Welcome Back!
Welcome back wonderful readers! Since the last time we spoke, I briefly introduced you to a project I was just beginning at a TDSB secondary school. It's been three weeks of all-in teaching and I'm here to give you an update on my favourite classroom project I've worked on so far - a class about the fast fashion industry in relation to eco-justice and socio-political and environmental impacts.
The Project - An Outline
Diving into virtual secondary classes during a pandemic is no easy task, for students or teachers, and it has definitely added an additional level of difficulty to incorporating eco-justice and environmental education themes in the classroom.
I decided to use the collective experience of a grade 10 pre-IB science class and myself of being at home by having students dive a little deeper into their direct surroundings - their own closets!
Our three and a half hour long virtual morning class had five parts:
A pre-knowledge quiz on fast fashion
A brief presentation on the global context of fast fashion, textile waste, and e-waste and their socio-ethical implications, which you can check out here: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1bLbtTDis0ghm8EThJ4OH5o40VsMFOWCAm63mV-Cy8aw/edit#slide=id.p
Watching the CBC documentary that focuses on textile waste in Toronto: How fast fashion adds to the world's clothing waste problem (Marketplace)
A post-knowledge quiz
Exploring their own closets and tracing their own textiles paths across the world
A Success!
I think this may have been the most entertaining and insightful three and a half hours I've had to date in a classroom setting. The learning and engagement that happened, for the students and for myself, was not short of spectacular and beautiful.
Throughout the entire class the students were chatting, commenting, and getting into deep philosophical debates about the ethical implications of clothing mega-companies. They'd take the conversation this way and that, highlighting various points and perspectives that reached far beyond the constrains of my lesson.
Below I've highlighted a few of the pre and post assessment questions contrasted against each other, to demonstrate the shift in perspective for these students throughout the class lesson, documentary, and their own closet exploration.
BEFORE AFTER
Student Take Aways
As a final wrap-up, the students discussed and posted ideas on how to move forward with reducing their individual impacts on textile waste and the exploitation of the Global South in respect to the textile and fast-fashion industry. Below are some of their responses - I was so proud and impressed with their honesty, reflexivity, and growth that they showed in just those few short hours!
My Learning Goal Progress and Diving Deeper
I designed the project in the way that I did for quite a few reasons largely centred around a few of my learning goals. I wanted to design a mini in-class project that made eco and sustainability education relatable, personal, and accessible while also empowering students that they have the ability to change these paths. I also wanted to add in an element of eco-justice and eco-racism, and decided to focus on the exploitation of various countries and peoples for the benefit of Western fashion, consumerism, and capitalism.
I felt that this project illuminated a few key elements for students:
Learning can happen anywhere, especially in places that we feel are educationally inert or usually lack an educational context, such as our own bedrooms.
Environmental education is not only in the outdoors - it can happen anywhere, inside or out!
It allowed students to build a connection to their own lived experience and ownership of the items around them and a local and global context to sustainability and eco-justice.
Overall, I felt that given the timeframe I had originally planned this within, it at least established a presence of each of these learning objectives and goals for my students, and for my own educational practice in implementing them. I feel that it gave a deeper and more meaningful context to an activity and object that is so common place, and is centred in many of our daily lives, from deciding on what to where to work, when we go out, for a walk, athletic wear, appropriate footwear for the day ahead, etc.
Moving Forward
Despite the success I feel that this mini-project had, I think its impact could have been much deeper and more long-lasting if there were elements tied in throughout the entire course. Or if there had been a longer term project of establishing some of the students' ideas in their own communities - something I'll have to keep in mind once we've moved beyond COVID-19.
I also recognized that problematizing the labour markets of another country, particularly those in the global south with histories of exploitation and colonization, can add to the disempowerment of their peoples and culture, and take away from socio-political inequities faced within our own country around environmentalism and sustainability. With this, I feel that there needs be additional engagement with eco-justice issues facing Canada, particularly the various situations the Indigenous communities across the country are facing in respect to their land rights and hazardous environments. I feel that this needs to be a realistic and strength-based approach that centres Indigenous voices and perspectives, while acknowledging the role of myself as a white settler.
I also realize that this class didn't address any eco-anxiety concerns or pedagogy behind attempting to empower students to see the change they can inact in their textile use. I feel that often we teacher's try to implement everything into every class, every project, and every learning moment. But I also feel that this can take away from those critical and crucial elements, taking the focus away from deep and meaningful engagement. So, eco-anxiety is an area I feel I can better address in other sustainability lessons, and will aim to do so. Perhaps I can find a way to address it here too!
This is in the works - stay tuned for how it turns!
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