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Abstract
This qualitative study used classroom observations, teacher and student interviews, and document analysis to examine the degree to which peacebuilding dialogue processes were implemented in 3 elementary school classrooms and how diverse students, particularly newcomer immigrants, experienced these pedagogies. The study critically examines how ethnocultural minority immigrant students aged 9 to 13 responded to conflictual issues pedagogies and discussions and how such pedagogies facilitated inclusive spaces for all students to participate in the curricula. The study’s results show that when content was explicitly linked to students’ identities and experiences, opportunities for democratic peacebuilding inclusion increased. In this research, diverse students’ classroom participation was influenced by various peacebuilding pedagogies, particularly when teachers engaged with conflictual issues in ways that encouraged students to develop acceptance and empathy for other perspectives. Using peacebuilding dialogue pedagogies to guide curriculum engagement with alternative viewpoints may contribute to diverse students’ inclusion in the classroom.
Notes
1. 1While all of the students in this study were in an ethnocultural majority, I use the term minority to refer to the power dynamics of the society-at-large, namely Western, Canadian society, where members of visible minority groups (such as people of color) carry less power and privilege.
2. 2Names of individuals and schools have been altered for confidentiality.
3. 3Based on my own subjective perception of observing these students over a significant period of time, during in-class activities, and during some recess and lunch breaks, I identified students’ social status as low (meaning that they did not appear to hold much class power among their peers) or high (meaning that they held significant power in terms of stating their perspective and appeared to have greater social capital in the classroom space). Based on both in-class observations and discussions with the classroom teacher, I was also aware of students’ varying levels of academic strengths.
4. 4At the time of my data collection, the school council had voted to implement simple uniforms for students to wear to school. Aria’s choice in implementing uniforms was a response to the poorer families who had recently immigrated to the neighborhood and could not afford to buy their children clothes for school. Students were not told that this was the reason that motivated the decision to have uniforms, and they spoke up against it when they were given the opportunity (e.g., through the class election and when they wrote speeches).
5. 5The resources that students personally acquired to support their campaign could be indicative of their varying socioeconomic positions. Some, such as Kate and Nitin, had the privilege of greater materialistic support for their campaign. Although I did not collect parental income and occupation data, both Kate and Nitin were second-generation immigrants/first-generation Canadians and their parents appeared to be more established (e.g., Nitin said that his father was successful in his business). Qadir and Irtal were both new immigrants and may have experienced greater economic challenges. While Sugriva was born in Canada, and his parents migrated from India, he did not discuss his parents’ economic status.
6. 6In looking critically at how “democracy” was imagined and prescribed in this classroom context, I argue that colonial prescriptions tended to reign supreme in this classroom and such hegemonic constructs contributed to what I believe were neoliberal platforms.
7. 7While I document overt instances of classroom conflict, some students may have also experienced internal conflict that would not have been visible to the researcher during classroom discussions. Some students shared their inner conflictual experiences during small group interviews, but that does not fully encapsulate students’ potentially conflictual (internal) experiences during class discussions.
8. 8Post-election, this goal was the only actionable outcome observed.
9. 9These were uprisings in Lower and Upper Canada in 1837 and 1838. In the Lower Canada Rebellion, French and English settlers rebelled against British colonial government. The Upper Canada Rebellion, led by William Lyon Mackenzie, focused on the oligarchy known as the Family Compact. The rebels who led the uprisings stimulated governmental and political reform.
10. 10William Lyon Mackenzie (March 12, 1795–August 28, 1861) was a Scottish immigrant who led the 1837 Upper Canada Rebellion. He had worked in both the United States and Upper Canada, first as a journalist and then as a politician. In 1834, he was Toronto’s first mayor. His political perspective was known to be radical.
11. 11Robert Gourlay (March 24, 1778–August 1, 1863) studied agriculture and worked as both an agriculturist and a political reform writer. He was a strong leader in the 1837 Upper Canada Rebellion.
12. 12William Baldwin (April 25, 1775–January 8, 1844), a doctor and lawyer, immigrated from Ireland in 1798. He represented York and Simcoe in the 8th Parliament of Upper Canada. His son, Robert Baldwin (May 12, 1804–December 9, 1858), was born in Toronto (then York) and was a moderate reformer who did not support the 1837 Upper Canada Rebellion.
13. 13The Acadian Expulsion (1755–1764) was the expulsion of Acadians from the Maritime region by the British. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s epic poem, Evangeline, A Tale of Acadie, provides some contextual insight into this history.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Christina Parker
CHRISTINA PARKER is a Lecturer in Education and Society at the University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5S 1K7, Canada, and in Social Development Studies at Renison University College at the University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G4, Canada. She can be contacted at [email protected].