Reflective analysis is an important part of academic learning. It allows to qualitatively improve the theoretical knowledge and practical skills in order to support professional development. The present assignment called for critical reflective analysis to summarize the past three lessons — 7, 8, and 9 — and to answer a series of questions. The overall theme of the class was the definition of social justice, and therefore the topic chosen — homelessness in Canada — was also related to the aspects raised in the lessons. This analysis is intended to be an academic reflection and to cover issues related to the clarification of the topic, personal experiences, and the connection of the problem to global citizenship.
The choice of topics among the lessons in the third module was of primary importance. For the most part, all the topics dealt with social justice issues, therefore, these issues were very close to my heart. In fact, I am convinced that social problems are something that each person encounters every day as he or she walks down the street, enters a mall, or visits a public place. As far as I was concerned, the topic seemed most intriguing because compared to the usual understanding of homelessness, where an older man or woman lives on the street in unsanitary conditions, the lesson discussed the aspect of young homelessness. It was said that those of young people who left their parents between the ages of 13-24 and are unable to obtain safe and stable housing can be characterized as youth homeless (Homeless Hub, 2019). This impressed me because one day every young person will leave their parent’s home and be essentially homeless until they buy their own. Combined with my personal experience with classic homeless people, this prompted me to choose this lesson topic as the most interesting.
It is necessary to elaborate somewhat on what I mean by personal experience. In fact, during my time living in Ottawa, I have often met homeless people who did not appeal to me on the outside, but who did catch me on a mental level. Every time I saw them at train stations, bus stops, or on benches in public parks, I felt uncomfortable. The homeless people usually looked sickly and smelled bad, so I tried to walk past as quickly as possible. However, these episodes were deeply ingrained in my mind, because mentally, I understood that they were small culprits in this outcome. The causal links of social injustice, the economic crisis, and natural disasters have put some of us on the street. I cannot call this right, for while some enjoy social benefits, others, by contrast, are forced to survive. It is noteworthy that there was not one nationality among the homeless. I have met ethnic Canadians, Asians, and dark-skinned people, so I once came to the conclusion that the problem of homelessness has no cultural boundaries: no one is immune to it.
Moreover, one day I will have to move away from my parents and pursue higher education on my own and independently. At this point, I cannot say for sure where I will live or what conditions it will be. Nevertheless, like anyone else, I want it to be a place of safety and comfort. In the first stages, it probably won’t be, so partly I will feel like a young homeless person. It is not really what I want, so I will try as hard as I can to provide the housing I want. In my reasoning, you can see my explicit desire not to be homeless. I guess this stems from the stigma around homelessness, as no adequate individual would want to voluntarily accept the role of a homeless person living on the streets.
From what has been said, one can conclude that the problem of homelessness is not my last concern. On the contrary, by conducting an in-depth study of the topic — and even beyond the scope of the course — I believe that I am approaching an understanding of the philosophy of social justice. It remains a mystery to me why there are more homeless people among certain groups of people, as it has been argued by Shoemaker et al. (2020). Superficial reasons do little to reflect the real agenda, so the more I can explore social justice issues, the more likely I am to come up with answers to this question. For example, I am already familiar with Karl Marx’s social theory of conflict, and I think this knowledge is perfectly applicable to aspects of social injustice. For some reason not entirely unknown, some social classes receive more economic benefits than others. At the same time, this gap often tends to intensify, so we can see the number of homeless people increase.
To summarize the above, it is appropriate to emphasize that the problem of homelessness is a serious topic for academic study. This issue lies in the plane of social justice and unequivocally reflects an unfair agenda: some people receive less than others. The reflective analysis I conducted helped me to establish that my personal experience of encountering such people and my fear of becoming a young homeless person creates a stigma around interaction with homelessness. In turn, this only exacerbates social inequality. Consequently, it is necessary to continue exploring this issue, including going beyond the course of study to find answers to the questions of interest.
References
Homeless Hub. (2019). What is Homelessness. Homeless Hub.
Shoemaker, E. S., Kendall, C. E., Mathew, C., Crispo, S., Welch, V., Andermann, A.,… Pottie, K. (2020). Establishing need and population priorities to improve the health of homeless and vulnerably housed women, youth, and men: A Delphi consensus study.Plos One, 15(4).