Field Exercise: Culture Is More-Than-Representational
Exercise:
· Part 1
· Make note of what we are doing in this classroom that is representational. What are the representational traces in the room? What are we doing today that is representational?
· Representational means: done with thought and intention; done to communicate ideas, meaning, and information to others.
· Part 2
· Make note of you are doing in this classroom that is non-representational. What are others doing that may also be non-representational?
· Non-representational means: what you do that is unthought, habitual, or, not intended to communicate with others.
· Part 3
· Review your notes for parts 1 & 2.
· Try finishing the sentence: “The culture of this classroom is more-than-representational because …”
· If you are absent on R 1/18, you can do the exercise in a different location. In your Write-up, make clear where you did the exercise.
· The keywords for this exercise are: representation, non-representation, and more-than-representation.
· References: lecture and discussion on R 1/18 (with additional context from T 1/16) and Anderson, chapter 3, with background from chapter 2.
Write-up:
· Your Write-up should include the following sections:
· THESIS. This should be a concise, one to two sentence, statement of your response to the main prompt.
· OBSERVATIONS. Choose your most important or salient observations to discuss. Include examples for representation, non-representation and more-than-representation. This section should also include examples that demonstrate the ambiguities or nuances in interpreting what people do in context.
· CONCLUSIONS. Explain how what you observed supports your thesis.
· REFLECTION. Discuss the limitations of your observations. Questions to think about: what are the limits to understanding what people do simply from observation? What could you do to address these limits? What do you think you missed? What observations would benefit from more time for development?
· Your Write-up should include one quote from chapter 3 in Anderson that helps to explain your interpretation.
· Submit your Write-up via Moodle by noon on M 1/22. You will also have until that day and time to request an extension. Additional details on Moodle.
Assessment & Scoring:
· Your Write-up should interpret the interrelationships between people and place through recognition and explanation of the mutual influences of culture and geography, i.e., both how what people do defines a place and also how the place defines what people do.
· Your Write-up should show connections between your own experience and course material, an important feature of Integrated Learning.
· Your interpretation should be clearly based on on evidence gathered from your observations and from your use of the required quote from the text. This is a key feature of Inquiry & Analysis.
· Your Write-up should also demonstrate cultural self-awareness and empathy, both features of Intercultural Knowledge & Competence.
· Your Write-up is an opportunity to apply geographic concepts in communicating about the world. Compose your Write-up as if you are writing for other students in the class. So, for individuals who also know the material but who may have a different understanding of the concepts.
· You can use one (1) to two (2) pages as a guideline for the length of the Write-up.
