How can understanding of nationalism of the past, help us make sense of today?

Introduction:

Understanding nationalism has gave me a brand new perspective on the present and historical world. This project was all about understanding nationalism and how it has affected history and even our present day. At the start of the project I didn’t know very much about nationalism and was extremely excited to explore the topic. I cannot wait to share what I have learned about nationalism in this post today. 

Canadian Check Video:

The Canadian Check Video helped me understand how my identify and Canadian nationalism are connected to each other. In this part of the project, we had to make a quick video with the audio stating “ayyyyyyy, Canadian check”. In this project if I were going to do it again, I would make sure the audio was actually included in the video. While the creating the video, I completely forgot to add it which caused the end result to not fully meet the criteria for the project. However, I feel as if the artwork my group made was very impressive and represented our Canadian nationalism. Overall, this project helped me to better understand myself. 

Current Event Participation and Presentation:

The Current Event Presentation  helped me start to understand how nationalism relates to other countries and Canadian nationalism. For this part of project, we were supposed to choose a on going event that somehow shows nationalism. I chose the Canadian reaction to the Russian-Ukraine conflict. This presentation helped me how Canadians show nationalism and what nationalism might look like in other countries. One thing I wished I did differently was to delve into nationalism and my opinion more than the facts about the event. However, I think I did a really great job at explaining what exactly happened in the topic that I chose. After I presented I had the chance to watch other student’s presentations which helped me see nationalism through different contexts. Overall, the current event project helped me have a even deeper understanding of nationalism. 

Confederation Simulation:

The confederation simulation helped me see how nationalism can affect countries decisions. For the confederation simulation, we are assigned a Canadian provinces and has to decide whether or not we wanted to join the Canadian conference. We first had to give our demands for what the Canadian Confederation has to do to get our nation to join them. My province, Prince Edward Island, ended up joining the Canadian Confederation at end of the simulation. I wished for this keystone I contributed more to my group since I feel as if I didn’t share as much ideas compared to the other member of my group. However, I think my team had great teamwork and we did a great job at discussing what we think would be best for our nation. Overall, this part of the project showed me how Canadian nationalism developed. 

Images Creation:

Creating images showing nationalism was extremely challenging for me. Even though I have a lot of experience in art, I’m far from the best at graphic design. This can be seen from the images above, due to technical issues I was unable to get the full image on this post. However, this images made me think deeply about how my topic, Indian Nationalism, has been affected through history. I went through multiple drafts of my images and the final results I’m in someways with happy and in someways not happy with. I feel as if I could of majorly improved my choice image since I feel as if it turned out very lazily and their was no creativity in the creation of the photo. However, I think I did well on my quote photo since it both shows Indian nationalism and has some nice visuals in the background. Overall, I hope I can improve on representing ideas in graphic design in the future.

Opinion Piece:

The Opinion Piece was both exciting and difficult for me personally. I felt that my first approach to this part of the project, stating my opinion at the start and completely ignoring it and just list facts of what happened between the years 1600-1900s in India, was less than effective. However, I ended up doing some major revisions that I believe fixed most of the issues present in my opinion piece. If I were going to do this part of the project again I would try to use more historical perspective in my opinion piece. Moreover, I think I did a good job at explaining my opinion and why I think that way. The final opinion piece and photos will be on this link, with the opinion pieces and photos of others.  Overall, this part of the project taught me on how to use evidence to express my ideas on nationalism.

Curricular Competence:

Communicate Compellingly: I can respectfully exchange ideas and diverse viewpoints to build shared understanding and extend thinking

I believe I have fully met this competence during this project. An example of this was the current events. After presenting my current event, me and my group was able to hold a long discussion on what we think Ukraine plus Canada should do concerning Russia. I believe this discussion helped me understand my current event more deeply. Another example would be the confederation simulation. My group came up with some great ideas and we were able to most of the time come to an agreement concerning issues that we think could be a problem for our province. Overall, this project has made me better at problem solving and compromising. 

Take Historical Perspective: I can infer and explain different perspectives on past and present people, issues, or events by considering prevailing norms, values, and beliefs 

I believe that I have somewhat met this competence. An example of this is present in my topic chosen for the images. For the topic, Indian nationalism, most of my research involved what happened in that time period and didn’t include any accounts of the daily lives of normal people living in India at that time period. However, I think I was able to at least somewhat explain the different view points at the time. Additionally, I feel I did amazing job explaining this issues in this time period with the opinion piece. Overall, this project has given me a new outlook on history. 

Conclusion:

Understanding nationalism helps us to know what motivated the people of the past and future. Through this project I have learned nationalism was a much more complicated subject than I ever thought. Additionally, I learned how many event were motivated by nationalism to ones country. These ideas has really changed my perspective on both nationalism and history. Overall, I can defiantly  say my understanding of history has changed from what it was before this project.