ImmigrantChildren.ca Archive

Category: School System

  • Ottawa's child settlement program

    The Ottawa Social Planning Council released “Immigrants’ Economic Integration: Successes and Challenges” last week. The report examines the social and economic integration of newcomers to Ottawa and includes discussion of the settlement needs of children. From an article in today’s Ottawa Citizen:

    A young person who moves here from another country faces a whole spectrum of things on top of the usual trials of growing up, says Hamdi Mohamed, executive director of the Ottawa Community Immigrant Services Organization (OCISO).
    “They live in a community that is really struggling, in a family that is struggling, where the father, the mother, the other siblings are all going through their own settlement experiences,” says Mohamed. “On top of that, the father may have three jobs, the mother may be working as well, so the problems are there, but the role models are not available.”
    Mohamed says immigrant children struggle in particular with multiple identities. They are new Canadians who often have strong ties to their homeland, something the Canadian-born may tell them is disloyal….
    “The reality of these children is they’re told ‘You must fit in this box or you don’t belong.’ And yet they know they have multiple identities, but they don’t yet know that there are beautiful things about that,” says Mohamed.

    In response, OCISO has launched a program that may be piloted in schools and other community locations to assist immigrant children and youth with issues in integration and also in maintaining home language, culture and practices. Other ISOs in the Ottawa area are on board. Read the full article here.
    Related resource: See OSPCs 2007 paper “Is Everybody Here? Inclusion and Exclusion Ottawa of Families with Young Children in the Ottawa Area”.

  • Early learning report for blending child care and kindergarten

    Charles Pascal has completed his two-year long investigation into early learning in Ontario. His report calls for a blending of child care and kindergarten. Read about Pascal, his approach to the work, and dowload a copy of the report, Our Best Future: Early Learning in Ontario, at the Ministry of Children and Youth website.
    There is no substantial discussion on immigrant, refugee or newcomer children, but “diversity” appears several times throughout the report:

    In Chapter 1, “Our best future is one in which all children are … respectful of the diversity of their peers” (p. 7).
    In the section discussing schools as the hub of the community, Pascal admits that “Concerns have been voiced that some schools are often unwelcoming to parents, dismissive of the expertise of community partners, and insensitive to the opportunities that diversity can provide for all students” (p. 17).
    In the section on programming, there is a review of the ELECT principles, which include “Respect for diversity, inclusion and equity are prerequisites for optimal development and learning” (p. 26).
    Also in the section on programming, and about ELECT, there is mention that any curricula should “reflect Ontario’s diversity” (p. 29).
    The parental engagement discussion in the report calls on educators to “be thoughtful about who is involved in the process. Many parents commented that existing policies on parent engagement in schools and early childhood programs did not give enough consideration to the splendid diversity in Ontario. Are we truly involving parents if some educators and school leaders, as I have been advised, avoid the Muslim mother because she wears a hijab, or are confused about how to approach same-sex parents or the many configurations of blended families?” (p. 31).
    In the recommendations section: “We must learn from each other. There are excellent examples of critical elements of the new system, across this province – teachers and ECEs working together, school-home based child care, school leaders who know how to engage parents and embrace diversity” (p. 49).
    And, finally, a critical success factor in implementing the new system are: “ECEs with excellent child development knowledge, skills and experience already in place, passion for diversity…”(p. 49).

  • Separate school for immigrant children?

    The Edmonton Public School system is planning to develop a new program to assist immigrant children with integrating into school, a way to ease them into their new formal environments. Starting as a pilot program, the CBC reports that school board trustees are already considering expanding the program into its own school for immigrant and refugee children. Joseph Luri of the Mennonite Centre for Newcomers in Edmonton welcomes the idea. He wants to see a separate school for immigrant/refugee children with the children grouped not by age but by their knowledge:

    “Some have been in the refugee camps for 10 years … never gone to any formal school but now coming here and they begin learning English as a teenager, you don’t get it”.

  • Young Canadian Muslim women

    Status of Women Canada have funded the Canadian Council of Muslim Women to direct a project to assist the integration and inclusion of young Muslim women and girls.
    From the April 2/09 news announcement:

    Status of Women Canada will provide $314,000 for a project called “Being a Canadian Muslim Woman in the 21st Century.” It will focus on equipping young Muslim women to lead and participate in a number of workshops with their educators and non-Muslim and male peers to discuss discrimination, violence and human rights.

    The Council will be working in partnership with two other organizations – the Afghan Women’s Organization of Toronto and YOUCAN.
    A description of the project from the Status of Women website:

    This project will involve seven schools from across Ontario located in Toronto, London, Peel and Waterloo. Muslim girls and their classmates will develop leadership skills as well as knowledge of their rights regarding gender equality, racial equality and how to eliminate violence in their lives. Muslim girls, with the assistance of their educators, non-Muslim and male peers, will form a Steering Committee in each school. These Committees will lead a series of workshops addressing discrimination, violence and human rights. A Steering Committee Coordinator will organize each school to contribute to the formation of a tool for educators. This tool will provide a basis for reacting sensitively and knowledgably to the issues facing young Muslim women in the 21st century.

  • Mothering and migration: (Trans)nationalism, globalization & displacement

    Call for papers for a conference from the Association for Research on Mothering (ARM), as posted on the mnchp-l listserv: Mothering and Migration: (Trans)nationalisms, Globalization, and Displacment. The conference will be held February 18-20, 2010 at the University of Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico.
    Submissions are welcome from scholars, students, activists, government agencies and workers, artists, mothers, and others who work or research in the area. Cross-cultural, historical and comparative work is encouraged. Topics can include (but not limited to):
    Representations/images of mothers and migration and (trans)national issues; globalization of motherhood; empowering migrant mothers; reproduction and movement of mother workers; migrant and (trans)national mothers and capitalism; migrant and (trans)national mothers and activism; public policy issues.
    For more information, contact the ARM at arm@yorku.ca or 416.736.2100 ext 60366. Or visit the ARM website. Abstract and bio deadline is Sept 1/09.

  • Germany's language program for newcomers (parents & children together)

    The Frankfurt Office of Multicultural Affairs has partnered with city schools and day nurseries to offer a 2nd language learning class – for immigrant parents and their children.
    The “Mums Learn German – even Papa” program pairs newcomer parents and children together two mornings a week where they both learn German. The program is a unique language learning experience, where the language lessons are built around the practicalities of life in a new country. Mothers learn about the school system and what their children do in school, helping form a foundation for parental involvement and a strong relationship between parents and the school. (Source: Cities of Migration).

  • The early years study ~ 10 years later

    The landmark Early Years Study, subtitled The Real Brain Drain, was released on April 20, 1999.
    See also a “very brief history” of the Early Years Study posted on the Health Nexus Santé (formerly the Ontario Prevention Clearinghouse) blog in March 2005, including links to the follow-up report The Early Years Study: Three Years Later, recounting how the early years initiative was rolled out in Ontario via the Ontario Early Years Centres.
    Fraser Mustard and the Council on Early Child Development continue to work to raise awareness of and support for an early childhood learning and care program for all children and their families across Canada as the first tier to the formal school system.
    See the upcoming conference sponsored by the Council on Early Child Development May 13-15 in New Brunswick, Putting Science into Action: Equity from the Start Through Early Child Development.
    How responsive have the Ontario Early Years Centres been to immigrant and refugee families and young children?

  • Importance of retaining home language for newcomer children

    As profiled on immigrantchildren.ca before, the initiative mylanguage.ca promotes the importance of newcomer children retaining their ‘home language’. Research shows that retaining and regularly using the mother tongue helps children learn a 2nd and 3rd language and is a proactive way for families to keep their culture alive as they integrate into Canadian society.
    The mylanguage.ca website has added a power point presentation of key points in this discussion. Find it in their Resources section. Also available in Russian and in Ukranian.
    Related immigrantchildren.ca posts:

    L1
    Research papers on mylanguage.ca

  • Learning about Canada by learning hockey

    York Region (Ontario) has funded the Community Alliance for York Region Education‘s new program “Slapshot”. According to yorkregion.com news, the program uses hockey to teach newcomer children “lessons about teamwork, leadership, nutrition and community building” and, ostensibly, about being a Canadian.
    From the news announcement: “How can you teach and develop life skills along with creating an active lifestyle to youngsters new to Canada? For those new to Markham, one way is to get them onto the ice and indoctrinate them into one of Canada’s national pastimes … hockey”.

  • EU adopts motion on the education of children of migrants

    The European Union‘s Committee on Culture and Education has adopted a motion on educating the children of migrants.
    In a report written by Hannu Takkula, entitled Migration and Mobility: Challenges and Opportunities for European Education Systems, the motion address several key issues in migrant education and calls for “integration to be encouraged through sports and other extra-curricular activities, as this can also help to combat social exclusion of those from less privileged backgrounds.  The earlier and more successfully that migrant children are integrated into schools, the better they will perform through school, further education and eventually in the labour market”. (Source: European Parliament press release).
    An excerpt from the press release:

    Migration can be greatly beneficial to schools as it can enrich them both culturally and educationally, but at the same time it can present significant problems if cultural differences hamper understanding between pupils or between pupils and teachers.  The report, drafted by Hannu Takkula wants to encourage a more effective means of incorporating migrant children in national education systems, as he believes that workers within the Union will be less likely to move abroad ‘if there is a risk that their children will suffer educationally’.