Abstract

ABSTRACT
Facilitation of immigrant integration in Canada: Storytelling for educational understanding
After a review of three doctoral dissertations examining the differential adaptation and acculturation of African youth and adult immigrants and refugees to Canada and the U.S.A., several important factors are identified: language, cultural heritage, community support, schooling and academic concerns, cultural identity, social relationships and gender. These same factors are also highlighted in the novels by Kim Thuy, telling through compelling vignettes the immigration and settlement story of a Vietnamese mother and her children as refugees in Canada.
Contrasting the academic research approach to the storytelling approach, the thesis makes the case for using authentic storytelling by immigrants and refugees for a better educational understanding and positive facilitation of acculturation and adaptation.
Five structured case studies/vignettes are then developed telling the stories of five different African immigrants to Canada and the United States. In order to enact this storytelling approach with different stakeholders a framework of seven domains of inclusion developed by Dei and McDermott is proposed: 1. Representation; 2. language; 3. Family, community school interface; 4. Co-operative education; 5. Equity and values education; 6. Indigenous/community/local cultural knowledges; 7. Spirituality and learning.