To deepen critical enquiry, learners must examine the changing social and cultural contexts of their artifacts and wrestle with challenging questions to which there are no easy, ‘correct’ answers. While such activities can be engaging, as learners share amusing or evocative ‘warries’, simply telling anecdotes, inspired by artifacts, is unlikely to transform how learners think about themselves or the profession of arms. Simply asking learners to share souvenirs from their last deployment is unlikely to generate deep enquiry or critical reflection. Ī key challenge with artifactual critical literacy is ensuring that learners critically examine artifacts and unpack deep meaning rather than succumbing to superficial ‘show and tell’ activities. Decorative items included finger rings made from the aluminium of enemy shells, brooches made from Zeppelin wreckage and artistic works engraved on shells and armoured plate. During World War I, off-duty soldiers fashioned cigarette lighters, letter openers and pens from bullets for personal use or for commercial sale. The practice became known in World War I as 'trench art', but, as Bui points out, can be dated at least back to ancient Greek warfare when tropaion or war 'trophies', made from captured arms and armour, were erected as religious offerings. Past and current serving members, for example, have proudly shown me a grenade pin refashioned as a zipper tag (see inset) or an ammunition tin reconfigured as a set of speakers. Military personnel not only collect artifacts but repurpose them for functional use or artistic expression. In Australia, it is both a civil and military offence to remove range produce from live firing ranges therefore, participants confirm that they have no range produce in their possession after every practice. Prohibited items included munitions, weapons, organic material, personal enemy items and scientific, archaeological or religious relics. Allowable items included purchased goods with a dated receipt or legally acquired 'common enemy military items that have little or no value'. military members were permitted to collect souvenirs if they did not 'distract them from their duties or put them in danger'. During the 2006 Iraq War, for example, U.S. The practice is so widespread that militaries are obliged to enforce regulations to prevent looting, protect culturally significant artifacts and ensure safety. Such artifacts might be kit items or uniform insignia, range produce, marketplace souvenirs or gifts from local people. Simultaneously, learners can develop deep understandings about key PME topics such as military operations, ethics, leadership and cultural engagement.Īrtifactual critical literacy is particularly relevant for military learners due to long-standing practices of collecting operational artifacts. Through engaging activities of varying complexity, learners can develop critical and creative thinking skills, research skills and verbal, written and digital literacy skills. I wish to contribute to this discussion by proposing artifactual critical literacy as an avenue for critical analysis and deep learning.Īrtifactual critical literacy allows learners to tell their own stories and reflect on their own experiences by critically examining ordinary objects. Sci-fi, tabletop gaming and online gaming have proven to be engaging entry points for studying military strategy, ethics and leadership. See the gallery below for more artifacts on loan.This article is inspired by ongoing discussions about how we can rethink PME. These days you can find it in on display in Oshkosh, Wisconsin at the Experimental Aircraft Association. Though it has since been surpassed by even tinier airplanes, the Sky Baby, in its red and white livery, is quite a sight. Stits - who built the airplane on a dare from another pilot - flew the Sky Baby at airshows during the spring and summer of 1952, when it reached a top speed of 185 mph. The itty-bitty biplane has a wingspan of just over seven feet and runs not quite ten feet long. The Stits SA-2A Sky Baby was Ray Stits project to build the world's smallest piloted airplane. From historic aircraft like the Curtiss NC-4, the first airplane to fly over the Atlantic, to the first American socks to orbit the planet, the objects are so widely displayed that you may not have to travel far to see one. At any given time, thousands of Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum artifacts are on loan to museums and institutions all over the world.
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