SUNDAY 3 MARCH 2019 – UWI TODAY
3
Dr
Winston
McGarland
Bailey,
“The Mighty Shadow”,
who passed away in October of
2018, statedwith great authority
in his classic
Dat Soca Boat
, “I
belong to the house of music”.
What a powerful statement of
commitment to culture. What
an audacious statement of
pride in our creative forms.
We too at The UWI
belong to the house of
music – and dance, drama,
festival, literature, art, history,
philosophy, language and education, the areas that falls
under what we refer to as “the humanities”. We reside in
every form of cultural and creative expression that exists
on these islands. We promote them, preserve them, further
their development, seek out new opportunities for them,
and train generations of professionals in their industries.
Science, technology, innovation – all of these are
the solid underpinnings of successful and competitive
economies. As such, it is our belief, even more, our
recommendation, that the Student Learning Outcomes for
the 21st Century Learner in Trinidad and Tobago must of
necessity include creativity and collaboration. While the role
of the science-based disciplines as well as law is clear in the
agenda for innovation, it is not as obvious for the humanities.
The aim of this edition of the Principal’s message is precisely
to clarify that role and show its significance.
Critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and
creativity are all widely accepted as crucial to Learning
for the 21st Century. Studies show that these are all in
the domain of the “right brain”. The logical capabilities
necessary for mastery of the sciences resides in the left brain.
Science suggests that we get the best of both worlds when we
stimulate the interconnections between the two halves of the
brain. Much has been made of the need to strengthen STEM
education – teaching and learning in science, technology,
engineering and mathematics. However, we at The UWI
have proposed to the Ministry of Education that in order
to achieve national and regional goals, our national and
regional system of education must shift its paradigm from
the purely functional approach in STEM, to one that actively
facilitates and integrates function and form with design in
science, technology, engineering,
arts
and mathematics –
STEAM.
Evidence of practice and research has shown that
STEAM is the educational paradigm to bridge innovative
thinking for 21st Century Learners since it stimulates and
nurtures the left and right brain thinking skills.
Indeed, Steven Pomeroy in his
Scientific America
article
notes that “Nobel laureates in the sciences are 17 times
likelier than the average scientist to be a painter, 12 times as
likely to be a poet, and four times as likely to be a musician.”
Evidence of the powerful nexus between technology
and the arts exists through known history, as shown by the
works of the likes of Pythagoras and Da Vinci and more
recently, by the clever inspiration of Steve Jobs at Apple.
Even closer to home, in Trinidad and Tobago, we all know
of master mas’ man Peter Minshall, whose design sketches
for his early Carnival portrayals often displayed a potent
combination of art and technology.
I spoke of this issue at a recent workshop hosted by
the Faculties of Humanities and Education (FHE) across
the
UWIverse
some weeks ago. I stressed the fact that the
disciplines spanned by the humanities – art, dance, theatre,
music, literature, language and linguistics, history, and
philosophy – are crucial to the creation of the culture of
innovation. Indeed, by their very nature, much of the work
FROM THE PRINCIPAL
PROFESSOR BRIAN COPELAND
Campus Principal
THEHUMANITIES
Vital for Innovation, Entrepreneurship and aBetter Society
Trek
franchise, a language that now has online translator
support and is extensively used in the latest series,
Star Trek
Discovery
. There are others as well, such as the Na’vi that was
used in
Avatar
, the Elvish language in the
Lord of the Rings
franchise and most recently the Dothraki language for the
Game of Thrones
TV series. It should also be mentioned that
linguistics is essential to the development of technology for
computer language software for translation, text to speech
and speech to text systems.
And what of history? There appears to be little innate
creativity in recounting stories from long ago. However,
this discipline, which has unfortunately been removed
from the school curriculum is absolutely essential in
understanding who we are and where we came from. A
critical consequence of this self-awareness is that it serves
to “attract talent, enhance business development, and fortify
local economies”
-
history-statement). History is also a critical element in
understanding other societies with whom we must engage
for trade in goods and services. When fashioning products
and developing marketing strategies for the international
market, one cannot assume that their tastes and habits are
the same as yours. Significantly, one must be aware of their
past to understand the nuances of cultural sensitivities.
I trust that this message has dispelled all notions that
the innovation agenda and the creation of an entrepreneurial
university lies strictly in the domain of science-based
faculties – engineering, science and medicine. If anything,
the discourse has provided justification for the reengineering
of the curriculum to nurture creativity and mold bold,
confident and entrepreneurial spirits. We need initiatives
for the creation of an environment that would excite and
nourish creativity by finally breaking the academic silos
that have typified The UWI for so long. At a time when our
regional societies, ecologies, and economies are delicately
poised, we need the humanities and he arts as much as
we need the sciences to place us on a robust trajectory to
sustainable development. It requires a culture change of no
small proportion – but change we must.
of the humanities requires a creative step. So, for example,
every painting created by an artist is a physical embodiment
of a new concept that conjures up some desired effect in
those who view it. By definition, then, each new work of art
is an innovation.
This creative capability is what must be infused in other
disciplines to stimulate the imagination of its students and
experts, thus enhancing their problem identification and
solving skills and, in alignment to a critical UWI strategic
agenda, to fashion new inventions, processes and systems
that could be commercialised or otherwise implemented for
beneficial application. Indeed, this stronger infusion of the
humanities must be a hallmark of our national education
systems, formal and informal, from early childhood to
tertiary to give true meaning to the oft spoken mantra of
a well-rounded education. In this regard, I note that we
need to urgently curtail the practice of streaming students
at the secondary level. Apart from the fact that it limits their
mental stimulation, it also creates a dilemma when young
teens are asked to make a career path. This is not an optimal
system for forging productive and innovative citizens.
There are different ways in which we could use the
Humanities to boost this stimulation process. First and
foremost is the inclusion of a humanities stream in other
faculties - agriculture, engineering, science, medicine, law
and social science. This is the norm in American university
programmes, and for good reason which I will address in
a while. One effort of note is the delivery of courses and
modules that treat with how science fiction has influenced
the course of science itself. I am proud to say that this
is actually the subject of a course that is delivered at St
Augustine.
One other channel of imaginative stimulation is through
the design of the physical environment through the creation
of art artefacts, colour and pattern schemes to stimulate
and provoke thought in walkways, classrooms, dorms, and
conversation spaces. This, of course, requires collaboration
with designers in the built environment.
I mentioned above that many programs in the US
include a strong component in the humanities – the liberal
arts as it is known there. Whether it was through pure intent
or quite by accident, many agree that this has contributed
in no small way to US dominance in innovation in science
and technology. As Holden Thorp writes in his September
2010 article “The entrepreneurial university
”
in the
Inside
Higher Ed
journal, “… liberal arts education has fueled
American innovation.” He goes on to explain that the
“largest differentiating factor between international higher
education and the US is the breadth of learning.... Innovation
that addresses major problems facing the world requires an
understanding of the human condition, an appreciation
of human relations that brings different viewpoints to the
table, and a relentless pursuit of collaboration. The study of
the humanities and social sciences is critical to the skills and
worldview needed by successful entrepreneurs in all sectors.”
Need I say more?
Students and staff of the humanities can, of course,
be more directly engaged in and therefore more directly
benefit from the invention to innovation process, even in
technology. There are already local examples beyond the
efforts of musicians, artists and sculptors. For example,
the PHI – the electronic pan invented at The UWI that will
be launched by mid-2019 – was fashioned for aesthetics
and ergonomics by designer Leslie-Ann Noel from the St
Augustine Campus using a concept she contrived for a suite
of furniture while studying in Brazil.
At the workshop, I was also reminded of the fact that
sci-fi movies have employed linguists to create whole new
language structures. The most famous of these, for sci-
fi buffs at least, would probably be Klingon from the
Star
EDITORIAL TEAM
CAMPUS PRINCIPAL
Professor Brian Copeland
AG. DIRECTOR OF MARKETING
AND COMMUNICATIONS
Wynell Gregorio
AG. EDITOR
Joel Henry
email:
CONTACT US
The UWI Marketing and
Communications Office
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