My original opinion of the science fiction genre was that it provided a particular audience stories about space exploration and extraterrestrials, never giving much thought to the implicit messages found within them.
I never made the connection between science fiction and imperialism or geopolitics until I was planning my grade 7 history program focusing on New France. My introduction video for this unit was the original introduction to Star Trek.
I never made the connection between science fiction and imperialism or geopolitics until I was planning my grade 7 history program focusing on New France. My introduction video for this unit was the original introduction to Star Trek.
After showing this video to students and providing students the quote,
“Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before,”
we were able to have a discussion based on the connection between space exploration and the early explorers to Canada, specifically Cartier and Champlain.
In Robert Saunders’ article, Imperial Imaginaries: Employing Science Fiction to Talk about Geopolitics, he discusses how Avatar is an allegory about, “Western imperial disregard for the lifeways, knowledge and natural environments of indigenous people” (p. 155). This film represents colonialism and resource exploitation. I am looking forward to screening the video again looking for curriculum connections so that I can possibly show it to my students. I hope to use this film as a means of opening the door to the inquiry approach to learning hoping that the video will probe some questions that students will be engaged in finding answers to. That is, I look forward to the potential discussion I can have with my students connecting the movie to early explorations of Canada.
“Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before,”
we were able to have a discussion based on the connection between space exploration and the early explorers to Canada, specifically Cartier and Champlain.
In Robert Saunders’ article, Imperial Imaginaries: Employing Science Fiction to Talk about Geopolitics, he discusses how Avatar is an allegory about, “Western imperial disregard for the lifeways, knowledge and natural environments of indigenous people” (p. 155). This film represents colonialism and resource exploitation. I am looking forward to screening the video again looking for curriculum connections so that I can possibly show it to my students. I hope to use this film as a means of opening the door to the inquiry approach to learning hoping that the video will probe some questions that students will be engaged in finding answers to. That is, I look forward to the potential discussion I can have with my students connecting the movie to early explorations of Canada.
Robert Saunders. “Imperial Imaginaries: Employing Science Fiction to Talk About Geopolitics.” Popular Culture and World Politics: Theories, Methods, and Pedagogies. Caso and Hamilton, Eds. Pp. 149-159.