Narrative Maps: The Contours of Learning

I created this map last year when I was working as 'creative one-man think tank' for the Bachelor of Health Sciences program at McMaster University. One of the questions I was working on centrered around capturing learning over four years in formats that did not use grades. Imagine schooling without grades, which are essentially punitive measures used to externally motivate performance towards contrived and competitive ends. Yes, we need ways of communicating ability between institutions, but wouldn't it be better if we could capture the relationships between learning inside and outside the classroom and the actual products of that learning (reports, feedback from peers and instructors, etc.). The argument I always hear is that it takes too much time to read these sorts of things, but when we spend more time looking at the details of someone's life, we are communicating in the 'real' and can make better decisions about where people want to go, what their learning needs are, and what people are good at.

Anywho, onto the map.

It is difficult to read on it's own, so allow me to preface what it means. The map covers four years of undergraduate studies, beginning at the centre and radiating somewhat outwards. Each label indicates a significant learning experience - those with boxes indicate the courses I had and those without boxes are informal or nonformal experiences. The lines and arrows indicate where I considered there to be a transfer of skills or knowledge (or both) between experiences.

Coming into the beginning of my studies, I wanted to pursue medicine and took courses (indicated in first and second year on the right side) that would help me acheive this end. I enjoyed my first year experience and performed well in all these courses (A- to A+). I have some products that represent the learning in these courses, but for the purposes of just showing how my map works, I will not include it. My experience was enjoyable largely because of what was happening outside the program. A few us decided to help start a student society for the programm (HTH SCI Society) and some of my friends from the program undertook a bicycle trip to Montreal and raised funds for the Children's Hospital (Montreal Maniacs). These experiences are truly some of my most memorable and I am still friends with the people involved.

I was not aware at the time how much impact these experiences would have on my future development. By second year I was becoming less interested in the medical sciences and started exploring other ideas. I became interested in Naturopathic Medicine, cycling, student government and education. You can start to see on the left side I show my movement away from the health sciences as a formal study. My involvement with the student's union helped me find opportunities for constructing my own courses (Inquiry) and I was able to pursue my interests in an institutionaly legitimate manner.

By third and fourth year I found myself running a bicycle co-operative I had set up, sitting on Senate committees (one of which was deciding whether or not rehire the university president), various campus committees, and doing thesis work on an environmental process of the Red Hill Creek Expressway. Over the summer between third and fourth year (not shown, but I should) I took a trip with my friends across the Rockies and Prairies by bicycle. It was here, on a desolate road between Rosetown and Outlook that I thought about pursuing legal studies to become an environmental lawyer. I think of myself as a professional agent of social change and I wanted to continue learning about to enact programs and policies that would improve the environment.

I spent all of fourth year learning about environmental law, writing my LSATs twice (69th and 70th percentile scores), and thinking forward to the future. My last year was quite rich - I was valedictorian for the entire Health Sciences faculty and a winner of the President's Award for Excellence in Student Leadership. My work had been recognized in some way by my mentors and peers and I was quite humbled. I was also accepted to Dalhousie Law School.

So I took off out West for the summer to do some travelling, leaving Hamilton behind. I didn't know if and how I would find myself in Hamilton again, except to see friends and family. Vancouver Island, Tofino and the Gulf Islands were quite amazing and I really let loose out there. Hitch hiking, sleeping in the woods, nude beaches and going with the flow. Then I went East to Halifax in mid-summer to get myself set up. I found my way into a student sublet with some amazing folks, who I want to talk about later. I also 'bumped' into who would eventually be my partner in love, Laura Arsenault.

The first week of school came and shortly after that, I withdrew from school. I was never really quite sure if law school was for me despite knowing that I am a committed and passionate learner. I had heard about the culture of legal studies - the law firms and their OCI's in first year. What was becoming more frightening for me was speaking with current students and graduates of law about what the experience was like and what was possible with the degree. Environmental law, I soon learned was not always about protecting the environment, but about helping corporations weave around the law to reach ends that often involved abuse of the environment. Organizations like Sierra Legal Defence, while a solid environmental law organization, is the only firm in Canada in which you can get an apprenticeship. One to two positions annually - not exactly what I was looking for. The graduates had the most interesting things to say and in the end many of them (and this is supported by research) never ended up practicing.

I was disillusioned - the disjuncture between by perception and the reality was a chasm. Although I had just started a relationship with Laura, I had a compelling sense to return to Hamilton. I called my friend Itay, who lived in Toronot and I asked him if I could come live with him and start something anew.

I left Halifax by train on September 22, 2004 - Car Free Day. Laura saw me off on the train, and although we didn't know why this was all happening, for some reason we knew that this just the beginning of something much larger. On the 27hr. train ride I wrote what became the seeds that have grown into what I am doing today. It explains the pretext to my work on complexity science and learning and I will post it after this.

When I returned, I was hired by the same programme I was a student in just a year earlier and was given the opportunity to develop my ideas on education as I experiemented and worked with students on different projects. Del, my boss and mentor said that I had to leave within a year and apply somewhere else for studies. My brain would need it.

So here I am at OISE in Toronto. What I am doing here is another story, but the map at least helps explain how I got here.