Encountering institutionalized forms of racism during high school in Saskatchewan, immigrant Black African female students experiences in dealing with assimilatory and hegemonic in kind learning environment have not been well understood or even explored. Having moved from Ghana as a young learner, this researcher discloses the processes of being silenced in classrooms incent on Euro-Canadian learning and the indifference to unique cultural contributions that “othered” learners could offer. Addressing the lack of acknowledgment, this researcher sought to find five kindred female learners to explore how each relied on her resilience to develop social resistance to hegemonic practices. While informed by regular treatise of individual interviews, this researcher employed Seidman’s (2006) interview method, Deka Wɔ Wɔ focus group discussion and Riessman’s (1987) core narrative research analysis. Furthermore, while grounding the research in antiracism theory and Black feminist thought, this researcher offers collective analysis that arrived at cultural foundation that spoke to strength and aspiration. Sankofa is an Akan culturally valued notion that allows individuals to take on cultural identity to take on responsibility to understand one’s past. The latter allowed the knowledge keepers to identify strength, and insights to resist the assimilatory measures while learning in largely Euro-Canadian context. Ultimately, this thesis used a strength based approach in exploring the students’ experiences, and introduces Sankofa as a theoretical concept that evokes resilience and social resistance. Such findings may well be one of the first ones in Canadian educational context. This researcher believes that discovery and unfolding strategies in developing resilience and social resistance are essential in diversifying the learning environment in Saskatchewan and elsewhere beyond the much favoured Euro-Canadian context.

Throughout 2015, the European Union’s response to the large number of migrants crossing the Aegean Sea became increasingly securitised. It translated to the policing of non-governmental search and rescue organisations (SAR NGOs) active in the Aegean Sea. This thesis investigates the impact of policing on the ability of SAR NGOs to deliver humanitarian assistance in the Aegean Sea between 2015-2022. It employs social constructivist deviance theory to investigate the limiting effects of policing and its potential to generate resilience and resistance. Semi-structured interviews with five staff members and volunteers who worked with SAR NGOs in the Aegean Sea between 2015-2022 explore the research question. The findings were triangulated with existing scholarly literature to address the limited sample size. The study finds that policing limits SAR NGOs’ activities and fosters resilience and resistance. Resilience and resistance may have prolonged SAR NGOs’ ability to operate. Yet, over time, the increasing severity of policing, combined with intra- and inter-organisational fragmentation undermining resilience and resistance, forced SAR NGOs to end their humanitarian assistance in the Aegean Sea. Currently, no SAR NGOs are active in the Aegean Sea, resulting in a lack of search and rescue and human rights monitoring. Consequently, the risk of deaths and human rights abuses in the Aegean Sea has increased.