Abstract

The guiding argument of this study is that (im)migrants arrive in their host countries with diverse cultural traditions, knowledge and educational experiences and that these constitute strengths, not deficiencies. These strengths and resources can be viewed as a form of transcultural wealth that could be brought to light in both out-of-school and classroom settings, as well as on the community level, as part of the (im)migrants’ process of acculturation and integration into their new places of settlement. Furthermore, this study challenges the dominant instrumentalist rhetoric around which adult education programs for (im)migrants in Canada are often structured and which subsumes learning and literacy to market and employment exigencies—a reflection of our current historical moment of advanced neoliberal globalization. Literacy and education theorists have long called for the implementation in classrooms and on a policy level of pedagogical and assessment models, as well as a general disposition towards (im)migrant learners, based not on the language and literacy skills that they lack, but on those that they possess and which form their linguistic, cultural and literacy repertoires, in addition to being deeply connected to their very sense of self. By bringing into the discussion the affective dimension of literacy and learning, this thesis aims to counter the above-mentioned instrumentalist rationality as limited and to emphasize the importance of promoting cross-cultural communication and cross-cultural competencies in adult education. Ultimately, this project is situated within the greater challenge of us learning to live together as humanity, learning to better communicate with each other and accept our differences.