This dissertation explores the experiences and perspectives of unaccompanied migrant children in Johannesburg South Africa. The children are between the ages of thirteen to nineteen and are all from Zimbabwe. The research focuses on how the young immigrants undertook their journey managing to find ways around the spaces and people they met along the way. The research demonstrates how the vulnerability which research participants feel was not constant. It oscillated depending primarily on spaces and social relationships which children encountered. Through ethnography and the life history approach, the daily experiences of the young people are looked at to provide an understanding of the way they dealt and are still dealing with their vulnerability. The intention being to show that vulnerability is always shifting and being shifted by young people.

Sweden's changing demographics, due to recent migrations in the last fifty years, have affected the Swedish educational system and Sweden's language policy. Funding for special education in Sweden regarding its minority populations is on the decline. Previous forced linguistic assimilation has occurred in Sweden among the Finnish population to the proven detriment of Finnish children. Today, Sweden faces similar value assessments regarding its immigrant language programs, bilingual education, and immigrant rights. The theoretical framework behind a "new" form of preschool education being implemented within Sweden will be explored. As the children in the Botkyrka sprakforskola undergo an immersion foreign language program, they are denied access to bilingual education. The sprakforskola's strategy, to assimilate the children into Swedish society through language training, is met with resistance among individual children, stemming from certain cultural groups, who actively determine their own language shift or language maintenance. Final recommendations in the conclusion stress the valuing of individual and cultural choice. / Graduation date: 2001

Thesis (Ed. D.)--University of North Texas, May, 2009. / Title from title page display. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M. Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 1998. / Questionnaire also in Chinese. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 101-109).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2008.

Thesis (M.Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 1998. / Questionnaire also in Chinese. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 101-109). Also available in print.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Louisville, 2008. / Department of Educational and Counseling Psychology. Vita. "August 2008." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 142-166).

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Montana, 2007. / Title from title screen. Description based on contents viewed Aug. 6, 2007. Includes bibliographical references (p. 74-77).

M.A. / Child migration in society today appears to be escalating at a very high rate. The influx of child migrants has put an enormous strain to social workers in terms of rendering family preservation and reunification services. In most cases families are not available to enable social workers to render family preservation and reunification services. International Social Services (ISS) assist in tracing families of across the border child migrants but the service does not extend beyond reunifying the child with family. There are no monitoring and tracking systems to prevent the child from migrating again. The aim of this study is to identify and describe the challenges faced by social workers in rendering family preservation and reunification services to child migrants. The objectives of the study are as follows: to conduct a literature study on family preservation and reunification services and the child migrant; to determine social workers’ strategies used in family preservation and reunification services to child migrants, and the challenges they are experiencing; to obtain social workers’ views on effective strategies that can be implemented in rendering family preservation and reunification services to child migrants and to make recommendations that will assist social workers in rendering family preservation and reunification services. A qualitative study of two focus groups consisting of 15 social workers each from Department of Social Development Johannesburg Region was conducted. The research findings revealed the need of coming up with strategies for family preservation and reunification services to child migrants. Presently social workers have no strategies but processes only.

This research set out to explore the acculturation of immigrant children from Zimbabwe in the Foundation Phase with reference to its influence on academic performance. Participants were immigrant children from Zimbabwe aged six to seven years old and their parents and teachers. The study was navigated via the qualitative route using narrative and case study designs. Data were collected using semistructured interviews, observation and document analysis. This study was based on the theory of Legitimate Peripheral Participation (LPP) by Lave and Wenger (1991) and Wenger’s (1998) theory of learning in communities of practice (COP). Findings that emerged from the study were fivefold. First it was found that the initial investment in the LoLT initiated at the home front assisted the immigrant children from Zimbabwe to engage with the curriculum content on the periphery of the COP. It was found that quick understanding of the LoLT enhanced their acculturation to the school as well as their academic performance. Zimbabwean immigrant children who understood the indigenous South African languages adapted well to the academic environment. Consequently they had a sense of belonging to the school, a resource which seemed to have focused their attention on academic matters. Second, teachers had no prior arrangements to address the linguistic concerns of immigrant children in the Foundation Phase. However, they arranged ad hoc solutions to meet the linguistic and academic challenges of immigrant learners. Third, parents of Zimbabwean immigrant learners who participated in this study discouraged their children from totally imbibing the cultures of South Africa. They only agreed to their children’s academic acculturation rather than mainstream acculturation. They were determined to focus the attention of their children on coping with the curriculum. Some of them offered assistance to their children regarding the LoLT and their homework. Fourth, it was found that comprehension of curriculum content was enhanced by the acquisition of the LoLT. Fifth, it was found that issues of discrimination were uncommon among immigrant children and their indigenous peers in the Foundation Phase. Recommendations were made for policy and practice. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / gm2014 / Early Childhood Education / unrestricted