What kind of Citizen?

This article looked three kinds of citizenry-responsible, participatory, and justice oriented- that educators are trying to develop for a democratic society. They acknowledged that this citizenry is undergirded by political considerations. The responsible citizen is the individual who acts responsibly in his community; the participatory citizen is the individual who engages in civic and social life at the local, regional, and national levels; the justice oriented citizen is the individual who looks at the root causes of issues and critically examines the interaction of political, social, and economic factors. Educators placed more emphasis on participatory and justice oriented citizens because they believed they were better determinants of the democratic purposes of education, while acknowledging the limitations of a responsible citizen. Because to educators, responsible citizens reinforces an individualistic and conservative understanding of citizenship.

The central theme was to critically look at the subtle differences and the not so subtle differences between participatory and justice oriented citizenry for the purposes of educating for a democratic society. They conducted a study of two locations: Madison County Youth in Public Service and Bayside Students. The authors looked at how these two approaches had different outcomes and reinforced the need for how both citizens should be given the needed attention. As well, the authors do make some really good point about ensuring that educators must put a careful thought process into highlighting the political significance of curricular choices. Because, in the end, the kind of decisions educators make on designing curriculum does have the ability to influence the kind of society that they help to create. This brings me to how this article fits into our oil and community class.

My CSL at Terra Informa fits well with what kind of citizen it is helping me to be. I think my placement is a combination of both participatory and justice oriented citizen. Because, not only am I participating in and having discussions on environmental issues that is impacting our environment in Alberta, but I am contributing in a meaningful way through radio broadcast to help communicate these environmental issues to a wider audience. In this manner, I am helping to address environmental issues at the grassroots level. I find this as empowering as a citizen of Alberta because I believe I am contributing to a healthy cause that stirs up a healthy dissension about the oil economy in Alberta. Also, I see Terra Informa as a crucial pillar in enhancing environmental and social responsibility about the oil economy because it continuously examines pertinent environmental issues which would have been ignored.

Also, after watching the documentary yesterday by Shannon Walsh, I find it as a jolt to all citizens to really take on the oil industry in various meaningful and creative ways. In so doing, these oil giants may be subjected to a level of scrutiny by citizens which may ultimately lead to the oil industry finding alternative ways to reduce their environmental impacts. I am convinced it is possible because we cant afford a BP-like-disaster.

My questions I have include the following: If politics undergirds educating for democracy, then the justice oriented citizen should be the focus of educators because this individual looks at the root causes not just problem? Do you agree or disagree? Also, what's the purpose of CSL if it doesn't bring up any citizenry in you?

Source:
Westheimer and Kahane - “What Kind of Citizen? The Politics of Educating for
Democracy,” American Educational Research Journal (2004)

“Activism and Service-Learning: Reframing Volunteerism as Acts of Dissent”

In this paper, the authors look at how service learning, even though it can be activist, is confused with charitable work and volunteerism. Also, how CSL can be helpful in class and in placements to create better citizens who are can combine consciousness with action and reflection. They argue that a broader historical and geographical approach will give a better meaning to dissent and how students can see CSL as activist.

Why are student comfortable with the idea of service learning or volunteering but seem to be estranged at the idea of activism? I do agree with the authors that one of the down falls of CSL is that people ask the question of how I can help these people but rarely ask why the situation is this way to begin with. CSL in my view is to get students to ask why the problem exists to begin with in some classes but students seem to fail to address that in class.

In addition, the short duration of CSL inhibits the ability of students to create any meaningful relationship during their CSL. The authors feel that there should be a longer commitment to the organization in a way to benefit the organizations more and to cause deeper thinking in relation to the issues in society to occur.

The point made by the author that “few students understand
their service as a contribution to structural social change” is worth examining. Because most students do not realize how significant their service learning at the grassroots affects the community they interact with during their service tenure and the activist role they play while performing their service learning. I can relate this comment to my 4-week cultural immersion in Ghana last summer when we had to visit the Liberian Buduburam refugee camp in the capital, Accra. During our visit, we interacted with the musical artistes at the camp on ways to get their music out in Canada, and for people to hear about their plight. What I observed during this visit how moving this visit of ours was to me. It might not have meant much to some members of our group but it meant a lot to these artistes. To add to this, UOFA did a release of their debut CD on campus last semester, which we had to attend. I think this interaction with the musical artistes and the release of their debut CD is a good example of how we as students can explore moments like these to display our activist capabilities during our service learning to world in various ways as well as highlight the struggles of these refugees in sub-Saharan Africa.

System Failure: Oil, Futurity, and the Anticipation of Disaster

This article was an attempt by Szeman to look at how consumerism is both intrinsically linked with oil and most importantly the looming scarcity and disaster that oil presents. He looks at the various discourses being used by the Left to discuss this impending disaster of oil. The three discourse he utilized included strategic realism, techno-utopianism, and apocalyptic environmentalism. In Strategic realism he dialogues about new geopolitical alignments by nation states; in techno-utopianism he looks at technological innovations to counter the decline of oil; and in apocalyptic environmentalism he talks about how we need to change our consumerist attitudes and embrace a more simpler and sustainable way of doing things. The second part of this article looks at arguments made by Retorts in "Blood for oil" to showcase post 9/11 rallying cry for the Left about the contentious debates on oil .

These three discourses are good attempt to remedy this impending oil disaster; nevertheless it acknowledges the shortcomings of these debates on oil and most importantly the politics of it. Oil as a finite resource is portrayed as the ultimate determinant for the sustenance and demise of consumerism and capitalist democracies. This assertion is reflected in his take on strategic realism. In strategic realism, nations are seen as pursuing decisions based on national interest. To add to this strategy, it is fair to say nation governments react to what it electorate wants in order for the ruling government to continue to stay in power. Therefore, in light of this, it is a prudent political strategy to downplay the negative aspects of the impending oil disaster and instead focus on the current benefits that is being derived from the oil economy to satisfy their national demand. For example, when you look at the Obama Administration their energy policy is similar to the erstwhile administration of Bush. The only difference is Obama's support for Offshore drilling. Furthermore, the talk of an impending oil disaster, with the exception of the current oil spill on the coast of Louisiana, is not a major political issue in the U.S. This non-urgent position adopted by this administration is an example of how the end of oil disaster is downplayed strategically in the strategic realism debate.

As well, oil is viewed as a valuable and necessary commodity that has the ability to impact our consumerist lifestyle in order to avoid the impending oil disaster. What this indicates is that it shows how intricately oil is intricately interconnected with our daily lives, as well as it's ability to alter our status quo in our consumerist culture. I believe this position is highlighted in the apocalyptic environmentalism debate and it reflects an image of an advocacy for a getaway to an environmentally friendly lifestyle which eschews oil.

The second part of the article closes with a call to action and a deeply reflective question posed at the end “What is most urgently needed . . . is not short-term technological fixes but a different paradigm of political economy". This question in my view demands critical engagement. It needs critical engagement because there seems to be no clear-cut debates to this oil debate because of the agency-structure debate it evokes in numerous ways as well as the various inherent limitations, as he indicates in the article, this debate poses. Some of the agency-structure debates that can be examined is: how can we forcefully or aggressively approach these three approaches towards the looming oil disaster; how can we explore the relationship between the oil cultural and cultural economy to ease the dependence on oil; and, is it feasible to curtail this impending disaster giving the current political vaccum.

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