1 / 24

Yan Guo & Yvonne Hébert 14 th National Metropolis Conference Toronto March 3, 2012

University of Calgary. Educational Integration of Immigrant Children & Youth: Policy Ineffectiveness & Consequences for Learners and Society. Yan Guo & Yvonne Hébert 14 th National Metropolis Conference Toronto March 3, 2012. Introduction.

nike
Download Presentation

Yan Guo & Yvonne Hébert 14 th National Metropolis Conference Toronto March 3, 2012

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript


  1. University of Calgary Educational Integration of Immigrant Children & Youth: Policy Ineffectiveness & Consequences for Learners and Society Yan Guo & Yvonne Hébert 14th National Metropolis Conference Toronto March 3, 2012

  2. Introduction • Almost 6,293,000 people (~1/5) speak languages other than English or French as their mother tongue • ESL learners are now the majority in larger urban school districts • Implications for official languages policy and education • Consequences for policy and life in terms of educational attainment, employment and immigrant incorporation

  3. Four Sections I Social Justice as Theoretical Framework II The ESL Case: Demographic Growth and Educational Inconsistencies III Consequences for Immigrant Children and Canadian Society IV Towards Social Justice: Policy Recommendations

  4. Towards Social Justice: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

  5. Scales of Social Justice • Social justice = the will to render to everyone their due • A) Distributive justicepromotes individual freedom and the equal distribution of material and social goods • B) Retributive justiceemphasizes the processes of production of goods • C) Recognitive justiceincludes social goods in their scope, such as opportunity, position, and power, as well as institutional inequities • D) Redistribution, Recognition & Representation: tri-dimensional framework in economic, social & political spheres

  6. Three Dimensional Model of Social Justice • How much economic inequality does justice permit? • How much redistribution is required and according to which principle of distributive justice? • What constitutes equal respect, which kinds of differences merit public recognition, and by which means? • Who are the relevant subjects entitled to just redistribution or reciprocal recognition? • What is the proper frame within which to consider questions of justice?

  7. ESL CASE: GROWTH & INCONSISTENCIES

  8. The ESL Case: Demographic Growth and Educational Inconsistencies, I • AB: 14,673 ESL students (1989) to 71,541 (2010) • BC: 34,176 ESL students (1990) to 64,450 (2010) • Provincial governments repeatedly cut ESL services • Numerous inconsistencies limit ESL student success in Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba and Ontario • ESL in crisis: Failure to address issues & to provide quality education to these students

  9. The ESL Case: Demographic Growth and Educational Inconsistencies, II • Funding caps • Redirection of ESL funding to other expenses • Deficient model underlies the systemic discrimination of ESL students in schools • View of students as ‘poor & despised’ • Lack of teacher preparation • Ad-hoc, fragmented ESL programming

  10. Funding Caps • Five years in BC and seven years in AB for additional support for ESL (2012 levels) • No similar limits on financial support of English first language learners enrolled in Learning Assistance, or Gifted Education or French Immersion •  Most recent example of a systemic, structural barrier to equitable treatment

  11. Redirection of ESL Funding to Other Expenses • $1178.10 per eligible FTE funded ESL student on top of the base amount per student in AB • ESL funding, not targeted; easily redirected • Toronto: ESL funding > utilities & maintenance

  12. Systemic Discrimination • ESL is the subject of systemic discrimination in schools: • Practices: Room allocation; district & gov’t distribution of funding • Respondents: ESL/ESD provision has a lower status than most other teaching areas in schools • Parents and students: Concerns of discrimination and racism

  13. Lack of Teacher Preparation • Teaching ESL, not part of basic teacher training • Teachers’ lack of knowledge about how to teach ESL students effectively: Partially responsible for the low achievements of ESL students

  14. Ad-hoc ESL Programming • Alberta Education: • ESL Hi School Program – out of date (1997) • Up to each school to develop ESL program • No explicit elementary ESL curriculum • Comparison: • Programmes for French Immersion, a second language program • Poor quality education of immigrant children and youth

  15. Consequences for Immigrant Children and Canadian Society • Educational outcomes & future earnings of immigrant children, 1st & 2nd generation • Creation of a permanent underclass that is very costly for society • Educational outcomes of immigrant children: more likely to complete university than children born in Canada • Highly relevant to Canada’s future

  16. Towards Social Justice: POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS

  17. Accountability & Responsibility • Accountability mechanisms to ensure financial reporting from schools and school boards • General Federal responsibility to finance official languages education • Therefore, responsibility for equitable provision of Official Languages federal funding for immigrant children and youth

  18. Plurilingualism Policy • ISSUE: English-only classrooms • Code-switching as social norm: Plurilingual communicative competence as reality in classrooms and beyond • Speakers interrelate and interact flexibly & effectively in different situations and with various speakers according to languages known • Cultural contexts of language experiences, from home to school to society at large, drawing on resources within several repertoires

  19. Antiracism Education • Implementation of antiracism education in the school system : to overcome pervasive fear of differences • Move towards understanding and appreciating difference • Most fundamental trait of humanity, as positive, and enriching our lives • FROM FEAR TO DIGNITY OF DIFFERENCE

  20. Teacher Preparation, Professional Development & Graduate Education • Recruit teachers with cultural & linguistic repertoires • Develop socially just attitudes, awareness, discourses, knowledge of all pre-service teachers • Inclusion of strong language methodologies for all pre-service teachers in support of plurilingual learners

  21. Redressing School Inequalities for Improved Educational Outcomes, I Rather than asking how members of non-dominant groups adapt to dominant culture schools and practices, we might ask how well schools and classrooms adapt to the presence of students from non-dominant groups, or how schools and classrooms can be transformed to better serve these students(Orellana & Gutiérrez, 2006: 118-119) Rather than asking how members of non-dominant groups adapt to dominant culture schools and practices, we might ask how well schools and classrooms adapt to the presence of students from non-dominant groups, or how schools and classrooms can be transformed to better serve these students (Orellana & Gutiérrez, 2006: 118-119)

  22. Redressing School Inequalities for Improved Educational Outcomes, II • Equitable distribution of educational resources • Improved classroom practices, for ex.: • Increase time spent on reading, science & math • Increase mixed-ability groupings, classes & schools • Increase effective language teaching within content areas

  23. From Stranger to Citizen • The immigrant child, especially the immigrant youth, as well as the immigrant family, as the poor family, is created as a ‘stranger’ and as a ‘forever foreigner’ • Social justice perspective: • Greater recognition of basic individual rights; • community-building activities, • more participation & representation; • allocation of sufficient resources for success

  24. Conclusions • Poor quality education of ESL learners, their systematic exclusion from mainstream schooling & society: • Based on the notion of the ‘stranger’ • Sets up person outside of regular, citified activity • Policy to reduce & eliminate forms of segregation, so as to facilitate inclusion and integration to everyone’s benefit • As in a mirror, the ‘stranger’ is ‘us’

More Related