Cultural and Pedagogical Inquiry (Journal)
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“There is no home for me in this world”: States of statelessness and the need to deterritorialize human rights
No full textThere are millions of people in the world today who ‘reside’ in no place. Technically, though, no place simply means a non-existent place, which by extension annuls the existence of these people. May of these are from areas where they not recognized as citizens, and from where they have been uprooted because of war and related upheavals. In these instances, these have no other choice but to seek other places to live. It is indeed, when the doors are shut and they are not accepted in the new places that they become denationalized and trapped in ‘no-man’s land.’ Such acts of exclusion are dehumanizing, painful and should not be accepted in our world. In this paper, I argue that this widespread problem exists due to lack of basic citizenship and human rights possibilities. The problem is also attached to specific understandings of sovereignty and human rights where, in the case of a conflict, for example, whatever the nation-state almost always takes precedence over the fundamental rights of the individual and/or groups. Indeed, this problematic reality is discursively (as well as pragmatically) located within the human rights, and related governance debates, which always display some form of conceptual and practical disconnect between the nation-state’s right to refuse entry, and an individual’s right for asylum
Racialized Bodies, Disabling Worlds: Storied Lives of Immigrant Muslim Women by Parin Dossa
No full textMarriage-based Migration and Human Rights Education: Where Does Canada Stand?
No full textImmigration for marriage is one of the most prevalent forms of population movement from developing to developed nations, particularly for women (Ghosh, 2009). As an industrialized nation with an international reputation for embracing diversity and pluralism, Canada is a country where many individuals from the developing world aspire to establish their family lives. Approximately 30 percent of newcomers arriving in Canada annually are family members sponsored by Canadian citizens or permanent residents, with the majority of them being spouses from abroad (Citizenship and Immigration Canada, 2007). Since the foreign countries from which female marriage migrants have arrived often have different systems of governance and human rights records, the responsibility has been placed on the federal government to educate newcomers about their rights as migrants and their basic human rights (Global Commission on International Migration, 2005). Since Canada’s family sponsorship policy holds male sponsors of immigrant brides directly responsible for facilitating women’s integration and upholding their rights, the government has an equal obligation to educate sponsors about each party’s rights in the sponsorship relationship. This chapter describes the method and results of a content analysis of government issued information for sponsors and sponsored persons and its human rights coverage. It outlines implications for rights-based education targeting both newcomers and their hosts/sponsors in marriage-based immigration cases
The More Things Change, The More They Stay the Same: The Challenge of Identity for Native Students in Canada
No full textFor nearly four decades now, the institutional response to fulfilling the goals of Indigenous cultural revitalization, and addressing the education gap between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal learners, has relied heavily on a theory of cultural discontinuity. While the enacting of Indigenous culture in educational realms is promoted as a solution to uneven outcomes, and as socially just in general, in-depth examinations of the effects of this emphasis tend to be sparse. This paper elucidates one such analysis, in the process offering a representation of a more or less typical group of urban Native youth; in this case, a group desirous of belonging in an Indigenous sense and highly contemplative about what that has meant for them on an everyday basis. The analysis offered here argues for further consideration of existing solutions in the complicated, complex terrain that is Indigenous education. Rather than proceed along a trajectory whereby Indigenous students are understood as ‘the problem’, resulting in the application of a highly problematic focus on culture, needed at this time is a serious examination of the troublesome realities of cultural fundamentalism and authenticity in Indigenous education, and the manner in which these serve to cover over critical matters concerning race and power.
Changing students, changing teaching: Understanding the dynamics of adaptation to a changing student population
No full textoai:ojs.pkp.sfu.ca:article/7117As global migrations increase, educators search for effective ways of meeting the learning needs of diverse student populations. I explore this challenge in a study conducted at the high school level where concerns about student diversity and subject matter intersect sharply. Using a case study approach to understand the dynamics of teachers’ adaptations to changing student populations, I document adaptations made by Math and English teachers in a large Canadian city in the areas of curriculum, instruction, and assessment. I examine the goals, conceptions of subject matter, instructional practices, and views about student learning held by Math and English teachers; the teachers contrast as to whether they did or did not reconceptualize and change their practices when faced with new populations of students, specifically African refugee students. I also examine ways in which the teachers’ school contexts, for example, their subject departments, facilitated or inhibited change in their teaching practices. I conclude that different patterns of goals, conceptions of subject matter, and beliefs about students characterize teachers who adapt and those who do not. In the light of these findings I urge teacher education programs to reconsider their exclusive focus on multicultural competence and take these patterns/elements into account in the preparation of teachers for working successfully with changing student populations
Decolonizing Diaspora: Whose traditional land are we on?
No full textAs a way to consider the possibility of decolonizing discourses of diaspora, the central question posed in this paper asks not only where do people of the diaspora come from. In North America, nations have been superimposed on Indigenous lands and peoples through colonization and domination. Taking this relation seriously in the context of discourses of race, Indigeneity and diaspora within university classrooms interrupts business as usual and promises a richer analysis of one particular similiarity amongst diasporic, as well as settler, groups in North America with possible implications beyond this context. In short, the author asks each reader to respond to the question, “Whose traditional land are you on?” as a step in the long process of decolonizing our countries and our lives. While part of the focus for this paper is on theorizing diaspora, there are obvious implications for all people living in a colonized country. Drawing primarily on three pedagogical strategies and events arising from them, the author takes up some of the possibilities for theory-building that they suggest. Reflections on courses taught, student feedback and texts from Toni Morrison’s to James Clifford’s “Indigenous Articulations” ground the discussion