Mitigating Social Risk in the Extractive Sector: Developing Intercultural Competence as a Tool for Negotiating Western-Indigenous Perspectives within the Undergraduate Mining Engineering Curriculum

Drawing upon critical, communications, and educational theories, this thesis develops a novel framing of the problem of social risk in the extractive sector, as it relates to the building of respectful relationships with indigenous peoples. Building upon Bakhtin’s dialogism, the thesis demonstrates the linkage of this aspect of social risk to professional education, and specifically, to the undergraduate mining engineering curriculum, and develops a framework for the development of skills related to intercultural competence in the education of mining engineers. The knowledge of social risk, as well as the level of intercultural competence, of students in the mining engineering program, is investigated through a mixture of surveys and focus groups – as is the impact of specific learning interventions. One aspect of this investigation is whether development of these attributes alters graduates’ conception of their identity as mining engineers, i.e. the range and scope of responsibilities, and understanding of to whom responsibilities are owed, and their role in building trusting relationships with communities. Survey results demonstrate that student openness to the perspectives of other cultures increases with exposure to the second year curriculum. Students became more knowledgeable about social dimensions of responsible mining, but not about cultural dimensions. Analysis of focus group data shows that students are highly motivated to improve community perspectives and acceptance. It is observed that students want to show respect for diverse peoples and communities where they will work, but they are hampered by their inability to appreciate the viewpoints of people who do not share their values. They embrace benefit sharing and environmental protection as norms, but they mistakenly conclude that opposition to mining is rooted in a lack of education rather than in cultural values. Three, sequential, threshold concepts are identified as impeding development of intercultural competence: Awareness and Acknowledgement of Different Forms of Knowledge; Recognition that Value Systems are a Function of Culture; Respect for varied perceptions of Social Wellbeing and Quality of Life. Future curriculum development in the undergraduate mining engineering program, as well as in other educational programs relevant to the extractive sector, can be effectively targeted by focusing on these threshold concepts.

EDUCATING THE PUBLIC THROUGH NEWS MEDIA: CASE STUDIES OF NEWS LITERACY IN THE NEW MEDIA LANDSCAPE

Two decades of unprecedented changes in the media landscape have increased the complexity of informing the public through news media. With significant changes to the way the news industry does business and the way news consumers access this information, a new set of skills is being proposed as essential for today’s news consumer. News literacy is the use of critical thinking skills to assess the reliability and source of the information that people consume on a daily basis, as well as fostering self-awareness of personal news consumption habits and how it can create audience bias. The purpose of this study was to examine how adults experience the news in their everyday lives and to describe the nature of the news literacy skills people employ in their daily news consumption. This study purposefully selected four adults who have completed high school, and who regularly consume news information across a number of platforms, both traditional and digital. Two of the participants, one man and one woman, were over 50 years old. One other male participant was in his 30’s and the final participant, a young woman, was in her 20’s. They all utilized both traditional and digital media on a regular basis and all had differing skill levels when using social media for information. Their news experiences were documented by in-depth interviews and the completion of seven daily news logs. In their daily logs the participants differentiated news information from other information available on-line but the interviews revealed a contradiction between their intentions and their news consumption practices. All four participants had trouble distinguishing between news and opinion pieces in the news information realm. In addition all but one seemed unaware of their personal bias and any possible effect it was having on their news consumption. Further research should explore the benefits of an adult-centered news literacy curriculum on news consumers similar to the participants, and should examine the development of audience bias and its relationship to the daily exposure people have to the torrent of information that is available to them on a daily basis.