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Many Roma children from the EU coming to Canada as refugees have been denied a consistent education and many suffer gaps in their learning or have not had the opportunity to receive any education at all. These circumstances are mainly due to discriminating and oppressive behaviours that have historically prevailed and exist in contemporary society. In considering the difficulty that Roma children have with education, when they arrive as refugees into Canadian schools, it is imperative that Roma children be given an opportunity to access and complete an education in an environment that is supportive, free of discrimination and sensitive to their needs as learners. My research examines the role of visual art as part of an arts-based education program as a means through which Roma children are more likely to experience success with school by participating in an educational model that is engaging and supportive of their cultural ways of knowing. This paper is a case study, grounded in critical theory, into “best practices” in education that engage marginalized Roma children with learning. The study is framed around three research questions: What is distinctly problematic for Roma children in traditional school settings? How can the arts, and art education in particular engage marginalized Roma children with learning? How can Romani arts and culture be integrated into a curriculum that works to dispel discrimination and oppression of marginalized Roma children? The study is informed by interviews with a teacher working within a Canadian educational program for refugee children, families and board members of the Toronto Roma Community Centre, as well as my own personal observations and experiences. While I have determined that arts-based education is engaging for Roma children, the bigger question that has emerged is, “How can we use arts-based education to enhance the curricular lives and school success of the Roma, a culture of exclusion?” The answer lies in acknowledging that factors such as trust, personal connection with the teacher, parental involvement, First language acquisition, refugee status, cultural preservation, and integration, play a critical role in the educational success of Roma children. / Graduate / 0515 / 0273 / 0727 / kfhall@uvic.ca

Many Roma children from the EU coming to Canada as refugees have been denied a consistent education and many suffer gaps in their learning or have not had the opportunity to receive any education at all. These circumstances are mainly due to discriminating and oppressive behaviours that have historically prevailed and exist in contemporary society. In considering the difficulty that Roma children have with education, when they arrive as refugees into Canadian schools, it is imperative that Roma children be given an opportunity to access and complete an education in an environment that is supportive, free of discrimination and sensitive to their needs as learners. My research examines the role of visual art as part of an arts-based education program as a means through which Roma children are more likely to experience success with school by participating in an educational model that is engaging and supportive of their cultural ways of knowing. This paper is a case study, grounded in critical theory, into “best practices” in education that engage marginalized Roma children with learning. The study is framed around three research questions: What is distinctly problematic for Roma children in traditional school settings? How can the arts, and art education in particular engage marginalized Roma children with learning? How can Romani arts and culture be integrated into a curriculum that works to dispel discrimination and oppression of marginalized Roma children? The study is informed by interviews with a teacher working within a Canadian educational program for refugee children, families and board members of the Toronto Roma Community Centre, as well as my own personal observations and experiences. While I have determined that arts-based education is engaging for Roma children, the bigger question that has emerged is, “How can we use arts-based education to enhance the curricular lives and school success of the Roma, a culture of exclusion?” The answer lies in acknowledging that factors such as trust, personal connection with the teacher, parental involvement, First language acquisition, refugee status, cultural preservation, and integration, play a critical role in the educational success of Roma children. / Graduate / 0515 / 0273 / 0727 / kfhall@uvic.ca

The ideas presented in the dissertation are based on the premise that the concept of Eastern Europe is a construction, which received its meaning(s) trough events and shifts, which also shaped the idea of Europe. To analyze these influences several labels and aspects of history, which constructed the concept of Eastern Europe can be recognized. The author argues that there can be five important aspects, forming the concept and providing meanings, discerned and considered: (1) geography associated with the Eastern border of the European continent and its flexibility; (2) cultural trends, mainly provided by the ideas of the Enlightenment, which present the eastern part as wild, barbaric and uncivilized; (3) political formations, which by military and political means conquered or lost the region, alienating it with the West or making it a 'buffer zone'; (4) Economic aspects of backwardness and the constant try to catch-up with the West; and (5) the discourse about the region itself, historiography depicting the formations and ascribing labels to discourse. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

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<p>Some researchers argue that the immigrant integration approaches in liberal (and “Western-“) states are becoming more and more alike. Some claim that the previous philosophises of integration (i.e. multiculturalism, segregationism, universalism and assimilationism) no longer exists in liberal states. This study assesses the robustness of this “convergence claim” within an East-EU context. The purpose of the study is to analyse the policy trends of immigrant integration in the East-EU and assess the robustness of the convergence claim. The analysis and methodological approach is based on a theoretical framework of ideal-types (multiculturalism, segregationism, universalism and assimilationism). The study objects are Estonia and Poland, and the analysis is primarily based on national legislation and policy documents. The study describes the immigrant integration trends in Poland and Estonia in the “post-Soviet era”, looking at the policy trends between 1991-2008. During this period both countries have shown tendencies of segregationism and cultural monism. It is clear that Estonia and Poland (i.e. parts of East-EU) have not adopted a more “Western-style” approach regarding immigrant integration, i.e. there is no evidence of such convergence. In fact, the ethnic component of their immigrant integration approaches stands in contrast to the “convergence thesis”.</p>

This dissertation examines the role of the United States in the mass expulsion of Germans from East-Central Europe from spring 1945 through 1947. By agreeing to allow Czechoslovakia and Poland to expel their German minority populations in 1943, and again in 1945 under Article XIII of the Potsdam Agreement, the United States permitted approximately 14 million to 16 million Germans to be forcibly relocated into a truncated, war-torn Germany, an incident that is the largest example of ethnic cleansing in world history. Although these expulsions threatened the postwar stability of Europe and were of great concern they were of marginal interest to most people in the United States. Informed discussion of these expulsions occurred among a fairly narrow group of military officials, diplomats, politicians, intellectuals, and immigrants or exiles. In fact there was a dearth of contemporary debate and analysis on all aspects of the United States role in the expulsion of Germans, both within government and in society more generally. Newspaper reports, magazine articles, diplomatic documents, government documents and the personal papers of diplomats and politicians reveal that the expulsion of Germans was a secondary issue to the United States government. Despite considerable media coverage, it seems that most Americans lacked both awareness of and compassion for the plight of the German expellees. These expulsions however, changed the politics and the demographics of Europe forever and made the ethnic cleansing of the minority populations of nations an international legal precedent. Today, the expulsions remain a controversial subject within the region of East-Central Europe where the people of Czechoslovakia, Germany and Poland still debate the expulsions as if they occurred yesterday. In the United States, however, the expulsions have been long forgotten. This dissertation is unique in that examines the involvement of the United States in the planning of the expulsions and the reaction of the American press, intellectuals and policymakers whereas previous literature has focused very sparingly on this aspect of the expulsions.

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Some researchers argue that the immigrant integration approaches in liberal (and “Western-“) states are becoming more and more alike. Some claim that the previous philosophises of integration (i.e. multiculturalism, segregationism, universalism and assimilationism) no longer exists in liberal states. This study assesses the robustness of this “convergence claim” within an East-EU context. The purpose of the study is to analyse the policy trends of immigrant integration in the East-EU and assess the robustness of the convergence claim. The analysis and methodological approach is based on a theoretical framework of ideal-types (multiculturalism, segregationism, universalism and assimilationism). The study objects are Estonia and Poland, and the analysis is primarily based on national legislation and policy documents. The study describes the immigrant integration trends in Poland and Estonia in the “post-Soviet era”, looking at the policy trends between 1991-2008. During this period both countries have shown tendencies of segregationism and cultural monism. It is clear that Estonia and Poland (i.e. parts of East-EU) have not adopted a more “Western-style” approach regarding immigrant integration, i.e. there is no evidence of such convergence. In fact, the ethnic component of their immigrant integration approaches stands in contrast to the “convergence thesis”.

The Earth's climate system has recently experienced substantial warming which likely impacts temperature-limited communities close to their distribution margins. The alpine treeline ecotone represents upper distributional limit of montane/subalpine forests. This biogeographic boundary relies mainly on decreasing temperature with increasing elevation. Surprisingly the response of treeline ecotone to ongoing warming has varied a lot and the reasons of this variability are poorly understood. The aim of this dissertation thesis is the assessment of growth trends and tree ring response of Norway spruce (Picea abies[L.] Karst.) to climatic oscillations at treelines and montane forests of East-Central Europe. This dissertation deals with both inter-regional and intra-regional (aspect, elevation) variability of tree growth. The presented results are based on an extensive data set of growth curves for almost 1400 trees. All study sites revealed close relationship between tree ring widths and growing season temperatures as well as the temperatures of October preceding to ring formation season. The main site-dependent differences in growth trends and temperature responses were attributed to elevation, the effect of aspect was relatively less significant. At treelines between the Krkonoše Mts. and Nízké Tatry...