February 20

Given the spectrum of policies you have studied from 1950-80, what would you say are this eras values? Who is deciding what these values are? How do you know?

Above were some of the guiding questions I asked today and got some pretty stunned looks from the kids. Picture a chart with a list of legislation associated with a PMs time in office. So the first part of the chart is data gathering and the far right column asks the students to identify the values and characteristics associated with the era. Crickets. I hear crickets. The kids dont know what Im talking about. Some ask for a definition and examples of values. I give examples. I say, if Trudeau passes legislation making illegal to discriminate against women and visible minorities, what does that say about what Trudeau is important? Silence. Some answers that come out in small voices, He likes women? then laughter ensues because it turns into Trudeau is a ladies man. Great.

February 21 So today, I show video clips that show music associated with each piece of legislation in the hope of getting kids to see and feel the vibe of each era. Then I ask the same question hoping the music will tap into their emotion which will then tap into some vocabulary they have about values. It works but I had really high expectations. Still vocabulary was a problem. They were using words like they would use in grade 6. On Friday, Im compiling a list of all the values weve been using in class and see if we can add to it or at least journal about it. Their assignment after this PM data gathering chart is to look up songs now associated with each era (from this chart I made them do) which reflect the era. Im still hoping this will tap into something deeper than what they are giving me. I truly think this is just a vocabulary problem. They will be presenting these songs next Tuesday.

February 24 So today, I put up a list of values and ask them to a) list 3-5 of their core values and briefly explain why those are their values. Order is not a big deal. Then apart b) They had to tell me where environmental responsibility ranked in that list and why. Is it absent is it high on the list is it low and then explain. Again, the kids had a hard time naming values so I had a pdf file projecting on the board of all the values weve discussed as well as all the ones we could still go into. This was a good thing because then they could start attaching their behaviours to that value. When we later went back into curriculum, they could better see a piece of legislation for what it embodied in terms of values and what message it sent

by passing it. At least thats what I got from the discussion. But I havent read their journals yet so Im pretty curious as to how well it really went.

Feb 24th Evening class: Marks journal prompt to us. How do questions of complexity, values and validity present themselves in the context of my AR? Values was a big issue this week in that many of the students didnt even know how to name or identify behaviours that lead to their values. It was alarming and then made me want to move my research away from environmental responsibility to teaching values in the classroom. How could they expect to be environmentally committed an see it as an ethical responsibility if they did not even know their own value system. Of course in class this evening, I was reminded that they might not be able to put a name to values but that they did in fact have them (Shareeda). Its a philosophical transcendent discussion and they might not be mature enough to engage in it yet. Keep tapping into it Nina give them practice identifying it naming their behaviours etc

On a separate issue, Mark rose the issue that as we become increasingly technocratic (technology focused) it seems our values are tied in with the things we can manipulate the things we can change or see immediately. It is product/output driven and that may be why the concept is so foreign to them. I have to research this in the future What happens as we become increasingly technology driven.. are we numb to our values As we avoid teaching values in attempt to democratize the classroom, what is being lost?