Fishing for Identity

             Lunenburg, Nova Scotia is my hometown.  As a proud Bluenoser, I grew up with an appreciation for the sea and the economic opportunities it provided to many in that small town.  Whether it was fishing or processing scallops, cod fish or lobsters, many men and women in the area supported their families by working in this industry. 

Today, this once flourishing industry is no longer the backbone of this town’s economy.  In fact, this past month, the largest fishing industry employer in the town announced that they were putting up for sale one of the two remaining freezer trawlers in their fleet that is utilized to fish scallops.  This potential sale could result in the loss of many jobs for local residents.

This could be another blow to a community that in the late 80s and 90s saw a staggering job loss that left many people unemployed with no transferable skills as many in the industry did not have a lot of education past high school.  Some would argue that many did not even complete high school as it was not a necessity to work in the industry and the job opportunities at the time were plentiful.  My Dad often tells stories of friends, who if they did not feel like going to school, would walk down to the wharf to see if a boat was leaving.  If the Captain was looking for crew members, it was not unusual for that person to hop on board and ask a wharf worker to let his parent’s know he would be back in a couple of weeks.  Education was not part of the identities of these people.

The past and current issues for those affected by the fall of the fishing industry came to mind in our discussion of Bracher and identity.  During our most recent class, we discussed that learning is shaped by motivations to keep our particular type of identity.  My thoughts remained with these fisherman who were now unemployed in the late 80s and 90s.  At the time, the government offered retraining programs that would provide these men with skills to start a new career in another industry.  Many struggled with this process.  After reflecting on Bracher and applying it to this scenario, I believe that identity played a major role in these men’s hesitation and boycott against these government programs. 

            Bracher (2006) defines identity as “... one’s sense of oneself and, more comprehensively, the sense of oneself as a force that matters in the world” (p 6).  Many of these fishermen no longer felt that they mattered.  Fishing, for many of them, was one of the sole ways they defined themselves and also put bread on their family’s table.  If they could no longer participate in a role that made up a large part of their identity, do they have a place in this world?

            I believe that many of these men had similar identity-bearing signifiers.  I would argue that some of them would be - Fisherman, Bread Winner, Rugged, Manly.  “These identity-bearing signifiers embody socially valued ideals and attributes that we strive either to enact or to avoid embodying in our behaviour” (Bracher, 2006, p 17).  These men did everything in their power to ensure that they were able to maintain these signifiers.  This included avoiding learning opportunities, such as the government retraining programs, that potentially could have assisted them in maintaining signifiers such as bread winner.

            Bracher (2006) states that, “Learning and the failure to learn are often at least partially motivated by the need to maintain one’s identity-bearing signifiers” (p 18).  This argument holds true in regards to the fishermen.  Learning to work in a new industry meant that they potentially would be losing a part of their identity (identity-bearing signifier).  For example, working in the tourism industry meant to some that they would no longer be working in a manly role.  For several of these men, this lead to a failure and opportunity to learn as they refused to participate in a retraining program.  This failure to learn stood in their way of maintaining some of their other identity-bearing signifiers such as bread winner as they lost out on an opportunity to provide a potential stable income for their families.

            Many of these fishermen also did not identify as being educated due to their lack of post secondary and in many cases high school education.  This also threatened their use of the retraining programs as they did not identify as someone who could take advantage of an educational opportunity due to their lack of success in a classroom.

            As adult educators we must be aware of the impact of identity for our students.  Bracher (2006) comments that, “A major problem for educators is thus how to help students protect their threatened identities in ways other than resisting the identity threatening knowledge” (p 25).  I believe this involves communication on all parts including overcoming stereotypes.  Some of the fisherman may have been more open to the idea of retraining if they fully understood how their identity as a fisherman could be utilized in the tourism industry. 

            Successful transitions into the tourism industry included a former lobster fisherman who now operates a successful whale watching business.  Additionally, some fishermen who were close to retirement chose to retire and work part time at the museum delivering presentations on the history of the fishing industry to tourists and school children.  These are just some of the examples of how learning opportunities can be utilized to assist adults in maintaining their identity-bearing signifiers in alternate settings.

            Lunenburg has transitioned into a tourist destination.  While industry still plays a part in the town, tourism is now its backbone.   For those who choose to live in the area and work in a declining industry, they must be prepared to learn to change their identity if it ensures they are able to maintain their desired lifestyle and identity.

References

Bracher, M. (2006). Radical pedagogy: Identity, generativity, and social transformation. New

York: Palgrave Macmillan.