ImmigrantChildren.ca Archive

Category: School System

  • Children's books about immigration III

    More books for children on the theme of immigration:
    How My Parents Learned to Eat by Ina R. Friedman.
    When Jesse Came Across the Sea by Jesse Hest.
    The Memory Coat by Elvira Woodruff.
    Small Beauties by Elvira Woodruff.
    My Name is Yoon by Helen Recorvits.
    Naming Liberty by Jane Yolen.
    Marianthe’s Story: Painted Words and Spoken Memories by Aliki.
    The Great Migration by Jacob Lawrence.
    Dia’s Story Cloth: The Hmong People’s Journey of Freedom by Dia Cha.
    I Hate English! by Ellen Levine and Steve Bjorkman.
    The Keeping Quilt by Patricia Polacco.
    The Colour of Home by Mary Hoffman.
    Molly’s Pilgrim by Barbara Cohen.

    See former posts on this topic:
    Children’s books about immigration, posted Jan 22/08
    Children’s books about immigration II, posted Mar 11/08.

  • Call for papers ~ 2nd generation research dialogues: Comparative perspectives on children of immigrants

    Second Generation Research Dialogues: Comparative Perspectives on Children of Immigrants
    Papers are being requested for a two-day workshop on children of immigrants, held at the Center for Metropolitan Studies in Berlin, Jan 16-17/09. Work on second generation immigrants will be discussed along two themes: the second generation and the city & the second generation in school. 
    For more information, including the full call description, contact secondgeneration@metropolitanstudies.de or visit the Center for Metropolitan Studies website.

  • Brave new schools: Identity and power in Canadian education

    From the Atkinson Centre for Society and Child Development
    The 2008 R.W.B. Jackson Lecture ~ Brave New Schools: Identity and Power in Canadian Education

    We are pleased to present Professor James (Jim) Cummins, a renowned second language education scholar in the Department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning, and Canada Research Chair, Language Learning and Literacy Development in Multilingual Contexts.

    As the 2008 Jackson Lecturer, Cummins will draw on data from a 5-year research program entitled From Literacy to Multiliteracies to stimulate re-examination of the foundational principles of Canadian education in an era of increasing diversity and urgent global challenges. Influenced by international agencies such as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), educational policy-makers in many countries have adopted an increasingly technocratic approach to the promotion of literacy and numeracy.  The focus has been on the identification and implementation of evidence-based “best practices.” However, the frame of reference within which these “best practices” have been generated typically consigns issues related to societal power relations and teacher-student identity negotiation to the margins of consideration.

    This lecture will call for a radically different approach to educational policy-making. The constructs of teacher-student identity negotiation and societal power relations will be proposed as empirically validated influences on academic achievement and as fundamental to the development of effective educational policy and practice. Recent OECD research and policy recommendations on the education of immigrant students will be analyzed to show that the marginalization of issues related to power and identity in educational policy-making is an ideological process that is far from “evidence-based.” A very different set of policy options and pedagogical opportunities for Canadian education emerges when the empirical and theoretical frame of reference is broadened to acknowledge the centrality of the multiple forms of diversity that increasingly characterize schools both in Canada and internationally.

    The lecture will be held Wednesday, November 12, 2008 at the George Ignatieff Theatre, Toronto. Reception at 6pm, opening remarks and lecture at 7pm. 

    To RSVP and/or for more information, call 416.978.1125.

  • Right to Play at the OPHEA conference

    Right to Play will be presenting their curriculum Learning to Play, Playing to Learn at the Oct 17-18/08 Ontario Physical Health and Education Association (OPHEA) conference
    It is heartening to see the description of the session highlighting the rights of the child:

    “Activities feature an exploration of children around the world, the countries they live in and a study of our rights and responsibilities in the world community”.

  • Child Watch Column by Marian Wright Edelman (Children's Defense Fund)

    An excerpt of the Child Watch column of the Children’s Defense Fund, taken from the NAME listserv (National Association for Multicultural Education), posted Aug 22/08:

    Immigration Enforcement: Raiding Children’s Dreams

    “On May 12, 2008, teachers in Potsville, Iowa, interrupted their classes, called the names of some of their Latino students and directed them to report to the principal’s office. Usually, this would mean that they were in for punishment for some infraction. But these children had done nothing wrong. In the principal’s office, they were informed that one or in some cases, both of their parents would not be coming home because they had been taken into custody by federal law enforcement officers.

    “Earlier that day, hundreds of helmeted Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in combat gear, toting assault rifles, swooped down on the Agriprocessors kosher meat processing plant in this town of about 3,000. With military precision, nearly 400 of the plant’s alleged undocumented immigrant workers were shackled and marched out of the slaughterhouse in single file and herded onto buses and vans. Those rounded up in the raid, one of the biggest in our nation’s history, were transported to detention facilities miles away. The raid not only economically devastated the town but also left in its trail hundreds of children wondering when or even if they would see their parents again. Postville was just one of a series of ICE raids in search of undocumented immigrants.

    “According to a report by the National Council of La Raza and the Urban Institute, “Paying the Price: The Impact of Immigration Raids on America’s Children,” there are about five million children in the United States with at least one undocumented parent. The stepped-up ICE raids have put the children of these families at increased risk of separation, psychological distress and economic hardship. These raids have disrupted communities across the country and separated thousands of parents from their children. The majority of these children are American citizens who are integrated into the schools and communities of the only country they know. After the arrest or disappearance of their parents, children have experienced psychological duress and developed mental health problems including feelings of abandonment, separation anxiety disorder, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.

    “The ‘Paying the Price’ report states that the raids affect children, who are “emotionally, financially and developmentally dependent on their parents’ care, protection and earnings.” Children and other family members left behind face serious and immediate economic hardships when the primary breadwinner has been hauled off into custody. The majority of the children affected are under the age of 10~many are infants, toddlers, and preschoolers. Their immediate needs are for food, baby formula, diapers, clothing and other essentials. One of the great challenges for the communities where raids are carried out is to ensure that no child has been left behind in school, left at home without adult supervision or taken into foster care. Some children have been left in the care of teenagers or even babysitters for weeks and months at a time. Those who suffer the greatest harm in ICE raids are children. If our nation is to make any claim for humanity, children deserve to be protected and cared for when their parents are taken away.

    Related links: 

    The Children’s Defense Fund

    Paying the Price: The Impact of Immigration Raids on America’s Children. 

    The Right to Learn: Access to Public Education for Non-Status Immigrants (Community Social Planning Council of Toronto).

  • Racism hurts

    The Ontario Human Rights Commission and the Elementary Teachers’ Foundation of Ontario have developed resource materials for a campaign for elementary school-aged children (including Kindergarten-age children) on fighting racism. Materials will be distributed to Ontario ETFO member-schools this fall.

  • Ethnically diverse schools = less prejudice among young children

    UK-based Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) has released findings of a study on the ethnic make-up of the school environment and its impact on children’s tolerance, prejudices and approach to diversity. The more diverse, the more children take on what the study calls an “integrationist orientation”.
    The study found that children as young as 5 had an integrationist orientation, if exposed to cultures other than their own and that schools with a high ethnically-diverse make up had clear benefits for all children.
    Lead researcher Rupert Brown, quoted on the egovmonitor.com website:

    “We found that when the proportion of ethnic minority children in a school is at least 20%, both ethnic minority children and majority children tended to have higher self esteem, children had more friendships with children from other ethnic groups, and there were fewer problems with peer relationships such as bullying”.
    “Our findings add to a growing body of evidence suggesting that the more contact children have with other ethnic groups, the more cross-group friendships they will have and the less prejudiced they will be”.

  • In Memoriam: Zelma Henderson, Brown v. Board of Education

    Zelma Henderson, last surviving plaintiff of the historic Brown v. Board of Education case, died last week in Kansas. While Brown v. Board of Education was not a challenge to the right to education for immigrant or refugee children, it remains a pivotal event in the rights of minority children to education in the US and elsewhere.  There are many news reports: search on “zelma henderson brown v. board of education” in google, for example. Also, visit the Brown v. Board of Education National Historic website.

  • Our schools, our communities: Equity, inclusion and social justice

    The next Ontario Inclusion Learning Network (OILN) Learning Exchange Series will be on the topic of Our Schools, Our Communities: A Vital Conversation on Equity, Inclusion, Social Justice and the Possibilities for Change. Panelists:

    Carolyn Acker, Pathways to Education
    Michelle Cho, Urban Alliance for Race Relations
    Lloyd McKell, Toronto District School Board

    This free event will be held Friday, June 6, 9am-12:30pm at the Harbourfront Community Centre. RSVP by May 30. For more information, contact Jadie McDonnell at 416-408-4841 ext 3.

  • Immigration: Quelling the conflict between French and English Canada?

    At the annual Canadian Association of Principal’s Conference, currently being held in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, keynote speaker Gwynne Dyer said:

    “…federal immigration reforms since the 1960s have changed demographics in a way that is largely responsible for quelling the conflict between French and English Canada. It has essentially…saved this country as a political entity. These policies have resulted in classrooms in large urban centres with children with diverse culturally backgrounds, creating challenges for Canadian educators….It’s been a journey that’s occurred with remarkably little conflict.  This is an extraordinary accomplishment, which you might want to bare in mind next time you deal with the downside”.

    What do you say, educators? Is Gwynne right?