This qualitative study uses multiple autobiographical narratives of racialized transgender men to examine the intersecting axes of oppression at work in the borderlands of identity. The research contributes more complex understandings of transgender lives by raising questions about how gender, race, class, and sexuality intersect in the lives of racialized transgender men, and how such identities negotiate their place in the various communities constituted by those particular social locations. In particular I look at the ways that solidarity works in the borderlands, the liminal space composed of intersecting subject positions. I ask what constitutes solidarity, and I discover the contingencies operating in the borderlands that facilitate or pose barriers to full participation and solidarity of racialized transgender men. Findings reveal the complex negotiations racialized transgender men must engage in, both within and outside of queer and feminist communities, and challenge us to think through the meanings of solidarity.

This qualitative study uses multiple autobiographical narratives of racialized transgender men to examine the intersecting axes of oppression at work in the borderlands of identity. The research contributes more complex understandings of transgender lives by raising questions about how gender, race, class, and sexuality intersect in the lives of racialized transgender men, and how such identities negotiate their place in the various communities constituted by those particular social locations. In particular I look at the ways that solidarity works in the borderlands, the liminal space composed of intersecting subject positions. I ask what constitutes solidarity, and I discover the contingencies operating in the borderlands that facilitate or pose barriers to full participation and solidarity of racialized transgender men. Findings reveal the complex negotiations racialized transgender men must engage in, both within and outside of queer and feminist communities, and challenge us to think through the meanings of solidarity.

The purpose of this research is to define racialized textbook bias, conduct a content analysis of Georgia history textbooks, and answer the following question: how is race framed in contemporary Georgia history textbooks? A content analysis of nine Georgia history textbooks was completed for grades two and eight. A Du Boisian theoretical framing of race prejudice as the macro-social condition of the micro-social process of race was an integral component of the content analysis. The findings revealed the existence of racialized textbook bias in the form of marginalization, compartmentalization, and omission suggesting the continuation of White supremacy and Black oppression in the process of education in Georgia public schools.

A narrative of denial and ignorance of colonial history is pervasive in Canadian school curriculum. Generations of Canadians children learn about history without adequate understanding of Indigenous peoples and of the negative impact of colonialism. Drawing on Indigenous and critical race theories, this research study applied a critical discourse analysis to explore how historical narratives are (re)circulated in school history curriculum. Using the Ontario Grade 7 history curriculum and two history textbooks, the information that is currently being presented to Grade 7 students in Ontario history classes was analyzed. The study found that themes of denial, ignorance, Euro-centrism, racialized sexism and White settler colonial hegemony are pervasive in the history curriculum and textbooks, while information regarding distinct Indigenous peoples and their nations, their histories, and their contributions to Canadian history, are largely absent. These findings highlight implications for curriculum reform and the need for anti- racist, decolonizing pedagogical and curricular approaches. / Graduate / hclausin@uvic.ca

Canada’s public immigration discourse is usually racialized in using an ideological framework to evaluate, select and make judgements of immigrants on whether they are culturally, socially, or economically desirable to Canada. Some social and economic affairs may present a discursive context for debates over immigration and the value of immigrants to Canada. By using a critical discourse analysis of news articles on immigration in Canada’s national newspaper The Globe and Mail in four historical phases after the end of the Second World War, this study examines how the contents of “desirable immigrants” were changed throughout history. This study questions whether some social political affairs in a country or an extreme economic situation such as high unemployment can change the social boundaries of exclusion for immigrants of certain racial and ethnic backgrounds and allow more direct and exclusionary racial messages to be expressed in the discourse. The findings indicate that during economic recessions, it is more acceptable for the media and the public to express more directly racist messages about non-white immigrants, and some political factors and major social events may also influence how different ethnic groups of immigrants can be socially constructed. While a liberal democratic country like Canada may not accept overt racial discrimination, I argue that a social crisis or economic recession can change the social boundaries of exclusion for immigrants of certain racial and ethnic backgrounds and justify using more blatant racial messages in discussing immigrants.

This research project investigates the job search experiences of racialized internationally trained educators seeking to re-enter their professions in Canada. Previous studies have made extensive headway in understanding the job-search experiences of racialized immigrants. Specifically, some studies have demonstrated that racism is endemic to the Canadian labour-market, while others have concluded that work experience and credentials obtained in some countries are systematically undervalued in the Canadian labour-market. Further, studies have demonstrated that factors such as non English sounding names and accents can greatly limit some individuals’ job opportunities. Despite this widespread consensus, narrative accounts of job search experiences are almost entirely absent from present research. Hence, in distinction from the quantitative methods of the majority of recent studies of the subject, this work relies on the narratives of racialized immigrant educators for its principal empirical evidence. The counter narratives assembled in this work provide a unique and unprecedented insight into the experience of racialized immigrant educators in the Canadian job-market. Through interviews with racialized immigrant educators from various educational, racial and political backgrounds, this study seeks to explore the challenges that are faced by some racialized immigrants in Canada. The results of this study confirm the consensus in the existing literature, but also demonstrate that discrimination against racialized immigrants has often been greatly under-stated. The narratives suggest that racialized immigrant educators experience significant discrimination during the job search process and in Canadian society in general. Further, this study reveals the extent to which the discrimination faced by racialized Canadian immigrants is not the result of single factors—such as race, accent, non English names and culture—but is rather the cumulative and overlapping result of multiple factors of discrimination. The consequences of this discrimination lead to alienation from Canadian society, family breakdown, disenchantment, loss of self-worth and identity. Subsequently the effects can extend from one immigrant generation to the next. These results are mostly unheard and unexplored in existing literature and dominant discourse.

Silence around ideas of racial diversity in public settings has become normative. Colourmuteness allows for the culture of Whiteness to remain unchallenged, and reinforces attitudes of assimilation and tolerance. This culture manifests itself in institutions of higher learning, and positions these places as sites of cultural domination, such as Queen’s University, site of the current study. The purpose of this thesis was to offer insight into the educational experiences of four female self-identified racialized students at Queen’s University. Together these participants contributed their stories about their thoughts, motivations, and experiences at Queen’s University, and their experiences as members of the student body. The inductive process was used as an analytical framework to allow the experiences of the participants to be the main focus of the work, and the voices of the participants were used as a guide for analysis. Results of this study indicated that the exploration of identity is a complex and layered phenomenon, and that interrelations between different aspects of identity make categorization of individual experience problematic. Each participant presented her personal story of her experiences as a racialized student within the Queen’s context, and together these stories revealed a need for open dialogue around constructions of difference, rather than a silencing of diversity. / Thesis (Master, Education) -- Queen's University, 2010-09-29 19:37:52.329

This research project investigates the job search experiences of racialized internationally trained educators seeking to re-enter their professions in Canada. Previous studies have made extensive headway in understanding the job-search experiences of racialized immigrants. Specifically, some studies have demonstrated that racism is endemic to the Canadian labour-market, while others have concluded that work experience and credentials obtained in some countries are systematically undervalued in the Canadian labour-market. Further, studies have demonstrated that factors such as non English sounding names and accents can greatly limit some individuals’ job opportunities. Despite this widespread consensus, narrative accounts of job search experiences are almost entirely absent from present research. Hence, in distinction from the quantitative methods of the majority of recent studies of the subject, this work relies on the narratives of racialized immigrant educators for its principal empirical evidence. The counter narratives assembled in this work provide a unique and unprecedented insight into the experience of racialized immigrant educators in the Canadian job-market. Through interviews with racialized immigrant educators from various educational, racial and political backgrounds, this study seeks to explore the challenges that are faced by some racialized immigrants in Canada. The results of this study confirm the consensus in the existing literature, but also demonstrate that discrimination against racialized immigrants has often been greatly under-stated. The narratives suggest that racialized immigrant educators experience significant discrimination during the job search process and in Canadian society in general. Further, this study reveals the extent to which the discrimination faced by racialized Canadian immigrants is not the result of single factors—such as race, accent, non English names and culture—but is rather the cumulative and overlapping result of multiple factors of discrimination. The consequences of this discrimination lead to alienation from Canadian society, family breakdown, disenchantment, loss of self-worth and identity. Subsequently the effects can extend from one immigrant generation to the next. These results are mostly unheard and unexplored in existing literature and dominant discourse.

The aim of this research project is to investigate how Muslim-American undergraduate women experience racialization in public and private spaces, examine whether those experiences give rise to a racialized identity, and highlight how they resist and cope with their racialization. The recent application of the term racialization to discuss the Muslim experience in the west has encouraged scholars such as Leon Moosavi, Saher Selod, Mythili Rajiva, Ming H. Chen and others, to engage in critical discourse within the scholarship of race and ethnicity regarding this often-neglected population. It is due to the unique, and gendered relationship that the female Muslim-American population has with the United States, particularly as a result of 9/11 and the label of 'oppressed' being imposed upon them, that it is important to comprehend how specifically Muslim-American women experience racialization. While these studies have broadened the understanding of how Muslims are, and continue to be othered, few studies have focused on the specific areas within public and private spaces where this marginalized group is racialized. This study attempts to fill this gap in existing research by examining how peers, mass media, educational institutions, law enforcement, family, and religious communities racialize Muslim-American women, and how these gendered experiences shape their racialized sense of self. In doing so, it also examines the impact of religious, racial, ethnic and cultural signifiers on the female Muslim-American experience of racialization, and demonstrates how these women employ certain strategies of resistance and coping mechanisms to deal with their racialization. / Master of Science / The aim of this research project is to investigate how Muslim-American undergraduate women specifically experience racialization in public and private spaces, examine whether those experiences give rise to their sense of self as the other, and highlight how they resist and cope with their experiences of racialization. The term racialization, understood by Barot and Bird (2010) as a process that ascribes physical and cultural differences to an individual or group(s) in order to define the other, has only recently been applied to understand and discuss the Muslim experience in the west. Due to the unique relationship that the Muslim female population has with the United States, particularly as a result of 9/11, and the label of ‘oppressed’ being imposed upon them, it is important to understand how specifically Muslim-American women experience racialization. While previous studies on racialization have broadened the understanding of how Muslims are, and continue to be othered, few studies have focused on the specific areas within public and private spaces where this marginalized group experiences racialization. This study attempts to fill this gap in existing research by examining how peers, mass media, educational institutions, law enforcement, family, and religious communities racialize Muslim-American women, and how these gendered experiences shape their sense of self as the other. In doing so, it also examines the impact of religious, racial, ethnic and cultural signifiers on the female Muslim-American experience of racialization, and demonstrates how these women employ certain strategies of resistance and coping mechanisms to deal with their racialization. This study finds that participants do in fact, experience othering in both public and private spaces. Within public spaces, participants reported experiencing the most othering in the media and in educational institutions, with the least in their neighborhoods. In private spaces, participants reported experiencing the most othering at the hands of the family and their religious communities, with the least othering by their peers. This study also finds that as a result of their racialized experiences, participants do possess a sense of self as the Other, albeit this changes according to the different spaces they occupy.

Complex Indigenous and racialized poverty exists in Canada. Child poverty obviously has a negative impact on our youth who are served by school systems. As Silver (2014, 2016) and others have demonstrated, poverty can lead to poor educational outcomes. The purpose of this study was to examination the understandings and actions of four superintendents in Winnipeg, Manitoba related to complex Indigenous and racialized poverty. The superintendency is incredibly complex and extremely political, and there cannot be a recipe book from which superintendents can help advance the cause of greater equity for all our students. That said, we can learn from the stories of those who have made a difference, no matter how small or contextualized. We can advance our knowledge to inform how superintendents can contribute to the creation of educational environments in which people challenge, develop, and, in the words of Foster (1986), “liberate human souls” (p. 18). Using a qualitative approach informed by critical theory, this study explores how the superintendents understood issues related to complex, racialized poverty in particular; and how these understandings influenced their work in highly complex, political, and contextual work environments. In this study, each of the superintendents participated in a series of individual interviews and a group dialogue. The study attempts to ascertain (a) what the participants believed about complex poverty and how they have come to these understandings, (b) how they described the socio-political and organizational environments that informed and influenced their work as superintendents and; what they were able and unable do to mitigate the effects of poverty upon students and their communities, and (c) what actions have they undertaken to attempt to address issues of racialized poverty and what else they think should be done in schools, in school systems, and in the greater communities. / February 2017