In an increasingly complex post-truth world, people in general – students and teachers in particular – struggle to discern credible sources of online information. Their ability to judge multiple sources of information has and will have a major impact on their collective ability to make decisions in a modern, democratic society.
This is the area of research I have been working through over the past month.
We need to better understand the challenges presented by a post-truth. As a term, post-truth is relatively new. Most of us probably became aware of post-truth with the 2016 election of Donald Trump. He didn’t invent post-truth but Trump and other politicians have used alternative facts as an every day tool with impunity.
What strategies and techniques can be developed to provide educators and students with appropriate tools to effectively evaluate what is credible and what is baseless information? Is this even possible to do?
In a world that possesses an abundance of information, more readily available than at any other time in history, we swim in a sea of disinformation, suspicion, and confusion (Chinn et al., 2021). Accordingly, our ability to make decisions that affect our everyday life is severely hampered (Barzilai & Chinn, 2020). This is the world of post-truth; here, the forum of political debate can be filled with half-truths and outright lies. What is ‘true’ is up for debate on every news channel (Buckingham, 2019). The challenge of acquiring information has been complicated by several factors including the increased prevalence of misinformation; the outright rejection of established claims; the discrediting of facts over personal beliefs; a declining trust in the institutions that provide us with information and the fragmentation of that information (Barzilai & Chinn, 2020).
This is not a new situation. Many generations have had to contend with information sources designed to distract and misinform. Thomas Jefferson witnessed the increased flow of political pamphlets brought about by the advent of movable type. While this technical innovation allowed for the spread of cheaply produced rhetoric and opinion, it also opened the door to a more questionable collection of reading material. Jefferson’s solution then is as relevant today. Rather than ban the half-truths and false claims of the pamphlet, Jefferson argued that people needed to be taught to discern truth from fiction (Wineburg & McGrew, 2019).
What are some features of a post-truth world? One common theme focuses on the inability of people to spot unreliable information. They may rely on a single source for their information or have little experience with fact-checking sources (Chinn et al., 2021). The widespread availability of digital information can also make it a challenge for people to decide who possesses expert information (2021). It cannot be taken for granted that the public has the skill set required to assess the trustworthiness of the experts they are reading. There exists the tendency for people to ‘choose’ their own expert opinion, especially when the information confirms previously held beliefs (Barzilai & Chinn, 2020).
This is an area that I would love to learn more about. Authors like Sam Weinburg and Jason Steinhauer who recently wrote History Disrupted: How Social Media and the World Wide Web Have Changed the Past are writing for a non-academic audience. Both, I think, would call themselves Internet entrepreneurs (Weinburg, p. 8, 2018). Both write for a general audience because it is this audience that needs to acquire the tools to assess what is credible information and what is a potentially dangerous fantasy. This is not an academic debate.
These few paragraphs were written as part of a doctoral paper. The more time I spend with academics, the more I am convinced that we need to have this debate outside of the academy. Over the next few posts, I will include more from this paper in the hope that someone finds this discussion important. Maybe this will encourage more discussion. Otherwise, what value does this piece really have?
This is a problem for everyone, but for educators how we develop 21st-century critical thinking skills is becoming an essential feature of their professional lives. How well do we understand this?
Allison Russell /Brandi Carlile – You Are Not Alone
Born Ruffians – I Fall in Love Every Night
The Heavy Heavy – Miles and Miles
Rosa Linn – SNAP
Darling Congress – Lazarus
Breeze: – Come Around ft. Cadence Weapon
Yot Club – U Dont Kno Me
Bells Larsen – Double Aquarius
Aysanabee: War Cry Exclaim!
In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Evan Pang made sure to check in with his grandfather in Thunder Bay.
“It was important for me to record some of this, because not only were there outbreaks happening, but his health wasn’t so good at the time,” he said.
But soon, those conversations became deeper, uncovering family stories and setting Pang on a new journey of personal reclamation. So, with his grandfather’s blessing, he started recording their chats.
“We spent the first year kind of getting to know each other in a way that we never had before,” the Toronto-based musician told Unreserved host Rosanna Deerchild. “I basically spent the first year of the pandemic interviewing my grandfather.”
A lot has changed since then. Pang now goes by Aysanabee, after reclaiming his family’s name. He left his career in journalism to become a musician. He’s so far performed at nearly 100 shows and festivals, and signed with Ishkōdé Records, an Indigenous, women-led record label.
CBC
Allison Russell /Brandi Carlile – You Are Not Alone
Montreal native makes a second appearance on the Old Fellas podcast. At this point, “You are Not Alone” is a standalone 2022 release. After having a fairly traumatic childhood, Russell sings songs of strength and positivity. She is joined on this song by American multi award winner Brandi Carlile.
Born Ruffians: I Fall in Love Every Night (2020) Verge – Juice
“I Fall In love Every Single Night” is the opening track from Born Ruffians’ new LP, and is their first single since their 2018 album Uncle, Duke & The Chief.
Guitarist and vocalist Luke Lalonde says of the new single, “When the darkness isn’t fully engrossing me, I feel very fortunate for the world we live in and the people I have in my life. It’s easy for me (and I think for a lot of people) to take things for granted. There’s a constant narrative I’ve noticed being pushed that the world is a big, mean, scary place. We’re constantly being drilled by bad news, perpetual fear. You can forget how beautiful the world is and you can forget to even notice the person right next to you… I’m feeling a renewed sense of love not only in my relationships but with the world in general. There is an overwhelming amount of love in the world, you just have to focus on it every once in a while.”
The Heavy Heavy – Miles and Miles
The Heavy Heavy:have described their sound as the “The Rolling Stones meets The Mamas & The Papas”. The band reminds one of Bob Welch era Fleetwood Mac as well. The track “Miles and Miles” is taken from the Brighton UK based group’s sole ep. The tune sounds as if it could be blasting from an AM radio station circa 1973. Here they perform on Stephen Colbert’s Late Show Me website.
It’s not those numbers that count towards the chart, though – but users are going on to streaming platforms – which do contribute to the figures.
“Everything is going crazy and it’s a dream come true,” the 22-year-old told BBC News.
It’s the second-highest charting song from this year’s competition, behind the United Kingdom’s Sam Ryder, who got to
At the grand final in Turin, in May, Snap finished in 20th position out of 25 – receiving no points from the UK in either the public or jury votes.
“That was my first time on a big stage but it felt so right. It felt like home,” Linn explained.
(BBC)
Darling Congress – Lazarus from album Jubilant Blue 2022
Taken from the 2022 album Jubilant Blue, Lazarus, was a long time in the making as COVID interrupted the album’s production. Darling Congress is Peter van Helvoort bassist for The Glorious Sons and one time a member of Teenage Kicks. “Lazarus” apparently deals with that bands break up seven years earlier when the song was actually written.
Breeze: Come Around ft. Cadence Weapon (2021) Verge
Toronto-based producer and artist, Josh Korody (Nailbiter, Beliefs) who works under the moniker, Breeze is sharing his new single, “Come Around” which features a guest appearance from the tipped Canadian rapper/artist, Cadence Weapon who found acclaim from Stereogum, FLOOD, Brooklyn Vegan, Bandcamp Daily, Exclaim and more for his recent album, Parallel World – listen below. The new single arrives in line with the news of Korody’s second album under Breeze titled Only Up, set for release via Hand Drawn Dracula on August 26, 2021.
Yot Club -U Dont Kno Me
Yot Club is a lo-fi bedroom pop project from Mississippi. The band is solely old Ryan Kaiser, writing and recording everything. Kaiser came to the public’s attention withe Tik Tok viral sensation, YKWIM?,” (You Know What I Mean). Apparently it’s had over two million streams on Spotify. “u dont kno me” is the first single off his forthcoming debut album Off the Grid. To quote, “The song is about outgrowing one’s environment—a feeling that Kaiser knows well, having relocated from Mississippi to Nashville last year.
Bells Larsen (they/he/il) is a Montreal-based singer/songwriter. Larsen’s songs weave together deeply cathartic lyrics and memorable melodies, distilling the personal within the universal. In the fall, Larsen will release their debut record, which was made possible with support from the Canada Council for the Arts. This music explores the theme of queer loss in its many guises.
Father John Misty – Things It Would Have Been Helpful to Know Before the Revolution.
Dear Rouge – Small Talk
Local Natives ft Sylvan Esso – Dark Days
Alyona Savranenko was born in Ukraine. She holds two bachelor’s degrees, one of which comes from the Gregory Skovoroda Pedagogical State University of Pereiaslav. Before doing rap, she worked as a teacher at “Teremok” kindergarten of Baryshivka, Kyiv Oblast. Alyona then headed the kindergarten of the neighboring village of Dernivka.In total, Alyona worked for four years in kindergartens and left the job once she gained popularity.
Even though Russian rap music is very popular in Ukraine, Alyona Alyona chose to rap in her native language. (While both languages are spoken in the ex-Soviet state, Ukrainian has become more widely spoken since the 2013 Euromaidan protests.)
To her, it’s a celebration of her national culture: “I want to rap about everyday life, in my own language.”
European music is more than just the glitz of Eurovision. Turn on your sound to hear 15 of the region’s most important acts, musically and socially, right now.
“We didn’t have any huge fresh names like her in rap music in Ukraine before,” said Ivan Dorn, a popular Ukrainian singer. Alyona Alyona’s early videos, some of which have several million views on YouTube, have a down-to-earth quality, showing her rapping in snow-covered, graffiti-filled landscapes, often dressed in tracksuits and sneakers.
(NYT)
St Vincent –Candy Darling
St Vincent –Candy Darling
St Vincent is the stage name of Ann Clark. She has been releasing albums to both popular and critical acclaim since 2007. The track “Candy Darling” is from her sixth album, 2021’s “Daddy’s Home”. The song is an homage to Andy Warhol transgender “Superstar” Candy Darling who was immortalized in Lou Reed’s “Walk on the Wild Side” and the Velvet Underground’s “Candy Says” Candy died tragically died at the age of 29 from lymphoma. To quote St Vincent, “ ’Candy Darling’ was the last song I wrote for “Daddy’s Home.” I can’t explain it, but I felt like Candy was guiding me through writing it all, so it only made sense for me to send her home on that last uptown train with a bouquet of bodega roses.”
Meet Exclaim!’s latest New Faves, including an East Coast heartbreaker and some scrappy power pop by way of Manitoba
On “Crushin’,” Booter’s Alannah Walker (one-half of indie-pop duo Cannon Bros.) sings hyperactive musings about continually falling for the straight girl, never catching that unattainable person’s eye. It’s a theme touched on throughout the quartet’s debut record, 10/10: “There are songs on this album that are clearly gay,” she says of the album, on which she writes queer lyrics openly for the first time. Joined by Tunic frontman David Schellenberg on bass, Hut Hut drummer Ian Ellis and guitarist Brendon Yarish, the Winnipeg-based project’s debut arrives September 9 through Midwest Debris
On Booter’s debut album, Alannah Walker sings queer lyrics openly for the first time. Inspired by women writing love songs about women, the Winnipeg musician formerly known for her acclaimed duo Cannon Bros shares sarcastic slacker laments with a universality stretching far beyond the prairies. Joined by members of Tunic, Hut Hut, and Animal Teeth, 10/10 sets her stories of breakups, make-ups, and crushes on straight girls to the nostalgic strains of ’90s indie-rock. Drawing on the time-tested influences of Sloan, The Breeders, and Guided By Voices, each track is packed with hooks while maintaining the quartet’s homespun charms. Producer Cam Loepkky (The Weakerthans, Constantines) and mastering engineer Philip Shaw Bova (Kiwi Jr., Land of Talk) give 10/10 a vibrant boost with its dreamy synths and incandescent guitar solos bursting through Booter’s understated arrangements.
RELEASED Friday, September 9, 2022
Divine Comedy – Don’t Look Down
Divine Comedy – Don’t Look Down
The Divine Comedy are a band from Northern Ireland. Formed in 1989 and fronted by Neil Hannon. Hannon has been the only constant member of the group for all these years. The band has released 12 studio albums. Between 1996 and 1999, nine singles released by the band made the top 40 in the UK. “Don’t Look Down” comes from the album Promenade which was released in 1994. By honest error, the Old Fellas New Music rule of no music older than 2015 has been broken! Hopefully a severe penalty will be applied. However, here is Hannon performing the song in 2017.
Local Natives ft Sylvan Esso – Dark Days
Local Natives is an American indie rock band based Los Angeles. Their debut album, Gorilla Manor, was first released February 16, 2010. The album received mostly positive reviews and debuted on the Billboard 200 and at No. 3 in the New Artist Chart.
When Rostam Batmanglij was a kid growing up in Washington, D.C. — “must have been 13 or 14,” he figures — he used to ride around in his older brother’s car listening to a collection of Bruce Springsteen’s greatest hits. So it was probably inevitable that the musician and producer (and former Vampire Weekend member) would end up decades later with a song like “4Runner” from his mesmerizing new album.
A sexy-dreamy bop about two lovers’ road trip up the West Coast, “4Runner” carries some big Boss energy — the propulsive tempo, the images of “stolen plates” and a “blanket on the backseat,” the very “I’m on Fire” falsetto at the end of the tune. Asked if he hears it too, Rostam smiles and reveals that it wasn’t just that formative experience at play: Throughout the process of making his “Changephobia” LP, he was listening intermittently to the audiobook of Springsteen’s memoir, “Born to Run.”
Rostam’s craftiness and his analytical thinking — not to mention his interest in music history — are all over the meticulously rendered “Changephobia,” which mingles fuzzy rock, aquatic R&B and 1940s- and ’50s-style jazz. The album, his second solo disc, arrives after a few years in which he primarily wrote and produced for other acts such as Clairo, Maggie Rogers and Haim, with whom he earned a Grammy nomination for album of the year with 2020’s “Women in Music Pt. III.”
Vancouver alt-rock duo Dear Rouge have shared their long-awaited third full-length album, Spirit, via Pheromone Records.
As the band wrote of the record,
“Spirit is the most vulnerable and raw side of Danielle’s inner thoughts, and the line being thrown from these questions and deep reckonings within oneself, urging you to grab hold and hang on for dear life.”
The band recorded Spirit secluded away from busy cityscapes. Drew and Danielle took up residence in a lakeside cabin shortly after the release of PHASES, their sophomore record. The duo found themselves spending their days alone together, and Spirit began to take form over the winter months.
“I had this epiphany,” Danielle shared, “that we needed to come back to ourselves and the joy and comfort we found in each other when we began writing music together.”
Maria McKee- Let Me Forget
Spotify
Maria McKee is an American singer-songwriter. She is best known for her work with 80’s cow punks Lone Justice and her song “If Love Is a Red Dress (Hang Me in Rags)” from the film Pulp Fiction. Last year she recorded the album
La Vita Nuova which was met with generally favorable reviews from critics.
Father John Misty – Things It Would Have Been Helpful to Know Before the Revolution.
Joshua Michael Tillman is better known by his stage name Father John Misty. The chosen song comes from the 2015 album “ Pure Comedy”. Originally, Tillman included an 1800-word-long essay about its symbolism and meaning in the release announcement email to his fan club. “ Pure Comedy is the story of a species born with a half-formed brain. The species’ only hope for survival, finding itself on a cruel, unpredictable rock surrounded by other species who seem far more adept at this whole thing (and to whom they are delicious), is the reliance on other, slightly older, half-formed brains. This reliance takes on a few different names as their story unfolds, like “love,” “culture,” “family,” etc. Over time, and as their brains prove to be remarkably good at inventing meaning where there is none, the species becomes the purveyor of increasingly bizarre and sophisticated ironies. These ironies are designed to help cope with the species’ loathsome vulnerability and to try and reconcile how disproportionate their imagination is to the monotony of their existence” Okay…. It is rather catchy though…. Pop Matters assesses….
Some lyrics...
It got too hot and so we overthrew the system
'Cause there's no place for human existence like right here
On this bright blue marble orbited by trash
Man, there's no beating that
It was no big thing to give up the way of life we had, oh
My social life is now quite a bit less hectic
The nightlife and the protests are pretty scarce
Now I mostly spend the long days walking through the city
Empty as a tomb
Sometimes I miss the top of the food chain
But what a perfect afternoon
Premiered Jun 26, 2022 The Czech poem ‘Chtěla jsem tě proklít, hořká zemi’ (I wanted to curse you, bitter land), here with English subtitles, was written by Anna Hana Friesová while she was imprisoned in the concentration camp Theresienstadt (1942-1945). The song is a part of the project ‘Thieves of Dreams‘. Truly beautifyl music – this video is not the track we are featuring, any song from this project would work.
ABOUT THE PROJECT ‘THIEVES of DREAMS,’ a “haunting set of musical gems” (The Bangkok Post, June 9, 2022)
This project is about women. Creative, strong, breaking social taboos, and in some ways… invisible. My maternal grandmother Anna Hana Friesova was a stunning, well-educated woman from an entirely assimilated Czech Jewish family: assimilation was fairly common; in her case, it was based on fears of pogroms witnessed by her husband. She was an accomplished artist both with a pen and a brush, and nobody took her seriously – I suspect not even herself: she never mentioned her art to me. Only when my mother recently passed, I discovered two worn notebooks among her possessions: poems Anna Hana wrote between the years 1940 and 1945, just before and during her two-and-a-half-year incarceration (1942-1945) in the Terezin (Theresienstadt) concentration camp during WW2. I was stunned by the intensity of her words, the erudite vocabulary, the raw and often disturbing honesty. I find her words just as poignant today as they were eighty years ago.
Even more shocking were the details of the poems. “These were her dreams and nightmares from inside the concentration camp, the stories she never told me when I was growing up,” Lenka added. “Most of us, if we’re lucky enough, have a brief window with our grandparents. That time isn’t typically spent listening to their traumatic stories.”
Lenka Lichtenberg decided to embark on an ambitious project, to bring her grandmother’s voice back to life in the best way she knew how: as a music project, spanning eight decades and three generations. Anna Hana’s poems rarely mentioned the horrors of the camp explicitly. Perhaps this was self-censorship in case her writing was discovered.
Lenka co-founded, with Isabel Fryszberg, the Yiddish swing all-female group Sisters of Sheynville, with whom she performed across Canada, in the U.S. and Europe. The band won the Canadian Folk Music Award for Vocal Group of the Year in 2008 for its Sheynville Express disc.
Kiwi Junior
Kiwi Jr – Unspeakable Things
Originally from Charlottetown, now based in Toronto these guys have not taken a misstep as demonstrated by this track lifted from their third album Chppoer. Pitchfork Magazine loved it.
Great song. I can’t remember where I first heard this, but the track is full of great Dominican energy. This song introduces me to dembow and trap music – a new genre that is new to me. More below:
As Dominican dembow and trap continues to spread internationally, the rest of the industry would do well to pay attention to the label’s artful and off-the-wall concoctions. To better understand its place in the movement, check out some of the best Paulus Music releases below.(Guardian)
Dembow is a Dominican musical genre[1][2] that can be traced to a riddim that originated in Jamaican dancehall.[3] When Shabba Ranks released “Dem Bow” in 1990, it did not take long for the dembow genre to form. Riddims were built from the song and the sound became a popular part of reggaeton. From there it took off in Dominican Republic creating the sound UNDERWORLD (“Bajo Mundo” in Spanish). It hit the streets of New York and from there it made its way to all of Latin America. The Dominican Dembow sound keeps evolving and has been fusioned with Trap music since 2016 and it’s also fusioned with Bachata and Merengue from the Dominican Republic. Dembow artists are called “Dembowseros
Tanya Tagaq – Teeth Agape
I decided to play a Tanya Tagaq song after hearing here on the Strombo Show. I couldn’t play particular track – 2014, but this is great. Raw, dark energy. Polaris Prize winner in 2014.
More on Tanya Tagaq:
“I will never stop being surprised that people like my music,” Tanya Tagaq tells me seriously before roaring with laughter. “I can feed my children because people are freaks!”
Even down a bad phone line from her home in Canada, the singer is brilliant company; passionate, political and hilariously foul-mouthed – a world away from the earnest associations that spring to mind when she is described as an “Inuit throat-singer”. “When people hear that, they think my concerts are going to be ‘just darling’,” she agrees with another shout of laughter. (Guardian)
Instead, the 40-year-old wrests the indigenous female tradition – with origins in a vocal breathing game played when men were out hunting – into a medium for pure, unleashed emotion. Her ghostly chants, guttural growls, gasps and moans are enough to make Björk, her sometime collaborator, sound as demure as a choirgirl.
Has Won The 2022 Polaris Music Prize For The Album ‘José Louis And The Paradox Of Love’’
This is Pierre Kwenders’ first Polaris Music Prize win. He is on a good deal now thanks to his Polaris win. Great music, hope to keep on hearing him.
More:
“This is crazy, I don’t even know what to think. This is for all the kids from the diaspora, the African diaspora, moving in Canada. Sometimes you feel like you don’t know what you’re running into, or what you’re coming into. But there is hope, there is a place to live and dream and be yourself. This album, especially, is about being yourself and telling your own story. José Louis And The Paradox Of Love is there for you, you know, if you feel you can connect, connect! Let’s talk! Let’s have fun! Let’s be ourselves! Let’s love each other, while we are alive. Bisou!” – Pierre Kwenders
Truth – Jungle
Jungle is a British duo founded in 2013 by producers Josh Lloyd-Watson and Tom McFarland. They have released three albums. In 2014, Jungle was shortlisted for the prestigious 2014 Mercury Prize in the U.K. Their second album was 2018’s For Ever through XL Recordings. The track Truth, is found on their third album, Loving in Stereo, released in 2021.
This is the second time we have featured Alvvays. It makes sense, they continue to come up with catchy energetic songs. This track is from their third album.
Dry Cleaning are an English band that formed in 2018. They are unusual as they employ spoken word rather than sung vocals. Their debut album New Long Leg was released in 2021
The Beths – Knees Deep Orville Peck, Shania Twain – Legends Never Die Glorious Sons – Pink Motel Blue Stones – Shakin’ Off the Dust Blue Rodeo – When You Were Wild Crystal Eyes – 2000 years Rosie Tucker – Barbara Ann Sudan Archives – Selfish Soul Cheap Trick – So it Goes
Our latest show on Mixcloud
Here are some notes that will grow as we get closer to the show. The Beths – Knees Deep
Beths – Knees Deep
New Zealand indie rockers The Beths have already released 2 albums of snappy power pop. Their latest is Expert in a Dying Field, from which Knees Deep is the lead-off single.
It’s a peppy, tune about trying to summon personal courage. In the song’s video, various Beths blow off band practice to go bungee jumping. It’s included here in a review of the song from Consequence Sound
In a press release, Beths leader Liz Stokes has this to say: “I’m the kind of person who wants to go swimming but takes like 10 minutes to get all the way into the cold water, slowly and painfully. I hate this about myself and am kind of envious of people who can just jump straight in the deep end. In a shocking twist, this is also a metaphor?! For how I wish I was the kind of person who was”
Kingston Ontario’s The Glorious Sons have achieved remarkable success scoring the Juno for top rock album 3 times and having 2 number 1 hits in the US Billboard Charts.
Pink Motel is the closing track on their 2019 release A War On Everything. The song has very early 70’s Stones vibe to it. This is a clip of them performing the song at Queen’s University’s Richardson Stadium in hometown Kingston in 2019.
Orville Peck, Shania Twain – Legends Never Die
Orville Peck and Shania Twain
I don’t know anything about Orville Peck, but I will work on this. Everyone knows Shania Twain and her story is worth reading about. This is a woman with a great amount of courage and it is really great to see her in my ‘duets section’ for this week.
I am adding this track on Karen’s suggestion. She is coming to see them this week at Cityfolk here in Ottawa. This is a great duet, you really need to give it a listen.
Blue Stones – Shakin’ Off the Dust Here is a band that I was only vaguely aware of before Cityfolk. This is a two-person band from Windsor and their music is powerful. The band consists of a drummer and a guitarist. I could have chosen any of their tracks, but I stuck to the show format and chose Shakin’ Off the Dust.
a little grainy, but taken live at CityFolk
I had to add the video for this track, a little strange
Blue Rodeo – When You Were Wild
What can one say about Blue Rodeo? A Canadian institution since the mid-eighties, Blue Rodeo released their 16th studio album Many A Mile this year.
This track I heard this week off of CBC Radio 3 and I had to add this. I find this is the best way to choose tracks for this show. The song was immediately appealing, now I need to go back and find out a little about who these folks are.
Crystal Eyes
and a little bit about them
Alberta psych-rockers Crystal Eyes are back with a video for their new track, “Don’t Turn Around.”
Today’s release comes from their forthcoming sophomore record, The Sweetness Restored, out April 22nd via Bobo Integral. “Don’t Turn Around” is a brooding track with bold vocal lines, driven percussion, and pulsing synths. The accompanying video for the track comes packed with vintage clips of people parasailing at a picturesque beach.
and this great quote “Crystal Eyes describe the forthcoming album as a “feel-good self-help record for the age of existential dread.”
Rosie Tucker is an American musician from Los Angeles. This track is taken from their third and latest album entitled Sucker Supreme. The album was listed on Pitchfork’s list of “29 Great Records You May Have Missed: Spring 2021
The record opens with one of its finest moments, and “Barbara Ann.” Apparently the song is about Tucker’s grandmother and spending time inside the American monoculture of the Midwest.
This music has a really unique sound. I did look up something about Sudan Archives and her music is influenced by Sudanese violin style.
Here is an excerpt from her website
Sudan Archives is a violinist and vocalist who writes, plays, and produces her own music. Drawing inspiration from Sudanese fiddlers, she is self-taught on the violin, and her unique songs also fold in elements of R&B, experimental electronic music, and beat-making. She signed to Stones Throw Records in 2017.
Sudan Archives grew up in Cincinnati where she “messed around with instruments in the house” and took up violin in the fourth grade, teaching herself how to play the instrument by ear. When she discovered the violin playing style of Northeast Africa her eyes opened to the possibilities of the instrument.
Here is an early video from 2016 when she was just starting out
Sudan Archives – Queen Kunta In this live performance video, she flips Kendrick Lamar’s “King Kunta” with just her voice, a violin and a loop pedal. Video and photo by Eric Coleman. Cameras: Mike Park, Dominic Macias, Chris Gutierrez and Eric Coleman. Editor: Laith Majali. Special Thanks to Red Gate Recorders.
Cheap Trick – So it Goes
Cheap Trick is an American rock band from Rockford, Illinois, that originally formed in 1973. In 1978 Bob and his brother bought Cheap Trick’s third album, Heaven Tonight. After that it was only a matter of time before they went and got the first two albums as well. The band seemed to bridge the gap between new wave, power pop and grand stadium rock. They exploded in popularity in 1979 with The Live at Budokan album. Here’s the poster from when at their height, they played the Montreal Forum. (Paul See attachment)
After more mainstream and less interesting releases in the 80’s their output became more sporadic. However this track come from their 20th lp which became their first #1 record.
I am starting my second year in the Ph.D. program at Ottawa University. Over the summer, I completed my last required course so, in theory, I don’t need to take any more courses and I can move on to getting ready for my comprehensive exam.
Many of the people in my cohort have written or are writing their comprehensives. There seems to be a pronounced rush to get this next stage done. Once successfully completed, you can actually call yourself a Ph.D. Candidate.
I’m not doing that, there is too much I still don’t know.
For one thing, I recently changed my research topic. I wrote about this in early June.
The change moved me in an entirely different direction and I have a new wonderful supervisor who specializes in the same area I am interested in. To be honest, the change in thinking started back in April when my first attempt at writing a comprehensive-style essay flopped.
After a year of courses at the graduate level, all I feel is that I don’t know anything. I continue to read every day, but it is easy to lose touch with where I am going with all this. For the next few months, I will focus on learning about quantitative methodology, something I will need for sure and a topic I know nothing about.
a totally new area for me
I am also starting (again) to look at a different methodology – one that can connect to the research I hope to do one day. It is interesting how we make these decisions. In speaking with my supervisor, we talked about a method of research Sam Wineburg used to study the thinking patterns of students and professors when assessing the value and credibility of a variety of historical sources ( see Wineberg, S. (1991). On the reading of historical texts: Notes on the breach between school and academy. American Educational Research Journal, 28, p. 495-520.) Wineburg used think aloud techniques to gather information on what his subjects were thinking about as they reviewed various sources. This happens to be an area my supervisor is very interested in so I am now reading up on the literature about this methodology. I am starting with Verbal Protocols of Reading: The Nature of Constructively Responsive Reading By Michael Pressley and Peter Afflerbach (1994). This sets the stage for everything else I will read on this methodology. This work is in its early days, so my Zotero on this topic looks a little bleak.
My think aloud methodology section on Zotero (needs some work)
This will grow quickly. Recording people’s thinking as they review different online sources is a fascinating way to understand how students especially make decisions on what websites are actually credible to them.
My question now looks like this:
In an increasingly complex post-truth world, people in general – students and teachers in particular – struggle to discern credible sources of online information. Their ability to judge multiple sources of information has and will have a major impact on their collective ability to make decisions in a modern, democratic society.
We need to better understand the challenges presented by a post-truth world and what strategies and techniques need to be developed to provide educators and students with appropriate tools to effectively evaluate multiple online sources of information.
This is what I want to go with. It is a big jump from where I started, but this represents the best of my thinking and research so far. Is this a good effort? I have no idea. The paper received a good mark, but no comments at all. That’s not right.
So next steps, read lots (again) but this time on methodology. Come up with three questions I can use for my comprehensive, practice writing on two of these questions (I think/hope I have one of these covered) then take a month to write on two of these questions.
I have learned over the past year to take small steps and not expect too much. Grad students are left very much on their own and you have to have a good supervisor, especially after year one, to make this whole process work.
I have also learned that this is a venture that favours the young. We the older students offer decades of experience in the field of education, but that seems to have little cache in academia. There is no way I could be writing on this topic without the experience I gained implementing digital technology in the school system. But more on this later.
Next week I will be looking for more articles on think aloud techniques and of course Wineburg
I will include a few of my notes right here and Bob will add his soon. Then I will update the post.
I am not sure what kind of show this is, but if we are doing popular culture, I have to lead with this song. Elton John has been by hero since grade 11 and he still continues to entertain and amaze. He did a great duo with Dua Lipa, so why not with the recently freed Britany Speers. My Peloton coach really likes Brittany so that works for me. No more to say.
Cody Rigsby – more popular culture for you all
Girl in Red – Serontin
Girl in Red is the indie pop music project of Norwegian singer-songwriter and record producer Marie Ulven Ringheim. Her debut studio album If I Could Make It Go Quiet was released on 30 April 2021.
Serotonin is the hormone that stabilizes our mood, feelings of well-being, and happiness. This hormone impacts your entire body. It enables brain cells and other nervous system cells to communicate with each other. Serotonin also helps with sleeping, eating, and digestion
I’m running low on serotonin Chemical imbalance got me twisting things Stabilize with medicine There’s no depth to these feelings Dig deep, can’t hide From the corners of my mind I’m terrified of what’s inside
The video is lotsa fun. There are almost as many red balloons as Nena!
I don’t know anything about this guy, but I heard this song and immediately loved it. That is how it goes on this show (for me). That is how I found so much great music last year – now I have lots of their music which includes the first new additions to my collection in years – never stop collecting!
Baxter is a Nashville artist and has some great tunes. Here is a promo video from the same album. Song Hey Lorocco
Rayland Baxter – Hey Larocco (Official Video)
Here is a bit from the Wikipedia article on him. A close look will tell you this needs an update to 2022
Baxter began performing in 2010, when he was featured on the song Shanghai Cigarettes by country musician Caitlin Rose.[6] In 2012, Baxter released his debut full-length album, titled Feathers & Fishhooks (stylized as feathers & fishHooks), via ATO Records.[7][8] In 2013, Baxter released his first extended play, titled Ashkelon (stylized as ashkeLON) also via ATO Records. The title is named after the town Ashkelon in Israel.[9] On August 14, 2015, Baxter released his second studio album titled Imaginary Man.[10] In 2018, Baxter released his third full-length album titled Wide Awake.[11] In 2019, Baxter released Good Mmornin, an album of seven Mac Miller cover songs. The record was released the day before he played the Newport Folk Fest where he debuted several of the songs live for the first time.[12]
Eddie Vedder – Long Way
Eddie Vedder released “Long Way.” in late 2021. The song sees Vedder channelling his “inner Tom Petty” The song features Red Hot Chilli Peppers’ guitarist Josh Klinghoffer and drummer Chad Smith, alongside Hammond organ by Benmont Tench, of The Heartbreakers-fame. here he is doing it live in 2021.
I included this track because I really like this music. I hear lots of this on Frequencies and it has such great energy and wonderful videos!
Vair (Full Video ) Rami Randhawa & Prince Randhawa !! Western Penduz !! Sandeep Sharma| Ramaz Music 3,852,031 views May 28, 2019
There is an interesting story that led me to include them this week. If you search the pair on social media you will find some interesting material about the two Punjabi singers who also have a connection to Canada. Their social media feud (2019) is of interest:
MOHALI: Issuing threats and throwing challenges at each other on social media led to the arrest of renowned Punjabi singer Rami Randhawa here today while his brother Prince Randhawa and another Punjabi singer Elly Mangat have been booked for obscene acts and criminal intimidation.
Issuing threats and throwing challenges at each other on social media led to the arrest of renowned Punjabi singer Rami Randhawa here today while his brother Prince Randhawa and another Punjabi singer Elly Mangat have been booked for obscene acts and criminal intimidation. Rami and Elly used abusive language on social media, including Instagram, Facebook and YouTube, and challenged each other. “As per their challenges, the groups of the two singers were all set to meet at Purab Apartments to settle scores with each other,” said DSP Ramandeep Singh. Under preventive action, the Mohali police today conducted a search of Purab Apartments and nabbed Rami Randhawa. “His brother Prince Randhawa was not present there while Elly is said to be coming from Canada and is expected to reach here tomorrow,” said the DSP. “We have already sent an alert to the airport authorities. We would nab him there,” he said, adding that Prince Randhawa, who usually sang with his brother Rami, was also at large. Raids are on to nab him, said the DSP.
In a follow-up story, it is suspected that all this was a publicity stunt A police officer said that there seemed to be something fish ..
I really don’t have much on the band, but I really like this song.
From my old stand-by Wikipedia doesn’t help here – again looks like a good opportunity for editing with new info:
Wax Mannequin is the stage name of Chris Adeney,[1] a Canadian indie rock singer-songwriter. His style has been described as “a hybrid of Bruce Cockburn and Frank Zappa“,[2] “Tom Waits and Type O Negative jamming on the early Beatles catalogue”,[3] and “Rheostatics via Savatage“.[4] Carl Wilson of The Globe and Mail noted that “crowds are often baffled whether to be awed, irritated or amused by Wax’s all-rockets-flaring, un-Canadian-like extravagant performances” (2004).[2]
Beneath the unsettling imagery and musical left turns there is a steady questioning of life’s inherent strangeness and his own neuro-divergent experience.
Bandcamp Page
Manchester Orchestra – Telepath from The Million Masks of God
Manchester Orchestra is an American indie rock band from Atlanta formed in 2004. They are named after the English city of Manchester, a city frequently viewed as rich in musical history (The Smiths, The Fall, The Buzzcocks, The Stone Roses, Joy Division, Oasis, New Order, Happy Mondays, Magazine) The group is composed of rhythm guitarist-singer-songwriter Andy Hull, lead guitarist Robert McDowell, bassist Andy been releasing albums every 3 years or so since 2006. Here is a great acoustic version. Manchester Orchestra – Telepath from The Million Masks of God 2021
I picked this song off a CBC show. While I missed what the show was about, the music stuck with me.
From her website:
Weaving a line between ancestry and indigenous futurism, Kaê Guajajara has been breaking the silence and the chains imposed by racism and colonization, raising up cries of resistance that span and echo across half a millennium. Kaê’s music presents a great opportunity to raise awareness among non-indigenous people about who the true owners of this land are and where we are today
More from The Guardian on Brazilian protest which Kaê Guajajra is a part of:
When the president (Jair Bolsonaro)assumed office, the singer and composer Kaê Guajajara worried she was “going to die” as a result of his hostile actions and rhetoric. Kaê belongs to the Guajajara ethnicity, located in the Amazonian part of Maranhão state in north-eastern Brazil. Merging hip-hop, traditional instruments and elements from her mother tongue Ze’egete, Kaê makes music about the reality of urbanised Indigenous peoples and the erasing of Indigenous identities.
This post is a reflection on a presentation I attended on June 27 by Dr. Georg Marschnig, Ph.D., University of Waterloo. The post has been supplemented by additional online sources along with the presentation notes kindly provided by the author.
On the morning of March 4, 1945, a B-24 bomber the Strange Cargo took off from its base in Italy. Their mission was to bomb the rail lines in Graz, Austria. The crew was in a good mood, they were scheduled for a few days at a rest camp after the mission (“Former Army Pilot Recalls Little-Known WWII Tragedy, the Mates Who Didn’t Make It,” 2017)
The Strange Cargo was last seen shortly after 1:00 pm by fellow airmen. Around 15 seconds after dropping its bombs, the plane was hit in the nose and wing by flak and burst into flame. Eight of the ten crewmen were able to parachute out of the plane before it crashed. (“Operation Graz, Austria March 4, 1945,” n.d.)
Two of the crewmen were quickly captured by the local police. A major in the SS arrived on the scene and ordered one of the police officers to shoot the Americans. The police refused. A soldier on medical leave Max Karl Lienhart then arrived on his bicycle, pushed through the gathering crowd and shot the two fliers.
A third airman was captured by the police and was transferred to SS custody. Lienhart followed the SS soldier and shot the American. A fourth aviator was found by German soldiers, and he too was executed. The two pilots were smuggled out of Graz by Austrians and survived the war.
In the summer of 1945, a memorial was erected to the murdered airmen, no one knows (or will admit) who erected the monument.
The original monument with a close-up of the inscription
Why this project?
What new insight did you gain about schooling;
The talk was presented by Dr. Georg Marschnig, Ph.D., Senior Scientist for the Didactics of History at the University of Graz. His lecture was part of the History Education in International Contexts series organized by the Thinking Historically for Canada’s Future project. Professor Marschnig is a former high school teacher who conducted a local history project starting in 2016 to investigate the origins of the war memorial erected in Graz (Georg Marschnig, 2022).
Over the years, the memorial has been vandalized and remained half-hidden on the side of a busy roadway. Dr. Marschnig, then a high school teacher, worked with his students to uncover the story behind the monument. The research was conducted by the students over a two-year period and stands as an excellent example of Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR). The students undertook an extensive study of World War II air warfare, held town meetings with the residents of Graz and interviewed local residents and former fliers. As a concluding activity, the students proposed remodelling the memorial in order to tell the full story behind the deaths of the Americans (“Operation Graz, Austria March 4, 1945,” n.d.)
community meeting held by the students
How do schools frame notions of citizenship;
The project really is an attempt to redefine the story of a community at the end of the Second World War. It reframed citizenship through their investigation. Citizens were obliged to look back to a time long forgotten. Their work showed that members of the community were complicit in war crimes, something the town was not interested in resurrecting. The story is well documented in the records of war crimes trials and Lienhart was found guilty of three of the murders and was hanged in 1946.
What kind of relationships in schools and in educational decision-making processes foster real learning;
Because this is an action research project, the students along with their teacher became actively involved in uncovering events in the past that the community preferred to forget. In doing this work, the community became engaged in looking at their own stories and was obliged to reflect on the actions of some of their neighbours.
How do power structures affect learning?
This is a question that I asked during the presentation:
It seems that the students were revealing a dark past the community wanted to forget. In essence, they were revealing an important truth. Has this had any impact on how the students look at modern-day politics and the post-truth environment?
Professor Marschnig responded by focusing on the relationship between power and truth:
They learned a lot – some stories are told some are not – [there is] a strong connection to power. It is always important to look and double-check the information that they have. (Georg Marschnig, 2022)
In the notes to his presentation he also writes:
For the young people, it became crystal clear that cultures of remembrance in the public sphere are always linked to questions of power and are embedded into a field of discourse, which responsible citizens can influence and change. The first, authentic steps in this field were taken as part of the school project and it should not come as surprise to you that some of the young people are now actively involved in local politics (2022).
Some elements of the community did have a vested interest in keeping these stories quiet and the students were publicly confronted when they presented their findings to the community. They were accused of dragging up the past, something that no one wanted to do. City politicians also pushed back against any proposed changes to the monument but were eventually obliged to agree to changes that illuminated the dark history behind the murders.
How were race, class, gender differences framed in the event?
The YPAR project brought to the surface old animosities that had laid dormant for 60 years. While the old memorial did state that four American airmen had died on March 4th, 1945 in Graz, there was no mention that the airmen had been executed by local community members following a Nazi policy called Fliegerlynchjustiz in English – “lynch justice for fliers”. Rather, the old monument stated that the aviators had been killed by “cowardly Nazi-fascist murderers”.
The stories about the murders are available from a few sources (Baltimore Sun, Mar 04, 2017 ; Archive Report US Forces 1941-1945), however, there had never been a local examination of the event. It is important to note here that the students were the ones who chose to work on this project. This closely follows the methodology outlined in YPAR.
What connections can you draw with readings, lectures, and discussions we have held in the class?
Notions of citizenship are fluid. How we define ourselves as citizens can change when new information comes to light. The investigation of the students centred on a forgotten war-time memorial. Their work led to public remembering of a war crime committed in March of 1945. The students also participated in rededication plans for the memorial to make clear what had happened.
plan for the remodelling of the memorial – now including the names of the murdered airmen
What creative ideas or astute analysis about education did you encounter in the event?
Youth Participatory Action Research is a powerful tool to examine local issues of interest to the researchers. One of the key principles of YPAR is that young people become active participants in the work and play a large role in researching the truth. (Petrone et al., 2021)
This is an important technique that can be used by students and teachers to combat the miasma of post-truth that we struggle with today. By completing this work, the students were able to gain a greater respect for the truth and the challenges that come from confronting stories that have been buried in the past.
The methodology (YPAR) used by the students has been suggested as a way to gain a stronger affiliation with the truth, so important in a post-truth world. (Chinn et al., 2021) Students involved in this project have now become involved in local and regional government. It would seem that YPAR is good preparation for anyone who intends to enter a political career in the post-truth future.
The project provided the students with a way to start conversations with parents and grandparents about the war. Family stories can differ greatly from what the official stories present. The students best sum up why it is important to understand a community’s past:
“’What’s the point now?’ We were asked more than once. ‘They’re dead anyway!’ Well, ‘they’ may be dead, but we’re not. […] Why does this affect us now, although it has happened so long ago? It affects us because we live and our present and future are built on that very past that we wonder what it has to do with us.”
Chinn, C. A., Barzilai, S., & Duncan, R. G. (2021). Education for a “Post-Truth” World: New Directions for Research and Practice. Educational Researcher, 50(1), 51–60. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X20940683
Georg Marschnig. (2022). Sometimes it is enough to look back to see the Future clearly.
Petrone, R., Mirra, N., Goodman, S., & Garcia, A. (2021). Youth Civic Participation and Activism (Youth Participatory Action Research). In J. Z. Pandya, R. A. Mora, J. H. Alford, N. A. Golden, & R. S. de Roock, The Handbook of Critical Literacies (1st ed., pp. 50–60). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003023425-6
Finding a research topic that is really meaningful is hard work. It should be if you plan to spend five years working on it.
Maybe I am getting closer. I have abandoned anything about historical thinking concepts – this is an academic field that doesn’t seem to have much in the way of a pick-up in the school system. Lots of writers, questionable impact.
Searching for something new one of my advisors suggested that I start looking at Canadian historical websites to develop tools to test for validity.
I had forgotten how important this type of work was to me. I remember sitting on the school board’s tech advisory committee. One of the members (who actually knows a fair amount about education technology) suggested at one of our sessions that there was little point in using curated web tools when you could Google anything. Curated web material usually is expensive mainly because you have to pay someone to make sure the material you put out there has been reviewed for validity. This scene sticks with me to this day and I really wonder what advice school boards are giving to teachers now about how to access digital information.
A few weeks ago, I entered the world of post-truth. Post-truth is a new environment where confusion reigns. In this world, there are no shared facts on which to base decisions. There is widespread disagreement over what is known, how to know, and who to trust. Research as current as 2022 confirms this is a widespread problem that has not yet been dealt with by educators (see – Education for a “Post-Truth” World: New Directions for Research and Practice Clark A. Chinn, Sarit Barzilai, and Ravit Golan Duncan 2021)
This is an ad for the New York Times, but the message is important.
I am citing only one reference here, but there is a vast body of research that backs up this claim. The research on digital information sources goes back over 20 years and begins in earnest with the work of Sam Wineburg, the wonderful writer of Historical Thinking and Other Unnatural Acts (2001).
I am going back and reading everything I can by Sam Wineburg. Next – Why Read History (When It’s Already on Your Phone)Sam Wineburg, 2018
We can reach back further. Every generation has its own media that confound teachers and students. In 1991, Wineburg produced a study indicating that students tended to rely on textbook material even though they were presented with more credible primary historical evidence. The textbooks were preferred because students believed that they were just telling the facts. They adopted the story even though analysis showed that the textbooks didn’t get into much detail, were overly patriotic and political and were designed to offer information that could be answered on a multiple-choice exam (see Historical problem solving: A study of the cognitive processes used in the evaluation of documentary and pictorial evidence, Wineburg, 1991)
The current rapid reach of information is unprecedented and with that reach comes a diminishing ability to discern what is actually true.
I remember a presenter at one of the schools I worked at who specialized in the dangers of social media. He was really popular with parents and educators because he focused on creating fear. Students should not be allowed on Facebook etc (the social media at the time) because of the dangers that lurked behind the screen. There was no question that he was right about the abuses of social media, but the solution of just taking it away was misplaced.
avoiding a problem is never the solution
As far back as the invention of movable type pamphleteers in 18th century America were free to print anything that would fit on the page. Thomas Jefferson watched the increasing availability of printed material along with the associated increase in baseless claims and stories. His conclusion however was not to stop the publishing of leaflets and books but to educate the public to be wary of what they read.
If we think [the people] not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education.
(quoted in Wineburg, McGrew, 2019)
Researchers have been very good at presenting the dangers that exist in the post-truth world. They would agree with Jefferson, that education is the key – but what kind of education?
At the end of every research paper I am reading these days is the declaration by academics that something must be done about the post-truth world:
Any successful approach will likely need to go beyond modest tweaks to current instruction, which will inevitably increase the demands on teachers and educational designers. Part of the research agenda should therefore include work on how to implement and scale up proposals for ambitious instruction. Our call is for rapid, intensive research and design to develop these (and other) paths of promoting students’ capacities to engage in apt epistemic performance.
Education for a “Post-Truth” World: New Directions for Research and Practice Clark A. Chinn , Sarit Barzilai, and Ravit Golan Duncan, 2020, p. 58
So, I am asking.
How have different writers sought to critically address the ability of students and teachers to make sense of multiple information sources in a Post-Truth World?
What is Post-Truth? What are some post-truth reasoning challenges?
What is the current ability of educators and students to accurately assess multiple forms of information?
What can we do to teach complex sensemaking skills to educators and students?
Future Directions and Ideas: What are the ways forward?
Along with all these questions, there is a vast array of material I need to read to catch up on what researchers are saying. Maybe someone has an answer – this is what we need to do with our curriculum – but I haven’t seen this yet.
This is a screenshot of some of the material I have collected over the past few weeks
If you have any ideas, please let me know. There is no question that this is something we need to get right. The consequences of losing a grasp on the truth can be seen around us, will we respond?
Here in Ottawa, we witnessed one of the consequences of post-truth
What Wikipedia teaches us about balancing truth and beliefs
I am adding this piece about Wikipedia. One of my professors has suggested some really interesting material on Wikipedia and how this could be a good tool to help us adapt to a post-truth world. Worth watch.
Really interesting interview – how long will it take us to manage misinformation?
New professor of the practice of health services, policy and practice, Claire Wardle, is not a health professional. She is, however, considered one of the leading experts on misinformation. Co-founder of First Draft, a non-profit dedicated to supporting organizations fighting misinformation, Wardle talks to Megan Hall MPH’15, about her plans for collaborative work at Brown that aims not only to understand mis- and disinformation, but to create tools for more effective public health communication.
There are a variety of approaches one can take when accompanying high school students in their journey to become citizens. Westheimer and Kahne (What Kind of Citizen? The Politics of Educating for Democracy, 2004) describe two approaches – one that develops citizens who can organize projects to make their community better, the other that centers on issue analysis from a social justice perspective.
I have a background in public education and as a high school teacher, I took students to the Dominican Republic to the sugar cane town of Consuelo. Based on my experiences, this project wavered between participatory and social justice. To take a social justice approach would challenge students to explain why such grinding poverty exists in a place best known for its sunny beaches.
There is a social justice orientation to trips to the Dominican, but are the effects of the trip long-lasting?
Conducting participatory citizenship programs in Catholic high schools is less risky than examining power imbalances and injustice. Even though Catholic schools are supposed to work within a social justice framework, most educators are more comfortable doing things rather than examining the injustice and imbalance that exist in the relationship between the Global South and North.
In the same school, every year we had a canned food drive. Our school was very good at this. At no time did any of us question why there was a need for a program to prop up community food banks. We were just doing a good thing and we all felt proud of our efforts.
Much in the same way while we tried to examine the social causes of inequity in the Global South, I do think that many of our students were caught up in the romance of travelling to an exotic (and very poor) country. It is much easier to do something rather than see yourself as part of a larger social problem.
Consider this:
Why would justice-oriented projects be more of a challenge to run in a state-supported institution like a school?
The authors contend that developing a commitment to civic participation and social justice do not necessarily align. Do you agree with this statement, or is it possible to do both at the same time?
The questions I posed this week focused on how justice-orientated projects challenge the status quo in our publicly-run schools. The second question explored the possibility that justice and participatory citizenship projects can align.
The responses to these questions focused on the difficulty of enacting justice-orientated programs in schools mainly because teachers and students do not have the time to get involved in social justice issues. The one exception to this might be in schools that are experiencing social injustice. For example, students and teachers might get involved in a campaign against online bullying if this is an issue in their community.
Another response focused on the difficulty in aligning participatory programs with social justice issues. A school may take part in a civic participation program supported or initiated by the police, or a school could organize an information session with the school resource officer (SRO). It is hard to fathom a school running a justice-orientated program at the same time that focuses on critiques of the police as an institution that participates in violence against racialized populations.
After reading and responding to the comments, there are a few points that I want to reemphasize. Based on my experiences as a teacher and an administrator, educators and students do get involved in participatory citizenship initiatives on a regular basis. Schools do not normally sponsor justice-orientated activities, but this is not because teachers do not have enough time.
As a principal, I thought SRO programs were great. I don’t think so anymore.
Social justice leads to a critique of the power imbalances that exist in our society. The school as a public institution can actually encourage and support these imbalances. Take, for example, the steaming of grade 9 courses or SRO programs that bring police officers into the schools. The school system encourages compliance, not criticism. There is little alignment between programming that focuses on participation and social justice. In fact, participatory good citizen projects are a safe alternative to questioning the injustices that exist in our society.
One approach that has the potential to align participatory citizenship programs and social justice initiatives would be the Head Heart and Hands approach. For this to work there needs to be contemplation and analysis linked to concrete actions.
Superintendent of Education - Toronto District School Board, TEDx speaker, writer, thinker, creator, designer, mommy, teacher, leader, learner of all things, keeper of memories.
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