Cultural identity wheel PDF

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My Individual and Cultural Identity Profile Gender: Male Nationality: Canadian. Provides Western ideas

Relationship/Connection or Immersion in Nature: Responsible for overall happiness, and therefore the lens I view the world

Family: Family of five; divorced parents, older brother and older sister Literacy/Ability to Articulate: Crucial to feeling like an individual in my experience

Me as the Individual

Social Class/Socioeconomic Position: Low-Mid Class. Forms perspective on materialism Ethnicity: Canadian, Polish, English Group Affiliations: None that I actively participate in, but many that I’ve been forced to join

Education: Trent University, K-12 Public School

Age: 22, forms my daily behaviour and future

Religion/Morality/ Spirituality: Transcendentalist, secular, Naturalist. All are guiding spiritual and philosophical

Cultural Identity Activity I choose relationship/connection to nature as the top factor ahead of psychological dispositions and age that forms my cultural and personal identity. Each play a profoundly influential role in forming my perspectives, guiding my interactions with the environment and surrounding people, and revealing my biases in most situations. With regards to teaching, these factors influence my approach to topics for lesson plans, my biases toward students’ answers or unique approaches to arriving at conclusions, and perhaps what I prioritize as the more important lessons I believe students ought to experience. To ensure I expand on the beneficial aspects of these influences, I will gauge the class’ acceptance of my interest in particular topics (e.g., connection to nature) to see whether my biases will improve their success. Similarly, I offer this lesson to students and allow them to create an individual and cultural identity profile with the same (or more) influences to choose from. This would allow me as a teacher to reflect on my identity profile and relate it to the students, thereby providing me the opportunity to create lessons and facilitate discussions around their priorities.

Single Narrative I used to think Toronto, and largely Canada, was truly a multicultural and inclusive place, the pinnacle of a region that is inclusive to a diverse range of cultures and people. However, multiplicity from the different cultures of people that I have had the experience of interacting with proved my single narrative of thinking about multiculturalism grossly incorrect and misunderstood. My awareness of this single narrative came to light last year through a remarkable professor of mine in an English course. Professor Rob Winger taught a variety of classes at Trent University, and I have had the pleasure of being a student in many of them. However, this particular course in Canadian identity explored the complexity of Canadian identity – rather the lack thereof – and specifically facilitated a few discussions through the lens of Toronto, Ontario.

Coming into this course, I brought my uninformed assumptions of Canadian identity and supposed awareness of all its issues, implications, how it effects certain groups of peoples in Canada, and so forth. I believe this was due to the “truly multicultural city” notion being drilled into my mind as a student and child growing up, and never questioning it because on the surface level, it appears like that just based off visual diversity – but that does not necessarily constitute a truly multicultural city. About halfway through this course, Professor Winger brings into discussion how the perception of Toronto generally concludes that it’s a fair and inclusive multicultural hub. The class and myself agreed with this sentiment. After a few classes discussing texts, primarily from Michael Ondaatje, Professor Winger shatters this perception with the introduction of multiplicity, and of how race, class, and wealth all contribute to subtly suppressing the contributions from and significance to the make-up of Canadian and Toronto identity from different cultures, ethnicities, and nationalities. He exampled it with the idea of constructing certain key architectural structures in Toronto, wherein the only plaque or sense of recognition for the structure is the architect who was only responsible for the idea yet it dismisses the hard work and sometimes, the deaths of immigrants who contributed to building the structure. So, with this example as a guiding lens, Toronto is constantly, though subtly, not being inclusive or truly multicultural in the sense that it is normally perceived. I found this single narrative particularly notable to explode not only because it was the most recent revelation of mine, but I realized the real-world application and significance of considering multiplicity as a guiding philosophy. I believe it is the narrative that has most affected my day-to-day life....