discourse "legitimated as a universal set of symbolic values and knowledge formsw (135).

This hegemonic discourse interprets power and the implementation of cumculum in a

way that "disables rather than enables critical leamhg and social transformation" (135).

"Radical educational theory" argues that school cdture and curriculum perpetuate a

-panicular relationship with niling class forms of social life" and "function to primarily

repress those active forms of cultural capital that express and affirm the histories,

langages, and social practices of subordinate groupsU(l35). It is this repressive aspect

of the power of discourse that new frameworks may be designed to dispel. As an

alternative, we may begin to contemplate how power can function within the education

system to produce and support discourses capable of recognizing emergent as well as

'other' perspectives.

Central to this discussion is the concept of voice; which, when defined in its most

radical sense

points to the ways in which one's voice as an elaboration of location, experience, and history constitutes f o m s of subjectivity that are multilayered, mobile, cornplex, and shifting. The category of voice can o d y be constituted in differences, and it is in and through these multiple layers of meaning that students are positioned and position themselves in order to be the subject rather than merely the object of history (Aronowitz & Giroux,1991,100).

In order for students to become agents in the process of making history, it is necessary to

contemplate the broader issues of how people become subjects and how subjects are

"oppressed and exploited within the various discursive and institutional boundarîes that

produce dominant and subordinate cultures in any given society" (101). in this manner,

the literature and culture of "the Otherw (102) can provide a connection to the voices of

students who were previously unable to identiFy their own histories in the cuniculum.

The repressed voices, struggles and critical perspectives of marginalized peoples

-provide the grounds for new ways of reading history" (102), a way of (re)appmpriating

power and identity. Analysis of the culturally-constructed realities surrounding 'issues'

and competing viewpoints provides the opportunity for students to "identiw, unravel, and

critically debate the codes, vocabularies, and ideologies of different cultural traditionsw

(102). In this case, it is important to create a space in which the students can becorne

aware of their discursive positioning; and, by extrapolation, discover how social and

cultural constructs are tied to the exercise of power within traditional and non-traditional

narratives of the state of being in the world.

With respect to the exercise of power, Greene (1995) argues that "treating the

world as predefined and given, as simply there, is quite separate and different from

appl ying an initiating, constructing mind or consciousness to the world" (23). Greene

(1995) advocates an "emphasis on interpretive and cntical approachesw enabling a

"reappropriation of cultural forms by al1 the diverse students in our classes" (57). She

explains that once students have begun to "name" their worlds, they will "have the

capacity to construct multiple realities" (57). "Naming-, according to Greene, is a

'function of a growing acquaintance with conceptual networks and symbol systems

characteristic of the culture's way of making sensew (57). Greene elsewhere calls this

awareness of conceptua1 frameworks a "groundedw or a "situated consciousnessw(75).

This is arguably a valuable asset in the teaching of any discipline, especially 'World

Issues' which focuses its inquiry on "a number of fundamental, intertwined conceptions:

location, pattern, spatial interaction, human interaction with the environment, and

regionw(GWI, l988,g). By incorporating the subjective aspects of naming, students may

be able to (re)construct their environment in a way that is more compatible with their

own histories and the histones of 'others'.

Perhaps Said (1994) evokes the true nature of these human interactions when he

dubs them "common experiences and interdependencies" (262) in the sense that ail

peoples "share the same history, even though for some.. . t h history is enslavedw (33 1).

Pondering humanly constructed and interdependent histories l a d s Said to conclude that

-cornmunity among cultures is the real human liberation portended by the resistance to

irnperialism" (262). Perhaps the most important task of the information age is to "ask

how one can study other cultures and peoples from a libertarian, or a non-repressive and

non-manipulative, perspective" (Said, l978,Z). Bauman (1992) holds a similar opinion

based on the assumptions that the world is irreducibly pluralist and that it lacks univerd

standards. He asserts Zhe problem of the postmodem world is not how to globalize

superior culture, but how to secure communication and mutual understanding between

cdtures" (102). In a related passage on the "postmodern world", he States "rendering the

messages mutually communicable is its major problem. Expertise in the rules of correct

interpretation is what it needs mostw (106). It is my contention that critical pedagogical

constructs can provide us with an interpretative framework that will aid us in exarnining

the plural environment in which we live.

It may be that by hamessing the narrative voice, we can attempt to foilow Maxine

Greene (1995) in the act of exarnining and (re)examining the "processes of human

questioning, responses to blank spaces in experience, [and] resistances to

meaninglessness" (6). Although some may cnticize her perspective as overly optirnistic,

Greene believes that ïeachers are becoming aware that they need to think more deeply

about enabling more students to be personaily present to their own leaniing processes and

self-reflective with regard to them" (181). A critical component of this leaming process

is comprised of interpretive approaches to knowing. Indeed, the approach to 'world

issues' within cumculurn should be one that -dislodges fixities, resists one-

dimensionality, and aIIows multiple persona1 voices to become articulate in a more and

more vital dialogue" (183). ln so doing, students may be empowered not only to interpret

but also to challenge dominant approaches to 'world issues' as well as the frameworks

within which they are contained. As Aronowiu and Giroux (1991) point out, reading

culture "within an affmnation of difference" not only validates the achievements of those

perceived as 'other', "it offers the broader opportunity to provide a sustained critique of

the historical and institutional practices that exclude them while simultaneously engaging

such texts for the possibilities they may or may not offer for democratic public life"

(102). To formulate 'world issues' in the context of voice, narrativity, or subjectivity

within the discourse of difference is to invoke the liberating and validating aspect of the

study of culture, providing students with the parameters within which the many meanings

and interpretations can be used to empower tather than to disempower.

Although 1 have concentrated in this chapter on the (re)animation of the student

voice through the use of the critical pedagogical approaches of Aronowitz and Giroux

(1991,1993) and Maxine Greene (1995), there are wide-ranging implications for this

teaching practice. Firstly, it legitimizes or (re)centres subjective frarnes of reference.

This makes possible the contemplation of the constructivist nature of social discourse and

introduces a more pluralist framework from which to consider bias in 'world issues'.

SecondIy, it impiicitly suggests the complex and interdependent relationship between the

power of 'narning' and the production of 'knowledge', especially as it is manifested

wi t hin learning institutions. niirdly, the framing of 'knowledge' in terms of subjectivity

creates a space for the imaginative projection of alternative structures of 'knowing',

paving the way for transfomative modes of communication within the context of 'world

issues'.

Chapter 6

A Cultural Studies Approach to 'World Issues'

In November and December of 1994 1 was traveling in Morocco just after an

attempted secession of the Spanish (Western) Sahara from under the popular rule of

IMorocco's Berber Monarch, King Hassan II. AH import/export trade between the

nei ghbouri ng countries of Algeria and Mauritania had k e n suspended due to ailegations

that these nations were supplying arms to the resistant factions, comprised in part by

traditional Bedouin populations involved in salt rnining. AU of the ports other than the

port from Tanaers to Europe were closed, and the King's amiy had k e n recently

mobilized and sent south. Fortunately, the a m y anived to find only a hastily constructed

fence along what used to be the border between the two regions, and bloodshed was

avoided. Upon amving in the bus terminal in Tarfaya (just north of the disputed region),

my cornpanions and I were searched for arms and redirected back to the femy that ran

between Tangiers and Gibraltar as the sole exit from the country. Fmding this option

unsatisfactory, as 1 was headed west to the Canary Islands, 1 accepted a ride to a United

Nations (IN) air base on a pack came1 (actually a one-humped dromedary) with the

members of an empty salt caravan. For three days we traveled in the desert Sun toward

Laayone, where the representatives of the UN had set up camp in order to arbitrate the

dispute. On the way, my Bedouin and Saharawi friends told me of how the people of the

Spanish Sahara had k e n rnining salt for hundreds of years while powerful conquering

nations had been teaping the economic benefits. This clash of cultures was further

exacerbated in the present crisis as the UN had sent a contingent of Ghanese and

Camerwnian representatives to the Spanish Sahara. The UN personnel -many of them

of 'Ashanti' hentage- were looked upon unfavourably by the nationalistic Moroccan

Berbers due to ancient land disputes. In this way the conflict surrounding the secession

of the Spanish Sahara was embroiled not simply in econornic, political and geographical

concerns, but became rnired in the issues presented by competing cultural ideologies as

well.

'Cultural studies' approaches may provide an alternative framework for the study

of 'worId issues' sensitive to cultural as well as empirical concems. 'Cultural studies' is

the name that certain contemporary critical approaches have acquired to denote a

framework that proposes the meeting points of cultures as the primary focus for social

studies research. It is a controversial critical amalgamation of (inter)disciplinary

approaches that views an individual's cultural associations as the most influential

characteristics with which to determine their perspective on an issue.

According to Joyce Canaan (2000), cultural studies is the study of the "power

dynarnics which differentiate people" within the socially constmcted frameworks which

we have identifiai as 'culture'. Canaan States that a central tenet of culturd studies is the

concept that "academic work is political work" in the sense that any perspective within

the academy is charactenzed by a political bias. Therefore no standpoint is neutral, or

objective. In order to explicate this, 1 have adopted Richard J o b o n ' s ( 2 0 0 ) cument

definition of "cultural studies as a practice"; what he sometimes refers to as a "method"

or methodology. Within this fonn of analysis, "subjectivity is an asset rather chan a

liabilityw. The methodological concerns emanating from this framework lie not in

maintaining objectivity, but in placing or locating the particular subjectivity in question;

in making what Johnson (2000) calls a *grounded decisionW. This view critically

questions *culture as an object" in the discursive sense that it has been historicaIIy

constructed to reflect the interests of the powerful and has now begun to acknowledge

"the narrative tum"; the desire to include the voices of those perceived as 'other'. By

Johnson's definition (February 2,2000), there are five distinctive critena for "cultural

studies as practicew:

1. Culturat Formation as a whole 2. Relay to Uie times* (movementsfpedagogies) 3. Identification with the marginal/popular and the critique

of the dominant 4. Dialogue/Analysis with '"the emergentw 5. Orientation to Policy/ Practice

The first criterion deals not with the general study of culture, but with "positions within

the study of difference". In other words, the object of study is not culture but 'cultural

formation'. This perspective integrates power dynamics and partiaiity into the

constriiction of culture as the first of its major theoretical categories. The second

criterion evokes the notion that although critical paradigms or pedagogies are historically

and culturally constructed in time, they continue to affect discourse even after their

%me" has become a thing of the past. Similar to a poststnicturalist interpretation,

Johnson is of the opinion that these "movements" are often described as "moments" in

that ?bey occur, but they don't go away". Johnson argues that traditional frameworks

are often preserved at the expense of newly discovered criteria even after they have lost

some of their utility in the constantly changing environment. This concem leads into the

third critenon that posits a critical approach to dominant forms of cultural analysis. This

category also refers to the preoccupation in cultural studies with the agency or

empowerment of those cultural groups and persons who have historically been silenced;

iricluding, though not exclusive to. women, people of colour, homosexuals, the lower

classes, the handicapped and the disadvantaged. This represents a definitive shifi from

the questions of validity, relevancy or truthfulness of discourse to the question of the

interests that infonn the discursive positions at issue. Appropriately, the faurth criterion

is ensconced in the discursive transformation of what we 'know' to be true; this is the

aspect of cultural studies in which 'dynamic sacial inquiry m u s emerge from the

question" (Johnson,2000). According to Greene (1995), this is the kind of question that

involves "simultaneously critical and creative t hinking and attentive engagement with

actualities"(l75). It may be, as Greene has suggested that "dynamic social inquiry"

commences when educators "create situations in which the young are moved to begin to

ask, in al1 the tones of voice there are, "Why?""(6). Johnson's (2000) fifth and final

criterion (re)asserts the importance of "theory" as a question of the "underpinnings of

policies". This perspective shares similanties with Giroux's (1988) view of theory "as a

form of practice" (36), as well as Simon's (1992) notion that "pedagogy is never an

abstraction"(57).

The five criteria outlined above are neither 'necessary' nor 'sufficient' to describe

the full scope of cultural studies as practice for it is a cntical approach in formation, yet

they are indicative of the discipline's problematization of culture. Compare Johnson's

five cntena to the pedagogical concerns of Aronowitz and Giroux (1993). The following

four categories are presented as theoretical concerns essential to contemporary

discussions of culture and pedagogy :

a) an expanded notion of the political,

b) an attempt to link the languages of ctitique and possibili ty,

C) a discourse that views teachers as public intellectuals, d) a reformulation of the relationship between theory and

practice (136).

The first category repositions schooling as a political process that can neither be seen as

neutral nor as objective. Aronowitz and Giroux (1993) are concerned that we "rescue the

notion of the poIiticalw by including "the entire way we organize social life along with

the power relations that inîorm its underlying practices" (137) in educational structures.

The second category contains the proposition that the study of cumculum be informed

by a language that acknowledges cumculum as the "introduction, preparation, and

legitimation for particular forms of social lifem (137). With respect to the discourse of

possibility, schooling undertakes the challenge of educating students to become active

and cntical citizens. Curriculum discourse can open doorways to accomplishing this by

relating knowledge and power "in a threefold sense" (137):

First, it would interrogate al1 knowledge claims for the interests that structure b t h the questions they raise as well as the questions they exctude. Second, knowledge claims about al1 aspects of schooling and society would be analyzed as part of widet cultural processes intimately connected with the production and legitimation of class, racial, and gender social formations as they are reproduced within asymmetrical relations of power. Third, knowledge would be viewed as part of a collective learning process intimately connected to the dynarnics of struggle and contestation both within and outside of schools (1 37).

The third category, like the previous one, maintains an orientation which focuses on the

transformation of traditional discourse through the teacher's privileged position as an

'intellectual' involved in the reproduction of and resistance to dominant fonns of

discourse. This is sirnilar to Johnson's (2000) second criterion that sees teachers as

caught 'in time'. Teachers and students are subject to the interstices of power that

produce and regulate knowledge at given 'moments', borh inside and outside of the

educational system. Centrai to the teacher's privileged position in the hegemonic

production of knowledge is the responsibility to -recognize the partiality and historically

formed politics of their own location" (138) as well as of the cultural traditions with

which the course content connects. In the fourth category, similar to Johnson's (2000)

orientation toward practice, Aronowitz and Giroux (1993) posit a reformulation of the

relationship between theory and practice affecting curriculum research in such a way that

it becomes "more closely tied to active forms of community life" (138) This orientation

recopizes the need for praxis, the practical implementation of theoretical ftameworks.

In this thesis, my point of praxis is in the arena of 'world issues'.

In "What is Cultural Studies Anyway?" Johnson (1987) articulates three main

premises to a cultural studies methodology. The first is "that cultural processes are

intimately connected with social relations, especially with class relations and class

formations, with sexual divisions, with the racial structuring of social relations and with

age oppressions as a forrn of dependency" (39). The second premise *tes that "culture

involves power and helps to produce asymmetnes in the abilities of individuals and social

groups to define and realize their needs" (39). The third premise, corollary to the other

two, is that "culture is neither an autonomous nor an externally detennined field, but a

site of social differences and strugglesw (39). This cultural studies framework, which is

"not intended to sketch an orthodoxyw is gaining recognition as a methodology From

which students can "occupy a critical tradition criticallyw (40).

Johnson (1987) asserts that no one discipline or probtematic c m "grasp the

objects of culture as a whole" (41), for disciplines such as sociology, psychology or

anthropology only analyze specific aspects of culture. In our plutalist environment, we

may adopt a criticai interdisciplinary approach 'which reviews existing approaches,

identifies their characteristic objects and their gooà sense, but also the limits of their

competenceW(4 1). Cultural studies focuses its analysis not on empirical definitions and

codifications, but on the possibilities for future transformations within the study of

culture. Thus, cultural studies 'is not a question of aggregating existing approaches (a bit

of sociology here, a spot of linguistics there) but of reforming the elements of different

approaches in their relations to each other" (4 1 ). Like critical pedagogical approaches,

the site of inquiry has been shjfted from hegemonically-defined and culturally-

constructed approaches to the issues encoded in the relations between the approaches

themselves. This shift is invaluable to the discursive analysis of culture within 'world

issues'.

The orientation towards the emergent in cultural studies is made possible because

i t "is not a research programme for a particular party or tendency" and as such it doesn't

necessarily 'subordinate intellectual energies to any established doctrines" (Johnson,42).

Like Freire's notion of pedagogy, cultural studies concerns 'reality in process'. Its

critical stance is made possible not through objectivity, but because the politics of the

approach is not yet fully formed. Research within cultural studies makes the attempt to

be profound, wide-ranging, and politicaIly-directed. This effort is intended to countetact

the "disconnection that occurs when cultural studies is inhabited for merely acadernic

purposes or when enthusiasm for (say) popular cultural forms is divorced from the

analysis of power and of social possibilities" (42). In this manner, the object of analysis

becomes "concerned with whole societies (or broader social formations) and how they

move* (42). It also examines these social processes from a point of view from which one

can "abstract, describe and reconstitute in concrete studies the social forms through

which human beings "live, become conscious [and] sustain themselves subjectively"

(45). Similar to Ereire's (1989) conception of pedagogy, a cultural studies framework

replaces 'objectivity' with "subjectivity or consciousness" (179) as one of the central

features of analysis. Rom this perspective, one's position as compared to 'others' is no

longer considered neutral or value-free. Subjective processes are *intrinsic to cultural

circuits under modem social conditions, as well as being produced by and productive of

"re lutions of power" (Johnson, l987,M). This is contrary to the dominant definitions of

~ i ~ ~ f i c a n c e which are "quite socially specific and, in particular, tend to correspond to

masculine and middle-class structures of "interest" (in both the meanings of this term)"

(35). Cultural studies practices should be placed within the context of power in order to

abstract "public knowledges and their underlying logics and definitionsw (53) and in

addition, to search out the private dornains of culture which take shape in resistant

discourses as (re)presented within 'world issues'.

Critical cultural approaches promise a careful and systematic analysis of

subjective forms and their construction. Johnson (1987) asserts that "narrativity" has

emerged as an organizational structure for subjectivities charactenstic of the actual

-story-formsw (60) of different ways of life. if these are treated as historically-produced

constructions rather than "archetypes", we may address some of the "possibilities for

fruitful concrete study on a wide range of materialsu (60). The narrative f o m

themselves-when subjected to an analysis of the relations of power-may very well

result in 'better, more explanatory, histories" (60) as Johnson daims.

Cultural studies is also affiliated with *radical structuraIismsw (such as

poststructuralism or postmodernism) for Yhey are the furthest reach of the criticism of

empincism which.. .founds cultural studies philosophically" (61). The teading insight of

radical structuralin or constructivist frames of reference is that everything in culture is

produced; therefore, there is room to question every representation of culture. By

questioninp the 'given' determinations of culture, as well as identifjmg forms and tracing

histories, we may be able to achieve a modicum of control over our own subjectivities.

Like Johnson (1987), 1 believe that The -vanous structuralist and post-stnicturalist

discussions of text, narrative, subject positions, discourses and so on" (63) have the

potential to "rescuew our sense of ourselves, as well as our sense of 'others'.

Cultural studies as it is practiced attempts to 'decenter the text' (as represented in

various mediurns) as the primary object of analysis. From this critical framework, 'the

text' is studied for the subjective, partial and specific narrative forms encoded in the

discourse, rather than for its own sake or "for the so-called effects it may be thought to

produce" (Johnson,62). Thus, the ultimate object of cultural studies is "the social liJe of

subjective fonns at each moment of their circulation, including their textual

embodiments" (62) rather than simply the representation of culture in text. This new

orientation toward text is founded in the constructivist realization that textual materials

are "inter-textual"; in other words, ?extual materials are cornplex, multiple, overlapping,

CO-existent, [and] jwcta-posedw (67). Johnson (1987) explains that if we adopt a more

"agile" category such as discourse, pin-pointing "elements that cut across different texts",

we can Say that al1 readings are also -inter-discursivew (67) in the sense that no subjective

form ever stands alone. This is a significant consideration for the study of 'world issues'.

Once again we are reminded of Edward Said's (1992) assertion that culture is

charactenzed by 'interdependent' and socially-constructed histories.

'World issues' curriculum may benefit greatly from the interpretation of cultures

as overlapping and heterogeneous. This perspective in curricula points to the recognition

of "major cultural differences", especially as they are manifesteci in relationships ''where

power, dependence and inequality are most at stake" (Johnson,1987,69). In this situation,

we are asked to turn our critical analysis away From traditional 'ethnographie' readings of

culture that are based on 'objectivity' (as in the GWI (1988) curriculum), a practice that

-extends social distancew (70). This static form of social inquiry has a tendency to

pathologize the culture of 'others' while "nonnalizing the dominant modes, helping at

best to build academic reputations without proportionate returns to those who are

representedn (70). By decentenng the dominant assumptions regarding major cultural

differences, we may begin to see not just how other constructs differ from our own, but

how complex and interdependent subjectivities differ from each other.

Textual analysis of 'world issues' in a pluralist environment has a responsibiiity

to be as diverse as possible, 'identifying preferred positions or frameworks" as well as

contemplating "alternative readings and subordinated frameworks" (74). Cultural studies

rnethodologies provide an opportunity for using cultural context for the production of

meaning. In short, the cultural studies framework Oike cntical pedagogy) can be

deployed to focus on 'world issues' as it incorporates politicized subjective or narrative

frarneworks, the dialectic interplay of power/knowledge relations and broaches the

necessity for close evaluation of emergent modes of discourse and the possibilities for

cultural transformation. 'Cultural studies as practice' is a process rather than a system,

and it involves appropnating the more useful organizational structures from rnany

disciplines, while rejecting those based on 'impartial observation'. This process may

constitute the hmework for cultural studies to become a valuable tool for the study of

'world issues" at the senior level, replacing the supposition of neutrality within

hegemonic discourse.

Chavter 7

A Power/aaowledge Approach to 'World Issues'

Before living on the Pacific Coast of Mexico 1 was unaware of the extent to which

the organization of social and cultural distinctions were mitigated by the historical

manifestations of 'power' and 'knowledge'. Upon amval, 1 was surprised to learn that

Mexicans comrnonly classed thetmeives into two groups, "blancos" ('whites') and

"negros" ('blacks*). This racist marginalization can be traced back to the conquest of

Middle America by the Spaniards in the early 1 5 0 0 ' ~ ~ and the subsequent hegemmic

infrastructure that continues to oppress the native populations. Local history telis of how

the indigenous people were forcibly convened to Christianity, and the labour force was

baptized al1 with the same name, Juan Diego. Those who refused to be baptized were

often executed. This historical construction of class relations and the residual conflict

surrounding them persists today. Ample evidence of this is provided by the

impoverishrnent of the 'darker' classes, the squalid living conditions in the slums or

'barrios' as well as the pesant or 'campesino ' 'Zapatistan' uprising in Chiapas in 1991.

Presently, the more prestigious and lucrative employment in tourism, industry and

politics are dominatal by the 'white' or 'bhnco' ciass. This is demonstrative of how an

analysis of the historical inequalities within any culture as they are presently manifesteci

would not be complete without examining the historicd conjunctures of 'power' and

'knowledge' that precipitated these conditions.

An in-depth look at Michel Foucault's critical approach to power ('pouvoir ') and

knowledge (*savoir ') is necessary to understand historical cultural formations and their

impact on the teaching of 'world issues' c ~ c u l u r n . Although this conceptual

frarnework is claimed by Foucault to be primarily a "modernist" (Martin,Gutrnan &

Hutton, 198 8,9) approach, it is not irrelevant to the study of culture in the postmodern age.

Aronowitz and Giroux (1991) point out that

p ] y combining the best insights of modeniism and postmodernism, educators can deepen and extend what is generaiiy referred to as critical pedagogy. We need to combine the modernist emphasis on the capacity of individuals to use critical reason in addressing public iife with a critical postmodernist concern with how we rnight experience agency in a world constituted in differences unsupported by transcendent phenomena or metap hysical guarantees. in that way, critical pedagogy can reconstitute itself in terms that are both tramformative and emancipatory (1 17).

Current models of cultural exchange are influenced greatly by Foucault's (1980)

constnictivist concept of the 'discursive regime", defined as ' the effects of power

peculiar to the play of statements" (1 13). Foucault's methodology addresses issues

surrounding the formation of discourses and the construction of knowledge "not in terms

of types of consciousness, modes of perception and forms of ideology, but in terms of

tactics and strategies of powerW(77). Foucault (1980) feelç that "once knowledge can be

analyzed in terms of region, domain, implantation, displacement, transposition; one is

able to capture the process by which knowledge functions as a form of power and

disseminates the effects of power" (69). Foucault (re)presents the functioning of power in

society as "the political economy of truth" (13 1). This he breaks down into five prirnary

traits. From this perspective, 'knowledge' or 'truth' is

centered on the form of scientific discourse and institutions which produce it; it is subject to constant economic and political incitement (the demand for truth, as much for economic production as for political power); it is the

object, under diverse fonns, of immense d i h i o n and consurnption (circulating through apparatuses of education and uiformation whose extent is relatively broad in the social body, not withstanding certain strict limitations); it is produced and tranmiitted under the control, dominant if not exclusive, of a few great political and econornic apparatuses (university, army, writing, media); lady, it is the issue of a whole political debate and social confrontation ('ideological' struggles) (l98O,l3 1).

The responsibility for educators in this intellectual climate is to question the political

economy that is represented as a "regime of truthw (132) by the exercise of power at

many levels in the structure and functioning of society. What urgently needs to be

addressed, especially in 'world issues', is that critical inquiry is not engaged in upholding

a specific regime of truth, but is engaged in "a battle about the status of truth and the

econornic and political role that it playsw (132). Thus the indices for the analysis of

political problems are not phrased in the objective language of science or ethnography,

but in the discursive positionhg of truth and power.

Foucault (1980) confiBes his analysis to a specific culture in a specific histoncal

location (French and European penality in the latter half of the eighteenth century) (154).

This is demonstrative of the "archeologicalw aspect of the analysis of power, but it has

implications regarding the broader concem of the formation of discourse. Foucault

(1988) demonstrates that by studying illness or badness and the cunng or atoning process,

for example 'madness and psychiatry, crime and punishrnentw (146), one can realize

"how we have indirectly constituted ourselves through the exclusion of some others:

criminals, mad people and so on" (146). The use of cntical theory from this approach is

"to analyze the specificity of mechanisrns of power, to locate the connections and

extensions, to build little by little a strategic knowledge (savoir)" (1980,145). Foucault

(1997) posits three questions to trace the connections between specific cultural locations

and how they interact to constmct 'truth' in an interdependent and multiracial

environment. The first question, which addresses how we are 'constituted as subjects of

our own knowledgeu(130) examines cultural bias. The second critically evaluates how

we are "constituted as subjects who exercise or submit to power relationsw (130) within

social and pedagogical situations. The third and final question concerns how we are

constituted "as moral subjects of Our own actions" (130) and what ethically informs out

deeisions. ft is important to note that there is no escape h m the influence of

power/knowledge. The relationship between power and knowledge and our position

within hegemonic discourse determines in great part the conceptual frameworks we use

to identify oursetves. As Foucault (1980) proposes, "it's a machine in which everyone is

caught, those who exercise power just as much as those over whom it is exercisedm (156).

Sirnilar to cntical pedagogical approaches, some of which have borrowed

extensively from Foucault's (1980) (re)conceptualization of power and knowledge, a

powerlknowledge approach is concerned with "the local character of cnticism" and "an

insurrection of subjugated knowIedgesW (8 1). It is ^based on the reactivation of local

knowledges.. .in opposition to the scientific hierarchization of knowledges and the effects

i ntrinsi c to their power" (85). A power/knowledge approach (re)interprets science as "the

constraint to truthu, for the "obligation of truth and the ntualized procedures for its

production have traversed absolutely the whole of Western society for miilennia and are

now so universalized as to become the general law for al1 civilizationsw (66). As was

mentioned previously, Foucault (1980) proposes that within the analysis of cultural and

ideologicat knowledge, "the problem does not consist in drawing the line between that in

a discourse which falls under the category of scientificity or truth, and that which comes

under some other category, but in seeing historicalIy how effects of truth are produced

within discourses which in thernselves are neither m e nor faise" (1 18). In the act of

conternplating the production and (re)production of 'truth' within discourses, it becomes

more evident how individuals are implicated in the constniction of cultural narratives. A

po wer/knowledge approach, ec hoed in 'cultural studies' and critical pedagogical

approaches "suggests being critical not only of the relationship between knowledge and

power in the interest of dorninating social f o m , but also king aitical of the politics and

paniality of [our] own location as intellectuals" (Aronowitz & Giroux, l993,4 1).

Although Foucault is well-known as a historian of the eighteenth century, in

Politics of Truth (1997) he claims he is not interested in the history of ideologies or the

history of mentalities (165). His particular interest is the history or genealogy of

problems. His inquiry is concerned with why a problem exists, why a problem takes the

form it does, and "why a cenain way of problematizing appears at a given point in time"

(165). This is what Foucault calls the method of genealogical inquiry. According to

Foucault (1980), "a genealogy should be seen as a kind of attempt to emancipate

historical knowledges From that subjection, to tender them, that is, capable of opposition

and of struggle against the cœrcion of a theoretical, unitary, formal and scientific

discourse" (85). Genealogical inquiry is conducted "as a historical investigation into the

events that have led us to constitute ourselves and to recognize ourselves as subjects of

what we are doing, thinking [and] saying" (1997,125). From within this fiamework, a

critical approach can be applied to 'world issues' that refutes the search far formal

structures with universal value.

Thus, like 'cultural studies', genealogical inquiry is not transcendental, and "ils

goal is not that of making a metaphysics possible" (125). Foucault's critical approach

has a second major element: although the design is genealogical, the method is

'archeological'. It is genealogical in that it traces the effects of power along a specific

site, and archeological in that it traces the histoncal antecedents to current political and

cultural issues.

Foucault (1997) asserts that "power and knowledge directiy imply one another:.

that there is no power relation without the correlative constitution of a field of

knowledge, nor any knowledge that does not presuppose and constitute at the same time

power relations" (27). From this perspective, power and knowledge can be said to be

'dialectical', in that their relationship is symbiotic and each is implicated in the

construction of the other. Therefore, these power/knowledge relations need to be

analyzed with respect to how they affect one another. Power in this relationship to

knowledge has both a positive and a negative function. On the one hand, power

functions as a force that suppresses and represses alternative h s of knowledge. On the

other hand, power "traverses and produces things, it induces pleasure, forrns knowledge,

[and] produces discourse" (1980,119). Foucault (1980) considers power as a concept

more useful if we examine the way it functions positively as a "productive network that

runs through the whole social bodyW(l 19). He advocates "a political philosophy that isn't

erected around the problems of sovereignty: nor therefore around the problems of law

and prohibition* (1 2 l), one that analyzes the way power functions to f o m knowledge(s).

As was stated earlier, in this sense power has no autonomous function; rather, it is

"exercised" (89) in society by its subjects. This is an interpretation of power as a force

that "only exists in action" (89). Thus, "we are subjected to the production of truth

through power and we c m o t exercise power except through the production of

tmthW(93). Seminal to this position is the notion that ... individuals are the vehicles of

power, not its points of applicationw (98). From this reading, power can be analyzed as it

is manifested within the individual, society and 'world issues' rather than as merely a

force that suppresses cntical inquiry.

A power/knowledge approach to 'world issues', similar to other critical

pedagogical approaches, opens a space for the contemplation of transfomation for it is

sensitive to "the historical matrix of 'conditions of possibility'" (1980, 239). Foucault

(1980) daims that current social issues as well as the future for social sciences need to be

understood "in relation to the elabor,tion of a whole range of techniques and practices for

the discipline, surveillance, administration and formation of populations of hurnan

individuals" (239). The key to a better comprehension of the role of power in the past,

present, and future may be a more critical constructivist reading of discourse. Foucault

(1997) defines this approach as acntiquew, ?he art of not k ing govemed quite so much"

(25). Critique is construed here as "an instrument, a means for a future or a truth that it

wilI not know nor happen to be* (25) that exists only in relation to possible constructions.

However, critique does not take the form of a prescriptive approach with desired

outcornes. Foucault asserts "even with the best intentions, the programs [for the future]

becorne a tool, an instrument of oppression* (Martin, Gutrnan & Hutton, 1988,lO). The

role of critique "is to show people that they are much freer than they feel, that people

accept as tmth, as evidence, some themes which have been built up at a certain moment

during history, and that this socalled evidence can be criticized and destroyed" (10).

Similarly, Freire (1985) believes that 'pedagogy' is not a tool for transformation; rather,

the important task in transfmming society "is not to take power but to reinvent

poweT(179). By integrating subjectivity into explanations of history, education may

partake in the 'reinvention' of power without n e c e s . l y endorsing a program or system

for change.

A power/knowledge approach to 'world issues' recognizes the need for subjective

interpretations to be admitted into the frameworks used to analyze culture. Foucault's

(re)presentation of power as 'positive' and 'subjective' opens a çpace for transformation

as well as constructs a more inclusive fmmework in which many different discourses can

be supported, rather than simply one hegemonic view based on a transcendent

conceptualization of 'truth' or 'knowledge'. A power/knowledge approach, like the other

approaches discussed in this thesis, is constructed around subjectivity, the

problematization of the relationship of power and knowledge, and an orientation toward

possible futures. This framework opens up the 'world issues' cumculum to a more

imaginative conceptualization of the 'other' that takes into account the effect of past

inequalities on the construction of cultural discourse.

Cha~ter 8

A Critical Postmodernist Approach to 'World Issues'

In 1995 1 was arrested in Acapulco, Mexico for wearing a T-shirt which supported

the ~ j e k i r o Znparista de Liberacion Nafional (EZLN). Spearheaded by

Subcornmandanre Insurgente Marcm, this army of Mexican natives was fighting for the

emancipation of the population of Chiapas. According to local (his)tory, the state of

Chiapas is responsible for approximately twenty-five percent of Mexican resources, yet

its primarily LMayan population is still living in conditions of abject poveny. Marcos-

required to Wear a mask to reduce the threat of assassination by the ruling paxty-is

popularly thought to have k e n a professor of postmodem literature at la Universidad de

~ é x i c o . The threat of assassination in 1995 was so great that, dunng arbitration,

members of the EZtN used to walk from Chiapas to Mexico City on roads lined by their

supporters to prevent snipen from getting a clear shot.

The Chiapas conflict, introduced to the world via intemet in 1994, is purported to

be the first "postmodem" revolution. The EZLN claim they have syrnbolically taken up

arms for the world's oppressed as a way of raising awareness through collective action

and the infiuence of the media. Although the rnajority of Mexicans that 1 encounteted

supported their cause, the EZLN have made relatively few in-roads into the dominant

political culture, which seeks to crush the tebellion. It may be that the only obstacle to

wiping out the resistance is the pervasiveness of the movement's media influence, which

even held an "encuentro " (literally an encounter) in Chiapas in January of 1994. Despite

overwhelrning support internationally, offkials in Mexico have taken a hard-line

approach to the situation, branding Marcos and his followers as crirninals.

Fortunately, 1 bargained my way out of the clutches of the Acapulcan police with

a few hundred pesos and a promise to dispose of the offending T-shirt. Throughout the

experience, 1 continued to question what had been for me the hegemonic representation

of 'culture' or 'world issues' within my educational background. My expenences were

once again incompatible with the modernist dichotomization of 'us' and 'them'. For me

to understand the world and the issues 1 encountered required me to view them through a

complex of dynamic and subjective interpretations of class and cultural relations. From

this realization, 1 turned to a poststnictural or postrnodem h e w o r k fiom which 1 hoped

to develop a clearer conceptualization of 'world issues'.

Although we lack a consolidated postmudern theory, poststructuralist paradigms

can help u s make sense of our rapidly-changing environment. It is only by paying

attention to ernerging theory, as well as imagining alternative possibilities, that students

and teachen can discover together the "central ideas and organizing pnnciples that will

help them to make sense of the information they acquire"(GWI,1988,2).

Sharing many of the same goals as a 'cultural studies' or a 'power/knowIedge'

approach, ' postmodern' or ' poststructural ' approaches posit a global network of

historically constructed identities, hierarchically ordered to refiect the power of past

politics. The postmodern (re)evaluation of positivistic discourse advances a view of

history , class and race that is discursive and socially -constructed. From within this

framework, a l1 culture is worthy of investigation, and no aspect of cultural production

can escape its own history within socially conmcted hieratchies of meaning"

(Aronowitz & Giroux, 199 1,115). This framework views existing discourses as

historically determinate rather than empirically and hegemonically astute, providing the

structure for cri ticaI cultural analysis within 'world issues*.

One important aspect of postmodernism "is the recognition it imposes that, as we

move into the twenty-first century, we find ourselves no longer constrained by modemist

images of progess and history" (Aronowitz & Giroux, 199 1,115). It is not that

postmodernism has superseded the unified Western discourse of rnodernism, but it has, as

Johnson (2000) postulates, established the necessity for new "criteria". These new

criteria are compnsed of the elements of discontinuity, rupture, and difference. These

elements provide "alternative sets of referents by which to understand modernity as well

as to challenge and modi@ itw (Aronowitz & Giroux,1991,115). F'om within this

framework no longer restricted by a Eurocentric or modernist agenda, the "production of

electronic information radically alters traditional notions of time, community, and

history, while simultaneously blurring the distinction between reality and image" (1 15).

Thus discourse as it is disseminated through various media does not define 'reality', but

is representative of the cognitive constructions that shape Our lived expenence.

In recent years, the notion of reality has been compIicated by the postmodern

interpretation that cultural constructs are not 'real' but representative. According to Scott

Lash, we are saddleà with "the problematic nature of reality and the relationship of

reality to representation" (Lash, 1990,24). In light of this problematization of 'reality',

how does one pursue critical intervention when 'reality* seerns to be inexvicably

confounded with its representation? Said (1994) suggests that the "essential idea for the

revolutionary realities todayw is to see -al1 culture as hybrid (in Homi Bhabha's complex

sense of that word) and encumbered, or entangled and overlapping with what used to be

regarded extraneous elements" (384).

Homi Bhabha (1994) describes "cultural hybridity" as a frame for viewing culture

Yhat entertains difference without an assumed or imposed hierarchyw (4). To speak of

"hybridity" is to speak of the theoretical recognition of "an international culture, based

not on the exoticism of multiculturalism or the diversity of cultures", but on the " 'inter' -

the cutting edge of translation and negotiation, the in-between space" (38). It is this in-

between space-the border or borderlines-that shoulders the burden of the "meaning of

culture" (Bhabha,1994,38). Said (1994) is of the opinion that to perceive culture as

'hybrid' is to in some measure avert the "dangers of an untutored reiigious or national

consciousness" (37 1). Similarly, Demda (1997) is in search of an educational framework

that "outstnps what we today cal1 national and national citizenship (the 'nations'),

nationalism and nationality" (174). Demda (1997) caIls this a "democratic messianism",

a way of seeing that "tums on a hope and faith.. . in something radically pluralistic,

plurivocal, multi-cultural, heteromorphic, heterologicai, and heteronomic" (174). What

is important to note here is that this is a formula for seeing cultural 'realities' within

'world issues' as multi-determined, inter-dependent, humanly constructed as

representations of particular histoncal conjunctures, and above all, dynamically imbued

with the possibility for change.

Bauman (1992) explains that by removing culture "from the automatically

assumed or ascribed legitimiting or delegitirnizing function" of rationalistic approaches

to learning, "intellectual work may share in a general freedom of cultural creation" (184)

previously unanticipated by positivistic approaches. In the contemporary const~ctivist

paradigms, cultural conflicts have "bared their true nature, that of the drive toward the

freeing of human agency, which in modern times tended to be hidden behind ostensibly

redistributional battles" (198). From within these transformative methodologies, ways of

being in the world "appear equally contingent (that is, they have no overwhelrning

reasons for being what they are, and they could be different if any of the participating

agencies behaved differently)" (198). This move to contingency displaces the desire for

absolutist or certain knowledge with the contemplation of the possibility of

transformation within 'world issues'.

To accept postmodeniism is to accept that it is no longer sufficient to define

culture solely through the rnaster narratives of 'the West', as Wie modernist ernphasis on

totality and mastery has given way to a more acute understanding of suppressed and local

histones, along with a deeper appreciation for struggles that are contextual and specific in

scope"(Aronowitz & Giroux,1991,116). In order to be inclusive of what has been

considered non-Western, or 'other', our conceptual frameworks in 'world issues' may

work toward integrating suppressed histories or 'insurgent' readings into the discourse(s)

of culture.

According to Aronowitz and Giroux (1991), "the central theoretical features of a

postrnodernism of resistance" can be integrated with "the more radical elements of

modemist discourse" ( 5 9 4 3 , in order to create a more inclusive framework with which

to discuss cultural issues. This framework is largely situated in a discourse of

emancipatory concerns. To address "schwling as a f o m of cultural politics" (59) is to

contemplate what new theoretical approaches bring to the discussion of culture and

cultural freedom with respect to the previously existing issues. Poststnicturalisrn

provides an alternative interpretive framework for analyzing difference and sirnilarities

arnong/across cultures that attempts to focus on particular narratives rather than

epistemological 'truths' .

Sirnilar to Freire's pedagogical approach which incorporates dialogue as a means

for change, fiom a poststnictural perspective, "uaditions demonstrate the importance of

constituting history as a dialogue arnong a variety of voices as they struggle within

asymmetrical relations of power" (Aronowitz & Giroux, lWl,62). From within this

conceptual framework, the voices may speak of the broader concem for peace and

emancipation of the oppressed, and of the ways in which non-traditional ideologies

"serve to liberate and enlarge human possibilities" (1 16). A 'posunodernism of

resistance' refutes modemism's daim to that Western patriarchal authority which serves

to privilege discourse that represses and marginalizes the voices of peoples historically

oppressed "because of their coior, class, ethnicity, race, or cdtural and social capital"

(1 15). What is desired is a democratic pluralism from which the 'other' is not (by vinue

of claims to authority) "consigned to the margins of existence, recognition, and

possibility" (1 15). As Johnson (2000) has stipulated in his third criteria for "cultural

studies as practice", one of its distinctive characteristics is "identification with the

marginal/popular and the critique of the dominant". Similarly, one of the defining

cri teria of a 'postmodemism of resistance' is that it (re)presents itself as a critique "of al1

forms of representations and meanings that claim transcendental and transhistorical

statusu (Aronowitz & Giroux, 199 1,115).

In contrast, both postmodemism and cultural studies are interesteci in defining the

"transdisciplinary moment", that exceptional occurrence when "shared but different

discourses on the culture" (Johnson,2000) corne into contact, leading to new

interpretations. The recent tum to culture and pst-structuralism is founded in pan upon

"cultural incommensurability " (Johnson), a particular take on culture whic h points to the

cognitive contradictions which mise out of diverse ways of knowing and acknowledges

the imeducibility of the 'other' in shaping analytical frameworks. As Aronowitz and

Giroux (1991) express it, postmodernism "rejects universal reason as a foundation for

human affairs, and poses as alternatives forms of knowing that are partial, historical, and

social" (1 16). The specific importance of forms of knowing that are partial is as it relates

to 'partiality', or the conception that discourses are constructed in particular cultural

locations arnid particular conditions of empowerrnent.

Perhaps the most well-suited to the study of 'world issues', Aronowitz and

Giroux's (1991) -border pedagogy of postmodern resistancew is yet another example of

useful orpanizing structures with which to analyze cultural geography. From this

framework, the issues of critical pedagogy are located within Wiose broader cultural and

politicai considerations that are beginning to redefine our traditional Mew of cornmunity,

language, space, and possibility" (1 18). For the student, a border pedagogy is the active

work of breaking down "ideologies, cultural codes, and social practicesw through a

recognition of how "particular historical conjunctures operate to repress alternative

readings" (121). The most beneficial effect of this work may be that the student is

provided with the opportunity to locate their own position from within their experience,

culture and society. It is important to notice that a border pedagogy at its most useful

poses al1 readings as alternative readings; it is not simpiy a matter of pitting the dominant

vi ew agai nst the 'others' . This pedagogical approach analyzes cultural borders: the

meeting points of diverse and heterogeneous social discourses which are "histoncally

constructed and socially organized within maps of rules and regulations that limit and

enable particular identities, individual capacities, and social forms" (119). In this

scenario, students are encowaged to "cross over into realrns of meaning - maps of

knowledge, social relations, and values that are increasingiy k ing negotiated and

rewritten as the codes and regulations that organize them become destabilized and

reshapedw (1 19). Like Bhabha's (1994) critical approach to 'hybridity', the point of

application is the 'in-between' space, or the (inter)national and (inter)dependent

relationships in global issues. As wetl, postmodem approaches owe a debt to Demda,

who 'defers' to the space between discourses as the locus of analysis. Sirnilarly, a border

pedagogy makes availabie for contemplation the contestibility of cultural discourse by

focusing on the power politics invohed in those moments of translation when cultures

clash and reconcile.

Critical post-modem approaches to 'world issues', in the f o m of a

"postmodernism of resistance" or a "border pedagogy of postmodern resistancew are

poised to contribute to the organizing principles which frame the study of culture. What

these approaches have in cornrnon that the cumculum lacks is a consideration of specific

cultural and historical constructs as they are situated within discourses charged with

differential relations of power. It is important for us to consider the borders, those

meeting points of discourse, as well as how these meetings and our interpretations and

Our subjective representations of culture are influenced by historical inequalities.

Paramount in importance is that students be given the opportunity to cross borden fkom

culture to culture, paradigm to paradigm, and perspective to perspective, always with an

eye to the way culture is constructed in difference. It is in this way that 'we' may finally

be free to get to 'know each 'other'.

A Transformative Approach to ' World Issues'

My most frightening excursion into the arena of 'other' culture occuned when I

went to visit friends in Bogota, Colornbia in 1996. 1 was surprised at fmt to encounter

the generalized hostility of what 1 had been led to believe was traditionally a very

hospitable culture. In contrast to the Latin tradition that spawned the adage "Mi casa es

s u casaw, (my home is your home), 1 was confronted by cheating taxi drivers, corrupt

border patrols, rude vendors and a thinly-veiled frustration regarding the interna1 strife

which dominated Colombian political concems. The Colombian rnilitary, allegedly

armed by American entrepreneurs and the CIA in exchange for cocaine, were waging war

on two factions, the revolutionary army, as well as the FARC, which has been targeted as

the military a m of the dmg cartels. The people 1 encountered were convinced that

American foreign policy was behind the oppression of Colombia as a nation. My

Colombian friends were virtually uncomprehending of the justification behind the "War

on Dnigsw which had forced their largest export industry underground. Meanwhile, the

Arnencan industrial machine was flooding their country with destructive military

technology. 1 experienced first hand the effects of the 'war' when 1 was travelling

through the Andes to Venezuela. The convoy of buses that 1 rode in was confronted by

revolutionaries canying M-16 machine guns and a grudge against the "Amerkanos". At

this time, the United States govenunent had issued a travelers waming afier a number of

Arnencan citizens were killed while on vacation in Colombia. My ody defense was to

pretend to be asleep in order to conceal my blue eyes. 1 was convinced that if 1 opened

my eyes 1 would place myself in grave danger. Having a man repeatedly shout

"lev&rnte? (get up!) and prodding me with a machine gun is about as close to death as 1

would ever like to be. Many times 1 was asked how the international community could

condone trade in lethal armarnents and the precipitation of conditions of war while

attempting to shut down an agricultural crop such as cocaine. I have to admit 1 had no

answer.

These issues may be clarified tiuough incorporating subjective cultural or

economic imperatives, as well as the historical conditions of power/knowledge at play in

the relationship between Latin and Arnerican culture. However, this critical analysis is

not complete without addressing the need for emancipation, socid transformation and an

openness to the alternative conditions of possibility that exist in oppressive situations. To

study culture with an eye to the future, it is important to construct discourses open to the

possibility that the situation in question could be subject to change. It is for this reason

that 1 propose the inclusion of transfomative frameworks within the study of 'world

issues'.

Some of the "Course Objectivesw of the GWI (1988) curriculum are appreciative

of the need for identifyng "opportunities for positive actionw(7), as well as for

demonstrating "a heightened awareness of the interdependence of al1 people"(7). The

document even goes so far as to attempt to "provide students with opportunities

to. . . project alternative futures based on the investigation of curent information and

trends in the use of the earth"(7). It is in respect to the projection and construction of

alternative futures that we may eventually recognize the usefulness of critical

pedagogical approaches. I beIieve a discursive approach may be far more effective than

the one in use since 1988, providing the theoretical basis for these projections to become

a 'reality ' (in the sense that reality is constructed in discourse). To quote Freire (1990),

". . .reality is really a process" (61), and what educators should be stnving for is a "cntical

intervention in reality" (68). This conceptualization of 'reality' is intricately tied to the

idea of cultural and political literacy. One who is literate is engaged in the process of

negotiating reality. One who is illiterate is engaged in the process of escaping or

rejecting reality '%y losing hirnself or herself in abstract visions of the world"

(Freire,1985,103). The process of attaining political literacy lies in discovering

'knowledge' as Freire (1990) advocates that "emerges only through invention and

reinvention, through the restless, impatient, continuing, hopeful inquiry men [sic] pursue

in the world, with the world, and with each other" (58). It tackles the "dehurnanization

resulting from an unjust order" not with despair but with hope, "leading to the incessant

pursuit of the humanity denied by injusticeu (80). Freire favours education that "involves

a constant unveiling of reality", one that problematizes knowledge, enhances creative

power, and implicates consciousness in the "critical intervention" (68) into reality.

Freire & Shor (1987) assert "if it is true that consciousness is impossible without the

world that constitutes it, it is equally true that this world is impossible if the world itself

in constituting consciousness does not become an object of its critical reflection" (69).

Freire's (1985) critical interpretation of the role of consciousness, known in Portuguese

as "conscientizocao" (translated as conscientious awareness), is an integra! element in the

process of "political literacy" (100). 'Political literacy', in this instance, is considered to

be a state of consciousness in which

[7(jnowledge involves a constant unity between action and reflection upon reality. Like ow presence in the world, our consciousness transforms knowledge, acting on and thinking about what enables us to reach the stage of reflection. This is precisely why we must take our presence in the world as the focus of our cntical analysis (100-101).

Thus, by acknowledging the power of consciousness and the potential for 'politicai

literacy* in Our students, we may be able to create a space in 'world issues' more

responsive to transfomative modes of communication.

Maxine Greene (1995) argues for a similar pedagogy of anticipatory howledge

in which the focus is on critical transformation. She explains "education today must be

conceived as a mode of opening the world to critical judgements by the young and to

their imaginative projections and, in time, to their transfomative actions" (56). The true

mission for 'world issues' education is to use imagination to enable our students to

participate in the emerging (re)negotiation of culture. imagination may facilitate crossing

the borderlines to groups traditionally known as 'other'. The utilization of imagination

works on two levels. On one level it allows us to see "the integrity and the coherence of

what may seem to us to be a totally alien world in the person of anotherW(4). On the other

level it allows us to "enter into that world, to discover how it look and feels from the

vantage point of the person whose world it isw (4). From this 'alien' perspective we are

encouraged to construct frameworks that offer positive solutions to the problems in

society, cornrnunity and schools. What Greene is describing is sirnilar to Richard's

(20ûû) third cnteria for "cdtural nudies as practice" in that it is a mode of thinking that

is oriented to the emergent and critical of the dominant. Greene's (1995) empowerrnent

of the social imagination "refuses mere compliance" (5) and points to more equitable

ways of seeing/being through the possibilities of transformation.

This cornmon focus on transformation through conscientious awareness or

imadnative projections may be most useful in the analysis of 'world issues'. By calling

on the imaginative capacity of our students, we may be able to analyze 'world issues' as

if they could be othenvise. We may discover conceptual frameworks from which the

need for transformation will become more apparent. Lacking these subjective and

speculative frames of reference, the "general inability to conceive a better order of things

can give rise to a resignation that paralyzes and prevents people from acting to bring

about change" (Greene, 1995,18- 19). People trying to understand the world need, not

only critical thinking, but imagination with which to envision alternatives for humanity.

Through Freire's (1985) process of action and reflection on reality, we can engage in the

conscious transformation of our "presence in the world" (10 1). By emphasizing this

pot ential for cntical intervention in 'world issues' cumculum and practice, "teachers c m

address themselves to the thinking and judging and, yes, imagining consciousness of their

students" (Freire,1990,25), transfonning their 'lived worlds' and thus their 'realities' as

well.

Once we take the crucial step of invoIving ourselves as subjects in the

interpretation of culture, we are in a position where it becornes possible to imagine

'others' as subjects, and in so doing, open a space for future possibilities in the

interpretation of 'world issues'. By reframing the context of culture within cumculum,

teachers and students rnay be able to explore the possibilities of transformation. Greene

(1995) believes that our transfomative pedagogies should relate to both the current issues

as well as possible fututes for the diverse people involveci (51). This is the particular

responsibiIity of the educator, to "bring renewal" to the issues, "to do what we can to

include within it the voices of the long silent or unheard" (56)- Once individuals are

open, informed and engaged in discourse from many vantage points, they may be "able to

identify a better state of thingsW(59), thus making progress towards social transformation.

By enlarging pedagogical structures to include the "existential possibilities" (161)

encoded in discursive frameworks, we may corne to a better undentanding of what it

means to speak of 'world issues' or the 'global' cornmunity.

According to Simon, (1992) "conditions of possibility" such as this should be

recognized for what they are, "struggles to define a "regime of tnith" [Foucault] within

which life is to be lived" (1 18). As this pertains to the GWI (1988) curriculum with its

emphasis on stating and defending a position "using evidence and authoritative opinion"

(5 ) , 1 am moved to ask what conditions of possibility exist in situations in which

"authoritative opinion" retains its hegemonic privilege? Authoritative opinion to one

culture is not necessarily, and in some cases by definition not the same as it is to

(an)other. If Our regime of truth within the study of 'world issues' is based primarily on

culturally-reflexive discourse, is this situation not merely a recipe for misunderstanding

arnongst cultures?

Simon (1992) proposes an alternative practice "rwted in a [sic] ethical-political

vision that attempts to take people beyond the world they already know but in a way that

does not insist on a fixed set of altered meaningsW(47). A practice such as this requires a

pedagogical approach

linked to the goal of educating students to take risks, to struggle with ongoing relations of power, to critically apptopriate forms of howledge that exist outside theîr irnrnediate experience, and to envisage versions of the world that is "not yet" - in order to be able to alter the grounds upon which life is lived (57).

Like Freire, Simon is concemed with the active transformation of 'reality'. Simon (1992)

believes that "as a practice, freedom is not a passive state but an activity, a method, a

mode of living as questioning and changing" (22). Contrary to the traditional (called the

liberal individualist) perspective, "freedom does not Iie in discovering or being able to

determine who one is, but in rebelling against those ways in which we are already

defined, categorized, and classified" (22-23). Lather (199 1) takes this rebelrion even

farther, evahating the utility of pedagogical approaches by their 'katalytic validity", what

she defines as "the degree to which the research process re-orients, focuses and energizes

participants toward knowing reality in order to transform it" (68). Simon (1992)

similarl y (re)orients his pedagogical approach "within an ethical imagination that

privileges divetçity, compassionate justice, and securing of the conditions for the renewal

of human lifew (30). In the attempt to define workable pedagogical structures "committed

to both the further dernocratization of education and the transformation of the social

interestç it is capable of serving" (37), we wil! have to create a space for pondering the

conditions of possibility that may transfom our regime(s) of uuth. This orientation

toward transformation may lead to a conceptualitation of cultural issues with a higher

degree of 'catalytic vatidity'. As we become more aware of our constructed 'reality' and

attain a higher level of political literacy in 'world issues', we may also become more

aware of the possibility of harnessing the power of discourse in order to transform it.

Giroux (1988) specifies three essential elements for a tramformative pedagogy.

First, it must incorporate/articulate a moral vision or an ethic of social responsibility.

Second, the pedagogical practice must integrate the issues of power, politics and

possibility in a way that takes into account how schools may contnbute to the social

consciousness of specific cornmunities. Third, it must also consider the relationships

between knowing and the production of subjectivity in a way that is cognizant of the

possibilities for alternative social discourse and a progressive agenda for leaming within

schools (96). This version of transformative pedagogy is involved in the project of

"educating students to focate themselves in their particular histories, and simultaneousIy

to confront the limits of their own perspectives as part of a broader engagement with

dernocratic public lifew (Aronowitz & Girou, 1991,118). A framework such as this

uni tes schooling with the imperatives of democracy, and repositiom teachers to see

theniseIves as engaged and transformative intellectuals. The transformative intellectual is

one who considers the problematics of "dernomatic differencem (1 18) central to the

development of cumculum and the organization of classrwm practice. in addition, the

transformative intellectual is engaged in the 'cultural studies' tradition of making the

"pedagogical more political and the political more pedagogical" (1993,46). In this

instance, making the pedagogical more political means conceiving education as a

political practice in the sense that "schooling represents b t h a struggle for meaning a n d a

struggle over power relationsm (46). Making the political more pedagogical means

integrating political issues into education in ways that treat students as agents in the

construction of political sensibilities, "problematizes knowledge, utilizes dialogue, and

makes knowledge meaningful, cri tical, and ultimately emancipatory" (46).

Aronowitz and Giroux (199 1) assert that the transfomative intellectual exercises

power through the Ianguage of 'radical democracy', a discourse that performs two

functions. Firstly, it provides the foundation within which to contemplate the

organization of differences. Secondly, it provides the ba i s for how such differences may

be constnicted within a pedagogy of identity rooted in a respect for plural dernocracy

(1 99 1,125). The second function proposes the construction of a "project of possibility-

connected to an interpretation of democracy "capable of mobilizing a variety of groups to

develop and struggle for what Linda Alcoff (1988) calls a positive alternative vision"

(Aronowitz & Giroux, l991,lSS). This is what 1 believe is missing in the study of 'world

issues' as it is currently (re)presented. Lacking an incorporation of the poçsibility for

actual transforrnation of 'lived worlds', the GWi (1988) cumculum loses its greatest

opportunity for praxis within classrwrns and within the diverse 'worlds' in which the

student's live.

Focusing on transformation in the construction of 'world issues' cumculum

i ncorporates an analysis of subjective cultural perspectives because it addresses the need

for change within discourses. In addition, power and knowtedge are implicated in the

process of transforrnation, for they are noted as possible vehicles for change as power is

exercised in the (re)presentation of 'world issues'. A transfomative approach to 'world

issues', like the other approaches presented in this thesis, provides opponunities for an

analysis of subjective frames of reference, contemplation of the relationship between

power and knowledge, and an orientation to the emergent in the study of cultural

~eography-

Chapter 10

Conclusions

Although the notion of imaginative pedagogical approaches is rather abstract-

especially when the definition is expanded to include 'critical', 'cultural studies',

'power/knowledge' and 'poststnictural' approaches to education-it is my opinion that

cumculum and policy writers need to draw from these theoretical discourses. 'World

issues' is an important pan of the secondary school cumculum, and may have even more

to offer if it can i n t e p t e emerging conceptual Frameworks for interpreting 'culture'. In

contrast to the GWI (1988) curriculum, al1 of the alternative approaches presented in this

thesis incorporate notions of bias or subjectivity into the analysis of culture and global

issues. It is my contention that for significant social transformation to transpire,

subjectivity should be considered within the study of culture and geopphical

perspectives. However, Simon (1 992) explains that "possibilities of existencew cannot be

solely atrributed to conditions of "subjectivity" (adrnittedly partial regimes of truth), nor

can they be "solely attributed to socioeconomic forces and their corresponding social

organi zation of everyday li fe" (59). By anal y zing both subjective frameworks and

modernist socio-economic frameworks (rat her than exclusivety the latter), the study of

'world issues' can be (re)framed in such a way that it creates a more adequate

(re)presentation of the 'global' environment. The conditional nature of subjectivity

allows teachers to develop a discourse that sees schools as democratic institutions

constructed around critical inquiry, meaningîùl dialogue and human agency. It allows

teachers ta address injustices through raising awareness of the historical constructions

behind oppression, exploitation, and the litany of 'isrns' (racism and sexism among the

most important) by chalf enging stereotypes long held to be 'objective'. Critical

pedagogy is concernai with "empowering students so they can read the world critically

in order to change it through the power of stmggle and community" (Girow, I989,18).

Assuming that to some degree 'world issues' revolves around the exploitation and

oppression of the disempowered, is 'transformation' not an appropriate concern?

When 1 sat down to write "Pedagogies for the Imagination: Critical Approaches to

'World Issues' Curriculum", 1 had a number of goals in rnind. My first was to introduce

my perspectives, trace their history and develop a discursive methodology with which to

analyze pedagogical approaches to 'world issues'. h k i n g back at my text: 1 have

discussed pedagogies, dominant approaches to teaching, hegemony, pluralism, praxis and

the GWI (1988) curriculum guideline. The effect of the 'global' environment on public

education is discussed with reference to how the 'information age' introduces culturally-

specific versions of the tmth into political discourse. Chapter three introduces the

methodological concems surrounding 'world issues' and the significance of post-

structural approaches to the project of translation between cultures. Chapter four

revolves around a deconstruction of the GWI (1988) document and a critique of the

implied division between 'Western' and 'non-Western', as well as the frarning of 'bias'

and 'objectivity'. Al! subsquent chapters provide examples of imaginative pedagogies

that incorporate location or bias as well as power relations and the necessity for

transformation of discourse. 1 believe that this type of discursive interpretation of 'world

issues* raises awareness of historical inequaiities in the construction of culture, releasing

the voices and imaginations of the students and teachers involved.

Five alternative pedagogical approaches to 'world issues' were outlined in the

body of this thesis. Critical approaches such as these conceptualize culture in a way Yhat

is attentive to problems experienced at the level of everyday life, particularly as these are

related to pedagogical experiences connected to classroom practice" (Aronowitz &

Giroux,1993,46). The starting point pedagogically for such an approach is not with the

individual stüdent or with policy formation, but "with collective acton in their various

cultural, class, racial, historical, and gendered senings, along with the particularity of

their diverse probIerns, hopes, and dreamsw (46). It is at this point that the language of a

critical approach unites with the "language of psibility" (46). The "language of

possibility" focuses on the need "to come to grips 4 t h those ideological and material

aspects of the dominant society that attempt to separate the issues of power and

knowledge" (46). Speaking in a language of possibility means voicing concem about

the ideological and material conditions in learning institutions as well as in society. Its

goal is to enable students to "become agents of civic courage, and therefore citizens who

have the knowledge and courage to take seriously the need to make despair unconvincing

and hope practical" (46). This anaiysis, whkh contemplates the relationslip between

power, knowledge and possibility "points to the conditions necessary for new forms of

culture, alternative social practices, new modes of communication, and a practical vision

for the futurew (46). From this organizing structure our social imagination can be

invoked in the Foucauldian tradition in which the exercise of power is seminal to the

construction and transformation of discourse. Credit must be given as weU to the

contributions of pst-structural perspectives to the conceptual framing of culture and bias.

The current popularity of pst-modern frames of reference is in large pan responsible for

academia's willingness to accept more versatile models for the study of culture than a

positivist or empirical model. Throughout this thesis I argue that 'wodd issues' as the

title implies) is the ideal site for stimulating a greater understanding of our global

environment; and, as well, for encouraging an imaginative and conscientious approach to

the world through the analysis of cultural discourse.

1 suggest that the future for 'world issues' lies not so much in adopting new

conceptual frameworks in their entirety, but extracting the most salient characteristics

cornmon to these structures. In my view, there are pnmanly three comrnon elements: an

orientation to subjectivity or partiality, analysis of the constructivist relationship between

power and knowledge, and as well, contemplation of tramformative, dynamic or

emergent ways of seeing. It is through these features that we may begin to recognize

culture as a whole, in the sense that 'global' theones can be constructed around 'a

pedagogy of difference' that works toward conditions of emancipation from 'objectivity'.

In rny opinion, c ~ c u l u m needs to incorporate what Greene (1995) calls our

"imaginative capacity" (19) and Simon (1992) calls the "social imaginary"; the way of

"narning, ordering and representing social and physical reality whose effects

simultaneously enable and constrain a set of options for practical action in the

worldW(37). Aronowiu and Giroux (1993) hold that the production of meaning has

become as important (and may have superseded) the production of labor in "shaping the

boundaries of human existence" (1 16). imaginative modes of meaning-making, although

"historically and economically constituted by the social forms within which we live our

lives", rnay someday enable us to "fully grasp the relation between culture and power"

(37-38). The contemplation of this relationship is referred to by Simon (1992) as "a

crirical symbolic practice" one that takes the fomi of "a pedagogical project airned at

enabling ways of thinking and structures of feeling that open and sustain actions that

express an ethically informed expansion of hurnan possibility" (46). A 'critical symbolic

practice' focuses attention on the ucondifi~ns ofpossibifity " not only "of the articulations

of particular texts" but in addition, Wie articulations of particular readings" (1 18).

By focusing on subjective cultural constructions (as they manifest in discouse),

we open a space for the study of difference. This contemplation of cuItura1 identities (or

lack thereof) may be construed as the process of translation not from one culture to

another, but between two or more cultural constructs. This is undertaken in the attempt to

shi ft the site of inquiry in 'world issues' from hegemonicallydefined and culturally-

constmcted approaches to the issues encoded in the relations between the approaches

themselves. This is especially evident when the locus of analysis is the translation that is

involved in the achievement of a reciprocal understanding. As such, the cumculum for

'world issues' would do well to consider the irruptions and spaces of silence that are

present in the borders and meeting places of cultural discourse. The txanslation here

involves the conscious contemplation of how subjective meaning-making effects cultural

interpretations within a pluralist environment. That is, imagining what it may be like to

be 'other' and in such a way making space for a more effective communication which

takes into account how cultural bias effects the interpretation of culture simultaneously

betweenfamong the sender and the receiver. Further research may wish to probe the

conceptualization of cultural translation within the study of 'world issues'. Through

translation we may be able to pursue subjectivity, engaging in the transformation of

conceptual frames of reference and what inforrns both their content and their use.

In Bogota, Colombia in 1996 1 was taken by a local family into the mountains to

see a landlocked lake that reportedly had no bottom. After a two-hour drive and an h o u

climbing up a serene mountain path, we emerged from the forest to see a small glacial

lake wedged between towering cliffs. The lake was narned "El Doradow (the golden

man) in honor of the legendary riches of the Chibcha people. Tradition had it that the

ancient civilization had dumped billions of dollars worth of gold artifacts into the depths

of the water during the inland drive of the Spanish conquisrodores in the early 1500's.

Throughout the past five hundred years the lake has been a hot spot for foreign

prospectors. As recently as the 1930's (during the digging of the Panama Canal),

machinery had been brought in to dredge the lake, al1 to no avail. The location of the

legendary fortune in gold remains a mystery today.

After relating the story of the lake, the eldest of my cornpanions turned to me with

a smile and explained the 'other' history of El Dorado. Local tradition also held that

there was never any gold in the lake. The story was allegorical, alluding as weIl to the

hundreds of other places named El Dorado in Latin Arnerica and the legendary gold

artifacts of the M e c , Incan, Mayan and related empires. History here tells us that

knowledge of the final resting place of the fortunes in gold was and is a myth perpetuated

by peoples throughout the ages to send the white prospectors and soldiers forever

somewhere else. El Dorado has by now becorne a fleeting mystery of Latin Amerka, a

cultural icon that points to past resistances to oppression. "You're an educated man.. ."

rny amigo intoned, "What is this obsession the gringo has for other people's gold?"

'1 donut know" 1 mplied, '1 c m only imaginea. "No se: Solo puedo imoginar ".

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Appendix A

The "World Issues:Geomvtiical Intemretationsw ( 198 8) Cumculum

. A - - . . - - -

WORLD ISSUES: GEOGRAPHIC l NTERPRETATIONS (CWI)

C ourses may be developed from chis outline for a maximum of

one credit. The prerequisite is one Senior Division social science credit at the advanced level. The common course code 1s CwI.

Courre Rationale and Ovewiew ..*-.-*.--...-a.-.*-....*......*--............

w orld issues may be placcd in two groups. n e fint group in-

cludes chose issues chat are uusing concern or cruting problems in many different parts of the world- These in- clude the nccd for housing; for safe, rcliable supplies of watcr; and for adequate, nutritious food. Whiic these problems are found within countries across the economic spectxum, in places as diverse as GM&, the United States, Sri bnka, and Ethiopia, they are esscntially I d in nature.

A second group of world issues are those that arc intcrreIatcd and have no respect for international bounda- ries. Typical of concerns of t h s type are the effeccs of a nuclcar disaster, the npple effects of change in a maior uading practice, and the results of the destruction of tropical rain forests. Such conccrns are worldwide in thcir nature, smce their cffects mas be camed by vanous systems from the point of ongin to every corner of the world. This course 1s based on these two groups of world issues.

People share common physiul, intellectual, and psycholog1ca1 charac- tenstics, as well as common nceds

for water, food, clothing and shelter. Howcver, t hcx needs rnay differ from place to place, as the studies withn this course wiil iiiusnate. in addrnon, dtbough it h a betn uid chat ail individuais arc p u t of the global soci- ecy, many individuals do not have e q d opponuniûcs to silare the world's tesouces and take part in the giobd society in any meaningful way. A maior purpose of this course is the dcvclopmcnt of snrdents' awareness that people in d l countries arc d u - mccd by evcnts and activities in vir- niriiy ail pans of the world, evcn though many of the people dfected may not be aware of the rasons for many of the changes that affect them.

The g r u t variety of peoples and their differing perspectives and prob- lems are important aspects of this course. While the media in Canada and other developed countries providc

mmediate idormauon on events taking place half a world away, a large proportion oi the world's people may have neither the equipmtnt to receive d o m a t i o n nor the abiiity to rud. Similarly, because of their incrclsing ability to travei, many Canadians and wealthv citizens of other countnes are able to visit distant countnes. in stark contrast, millions of people in other parts of the world have never uaveIled and never will travel beyond thelr immediate area. There are also many differences in needs hom one society to another. For example, in one region water shortages may mcan a lack O! water tor Iawns or swim- ming pools; in another region a pro- longcd drought mav bnng starvation.

Thc drsadvantaged in Gnadian so- ciety may bc envied by the disadvan- tagcd in mother country. One of the central thcmcs ot this course, then, 1s chat. dthough al1 of the worid's peoplcs sccm to sharc common needs for water. iood. clothing, and sheltcr, these needs actually Vary somewhat in diffcrcnt cnvironments and culturcs.

The pnmary intent of the geography OACS is to provide a global perspec- tive on contemporary issucs. Studies bascd or, global issues will assist stu- dents to incrcase their understandmg of therr world, recognize its diversity, and clarify thelr place in its vaned, interacting systems.

A course based on this oudine shail provide srudents with opportuni-

ties to:

- idcntrfy and state thc principles of environmencd interaction chat affect natunl environments;

- differentiate betwccn issues that occur worldwide but arc local in na- nue and those that have worldwide implications, evcn thou& thcir occurrences may be limited to one or a few places;

- recogntze that al1 use of the cuth is subiect to the opponunities providcd and the constraints irnposed by the natural environment and that this use, in tum, alters the environment;

- analyse the cffects of technological changc on dic capacity oi people to changc thcir environmcnt;

- invcstrgatc and evaluate the effccts of human activity on cnvrronments undcr diffcrcnt resourcc-managcmcnt stratcglcs;

- examine issues and predrct effects arising hom the current distribution of, and proiected changes in, world populauon;

- comprthend the cultural, econornic. and politiul aspirations of ethnic and maona l groups as they affect world issues;

- demonsuate an appropnate ievel of ski11 in applymg the geographic and cognitive inquiry skills outiined in Part B of this guideline;

- devclop the abiilty to tecogruze is- sues, to make value judgements, and to identify opponunities for positivc action;

- clarify and test thcir personal atti- tudes and values with respcct to indi- vidual and collective rcsponsibility for h d i n g solutions to issues that wncern the use of the u n h and its rcsourccs;

- become sensitivc to thc needs of othcr peoplc;

- proiect altcrnativc futurcs bascd on the investigation of current informa- tion and trends in the usc of thc eanh;

- devclop an awareness both of geog- raphy as an acadcmic discipline and of the knowledge, skills, and techniques that give geography its unique perspective;

- dernonstrate a heightened awareness of the interdependence of ail people through refcrence CO a varicty of c o ~ e c t i n g links among arcas and peoples around thc world.

J O 2 P A K T F THE S t N t O l DIVISION P R O G R A M . O K T A l l O A C A D E M t C COURSES

Course Organization

A. Geographic Approaches to This section provides an o v m e w of the naturc and focus 5-10 World Issues of the course, sets out irs scope, and assesses studcnt back-

g~ounds and intercsu. Consideration should k grvea to the nature of world issues chat may bc d d e d and ana- lysed through gcographic approaches.

B. Environmcntd Issues Th15 secuon encourages studcnts to examine globd issues 20 -40 rekted to the environmcnt. Studcnts must undcrtake two studies.

C. Econornic and Rcsource Issues This section encourages students to examine globai issues 20 -40 that are related to economcs or rcsourccs. Students must undcrtake two studies.

D. Cultural and Political Issues Studcnts must undertake two studio in this section of the 20-40 course. They arc rcquired to select global issues that are cultural or political in naturc.

Policy and Planning Considerations ..............................................

w hen planning or irnplementing this course, tachers stilll

refer to:

- Pans A and B of this guideline;

- the introduction to ths document on page 2;

- the maior planning considerations for geography OACS on pages 3 - 5 in thrs document.

Course Outline .............................................. Section A: Ceographic Approaches to World Issues ..............................................

G eography offus a rnamngfd way of lookrng at the tuth,

rather chan an invcntory of the urth's contents. Gtographic studies are hascd on a numkr of fundamend, inter- twined concepnons: louaon, pattern, spatial inttraction, human interaction with the environment, and region. A geographic apprmch involves a scarch for patterns of disaibution, the processes thrt produce hem, and the associauons chat heip to expiain ways in which people use and change the facc of the cuth. It is rrcommcodcd that tcachers review ''The Founda- tions of the Gcography Cuniculurn", on pagcs 7-1 5 in Part A of this guide- line, together with other sections refemng ro the place of the knowledge component in geography courses.

The term issue rcfcn to a question, concem, or problem that has rerchcd the stage of dialogue. By studymg an issue, studcnts will corne to redire that there are at least two and, most oiten, many points of wcw on a situa- tion. They will be able to understuid the rationale for and to debate the vanous positions. in this course students examine

significant world issues of thrct typa: environmental ; economic or rcsourcc- rclated; and cultural or political. This introductory section differentiatcs bctween issues &nt, although wide- spread. are essentially local in nature

have worldwide consequcacu. 'The forma inciude such c o n c m as poliacd unrcst, inadcquatc housing, and crime; the Iatter, sucb giobd phenornena as nudear disasta, climltic change, and extensive deforestation.

In this section students will leam ta or- luge amounu of infor- mation in order to undenund and rerolve issues. They will ais0 analyse patterns and processes to 6nd associa- tions and relationships. 'The pmpcc- cives bmught to the study am botb s p a w l and cnvironmcnul. The sec- tion should demonstrate to studenu the need to develop competmcy in ruutch, iaquiry, wmmunicraons, data-amnagernuit, and s u t i s t i d techniques.

The typ id snrdy could follow the inquiry mode1 describai in Appaadix 2 in Pan B of the guideline; the foilow- ing is an aiternative appmach:

1. Dehi t ion of the issue

2. Idcntifiution of retated patzcxns and processes, at various d e s , d u t arc bucd on (a) physiul gwgraphy rad (b) human gewaphy

3. Description of the systcms at work: thc global systems of action, ruction, and interaction, which m y

and those that are intenelated and

translate local occurrences into events with worldwide consequcnces

3. h a l y s i s oi the effects of the issue under study: the scale of impact (a) on the envlronment and (b ) on people

5. Identification of alternative actions (What can be done?): (a) short-tam steps and (b) long-term soluuons

6. Decision making: the determina- tion of policies, the conducting of cost-bcnefit analyses

7. implementation of the policies dccennined

This initial section provldes an ovcr- view of the course and determines the components chat will recetve the greatest emphasis. Many students bring spccific knowledge and experi- encc to the classroom. This section should hclp teachers determine what studcnts know, what they need to Ieam, and what their interests are be- tore thcy bcgin to study the lacer sections of the course. I t would be uscful to select and work through one of the issues from the l i sa found within sections B, C, or D to illusuate how studics can be organized.

Attihidiad Obi#bves Srudents silail bc provided with opponuniues to:

- establish, to a rcasonable degrce, personai goals for participation aad achievunmt ia the coune;

- develop an inquiring attitude CO-

wu& cunu i t issues;

- develop a sriüd, quotioning atti- mdc whcn dcaiing with information;

- make v d u e iudgernents bascd on rcasoned anaiysis and vdid cviduice.

Raowledge O b j d v e s Smdcnts shall:

- undenund the meaning of t u m s such as the following: pattern, pro- œss, association, world issue;

-becorne familiu with tbc major componcnts of an inquiry rnodcl, k i r purposes, and thcir scquence;

- crunine one or more effective rnethods of investigacing an issue;

- undusrand the si@curt concepts reiated to the content base selcctcd;

- rccoguizc what constitutes a si@- cant issue;

- dcscribc the typiul stcps required to uansform the information gthercd in a rcseucb or field study into a published format;

- identify somc of thc difficulties involvcd in ythering information and uanslating it to formats dut are in- formative, easy to read, and unbiased;

- develop opinions about the issues under discussion.

Skills Obiectives Students shall:

- demonstrate good questioning techniques;

- raiss questions about the validity of iniormation;

- resist reaching conclusions until thev have examined and dtscussed al1 the evxdcnce;

- use a report from one oi the media as the basis of an inqurry;

- find thc iocatrons of news evcnts on appropriatc maps;

- analysc an cvcnt or a situation to dctcrminc causc-and-cifcct relatronships;

- cvaluacc ~ntormation for accuracg and b i s .

- asscss chc rcliability of thc sourccs ot data uscd.

- dctcrminc whcthcr information is fact or opinron,

- draw conclusions from thc iniorrna- tion asscmblcd;

- sclcct thc bcst modc for cornniuni- cating data.

Section B: Environmental Issues ..........-*..-**--*.-..-.**..-......-.......-

The narural environment is the source of most of the resources fcquircd to meet human wants and nec&. The demand for these resources intensifies as more people use the environment and as their leveis of expectltion rise. The corn bmation of population growth and rismg expectations brings rnto question past attitudes towards the use of the environment. It has be- corne incrcasingly clear that humans musc not overestimate the resilience of the physical cnvironment. Both hu- man acrivitics and natural events un, and do, create environmental imbalanccs that havc long-tenn or ineversiblc cffccts. While many envi- ronmcntal systcms remain in a steady statc or changc slowiy over trme, othcrs a n changc quickly and drasti- ul ly. Thcsc conccrns may escaiatc and becomc issucs.

A gcncral ovcrvicw of cuncnt cnvi- ronmcntal issucs should initratc stud- ics in this scction. Howcvcr, whiic thc cmphasis and focus of study should bc piaccd on cnvironmcntal issucs, opportunitics should be sought to broadcn cach topic or to intcgmtc aspccts oi scctions C and D into the studv. As well, currcnt cvcnts should havc an influcncc on the issucs cho- scn for studg or bc rclatcd to thcm whcncvcr thc opportunity anses.

Thcrc arc many cnvironmcntal is- sucs chat can S C ~ C as possible topics for study. Tcachcrs shall select two maior issues from or similar to thosc includcd in thc accompanying iist. Thc ~ssucs choscn for study must bc global in naturc.

Environmental lssues: A Checklisc

- climatic change: greenhouse effect. desatifiution, permafrost modifica- tion, ozone depletion

- human intervention: deforestation. damming, trsigation, overfishing, fer- ulizing, introduction of exotic specics. waste disposal, acid precipitation, nuclear contamination, agricuitural- land degradation

- the preservation of genetic diversity

- coliective rcsponsi bility in cnviron- mental issues: Iaws, trcaties, organi- zations, agencics

- soi1 crosion

- salinlution

- endangered spccies

- thc rolc of tcchnology in modifying and managmg cnvironmcnw: insccti- cidcs. hcrbicidcs, fcrtiiizcrs, biologcal controls, discasc control

Attirudinal Obiectives Students shall be provided with opportunities to:

- devclop persona1 definitions that distrnguish between the terms needs and wanrs;

- becomc sensitive to valucs issues, recognmng that there are a vviety of societal attitudes towuds M C W ~

environments and their use;

- recognizc that dificrent pcople may hold opposxng views on a single envi- ronmcntal issue;

- idcntify principlcs and concepts on which the rcsolution of environmental issucs shouId be bascd;

- dcrive satisfaction from the proccss and product of indcpendent rcsearch.

Kno wledgc Obiectivcs Studcnts shall:

- undcrstand thc reasons why pcople intcrvcne In an ccosystcm;

- invcstrgatc spcc~fic cxamplcs of ways in which pcople have changed thcir cnvironment;

- cxamine both positivc and ncgative outcomcs of cnvironmcnd changes;

- study specific cnvironmcntal con- ccrns that arc sccn as "issues";

- undcrstand the background d o n - tion on at lcast two environmenul issucs;

- undentand adequately the specific tcrminology uscd to d d b e concepts and processes wsociated with envi- ronmend systcms;

- consider the points of view put for- wud by those involved in uch of the issues studied, togcthcr with the rationalcs behind the different opinions;

- become awart of the sucngths and wcaknesses of a rcprcscntative ample of maps, graphs, Ehuts, and printcd &ta in communiuting information conceming an issue;

- l t u n the acceptcd format for bibli- ographies and footnoter in wnttcn essays and rcpons.

Süjlls Obiedvts Studurts shdl:

- find the locations of news evcnts on appropriate maps;

-rnrlyse an event or a situation to dctcrmiac cause-and-effect rehtionships;

- evaluate donnat ion for accuracy and bias;

- assess the retiability of the sources of data uscd;

- determine whether donnation is fact or opinion;

- draw conclusions from the informa- tion asscmbled;

-select the most appropriatc mode for communiuting information in- volving rclationships, derences, and change;

- find uscful sourccs of geographic information, including rderence books, &ta bascs, y c a r b k s , and bick issucs of ncwspapers, magazines, and peridicals;

- rctneve information by bccoming familiar with the format of scvtral sources of information (e-g., microfilm of ncwspapers and magazmes, publi- cations such as ''Facts on File", &ta brnh S U C ~ as INFO GLOBE);

- use overlay maps to demonstrate relauonships;

- obtain opinions from people who arc knowledgcable about the subiect under study;

- mi te descriptions of the differing points of vicw held by people on a single topic or issuc.

Section C: Economic and Resource Issues .............................................

Dispanty among counmes and be- tween the nch and poor mthm coun- mes has been a recurnng issue. As wel1, economx specdization and the mternationalizat~on of production are bnnging about new global eco- nomic patterns, and vastly improved means of communication and co- operative agreements among govern- rnents have drawn sorne counuies cIoscr togcther to meet mutual goals. Such developments have often been accompanied by the conccms of other countnes chat have k e n negatively affectcd, and these concems have often escalatcd into Issues.

Thc capacity of the earth to sustain human populations depends largely on the ability oi people to idenufy, use. and conserve resources. Resourccs, thereiore, un be dehed only in a cultural contcxt. Even with

howledge, technology, tradt, crpitai, and suitable poi i t id o r m t i o n , nanuai resourcu may lie unuscd or urrdcmsed or be uscd in a wastchrl muutu. The dcmand for key corn- rnoditits, resourcc ownenhip aad aunagement, and the dmagiq rc- suurcc base are factors chat dfect t&c use of resources uound the world

Technologicd developmcnt is crus- ing rapid change in the world Whilc technology cui solvc old problcms, it can also crcate new oncs: the devel- opment of nuclcar en- and the increasing use of chernids for fcr- tilizers and insect control serve as examples. The applications of tech- nology un result tn confomiity, dependcncy, standardization, and tiie control of entire populations, and thus many of these applications un be vrewcd as rhreats to h u m a liberty. Studcnts should becomc awuc of the implications of technology for the lives of people.

A gcncral overview of cunent global economic and resource issues should initiate studies in this section. While the cmphasis and focus of study should bc placcd on economic and rcsourcc issucs, opponunities should bc sought to broadcn each topic or to integrare aspects of sections B and D into the study. As well, cunent evcnts shouid have an influence on the issues d o - sen for study or be relatcd to them whenever the o p p o m i t y aises.

ïherc are many economic and rc- source issues that may serve as possi- ble topics for study. Tachers shalt select two maior issues from or simi- la; to those included in the accompa- nying list, one having an econornic focus and one having a resource focw. The issues chosen for study shall be global in nature,

Economic and Resource Issues: A Checklist

- invcstment in, production of, made in, and wnsumption of key commodi- au: foob, hels, wood, meuls, f i b m

- ai-: production, consuinpaon, cornpeution

- changmg resource bases: ownenhip and mnnrgcment

- the p w t h of an information society

- the effects of multinational corpora- tions, docations of crpiul, the locat- h g of ecoaomic actintics, and new made patterns on diffcreat counuies

- the technology usai in the gathuiry and proccssing of data: satellite lais- in& instrumentation, &ta proccssing, computing, &ta analysis, data networks

- technologiul applications in the fieid of energy that have fa-rangmg social and cconornic effccts

- tcchnology and uansportation: air, a, land, space

- commercial and pol i t id orgrniu- tion: planncd cconomies, market cconomies

- k e nade and world trading blocs

- intemrtionlliution of labour

- rcucity and glut

- a rcsource under pressure

- fonns of interdependence: made, foreign usiscancc, loans, technical assistance, international agcncies

- effects of intemtionrl aid progruns

- tfftcts of wotld cxpcnditurts on mmmtn t s

- waste management

A ttitudinal Objectives Students shall be provided with opportunicies to:

- become increasingly objective in the evaluat~on oi mformauon;

- recognize chat nations as well as rndlviduals rnay hold diffenng wew- points on the same issue;

- recognlzc that the individuai has a nghc to defend his or her interests and a responsibility to oppose devei- opmenrs chat are noc in the mterests of the public,

- evaluatc the positive and negative effects of economic actrvines on a countm.

IIliowiedge Obieca'ves Students shall:

- examine specific economic concems that are seen as "issues";

- examine specific resource concerns that are seen as "issues";

- understand adeqwtely the specific terminology used to describe concepts and processes associated with cco- nomlc and resourcc issues;

- consider the points of view put for- ward by those involved in each of the issues studied, together with the rationales behind the different opinions;

- learn to idcntify thc best map, graph, or chan for thc task at hmd. with thc understanding that cach type 1s drawn for dificrcnt purposcs;

- undcrstand that maps. graphs, and modcls gcncrally show patterns and rclationships rathcr chan prccise figures;

- invcstigatc thc cffccts or the usc of various iorms of technology to rn- crcasc the efficiency of resourcc con- version, to improvc productlvity, or to movc information;

- k c o m c awarc of the types of infor- mation rcquircd for the investigation of an issuc, whcrc chat information u n bc found, and how it may be

WJ ObieEtives Students shall:

- identify and analyse exampies of major developrnent proiects;

- idenufy an economic or a resource issue and create a frarnework for con- ducting an mquiry inro it;

- distinguish between relevant and non-relevant information and between fact and opinion;

- use different types of questions te-g., those involving facts, definitions, coneiations, dccisions, and values ;

- determine thc rcliability of sourccs of idormation and predict any potcn- tral bias;

- brainstorm as a mcthod of fhding new ways to S O ~ V C old problcms;

- summarizc information from 3 vari- ety of sourccs in ordcr to makc 3

series of accuratc statcments about the issuc undcr study;

- debate thc mcrits of proposals for soiving the problem of dispanty m o n g nations;

- speak in a vanety of situations, such as rolc-plays, pancl discussions, simu- iations, debatcs, or the dclivery of oraI reports;

- preparc hypothctical news releases about an Issue.

accesscd.

Section O: Cultural and Political Issues .....**.....-..-...-.....-...*-....-.........-

In addition to their basic needs, peopie have cuituraI and politiul needs chat bring them into association with other people. In recent years maps have had to be redrawn to reflect the disap pearance of some political units, the emergence of others, and the rcloca- tion ot national boundanes. Emerjpng and dcveloping countnes, as well as groups within existmg counuies, have establlshed policies and programs to help thcm rneet their goals- Whiie the driving torces have oftcn been cultural ce-g., language, religion, polit- ical idcoiogyi, dispanty among na- tions and within them has k e n a recurring issue. In many uses change has bccn accompanied by strifc within a nation's borders or by fnctron be- twcen immcdiatc neighbours or dis- tant countrics. ( A howledgc of global variations in population is fundamentai to the study of issucs within this section of thc coursc. Births. deaths, and mi- gration act in combination to produce population patterns. Human popula- txon is distnburcd uncvcnly, pnmarily bccausc pcopie tend to live in those arcas that have climates and resources that arc bcst suitcd to sustaining life. People want ro live in countnes, and in rcgions withtn countries, where the opportunitics to live a good lifc arc optimal.

A general ovenicw of cuncnt cul- turai and politicai issues should iniu- ate studies in this section. However, whde the ernphasis and focus of study should be placcd on culnuai and political issues, oppomrniues should be sought to broaden uch topic or to mtegrate aspects of sections B and C into the study. As weii, cu ren t events should detemine, in some measurc, thc Issues chosen for study.

Thcre are many culturai and politi- cal issues chat may serve as possible topics for study. Teachers shall select two maior issues from or similar to chose included in the accornpanying list, one having a cultural focus and the otbcr, a political one. The issucs chosen for study must be global in ssalc.

Cultural and Political Issues: A Checklist

- mmority goups within nations le-&, Sikhs in india, Tamils in Sn Lanka, Basques in Spam, Kurds m Turkey, Asians in East Afnca, Chinesc in Malaysia,

- local wars or civil strifc ce-g., in Nonhem Ireland, Lcbanon. Nicaragua. Afghanrstan~

- migratron

- refugees

- the changing roics of men and women

- population dcnsity in relation to resourcc basc: urban and rural dcnsi- ties, arcas of ovcrpopulation, arcas of undcrpopulacion

- population compositions and their effccrs: factors of dcmographic changc, age-scx ratios, disparitics in wcalth, provision of pubiic health, cfiaractcr- istics of the labour forcc

- forms of intcrdcpcrrdcncc: military aIlianccs, associations (e-g., thc World Bank, the World Hcalth Orgrniution. the Comrnonwcdth, la Francophonic, the United Nations

- legacies of thc p s t : wealth and poveny, land tcnurc, exploiwoon, colonialism, indcpendencc

- ._ - - - . - - _ . . * _ - _ _ _ If0 tar F rnt stn io i Division r rocrr rm oNrrrmio IrcAarlric coursrs

Artitudind Objectives Students S U I be provided with opportunlties CO:

- become aware b t changes in a country affect groups within it in duferent ways;

- appreciate the complexity of deci- sion making;

- identify principles and concepts on which cultural and politiul deùsions shodd be based.

Kao wledge Objectives Students shall:

- examine specific cultural concerns that are seen as *'issues";

- examine specific politiul concems that arc scen as "issues";

- considcr the points of view put for- ward by those mvolved in each of the issucs studied, together with the rationalcs bchind the differenr opinions,

- understand adcquately the specific teminology uscd to describe concepts and processcs associated with cultural and polit~cal issues;

- understand techniques used in gath- enng data and uanslating it into vis- ual formats chat are informative, easily read, and unbiased;

- develop criteria that arc useful in determining the s igdcance of an issue.

- access information h m &ta banks and from government sources;

- work independcntly without supervision;

- rcmevc information by using the followlng: a) u r d catalogue: author, utle, and

subiect car&; b) books: table of contents, ùtle page,

glossary, illustration and mrp lisu, foocnotes, i ndu , &te of publication;

C ) atlases: uble of contents, yzenecr, index;

d) tncyclopedia: key words, cross- references, index;

C) microfilm: back issues of ncwspa- pers, magazines, and periodicais;

f ) pubtications: periodiul indexes, specialized rcferencc materials such as chose giving newspaper hcadlines and scories in bricf;

- locate places on maps, photographs, and images by using a refercncing systcm;

- transpose specific aspects of infor- mation from decailed maps to sketch maps;

- rrcognize futures in photogaphs aad s a td i t c images, using su& ducs as silape, pattcrrt, colour, studows, h d e , tunuc, relauvc size, and cul- nurJ and naturai futures;

- -ch for, rccognue, and explain the patterns on maps and images;

- obuin information from k t - h d sources by (a) plrriIiing an investigr- tion and formukting questions chat arc spccific enough to aid in chat investigation and (b) locating infor- mation tbat is pertinent to the ucr under study;

- cornpietc a sampling of public opin- ion on a current issue. To accomplish this, they will have to: a) develop an appropriate question-

naire (in sorne cases it rnay bc possible to administcr the qua- tionnurc) ;

b) use u r eh l l y planncd observation, counting, gathering, and rccording ptoccdurcs;

C) plan a d urry out an cffecuve intuview;

d) record the information grthend; C) determine, t h u g b calculations,

the degrte of suppon for the issue from various segments of the community;

f ) commuaicatc the rcsdts in gaphic form;

- writc a description of the diffaing points of view held by diffcrcnt people on a s d e topic or issue;

- writc descriptions of thcir own ex- pcricnccs and opinions.