immigrantchildren.ca

Calgary’s Centre for Newcomers, with funding from Citizenship and Immigration Canada, runs a settlement program for immigrant children, aged 2 – 12, accompanied by a parent or family member. The program provides one-on-one support as well as group activities, all with the goal of providing information and support for children integrating into Canada. For more information, see the webpage and/or contact program coordinator Zainab Qaiser Khan, (403) 569-3348.

Are other provinces/jurisdictions conducting similar programs specifically for children’s integration/settlement?

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).

New from CLASP  (US-based Center for Law and Social Policy) comes Ten Policies to Improve Access to Quality Child Care for Children in Immigrant Families:

1. Create and disseminate information packets for new parents in multiple languages that discuss quality child care and help link parents with information and referral agencies.
2. Fund outreach on quality child care and subsidy eligibility targeted to immigrant families, including grants to community-based organizations with expertise in serving immigration populations.
3. Use grants, contracts and quality funds to expand the availability of high-quality child care in immigrant communities.
4. Expand access to Head Start and Early Head Start in child care settings through grants, contracts and eligibility policies.
5. Translate child care subsidy information and materials and provide dedicated funding and translation and interpretation at the local level.
6. Increase bilingual staff capacity in subsidy agencies through pay differentials or incentives.
7. Pay differential child care subsidy payment rates to centers and family child care homes that serve English Language Learners and/or child care providers with a bilingual endorsement.
8. Create community-based support networks for family, friend and neighbor caregivers in immigrant communities that improve quality of care.
9. Include measures of cultural and linguistic competence in state quality rating and improvement systems, and provide supports to help programs meet the standards.
10. Ensure that child care providers receive training to improve their work with culturally and linguistically diverse children and their families and provide support for cultural competency initiatives.

Read the full report on the CLASP site.

Interesting story out of Penn State University where researchers worked with preschool programs to help them identify strategies to support 2nd language learning in very young immigrant children.

The children were given cameras and asked to take photos of their world outside of their classrooms. Then, the children talked about the pictures they had taken with their teachers. Researchers cite improved teacher and child interactions and stronger language and vocabulary development in the children. 

From the news story:

“After the two years and final transcript comparisons were completed, the study unexpectedly found that learning English was not an obstacle to the oral expression of immigrant preschool children when compared to their native-born classmates. In fact, once invited into conversation through photo elicitation, the stories of reportedly “quiet” immigrant children proved as long as the others. And there was no statistical difference in conversational skills when American-born and immigrant children were compared and, in fact, the immigrant language complexity became superior to the native-born children.

The findings of the study also provided a caution for the teachers in the preschool. ‘The teachers have to listen to the kids,…We found the teachers had preconceived notions or myths about the children. The photo exercises changed that and they learned a great deal about the child’s world. The project turned out to be a powerful invitation for all the children to converse and they provided a place for the immigrant voice to be heard’.

Following the release of the OECD report Starting Strong II (Sept 2006) the Senate of Canada requested its Standing Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology to examine the state of early learning and child care in Canada and report on the finding of the OECD that found Canada last in industrialized nations in terms of their funding and commitment to supporting the early years of children in Canada.

immigrantchildren.ca is pleased that the April 2009 Senate Report, Early Childhood Education and Care: Next Steps examined the importance of high quality early learning and care for newcomer families and young children, however briefly, including:

• A paragraph on pg. 61 on “Immigrants and Refugees” about the child care component of the Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada (LINC) program.
• In the section on accessibility, it is recognized that: “immigrant children may experience additional barriers if local child care programming is not culturally relevant or delivered in a familiar language“.

The committee made several recommendations in its report, including that the Prime Minister appoint a Minister of State of Children and Youth; that the Minister for Human Resources and Social Development appoint a National Advisory Council on Children, to advise the Minister of State for Children and Youth and through the Minister of State, other Ministers on how best to support parents and to advance quality early learning and child care (calling for the Council to include Parliamentarians, a range of stakeholders, parents and appropriate representation from Aboriginal communities).

immigrantchildren.ca hopes that, should the Government of Canada respond favourably and strike a Council that it will ensure that immigrant and refugee children’s interests will be addressed and that the Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism serve on the Council. And, given Minister Kenney’s recent remarks on the need for increased attention to immigrant children, we’ve little doubt to the importance of his inclusion. 

The Government of Canada, through the Minister of Human Resources and Social Development, must respond to the Senate report within 150 days of the tabling of the report. Watch this space for responses.

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.

Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, Vol. 10, No. 1 includes the article “They Don’t Like Us”: Reflections of Turkish Children in a German Preschool, by Fikriye Kurban and Joseph Tobin, Arizona State University. From the abstract:

In this article, the authors present multiple interpretations of a transcript of a discussion with a group of Turkish-German girls in a kindergarten in Berlin, Germany. These five-year-old girls make statements suggesting they experience alienation from their non-Turkish classmates and teachers, and the wider German society. The authors argue that the meanings of these statements should not be taken at face value. Instead, they employ interpretive strategies borrowed mostly from Mikhail Bakhtin and interpretive frameworks taken from Judith Butler, and post-colonial theory and Critical Race Theory to suggest that the girls’ utterances can be usefully seen as having a performative dimension and as expressing tensions around immigration that can be found in the larger society.

Many workshops at the annual George Brown College Summer Institute this year (held in Toronto) address issues of diversity, including:

Listening to Families: Presenting findings from a research project that demonstrates effective strategies for service providers in meeting the values and priorities of diverse families. Presented by Dr. Mehru Ali, Ryerson University.

See the web page at George Brown for the full details of the 2009 Summer Institute.

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 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?

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

The Bernard van Leer Foundation‘s annotated bibliography of resources and publications in social inclusion and diversity is called “Valuing the Learning“.

The resource is organized in three main sections.

Section A: Theories, concepts and ways of viewing concerns with resources that mostly focus on theory and key concepts and include the following overlapping sections:

Diversity, belonging and positive identity, such as inclusion and access, linguistic diversity, relationships, place identity, self-image.

Children as citizens, child participation, the visibility of children, spaces for children.

Early Childhood Education and Care as democratic process and the relationship between ECEC and social inclusion, social capital and well-being.

Section B: Working with children, parents, early childhood practitioners and trainers includes the following:

Engaging, involving and listening to children.

Engaging, involving and listening to parents.

Changing attitudes, behaviours and structures and advocacy strategies. 

Innovative training and professional development.

Creating spaces to belong.

Part C: Information exchange and dissemination of information, including:

Networking.

Communicating, through shared knowledge, conferences, publications, translations.

Researching and documentation.

Source: Kernan, M. 2008. Valuing the learning: An annotated bibliography of the resources and publications of the Bernard van Leer Foundation and its partners in the area of Social Inclusion and Respect for Diversity (2002-2008). Online Outreach Paper 6. The Hague, The Netherlands: Bernard van Leer Foundation.