This study explores the relationships between the integration experiences of adolescent newcomers in one francophone secondary school in Montreal and the current policies and programs related to educational integration. The research draws on observations and participants' descriptions and insights to address three principal questions: How is integration experienced by adolescent newcomers in a francophone school in Montreal? How do these students' experiences inform our understanding of the relationships among host (second) language learning/teaching, integration, and identity construction? What are the implications of these newcomer students' integration experiences for educational theories, policies and programs/practices that target such newcomers? These questions emerge from a consideration of theories of identity construction current in a variety of disciplines. / The study offers an overview of Quebec's past and present immigration and integration policies and programs. It considers those policies in light of identity theory and, more specifically, focuses on the relationships between language learning, integration, and identity in the experience of adolescent immigrants within a francophone secondary school in Montreal. Based on interviews and participant observation conducted over 15 months, the study describes the ways in which the participants' integration and identity are shaped by school discourses and the standardizing imperative of most North American educational institutions. Findings suggest that the participants resist the school's discourses in order to assert themselves dialogically and relocate their sense of identity in their host society. However, the dialogic relationships that the students are able to establish with and within the school discourses are imbalanced, leaving several students to feel dislocated both physically and psychically throughout the study. The study indicates that a distributed notion of the Self might improve theory, policy, and pedagogy related to newcomer integration. Finally, specific suggestions are made for building on current educational-integration research and practice.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.84983 |
| Date | January 2004 |
| Creators | Allen, Dawn, 1963- |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| 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 | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Doctor of Philosophy (Department of Second Language Education.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 002187831, proquestno: AAINR06268, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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