What to Expect

Project Overview

Modules 1 to 3 of this project are about exploring and describing the complex, interconnected global challenges we are facing. The modules focus on naming and dissecting our current global systems in order to identify the root causes of our contemporary social and ecological crises. They aim to spotlight a system and logic of racial capitalism, colonialism and supremacist ideologies and structures that seek to consume, control and limit what is possible. In order to explore how to shape and steward change, we must first develop the ability and stamina to sit with the trouble and mess we are in. Not to jump to simplified solutions or surface level responses, but to go deeper into the depth and complexity of our contemporary reality and the intersecting crisis that humanity and all life on this planet face. Subsequent modules of this project will explore how these systems, structures and ideologies shape our ways of knowing, being, sensing and relating on this planet. Limiting our ability to exist outside of these dominant logics, leading to the repetition of the same patterns and behaviours that have gotten us into this mess.

Learning Objectives and Outcomes

Each module contains a set of learning objectives that will be identified in the module’s introduction. At the end of each module, we will ask you to reflect on your learning in relation to these objectives.

Below are the learning outcomes as they relate to the Global Justice and Change program as a whole:

• Identify and describe the root causes of contemporary global crises, both social and ecological
• Explore ways of knowing, being and relating outside of dominant white supremacist, capitalist and colonial logics
• Discuss and reflect how individuals, communities and nations on a global scale are both complicit in and harmed by structures and ideologies sustained by violence and harm

Learning Activities

Throughout this program, you will find various types of learning activities and opportunities to reflect on the content. Here is some of what you can expect.

Reflection Journal: Each chapter or module includes a reflection journal to accompany the content. At the beginning of each module you will be prompted to create a copy of the journal that can be saved to your Google Drive. Alternatively, if you don’t have access to google drive, you can download a word copy to your desktop or phone. The questions found throughout each module have been copied into the journal templates. You will be prompted at specific moments throughout the resource to respond to reflection questions.

Check Your Understanding: In efforts to support your learning journey, we have included various learning activities. In some sections, you will encounter brief quizzes with multiple choice and true or false questions. The purpose of this is not to induce the stress and pressure that modern schooling tends to create, but rather to check in with yourself about what may be landing for you and what you may want to revisit and consider further.

Engaging With the Affect and the Body

As was discussed in the introduction, this project may be different from what you have experienced in an institutional learning environment previously. We will explicitly ask you to pay attention to what you are feeling. Be attentive to the emotions that come up for you as you read, watch, listen and reflect on the content, and to the bodily sensations that may arise, such as a feeling of nausea, a tightness in your chest, a pain in your spine, etc. Learning does not solely occur through thought and the intellectual mind. Affect, or what we feel and how (not only our emotions but literally what we feel in our physical bodies), plays an important role in learning. Affect shapes what we are able to hear, understand and process.

Music

Throughout this project we have created videos and integrated various types of content, including news articles, podcasts, interviews, etc. Music videos are also embedded into each module and we have created a playlist (in both Spotify and YouTube) that explores the program’s themes. We encourage you to listen and/or watch the music videos as you go, to engage with them as an opportunity to reflect on the content and activate different parts of your senses and brain. And we encourage you to dance and move your body if you are able. Use it as a break to stretch, to release something of what you are holding onto. These topics can be heavy and difficult. Music can help us process.

How to Navigate Pressbooks

Pressbooks is a WordPress-based online platform used to host open textbooks. Please see the video below on how to navigate Pressbooks.

Accessibility

This book was designed with accessibility in mind so that it can be accessed by the widest possible audience, including those who use assistive technologies. The web version of this book has been designed to meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0, level AA.

While we aim to ensure that this book is as accessible as possible, we may not always get it right. There may be some supplementary third-party materials, or content not created by the authors of this book, which are not fully accessible. This may include videos that do not have closed captioning or accurate closed captioning, inaccessible PDFs, etc.

If you are having problems accessing any content within the book, please contact: global.learning@ryerson.ca  Please let us know which page you are having difficulty with and include which browser, operating system, and assistive technology you are using.

As of February 28th, 2022: Please note that some pending elements from our accessibility audit are still being implemented. This note will be updated when all accessibility concerns flagged in the audit have been addressed.