Children are rarely asked about their experiences in the aftermath of war. Each child if given an opportunity has a unique and precious story to share. It is most likely that embedded within their experiential stories are essences of resilience. The purpose of this study was (1) to understand the phenomenon of resilience in an exploratory way with regard to how Afghan refugee children adapt despite facing adversities in the aftermath of war, and (2) to contribute to the knowledge of nursing science and practice for healthy childhood development. The core research question was: What are the experiences of Afghan refugee children currently living in Canada in the aftermath of war? The sub question was: How do Afghan refugee children describe their experiences of day-to- day life? Gadamers (1960/1989) hermeneutic philosophy was used to understand the experiences of Afghan children in the aftermath of war. In addition, hermeneutic photography, which is based on the methodology of hermeneutic (interpretive) inquiry, was used as the methodological approach as well as method. Data were collected with the aid of photographs of the childrens own choice. Two to three photo conversations were done with seven children residing in Edmonton, Alberta. The participants ranged between the ages of 13 to 17; five were females and two were males.They were all born in Afghanistan and had two parent families and belonged to the Shia sect of Islam specifically,the Shia Imami Ismaili Muslims. Gadamers approach to data analysis was adopted throughout the study. Four themes emerged that described the day-to-day life experiences of the Afghan refugee children: (a) cherishing the family; (b) treasuring the Afghan culture; (c) creating opportune spaces to dwell; and (d) building and sustaining resilience. Recommendations were drawn as a useful guide from the findings of this study for education, practice, policy development, and future research to benefit Afghan refugee children and their families to dwell in a new country.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:AEU.10048/591 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Kanji, Zeenatkhanu |
| Contributors | Dr, Cameron, Brenda (Faculty of Nursing), Dr. Knight, Andy (Political Science), Dr. Kirova, Anna (Faculty of Education), Dr. Ogilvie, Linda (Faculty of Nursing), Dr. Berman, Helene (School of Nursing, University of Western Ontario) |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 2776161 bytes, application/pdf |
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