I tend to make up assignments as I go. A risky process, I'm sure. But I'd like to claim that the spontaneity allows me to meet the needs and interests of students as they arise. *ahem* I gave four reflection assignments during the summer semester for the second-year seminar, "Introduction to Power and Regulation of Self and Society." Here is a breakdown of the process and results of each.
1) Borders: I asked students to think about different kinds of borders that they have encountered in their lives. I defined "border" as more than just a geographical border between nation-states; they can be cultural, symbolic, social, political and economic borders. The objective of this assignment was to understand how relations of power manifest themselves as limitations and barriers of all kinds that apply to different people. By locating some of these borders in the life of the students, they would be able to objectively examine their own unique experiences. Many students ended up writing about crossing the border to go to the US but some talked about borders with respect to mental health, gender roles and class status. And it turned out that the became the defining theme of the first third of the entire course and I could refer back to the assignment during class. It's great when things magically fall into place! Success rating: 5/5
2) Single Story: I screened the video lecture of Chimamanda Adichie called "The Danger of the Single Story" and asked students to choose a newspaper article that portray a single story and discuss the context and possible consequences of such a narrow narrative. I adapted an in-class activity I gave during a third-year seminar into an actual assignment for a second-year course. The objective of this assignment is to understand the concept of stereotype as it relates to relations of power and to analyze concrete examples from everyday life, i.e. newspapers. I think that this activity is appropriate as an in-class activity for a upper-level class, since they should be able to exercise critical thinking with relative ease and speed. Meanwhile, this is appropriate as a take-home assignment for a lower-level class so that it allows students time to think and write with care. The only problem was that I didn't have enough time during the class to discuss the video after showing it, which resulted in some mis-reading of the video for the assignment. I'll need to remember to give myself enough time for discussing the video before students write the assignment. Success rating: 4/5
3) Walk-About: I asked students to bring a digital camera device to class and sent them out to the Vancouver downtown area to photograph spaces that they think are safe and then unsafe for the poor and the homeless. This activity followed readings and presentations on the spatial politics of class, poverty and criminality. I explicitly asked the students not to photograph people. I mostly did this because I knew from my very first teaching experience that photographing people for a class assignment opens up a can of worms in terms of ethics. I also didn't want students to objectify the poor and the homeless by photographing them, which would be against my personal ethics. Students went in groups for about 45 minutes and returned with lots of photos. We discussed what kinds of borders we see, why they photographed the things they did, why they think the spaces they captured were safe or unsafe for the poor. The objective of this assignment was to understand the relationship between space and power. One student approached me afterwards and explained that she is involved in the Downtown Eastside community and has always felt uncomfortable about students going to the area to take photographs. She had asked to conduct the activity solo rather than in a group as I had asked. I was impressed that she asked me to meet her needs, which was to avoid contributing to the imbalance of power and objectification of people living in the DTES. I explained to her that I had specifically asked students not to take photographs of people for the same reason, but I did feel somewhat caught for potentially partaking in the objectification of the DTES. What did I learn? I will give this activity again but more explicitly integrate the notion of power in the relationship between the photographer and the photographee, particularly when their relationship outside of photography is already so skewed through relations of power. Success rating: 4/5
4) Research Journal: I had to miss two consecutive weeks of class, one of which overlapped with a holiday. I cancelled one class and scheduled a information session with the campus librarian on how to access the library's resources for research. I also asked a friend to introduce Community Health Online Digital Archive & Research Resource (CHODARR), which is a community-based free-access archive of research and community literature related to different groups in downtown Vancouver. I asked the students to explore both the library and CHODARR archives, write down the kinds of key terms they searched for, and then discuss the differences between them. The objective for this assignment was for students to reflect on their own research process and also to understand the relationship between knowledge and power. I prepared a short lecture about CHODARR for my friend to give to class before they did the activity, which explained CHODARR as a project that seeks to address the imbalance of power between researchers and marginalized people in downtown Vancouver who are often the objects of research on additions, mental health, HIV/AIDS and housing. Unfortunately, many students missed this introduction because they arrived in class late (which was another issue throughout the semester) and the resulting reflections was a broad range of critical insights about the links between power and expert or legitimate knowledge, to unreflective criticism of CHODARR as limited and unsuited for their own research. I will give this assignment again but will make sure that I provide a more robust introduction and allow time for discussion beforehand. Success rating: 3.5/5
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