immigrantchildren.ca

The (US-based) National Association for Multicultural Education will hold its next – and its 20th – conference November 4-6, 2010 in Las Vegas, NV. The theme is Empowering Children and Youth: Equity, Multiculturally Responsive Teaching and Achievement Gaps. From the call:

“Since the founding of NAME, it has become clear that empowerment of children and youth, and the urgency of addressing achievement gaps, dropout rates, and the larger equity issues within which they are embedded, includes marginalization on the basis of race, class, language, sexual orientation, gender, disability, and religion. In fact, rather than being separate and distinct communities, they overlap in complex ways, suggesting that teaching should be multiculturally responsive. … Further, these issues transcend concerns within the U.S., inviting international dialog about diversity, equity, multiculturalism, and justice”.

“The vitality of NAME flows from its diverse membership. Thus, it is NAMEs policy to ensure presentations by and about diverse ethnic, racial, gender, language, religious, socioeconomic, sexual orientation, disability, and geographic groups. Presentations by teachers, school administrators, community activists, government and organization officials, higher education faculty, and others interested in the conference theme are encouraged. Students (high school, undergraduate, and graduate) and international scholars, practitioners, and activists are also encouraged to submit proposals”.

For more information, and to submit an online proposal (deadline is April 17th), visit the NAME website.

International Mother Language Day was first proclaimed by UNESCO in 1999 to promote linguistic and cultural diversity.

Related resources:

mylanguage.ca ~ mylanguage.ca, a project of Dr. Roma Chumak-Horbatsch, Ryerson University’s School of Early Childhood Education, provides evidence-based research and multi-lingual resources to support parents, teachers, early childhood practitioners and other interested service providers in maintaining and protecting minority languages spoken by children and families in Canadian homes. This year, graduate students of Dr. Chumak-Horbatsch invite the Ryerson community to the School of ECE to commemorate International Mother Language Day.

facebook page ~ set up by Vox Humanitatis, a non-profit organization that supports “less resourced cultures” in maintaining their culture and languages.

UNESCO International Symposium: Technology and the Mother Tongue: Friend or Foe? ~ as part of a 2-day event to mark IMLD, this symposium will bring together researchers, academics and other experts in Paris to discuss “bridging global and local languages and translation, mutual understanding and stereotypes”.

UNESCOs Multilingualism on the Internet ~ the 2004 online issue explores “the linguistic impacts of the Internet and at filling this knowledge gap”.

Leave a comment here in your mother language – and tell us what it is!

Dzięki! (Polish)

The KidsRights Foundation annually awards the Children’s Peace Prize to a child “whose courageous or otherwise extraordinary efforts have made an impact on behalf of the rights of the child”.

Former award winners include AIDS activist Nkosi Johnson, South Africa, “slave” Om Prakash Gurjar, India, peace activist Mayra Avellar Neves, Brazil.

The Children’s Peace Prize includes prize money, which will be invested by KidsRights in specific projects related to the struggle for peace and interests of the winner.

Do you know a child who works on behalf of the rights of children? Deadline for nominations in April 1, 2010.

One World, One Family, Many Cultures: Strengthening Children and Families Affected by Personal, Intra-Familial, and Global Conflict, sponsored by the International Society for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (ISPCAN), will take place September 26-29, 2010 in Hawaii. The conference will bring together service providers and advocates to discuss family-strengthening for those impacted by various avenues of conflict. Among the five subthemes of the conference are “Cultural Perspectives in Strengthening Families and Protecting Children” and “Impact of Armed Conflict on Families and Children”. For more info, visit the ISPCAN website. (Source: BRYCS).

The IFLA Section Library Services to Multicultural Populations will hold an IFLA Satellite meeting in Copenhagen, August 17-18, 2010. From the call for papers: “We are living in a changing world where populations are moving and local societies are becoming increasingly diverse – socially, economically, ethnically, linguistically and culturally. In the meantime, the physical library as a concept is under increasing pressure in the twenty-first century”.

The Danish Library Centre for Integration and Copenhagen Public Libraries are organising this post conference/satellite meeting held in conjunction with the annual IFLA conference held in Gothenburg (Sweden). Paper are being invited to discuss some of the following possible topics:

Best innovative practice: Library projects that have excelled in creating new and innovative services to multicultural or bicultural populations either using new technology, new partnerships etc.

Critical perspectives on how libraries, as institutions in the twenty first century, meet the ideals: free access to knowledge, accessibility for all and inclusiveness.

Dynamic facilitation of books, music and films in minority or traditional languages and general library services to multilingual communities.
1. Inclusive communication strategies and awareness of the communicative aspects of physical space and presentation.
2. Recruitment strategies – how do we recruit library staff (on all levels) in the future, so that employees reflect the local community?

Submission are due March 1, 2010. For more information, contact Susy Tastesen, Copenhagen Public Libraries: +45 33 66 67 66 or abstract@iflacopenhagen.com.

From the Association for Research on Mothering (ARM) a call for papers on Caribbean mothering to be published Fall, 2012. From the call: “This anthology will examine the diverse and complex experiences of motherhood and mothering from a broad, interdisciplinary perspective. We welcome submissions that explore the major cultural, political, historical, and economic factors such as migration and transnationalism that influence the lives of Caribbean mothers. Further, we encourage writings that represent the relationships between Caribbean mothers and their children”.

Abstracts of 250 words and a 50 word bio should be sent by Aug 1/10 to editors D. Smith Silva and S.A. James Alexander at caribbeanmothering@yahoo.com. For more information, see the ARM website.

ChildONEurope – the European Network of National Observatories on Childhood is hosting a forum on social inclusion/exclusion on Jan 28/10 in Italy. International governmental and NGOs will participate in this comparative analysis of the situation in the European Union, promoting the importance of fostering social inclusion and “fighting against the risk of social exclusion of socially disadvantaged children as well as migrant children…”.

For more info, see the ChildONEurope website.

Commissioned by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, the research project “No Right to Dream: Young Undocumented Migrants” will be conducted in three regions (London, North West and the Midlands).

From the brief: “The research will therefore focus on the voices of young undocumented migrants about which little is known and will explore and develop the key themes around lives and livelihoods including: experiences of employment; social networks; community involvement; links and obligations with friends and family in their country of origin; how being undocumented impacts on their lives and the longer term goals and aspirations of young undocumented migrants”.

For more information, including PDF briefs in English, Portuguese, Chinese, Kurdish, Turkish, Ukranian, Sbona, Ndeble at the Young Undocumented Migrants website.

The United Nations website on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The European Union has commissioned a study to investigate traditional harmful practices. From the website harmfulpractices.org, this description of the study:

“The Study aims at providing assistance to the European Union in defining and harmonising its action to end Harmful Traditional Practices, based on proven actions in Europe and elsewhere in both policy and practice. The Study shall, in particular, break new ground for the EU and provide concrete paths forward in relation to both harmonisation of legislation and policy and action at grassroots and governmental levels.

“For the purpose of this Study, harmful traditional practices will include: female genital mutilation/cutting; honour-related violence including so-called honour killings; forced marriage; force feeding or starvation for cosmetic purposes; other violent and coercive acts justified on the grounds of tradition, culture or religion that harm the well-being of those who are victims of them, with particular attention to the impact on women and girls”.

The study will examine legislation in all 27 member states of the EU, look at case studies of successful and unsuccessful persecutions, and discuss and develop indicators and responses from civil society to harmful traditional practices.

For more info, visit the study website.

An Iraqi/American mural project is a project of Iraq Art Mile (IAM)/Iraqi Children’s Art Exchange, (IACE) as part of The Art Miles Murals in support of the UNESCO Decade of Peace and Non-Violence among the world’s children. From the ICAE website, this description:

“IAM is sponsoring a series of murals to be painted both in the Middle East and in the US with the theme: Building a Culture of Peace: Who Are We/Who Are They. All the murals created for this project, along with documenting photographs, will be displayed in the US and in the Middle East. The exhibits will illuminate history and culture within the context of the lives, hopes, dreams and expectations of children and youth on both sides of the cultural and political divide that exists at this particular moment in history”.

In September, 2010, the murals will make their way to Egypt to mark the end of the Decade in a gala exhibition and celebration.

Children and War: Past and Present is the title of an international, multidisciplinary conference to be held Sept 30-Oct 2/10 at the University of Salzburg, Austria.

An edited excerpt from the call:  “In recent years the volume of research on ‘Children and War’, by academics, governmental and non-governmental organisations and institutions as well as the media, has  continually increased. At the same time there has been a growing public interest in how children experience military conflicts and how their lives have been affected by war and its aftermath.

“Proposals which focus on any topic and theme on ‘Children and War’ are welcome, ranging from the experience of war, resettlement, trafficking, trauma and amnesia, the trans-generational impact of persecution, individual and collective memory, educational issues, films and documentaries, artistic and literary approaches, to remembrance and memorials, and questions of theory and methodology”.

Themes anticipated include children as witnesses and victims and child soldiers.

Abstracts of 200-250 words and bios of 50-100 words should be sent to conference co-cordinator Prof Johannes-Dieter Steinert, Modern European History and Migration Studies, University of Wolverhampton: j.d.steinert@wlv.ac.uk, as well as any requests for more information.