Encountering Difficult Knowledge through holistic practices: Disrupting 9/11 orthodox accounts in social studies classrooms

Introduction

The Research

My research was inspired by what was missing from my own K-12 education and the tensions I have experienced throughout my career as a social studies and English language arts teacher. I situate myself as a Pakistani-Canadian, and Muslim woman who has been deeply inspired by the traditions and spiritual practices of Sufism ¹ . Much of my K-12 schooling trajectory was plagued by experiences of frustration, sadness, and anxiety in response to how the hidden curriculum, through the presentation of curricular outcomes, grand narratives (Stanley, 2006) in textbooks, determined who I was supposed to be. I often felt as though I could only identify myself in singular ways so as to appease and placate my teachers’ discomfort with difference. I experienced much imbalance in myself as a result. These traumas were amplified following 9/11 when I was a high school student. I was blindsided by the fact that none of my teachers spent any time addressing this tragic event in their classrooms.

Findings and Implications

My doctoral research investigated the curricular and pedagogical significance of holism in deepening understandings of difference. I understand holism as seeking a balance between the mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical parts of oneself and learning from the guidance of sacred ecology. Holism also entails living in ways that honour embodied knowledges and inner knowings. I worked alongside four former Aboriginal Studies 30 ² students as part of my research program. Aboriginal Studies was the best example of a curricular pedagogical context in Alberta that I could find that sought to balance intellectual and embodied knowledges. The course was guided by and through sacred ecological wisdom teachings and offered countless opportunities for youth to reconnect with their inner selves, nature, their peers, and to learn from traditional Indigenous knowledges through the guidance of Elders. Student participants engaged in a series of four activities that helped them to revisit key learnings from the course. Students noted that having opportunities to partake in three activities: sharing circles, outdoors activities, and learning from Elders, shifted curricular priorities away from the typical “head space” enactments of curricular goals. The students also revealed how emotive approaches that pulled at their heartstrings guided them to find meaning and care for others whose lived experiences they did not share in. Student participants also noted the importance of deep listening with regards to learning from difficult knowledge, and experienced healing from experiences of colonial exclusions through the energy that flowed within their sharing circles. Opportunities to face each other, express deep emotions within, and learn from lived experiences, also highlighted the importance the held for prioritizing healing in relation to difficult knowledge encounters.

The insights I gleaned from former students’ experiences with Aboriginal Studies 30, grounded and centered in holism, reveal for me that holistic insights can help to reposition how young people participate in difficult conversations on difference. Their experiences illuminate the transformative and generative potential of difference that can inspire deepened expressions of connectivity and belonging that are not beholden to frameworks of identity such as citizenship, and nationality, which are prioritized in curricular outcomes. Reconnecting with embodied knowledges and shared sacred ecological roots may inspire more balanced ways to live and relate with each other.

Practical Guidance for Teachers

I have found that beginning the teaching term with sharing circles as a practice we will use throughout the school year is an ethical and respectful way to establish relationships of trust with students. I often share my experiences of relating with myself, nature, and others more deeply during my time in circle with Elder Bob Cardinal and my peers. It has been important for me to address my own experience in circle as there are many ways in which circle philosophies continue to be honoured. I also share a beautiful story from Rumi entitled The Boatman and share Brene Brown’s Ted Talk “The Power of Vulnerability” (Brown, 2011) . The Boatman evinces the struggles we all experience when we presume to know all that there is about life and living, and highlights the pitfalls of relying on formal knowledge alone.

Brené Brown’s powerful Ted Talk addresses how feelings of shame and guilt interfere with building healthy relationships with oneself and others. Her talk conveys that running away from one’s true feelings perpetuates pain, and that learning to live with openness and vulnerability can inspire meaningful and sustainable connections. Many students have commented on their propensity to deny their own feelings and how this perpetuates further pain and imbalance.

This initial work sets the stage to more openly and meaningfully engage with difficult truths that can at times lead us to question our identities and who we are. Students are also asked at the beginning of the term to draw their identities on large sheets of sketch paper. I offer prompts such as what gives them joy in their lives, and what aspects of their daily living makes them who they are. I also ensure that they have a variety of markers, crayons, pastels, and paints to honour their process. Once these images are completed, we share them as a class. I later hang these drawings on our classroom wall and encourage students to think about how their drawings may change throughout the course of our time together since identity is fluid. This activity has also provided me with countless opportunities to situate myself alongside my students as a Pakistani-Canadian Muslim woman and interweave my lived experiences as part of my teaching practices. When students see me doing this, they become more comfortable sharing their own lives and can better see that history education is not fossilized in time.

Such individual and collective work sets the stage to begin introducing meaningful encounters that directly implicate students (denHeyer, 2009). When introducing the 9/11 event in a Social 10-1 class for example, I have made connections to Related Issue 2: Legacies of Historical Globalization in Canada. I offer a throughline question ³ to the class which asks “to what extent do orthodox 9/11 narratives reinforce notions of an imagined Canadian identity through the official policy of multiculturalism?”. I begin by leading my students through an exploration of the history surrounding the introduction of Canada’s multicultural policy under Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, then juxtapose this with the current intentions for multiculturalism under the guidance of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

I then arrange students in groups of four to explain their personal views, perceptions and experiences of media and historical portrayals of multiculturalism. These group discussions are later opened up to a whole class discussion. Typically, students voice conflicting perceptions of, and experiences with, multiculturalism. I then ask students to read (in their groups) two newspaper articles with conflicting views of multiculturalism (Ansari, 2017; Hrushetska, 2013; Paris, 2018; Woodside, 2009). I ensure that one article is taken from a Canadian context and that the other is from an international source such as Al-Jazeera. These articles share the position that Canada is either too multicultural or not multicultural enough. The next connected lesson involves our class revisiting our dissonant perceptions of multiculturalism and our encounters with different perceptions of Canadianness. I ask students to anonymously share whether or not they feel singular notions of Canadian identity exist, if there is such a thing as Canadian identity, and what constitutes Canadian identity? These responses are collected on sticky notes and posted on the white board. I then read these responses aloud. Again, contrasting responses are often shared; they reveal that Canadian identity is often associated with moral signifiers as “better than” and “kinder than” our neighbours down south, and “tolerant” of others.

Next, students are prompted to participate individually in a five-minute inkshedding ⁴ response in their Google Classrooms regarding what they know about 9/11. They are guided to share their story of narratives they have acquired about 9/11 through direct and indirect media representations and pop culture. These responses are then initially shared in pairs and brought forth for class discussion. Following these discussions, I share the film entitled 11'09"01,: September 11 (Makhmalbaf et al., 2002) which offers 11 representations from the perspective of the event from 11 different countries. Each episode is 11 minutes long. I share one episode per class and invite students to partake in journal response entries to each class outlining their experiences with each episode and the extent to which these stories align or contest their own accounts of 9/11. Upon the final day of viewing all 11 films are viewed once again and the class unites in a sharing circle to unpack their experiences with these films. Students are then asked to revisit their own accounts and are again prompted to think about what was left out and why? These learnings are built upon throughout the term as we consult primary and secondary sources that disrupt and interrupt simplistic 9/11 narratives. In doing so, students, alongside their teachers, begin to uncover the fallacies inherent in simplistic narrative accounts.

Q & A with Zahra Kasamali