The purpose of this paper is to explore the personal, cultural and structural experiences and barriers faced by highly skilled Canadian university graduate immigrants regarding finding a good job related to their qualification in the labour market, and how this struggle has shaped their lives. Data was collected through individuals by semi-structured questionnaires. Interviews were the deep source of skilled immigrants’ experiences and problems they have faced in the labour market. Applying the critical race theory perspective and using the Thompson PCS Model as investigating tool, this study sought to capture the participants’ reality. The findings suggest that immigrants are facing many structural and systemic barriers and racial discrimination in the labour market. It is affecting them not only individually but also affecting their families and because of that these skilled immigrants have a plan to leave Canada for better job opportunities because even after graduating from Canadian universities they were unable to find work according to their field of study and work experience. Major themes emerging from this research include: why skilled immigrants pursued more education if they were already graduated from their home countries; immigration policies and labour market policies mismatch; non-recognition of immigrants credentials and work experience; inadequate settlement services; racial discrimination in job market; and what difference they feel before and after graduating from Canadian university in finding a job. / Thesis / Master of Social Work (MSW)

Given the ongoing persistence of anti-Black racism in Ontario education, I enact a curriculum of Black Excellence and antiracism. In partnership with the Ottawa Carleton District School Board and propelled by calls to action from The Ministry of Education and Black advocacy organization, I ask how The Sankofa Centre of Black Excellence course and program may address these systems of racism. I draw on Critical Race Theory as both a theoretical framework and overarching methodology of analysis for my thesis. In the first of three articles within this thesis I begin by framing my understanding of antiracism with an overview of the possibilities and limitation of Culturally Relevant and Responsive Pedagogy in Ontario public schooling contexts. In the second article, I draw on the literature and method of Critical Race Currere to understand antiracism and Black excellence in relation to teaching the Sankofa course. In the third article, I draw on a social action curriculum project research methodology to analyze and synthesize the course curriculum-as-planned and -lived. Finally, I suggest that the continued engagement with Aoki’s (1993) concept of a curriculum-as-lived serves as a departing point for engaging with broader conversations surrounding Black excellence and antiracism curriculum in the Ontario educational system.

This dissertation walks the balance between the western structures of academia and Indigenous ways of storytelling and knowing. Stories are how knowledge is shared and passed down in many Indigenous cultures. This study utilizes Indigenous Storywork methods, alongside western case study methodology, to explore how colonialism and the structures of public, non-Native higher education institutions and engineering programs impact the lived experiences of Indigenous STEM students. Using Tribal Critical Race Theory (TribalCrit), this study also connects individual student experiences through stories to systemic structures of universities and engineering programs in a way that honors and amplifies Indigenous ways of thinking and doing. The study was situated at a university in the eastern U.S. and had three primary forms of data: public documents such as university historical documents and program policies and structures, focus group discussions with a university Council of Elders from the Indigenous community, and individual interviews with Indigenous STEM students from the Lumbee and Coharie nations. The findings demonstrate the ways that the Indigenous STEM students at North Carolina State University hold community as a cultural value from their Tribal backgrounds that is paramount to their success at the university. The students utilize community to access knowledge and build power for themselves as well as for the whole university Indigenous community. NC State's Indigenous engineering students perceived the structures and policies of their engineering programs to be disconnected from community and relationality and thus did not utilize or connect to these structures as designed. This work also provides an example of a framework for engaging with university Indigenous communities to co-create meaningful and impactful research and demonstrates the differences in the experiences of Indigenous students in the eastern U.S. from those in the west, specifically in terms of their invisibility in the larger community, both on and off campus. / Doctor of Philosophy / This dissertation walks the balance between the western structures of academia and Indigenous ways of storytelling and knowing. Stories are how knowledge is shared and passed down in many Indigenous cultures. This study centers Indigenous methodologies and theories to explore how colonialism and the structures of public, non-Native, higher education institutions and engineering programs impact the lived experiences of Indigenous STEM students. This study also connects individual student experiences to the systemic structures of universities and engineering programs. The study focuses on a university in the eastern U.S. and used three forms of data: public documents such university historical documents and current policies, a group discussion with a Council of Elders from the Indigenous community, and individual interviews with Indigenous STEM students. The students were members of the Lumbee and Coharie nations. The findings highlight the way they hold community as a cultural value deeply tied to their Tribal backgrounds. This community is key to their success at the university and used community to access knowledge and build power for themselves as well as for the whole university Indigenous community. In particular, the Indigenous engineering students perceived the structures and policies of their engineering programs to be disconnected from community and relationships, and thus they did not use or connect to those structures in the intended ways. Instead, they went outside the system to gain the knowledge the needed. This work also provides a framework, grounded in Indigenous value of respect, reciprocity, responsibility, reverence, holism, interrelatedness, and synergy, for engaging with university Indigenous communities to co-create meaningful and impactful research and demonstrates the differences in the experiences of Indigenous students in the eastern U.S. from those in the west, specifically in terms of their invisibility in the larger community, both on and off campus.

No description available.

African-American male students are systematically forced to confine themselves to the social construct that European-American society has developed for them. Actions, behaviors, and words that communicate this message spread both interracially and intraracially within schools and affect African-American males tremendously in terms of their identity development and personal well-being. While many studies examine the overt forms of racism and more obvious microaggressions that African-American male students encounter in their schooling, few look at the deep-seated forms of racism that are less noticeable but that have a disastrous psychological impact on these students. This study shows the effects on the psyche and development of the three African-American male students involved as they retrospectively recount their secondary school experiences. Portraiture is used to capture each participant’s story accurately and clearly while critical race theory is interwoven throughout as theoretical framework for this research. Using both critical race theory and portraiture, a complete examination of how racism occurs within schools and its effects on African-American males is shown.

Since the publication of A Nation at Risk (National Commission on Excellence in Education, 1983), Berliner and Biddle (1995) have argued media have assisted leaders in creating a “manufactured crisis” (p. 4) about America’s public schools to scapegoat educators, push reforms, and minimize societal problems, such as systemic racism and declining economic growth, particularly in urban areas. The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act (2001) functions as an important articulation of this crisis (Granger, 2008). Utilizing the theoretical lenses of master narrative theory (Lyotard, 1984), Critical Race Theory (Delgado & Stefancic, 2001), and social capital theory (Bourdieu, 1986; Coleman 1988), this study employed critical discourse analysis (Reisigl & Wodak, 2009) to unmask the mainstream media’s master narrative, or dominant story, about Victory High School (VHS), which was reconstituted under the authority of the NCLB Act (2001). Findings revealed a master narrative that racialized economic competition, vilified community members, and exonerated neoliberal reforms. Drawing on the critical race methodology of counter-narratives (Yosso, 2006), individual and focus group interviews with 12 VHS teachers, alumni, and community elders illustrated how reforms fragmented this school community, destroying collective social capital, while protecting the interests of capitalism and neoliberalism. By revealing the interests protected by the media’s master narrative and beginning a counter-narrative voiced by members of the community, this study contributes to recasting the history of the VHS community, to understanding the intersections between race and class in working class communities of color, and to exposing the impact of neoliberal educational reforms on urban schools.

No description available.

Då flera tidigare rapporter slagit fast att diskriminering inom skolan återfinns såväl som i läromedel och i skolan som institution så syftar detta arbete till att analysera om även nyproducerade läromedel för grundskolan och gymnasiet, och i detta fall en kursplan från lärarutbildningen, kan sägas bidra till att upprätthålla diskriminerande strukturer. Detta arbete är framförallt inriktat på begrepp som etnocentrism och etnisk diskriminering och förekomsten av dem. Som metod används en innehållsanalys samt en syftesrelaterad analys med exponerande kritik. Arbetet visar att mycket av den kritik som lyftes mot läromedel som var producerade fram till tidigt 2000-tal även är berättigade när läromedel från 2012 analyseras. Det är framförallt närvaron av eurocentrism, strukturell rasism, och etnisk diskriminering som kan sägas skapa maktojämlikheter i läromedlen. Vid analysen av kursplanen så står det också att finna formuleringar som måste anses vara diskutabla. Vidare diskuteras bristen på nyanserade perspektiv och teoribildning i kursplanen. I slutdiskussionen för detta arbete så menar jag att lärarstudenter måste kunna tillgodogöra sig och exponeras för diverse olika begrepp och teoribildningar som rör frågor som etnicitet, strukturell rasism, mångkulturalism, och socialkonstruktivism för att på så sätt kunna bedriva en icke-diskriminerande undervisning. / This paper discuss the presence of ethnic discrimination in newly produced textbooks made for history education. Earlier research on the subject argues that modern schools and educational institutes need to highlight the issue in order to create a non-discriminating education. There is a need to incorporate theories like "Critical race theory" into the curriculums of existing teacher educations.

This essay focuses on the pedagogical benefits of using fantasy literature in the classroom as it relates to the Swedish school’s democratic values of anti-racism and working for a just society. It examines the representations of racial prejudice, discrimination, and othering among wizards and muggles which are explicitly or implicitly present throughout the Harry Potter series as well as what the representations of inequality can offer in terms of inculcating democratic values and critical thinking in a Swedish upper secondary classroom. This essay also argues for the use of Harry Potter in the EFL classroom since the novel’s complexity and popularity can work as an incentive for students to analyze the ways that the fantasy world relates to our own society. Since the focus of this essay is racial discrimination, prejudice, and otherness the critical lens is Critical Race Theory and anti-oppressive education theory.

The 2021 Census reported that immigrants with a Chinese ethnic background take up 4.7% of the Canadian population. Although Chinese immigrants represent a significant part of the Canadian population, how they understand their relationship with Canada has not been studied directly in educational research. In response, this manuscript-based thesis examines the lived experiences of six adult (aged 18 and above) Chinese immigrants who have arrived in Canada and obtained their permanent residency or Canadian citizenship after 2010. Adopting Connelly and Clandinin's narrative inquiry, this study presents stories of participants with the hope to shed light on the process of Chinese immigrants becoming Canadian. Through these presentations, this study attends to the complex relationships participants have gone through in the process of negotiating their acceptance in Canada. Data gathered from two rounds of semi-structured interviews with six recent adult Chinese immigrants living in Ontario and Quebec were interpreted and discussed using Berry's acculturation framework, a critical multiculturalism framework and a Critical Race Theory (CRT) framework in three individual research articles. Findings reveal that Chinese immigrants actively participate in social, cultural, political and economic affairs in Canada. Their participation in Canadian society exhibits their acceptance of Canadian cultures and values while living in Canada. Based on these understandings, they offer their suggestions to make Canada a more democratic, just and livable place. Racism, discriminations and stereotypes received from some members of the host society have created tangible damage to their relationship with Canada. Nonetheless, Chinese immigrants express their desire to be included and integrated into Canadian society. These narratives from recent adult Chinese immigrants supplement literature in citizenship education. Policy makers, scholars, educators and the general public should listen to their stories and find more ways to include Chinese immigrants in the building of democracy and multiculturalism in Canada.