Decolonising dominant knowledge constructions in the education of immigrant youth in Canada

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the dominant knowledge construction in Canadian public schools. Using the grounded theory approach, thirty-six Chinese Canadian youths and young adults were interviewed in Alberta. Drawing on critical, anticolonial and Bourdieusian perspectives, I argue that some teachers’ racialised habitus and biased knowledge constructions devalued the indigenous knowledges that immigrant youth bring to the classroom. Moreover, they reproduced anti-immigrant discourses and reinforced racial hierarchies in Canadian society. As a consequence, they negatively affect the identity construction of immigrant descendants and undermine their attempts to negotiate a sense of belonging in Canada. I argue that decolonising dominant knowledge constructions requires challenging teachers’ racialised habitus in teaching and their interactions with immigrant students.     

Primary school playgrounds as spaces of inclusion/exclusion in New South Wales,Australia

The purpose of this study was to determine how the design and organisation of primary school playground spaces may result in the inclusion or exclusion of some groups of children. Two primary school playgrounds in rural New South Wales, Australia, were selected for this investigation. Data were collected through observations and unstructured interactional interviews. Data analysis revealed the design and organisation of primary school play spaces may lead to segregation among school children. Gender, safety concerns and school rules were also established as factors restricting full use of the playground space. The identification of these factors is vital in guiding future school reform programmes and policies aimed at enhancing participation in play and a sense of belonging for all children. The results suggest that there is need to promote schools’ understandings of the significance of playground spaces in children’s social lives so children can fully benefit from the time they spend in school playgrounds.     

Education without a shared language: dynamics of inclusion and exclusion in Norwegian introductory classes for newly arrived minority language students

Based upon fieldwork in two upper secondary schools in Norway, this article offers an analysis of inclusion and exclusion processes for newly arrived minority language students. Minority language students are defined by policy as students who have a different mother tongue than the Norwegian and Sami languages, and students who are newly arrived in Norway are considered especially at risk for marginalisation. This article explores processes of inclusion and exclusion in two schools with segregated classes for this group, called introductory classes. The analytical framework is Niklas Luhmann’s theory of autopoietic social systems, where inclusion is defined as the requirements for participation set by a system, and exclusion accordingly as being unable to meet these requirements. The article displays different constellations of inclusions and exclusions for newly arrived students in the educational system: in school organisations, organisation-based interactions and informal networks of students. It will be showed that introductory classes erect several barriers towards newly arrived students’ inclusion, especially towards those students who are placed at the basic level of the schools’ hierarchy of performances. As a consequence of multiple educational exclusions, informal networks emerge as alternative socialities that include and exclude students on the basis of mother tongue.     

How do students choose a university?: an analysis of applications to universities in Ontario, Canada

This study uses a unique set of microdata on university applications to examine the role played by institutional attributes in choices made by graduating high school students between the 17 universities in the Province of Ontario, Canada. We estimate a rank-ordered logit model that uses all information contained in each applicant’s ranking of institutions. Applicants prefer universities that are closer to their homes, spend more on scholarships and teaching, and offer higher levels of non-academic student services. Smaller class sizes are preferred by female applicants but not by males. High levels of research activity discourage applications. Smaller, primarily undergraduate institutions suffer from a low placing in the annual national university rankings but larger universities do not.     

Stepping out of our comfort zones: pre-service teachers' responses to a critical analysis of gender/power relations in sexuality education

This paper discusses pre-service teachers' responses to a critical analysis of gender/power relations using examples from a final assessment for an intensive elective unit called Teaching Sexuality in the Middle Years. This unit critically examines gender/ power relations, the production of difference, heteronormativity and pleasure and desire, employing a feminist post-structural framework. Despite the focus on critical thinking, reflection and interrogating structural inequalities in this unit some students were resistant or unable to engage with this approach in their assessments, although appearing to do so in workshops. We consider the broad range of sexuality education discourses mobilised by this unit to try to make sense of what looks like resistance but may be something more complex and difficult to negotiate. The paper ends with a consideration of some of the implications of this approach for practice.