Educational Integration of Immigrant Children & Youth: Policy Ineffectiveness & Consequences for

Learners and Society

Yan Guo & Yvonne Hébert

14th National Metropolis ConferenceToronto

March 3, 2012

University of Calgary

Introduction• Almost 6,293,000 people (~1/5) speak languages other

than English or French as their mother tongue

• ESL learners are now the majority in larger urban school districts

• Implications for official languages policy and education

• Consequences for policy and life in terms of educational attainment, employment and immigrant incorporation

Four Sections

I Social Justice as Theoretical Framework

II The ESL Case: Demographic Growth and Educational Inconsistencies

III Consequences for Immigrant Children and Canadian Society

IV Towards Social Justice: Policy Recommendations

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

Towards Social Justice:

Scales of Social Justice• Social justice = the will to render to everyone their due• A) Distributive justice promotes individual freedom

and the equal distribution of material and social goods• B) Retributive justice emphasizes the processes of

production of goods • C) Recognitive justice includes social goods in their

scope, such as opportunity, position, and power, as well as institutional inequities

• D) Redistribution, Recognition & Representation: tri-dimensional framework in economic, social & political spheres

Three Dimensional Model of Social Justice

• How much economic inequality does justice permit?• How much redistribution is required and according to

which principle of distributive justice?• What constitutes equal respect, which kinds of

differences merit public recognition, and by which means?

• Who are the relevant subjects entitled to just redistribution or reciprocal recognition?

• What is the proper frame within which to consider questions of justice?

ESL CASE:

GROWTH & INCONSISTENCIES

The ESL Case: Demographic Growth and Educational Inconsistencies, I

• AB: 14,673 ESL students (1989) to 71,541 (2010)

• BC: 34,176 ESL students (1990) to 64,450 (2010)

• Provincial governments repeatedly cut ESL services

• Numerous inconsistencies limit ESL student success in Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba and Ontario

• ESL in crisis: Failure to address issues & to provide quality education to these students

• Funding caps

• Redirection of ESL funding to other expenses

• Deficient model underlies the systemic discrimination of ESL students in schools

• View of students as ‘poor & despised’

• Lack of teacher preparation

• Ad-hoc, fragmented ESL programming

The ESL Case: Demographic Growth and Educational Inconsistencies, II

Funding Caps

• Five years in BC and seven years in AB for additional support for ESL (2012 levels)

• No similar limits on financial support of English first language learners enrolled in Learning Assistance, or Gifted Education or French Immersion

•  Most recent example of a systemic, structural barrier to equitable treatment

Redirection of ESL Funding to Other Expenses

• $1178.10 per eligible FTE funded ESL student on top of the base amount per student in AB

• ESL funding, not targeted; easily redirected

• Toronto: ESL funding > utilities &

maintenance

Systemic Discrimination

• ESL is the subject of systemic discrimination in schools:

• Practices: Room allocation; district & gov’t distribution of funding

• Respondents: ESL/ESD provision has a lower status than most other teaching areas in schools

• Parents and students: Concerns of discrimination and racism

Lack of Teacher Preparation

• Teaching ESL, not part of basic teacher training

• Teachers’ lack of knowledge about how to teach ESL students effectively: Partially responsible for the low achievements of ESL students

Ad-hoc ESL Programming • Alberta Education:

– ESL Hi School Program – out of date (1997)– Up to each school to develop ESL program – No explicit elementary ESL curriculum

• Comparison: – Programmes for French Immersion, a second

language program• Poor quality education of immigrant children

and youth

Consequences for Immigrant Children and Canadian Society

• Educational outcomes & future earnings of immigrant children, 1st & 2nd generation

• Creation of a permanent underclass that is very costly for society

• Educational outcomes of immigrant children: more likely to complete university than children born in Canada

• Highly relevant to Canada’s future

POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS

Towards Social Justice:

Accountability & Responsibility

• Accountability mechanisms to ensure financial reporting from schools and school boards

• General Federal responsibility to finance official languages education

• Therefore, responsibility for equitable provision of Official Languages federal funding for immigrant children and youth

Plurilingualism Policy

• ISSUE: English-only classrooms

• Code-switching as social norm: Plurilingual communicative competence as reality in classrooms and beyond

• Speakers interrelate and interact flexibly & effectively in different situations and with various speakers according to languages known

• Cultural contexts of language experiences, from home to school to society at large, drawing on resources within several repertoires

Antiracism Education

• Implementation of antiracism education in the school system : to overcome pervasive fear of differences

• Move towards understanding and appreciating difference

• Most fundamental trait of humanity, as positive, and enriching our lives

• FROM FEAR TO DIGNITY OF DIFFERENCE

Teacher Preparation, Professional Development & Graduate Education

• Recruit teachers with cultural & linguistic repertoires

• Develop socially just attitudes, awareness, discourses, knowledge of all pre-service teachers

• Inclusion of strong language methodologies for all pre-service teachers in support of plurilingual learners

Redressing School Inequalities for Improved Educational Outcomes, I

Rather than asking how members of non-dominant groups adapt to dominant culture schools and practices, we might ask how well schools and classrooms adapt to the presence of students from non-dominant groups, or how schools and classrooms can be transformed to better serve these students (Orellana & Gutiérrez, 2006: 118-119)

Rather than asking how members of non-dominant groups adapt to dominant culture schools and practices, we might ask how well schools and classrooms adapt to the presence of students from non-dominant groups, or how schools and classrooms can be transformed to better serve these students (Orellana & Gutiérrez, 2006: 118-119)

• Equitable distribution of educational resources • Improved classroom practices, for ex.:

– Increase time spent on reading, science & math– Increase mixed-ability groupings, classes &

schools– Increase effective language teaching within

content areas

Redressing School Inequalities for Improved Educational Outcomes, II

From Stranger to Citizen

• The immigrant child, especially the immigrant youth, as well as the immigrant family, as the poor family, is created as a ‘stranger’ and as a ‘forever foreigner’

• Social justice perspective: – Greater recognition of basic individual rights; – community-building activities, – more participation & representation; – allocation of sufficient resources for success

Conclusions

• Poor quality education of ESL learners, their systematic exclusion from mainstream schooling & society: – Based on the notion of the ‘stranger’ – Sets up person outside of regular, citified activity

• Policy to reduce & eliminate forms of segregation, so as to facilitate inclusion and integration to everyone’s benefit

• As in a mirror, the ‘stranger’ is ‘us’