In this ethnographic inquiry, I examine how a selected group of Chinese immigrant children in Montreal, Quebec negotiate literacy practices in three languages, Chinese, English and French. I collected data between 1998--2002 through participant observations in different socio-cultural-linguistic contexts that include a Chinese Heritage Language school and the students' home domains. Data sources also include interviews, classroom discourses, field-notes and the students' written texts in the three languages. I draw on Vygotskian socio-cultural theory as an overarching framework to conceptualize my understanding of Chinese immigrant children's triliterate actions. I use Wertsch's concept of "mediational means", Bakhtin's notions of "utterance, voice, dialogicality" and Ivanic's theory of "writing and identity" to present portraits that illustrate the complex relationships among the children's contexts, agency, cultural positionings and uses of literacy as mediational means. I examine the children's perceptions of their multiple school experiences, their school and language affiliations and identity. Lightfoot's concept of "portraiture" is a useful methodology to illustrate how multilingual children present and negotiate their life worlds in the three languages and spaces---from home to school and from heritage language school to formal public school. The reflective understandings that emerge from this inquiry are integrated within the contexts of the historical role of Confucianism and the characteristics of the written Chinese language. The results of my inquiry suggest that multilingual children's literate actions are interwoven with issues of agency, access, choice, identity, power and status in different contexts. Results further indicate that maintenance of a heritage language in its written form is possible when children receive appropriate parental support and guidance and have access to literacy materials. The development of multili

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This qualitative research study explores female circumcision within the Canadian community perspective. / Issues examined in the literature review include: the historical background of the practice, its cultural and religious implications, its effects on health, existing social pressures to continue or discontinue the practice and the subjective constructions of majority and minority identities, perspectives and interactions in Canada's multicultural society. / For the purposes of this study majority/minority relations are explored in terms of the interactions between an immigrant community from a FC practicing country and the mainstream community in Canada. The Somali community has been chosen for this case study as the one best known to the author and as one in whose country of origin available statistics indicate a 98% prevalence rate of FC. Canadian mainstream reactions to this practice are analyzed through media reporting and statements from Somalis in Canada describing their interactions with the mainstream community on this issue. / Members of the Somali community in Montreal, Quebec and Ottawa, Ontario were interviewed in order to cover as wide an area as possible, including difference in provinces. The following six themes were chosen after data analysis: the Effects of FC on Health, the Cultural Orientation of FC, Religious Beliefs Regarding FC, Social Pressures, A Sense of Differentness and Efforts to Discourage the Practice of FC. These themes are discussed with special attention being paid to 'differentness' and the mechanisms or coping skills developed to deal with this complex social phenomenon which involves opposing values, beliefs and perceptions. / In its final section, the study examines the social work implications of the findings which address intercultural fears, anxieties and the dynamics of power involved in the way the FC issue has been addressed in Canada. / Practice, program and policy recommendations with regard to discouraging FC practice are made at the end of the thesis. / The study concludes with the observation that the debate around FC in Canada is much wider than the issue itself and that the practice has been sensationalized in a manner which has emphasized perceptions of differentness which exist in our society. No constructive dialogue will be possible around this issue until the issue of differentness is addressed, and mutual fears and anxieties evoked by the perception of differentness are dealt with in a sensitive manner, in both immigrant and mainstream communities.

This is a study of a Latin American community centre in Montreal based on two years of participant observation. The Centre is one of many locales where immigrants spend their time and come to understand a new city, its history, people, and institutional systems. As such, it is a place where social identity is actively negotiated and frequently reinvented, highlighting the constructed and dynamic qualities of ethnicity in contemporary Western society. The study dialectically considers small- and large-scale influences on the Centre and its members. While structural limits often foster social marginalization which must be recognized and addressed, cultural production and the negotiation of identity occur primarily through the subtle and minute lifeworld experiences that are found in the everyday lives at the Centre.

This inquiry explores six Greek trilingual adults' perceptions about becoming and being trilingual. The six participants are "children of Bill 101", that is, as allophones (speakers of other languages than English and French) they were formally schooled in the French public school system. The participants received English instruction taught as a second language and attended Greek heritage language schools. I adopted a socio-cultural approach to learning, language and literacy and embraced the tenets of activity theory to describe the participants' development of culture and a trilingual identity. To understand how they came to develop cultural and linguistic skills in English, French and Greek, and describe themselves as trilinguals, I conducted 40 hours of in-depth and life-story interviews over three years. I aimed to access the participants' perceptions of their experiences 'growing up Greek' in Montreal, Quebec, their self-identification with the three languages and their perceptions of becoming and being trilingual. I examined their audio-recorded discussions by first transcribing them and searching for relevant vignettes and themes. These vignettes helped determine the larger contextual and personal factors that influenced and affected the participants' perceptions of the process of becoming and being trilingual. Lawrence-Lightfoot & Davis's concept of "portraiture" is a useful methodology to illustrate how trilingual adults present and negotiate their life worlds in the three languages and spaces---home, work, social and community events. The results of my inquiry suggest that the six "children of Bill 101" who are now Greek trilingual adults constructed their knowledge and their identities through their interactions with parents, relatives, teachers and peers within home, school, work, and diverse social contexts in both different and similar ways. Their actions are interwoven with issues of access, choice, identity, power and stat

The relations between mismatched parent-adolescent autonomy beliefs, and psychological adjustment and parenting self-efficacy were investigated among 89 immigrant Chinese Canadian families with early adolescents. Hierarchical regression analyses assessed whether interactions between parents’ autonomy beliefs and adolescents’ autonomy beliefs predicted psychological adjustment and parenting self-efficacy. Parent-adolescent conflict intensity was evaluated as a mediator of these relations. Parental warmth was evaluated as a moderator of the relations between autonomy beliefs and adolescent psychological adjustment. When adolescents held early expectations for autonomy, mothers who held later expectations for autonomy reported lower parenting self-efficacy. When fathers perceived high decision making independence, adolescents who perceived low decision making independence reported fewer depressive symptoms. Conflict intensity did not mediate these relations. Although parental warmth did not moderate in the predicted manner, fathers' warmth moderated the relation between fathers’ expectations for autonomy and adolescent self-esteem. Implications for healthy adolescent autonomy among immigrant Chinese Canadian families are discussed.

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Recent years have witnessed the large number of Chinese immigrants in Canada. With the coming of those immigrants is the large number of school age children. Hence, immigrant families' educational expectations and parental participation in their children's schools become major educational concerns. This study focuses on recent Chinese immigrants' expectations of and concerns about their children's schooling. / Drawing from Bourdieu's cultural capital theory and Ogbu's social mobility theory, in this study, I used a qualitative interview methodology to explore the educational expectations and school involvement of five Chinese parents who had recently immigrated to Canada. The educational expectations for their children and school participation of these Chinese immigrants are deeply rooted in Chinese tradition and heritage and are also greatly shaped by their personal experiences in Canada. Their cultural values and beliefs and immigration experiences as visible minorities have had a great impact on their educational expectations. Language barriers and different cultural values between dominant mainstream and Chinese traditions are the two main factors that hinder immigrant parents' participation in school activities and hence in their children's schooling.

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