Arctic Yearbook 2014
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Authors Sylvan Barnet and Hugo Bedau explain “critical thinking requires us to use our imagination,
seeing things from perspectives other than our own and envisioning the likely consequences of our
position” (as cited in hooks 2010: 10). In open classroom climates, territorial findings indicate that
this module is developing young northerners’ capacities for critical thinking, understanding, care and
compassion, aligned with the module’s aims. Political philosopher Amy Guttman identifies
deliberation as one of the primary ways that citizens resolve conflicts. She explains, “public
discussion and decision making … aim to reach a justifiable resolution, where possible, and to live
respectfully with those reasonable disagreements that remain unresolvable” (as cited in Avery &
Hahn 2004: 196).
Ethical Awareness and Moral Dimensions of History
Findings from both teacher and student interviews and surveys in this study demonstrate students’
growth in ethical awareness and moral dimensions of history. Ethical awareness in students,
understood as the ability to promote students’ capacity to understand others’ points of view and to
coordinate them with one’s own, is developed through the module. For example, after studying the
federal government’s apology, a teacher reflected on a student’s careful consideration of the ethical
dimension to what she had learned. “[The] student felt strongly that the apology should have directly
represented the people who did the wrong, otherwise it doesn’t mean anything.” The student
showed competency by considering the perspective of the main actors in the federal apology, and
observing the moral implications. According to Peter Seixas of the Historical Thinking Project,
when students understand the moral dimension of history, they “should expect to learn something
from the past that helps us in facing the moral issues of today” (2006: 11). Students in this study
demonstrated that they were able to use their learning about the past to consider contemporary
moral issues.
Critical Hope: “Because We All Have Something to Learn From One
Another”
The other day, my mum and I, we were having a conversation about culture and everything, and my
mum, growing up, because my family and I, well, I wasn’t born here, because my mum, she’s always like
be proud of who you are, blah, blah, blah, and I was always like, stop, what are you doing. . . so I was
telling her the other day how I learned to appreciate who I am and where I come from because for me I
can go home and speak my language and eat my cultural food and just do all these things. And I didn’t
realize how much of a privilege that actually is and so I was just letting her know that I was learning
about this and how residential schools helped me realize that.
- NWT student
This student identified as having recently immigrated to Canada with her family. The students’
words illustrate a number of notable findings from the territorial pilot, including how reconciliation
is understood by students, challenges fac Y