Revisioning curriculum in the age of transnational mobility: Towards a transnational and transcultural framework

ABSTRACT

Under the new mobilities paradigm, migration is conceptualized as circulatory and transnational, moving us beyond the framework of methodological nationalism. Transnational mobility has called into question dominant notions of migrant acculturation or assimilation. Migrants no longer feel obligated to remain tied to or locatable in a “given”, unitary culture. Rather, they are becoming embedded within a shifting field of increasingly transcultural identities. While migrants are becoming more transnational and adopting fluid, transcultural identities, there is a lack of focus and engagement with transnationalism as well as transculturalism in the official Canadian public school curricula. As scholars contend, Canadian school curricula are still based on Eurocentric, homogenizing, nationalistic discourses that tend to normalize values, norms, and behaviours that are perceived as “different” from the dominant norm. In response to the limitations of Canadian official curricula, as noted by various scholars who have examined curriculum documents, this essay proposes a revision of Canadian curricula in the context of transnational mobility with the aim of developing an approach that would integrate transnational and transcultural perspectives into the existing system. The article thus proposes a transnational and transcultural framework as an alternative to build a more ethical and inclusive school curriculum in Canada.

KEYWORDS:

• Transnational mobility
• transnationalism
• transculturalism
• migration
• curriculum studies

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank the three anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments and suggestions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Shibao Guo

Shibao Guo is professor in the Werklund School of Education at the University of Calgary. His research interests include citizenship and immigration, multicultural and anti-racist education, and comparative and international education. He has numerous publications, including books, journal articles, and book chapters. His latest books include Revisiting Multiculturalism in Canada (Sense Publishers, 2015, with L. Wong), Work, Learning and Transnational Migration (Routledge, 2016), and Spotlight on China: Chinese Education in the Globalized World (Sense Publishers, 2016, with Y. Guo). Currently, he serves as President of Canadian Ethnic Studies Association and is Co-Editor of Canadian Ethnic Studies.

Srabani Maitra

Srabani Maitra is an Eyes High Post-Doctoral fellow in the Werklund School of Education at the University of Calgary. She received her PhD in Adult Education and Community Development from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) at the University of Toronto. Her research expertise is in the areas of immigrant and refugee children, workplace learning/training, international adult education, and in critical/participatory pedagogy.