Ideology and Identity

30-1: To what extent should ideology be the foundation of identity?
30-2: Should ideology be the foundation of identity?

Synopsis

Many of the specific outcomes for Perspectives on Ideology (30-1) and Understandings of Ideologies (30-2) may be addressed by inviting students to explore the relationships between ideology and individual and collective identities.

Critical Challenges

Students might explore this overarching theme by completing these challenges:

Discovering the Influence of Ideology

Students explore the influence of ideology on identity by assessing the extent to which the actions and identities of selected personalities reflect ideologies. Students show this relationship in a concept map or other visual representation.

Are Collectivism and Individualism Opposites?

Students assess the extent to which individualism and collectivism promote the common good by deciding how best to represent, visually, the relationships between these concepts based on an examination of various individual and collective actions.

Media and Ideologies

Students examine the role of the media in influencing people’s beliefs and values by identifying the ideological bias in a selected media piece and by rewriting the piece to present a more balanced portrayal of ideological perspectives.

Balancing Individualism, Collectivism and the Common Good

Students assess the degree to which individualism, collectivism, or a combination of the two, best promotes the common good by describing the implications of extreme forms of individualism and collectivism in a fictional society in which one of the ideologies has become dominant.

Multiple Perspectives and Ideology

Students determine the extent to which ideologies should be the foundation of identity by creating a script for an interview with an iconic ideological figure.

Help Documents

Embedding Critical Thinking Into Teaching and Learning PDF
This document provides a definition of critical thinking, and discusses how to embed critical thinking into teaching and learning.

Definitions of Terms Used in Overarching Critical Inquiries
This document provides definitions of Overarching Critical Inquiry, Critical Challenge, Modelling the Tools, Support Material, Graphic Organizer, Assessment, and Background Information.

Meeting the Diverse Learning Needs of All Students PDF
This document provides suggestions to help teachers plan for diverse learning needs.

Reference Charts

The following charts provide a quick overview of correlations, references, and summaries for all the Critical Challenges. In the charts, the Critical Challenges are organized according to which Overarching Critical Inquiry they address.

Last updated: January 30, 2009 | (Revision History)
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