Primary Investigators — Dr. Anusha Kassan and Tonje Molyneux, PhD Candidate
Context
According to Statistics Canada (2021), nearly one-fifth of newcomers to Canada are youth between the ages of 15 to 24. This demographic is expanding and needs support integrating into the Canadian school system. School integration is defined as the academic, social, emotional, relational, familial, and communal adjustment of newcomer youth, both inside and outside of the school setting (Gallucci & Kassan, 2019; Mukred & Kassan, 2022).
In our research, we have found that positive school integration can play a key role in the academic success of newcomer youth, improving their sense of belonging and future development (Kassan et al., 2020). Using an arts-based engagement ethnography (ABEE: Goopy & Kassan, 2019; Kassan et al., 2020), our research focuses on the lived experiences of newcomer youth, their challenges, and the major factors associated with their integration to school. Previous research has garnered a general understanding of the main experiences of newcomer youth through the process of school integration, including fitting in, biculturalism, managing familial expectations, and being a newcomer in the classroom (Saunders et al., 2021). More recent works have explored the methods that the newcomers found helpful through their early school integration stages, highlighting the role of making connections upon arrival and administrative support (Smith et al., 2021).
Taken together, the extant research suggests that one way to support newcomer youth’s school integration is by increasing awareness of their lived experiences, among both newcomer youth and their Canadian-born counterparts. Efforts to mobilize knowledge constructed through our research with newcomer youth can help increase awareness among key stakeholders who can make a positive difference in the school integration experiences of newcomer youth.
Cultural Exhibit
To mobilize knowledge and raise awareness, this DPL Grant will support engaging UBC Faculty of Education students and faculty, newcomer youth, and the broader community in an interactive cultural exhibit. The project will allow us to support newcomer youth from anglophone and francophone public school districts who participated in our research to share their experiences and perspectives with both those in the Faculty of Education and the wider community. Newcomer youth will be invited to create displays and/or digital artifacts that summarize their perspectives and experiences for sharing with broad audiences. Artifacts can include PowerPoint presentations with visuals and audio narration that describe newcomers’ experience integrating into the school system, and advice for other newcomers and educational staff on how to support them.
Objectives
- Increase understanding of newcomer experience among newcomer youth and non-newcomer UBC students and faculty;
- Provide UBC Faculty of Education with experiential and digital learning materials to help raise awareness of newcomer students’ integration experiences, including what helps them and what does not;
- Build overall awareness of newcomer experiences to support the education system in becoming more culturally responsive and socially just in meeting the needs of this group.
