This paper presents the process and results of a narrative inquiry into the stories of eight Chinese international graduate students. Results show three main commonalities in participants’ education narratives in China: parental influence, the exam system and independent study. In the Canadian setting, specific aspects of the academic culture are experienced as permeable (written work, lab work, tests and reading ability) or impermeable (in-class discussions, oral presentations, group work, oral discourse, communicating with local people). Discussion articulates participants’ use of unique personal resources, which results in distinctive trajectories of entry into and navigation within this new academic culture. Cet article présente le processus et les résultats d'une enquête narrative de huit étudiants internationaux chinois de troisème cycle. Les résultats montrent les trois éléments communs dans la narration des participants: l'influence des parents, le système des examens, et l'étude individuelle. Dans le cadre canadien, les participants ont reconnu des aspects spécifiques de la culture académique comme perméables (travaux écrits, travaux de laboratoire,les examens et compétence en lecture) ou imperméables (discussions en classe, présentations orales, travaux en groupes, entretiens oraux, et communication avec les habitants locaux). La discussion clarifie l'usage d'uniques ressources personnelles par chaque participant La discussion clarifie l'usage d'uniques ressources personnelles par chaque participant dont le résultat définit des trajectoires distinctifs d'entrée et de navigation au coeur de cette nouvelle culture académique.

This paper describes a recent initiative designed to provide support for teacher candidates from culturally diverse backgrounds as they traverse a one-year teacher education program in Canada. Results and discussion are based on qualitative data from an information survey, student-professor conversations, a review of seminar documents and processes, and observations and reflections made by professors conducting the seminar. Overall, the Language and Cultural Engagement Seminar was successful in providing a supportive environment in which complicated and politically volatile issues, which would otherwise have remained unacknowledged, were discussed openly. The main concerns expressed by participants were the communication concern (grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, accent, etc.), concern for power and authority in the classroom, and the socio-cultural acceptance concern. Power and communication concerns diminished when teacher candidates felt a level of cultural acceptance in the classroom; therefore, we propose that socio-cultural acceptance be investigated in future research into the concern construct. Since differential pronunciation had the effect of positioning teacher candidates on the periphery of classroom discourse, we concluded that acceptance of accent diversity (lack thereof) was one barrier between ideal (policy) and experienced (lived) multi-cultures. Cet article décrit une initiative récente désignée à procurer un soutien aux étudiants-maîtres provenant de divers milieux socio-culturels pendant l'année de leur formation au Canada. Les résultats et les discussions sont basés sur les données qualitatives obtenues d'une surveillance de renseignements, des conversations entre professeurs et étudiants, une revision des documents et processus obtenus pendant un colloque et des observations et réflexions faites par les professeurs conduisant ce colloque. En général le colloque "Language and Cultural Engagement Seminar" a réussi à offrir un mileu positif dans lequel des problèmes compliqués ou explosifs, qui auraient pu passer inapperçus, avaient été discutés franchement. Les principales inquiétudes citées par les participants sont: l'inquiétude sur la communication (grammaire, vocabulaire, prononciation, accent, etc.), l'inquiétude concernant l'autorité et le pouvoir en classe. et l'inquiétude de n'être pas acceptés à cause de leurs antécédents socio-culturels. Mais les inquiétudes sur le pouvoir et la communication sont diminuées quand les étudiants-maîtres sentaient qu'ils atteignaient un certain niveau d'acceptation culturelle en classe. Nous proposons que l'acceptation socio-culturelle deviendra un sujet de recherche plus poussé dans l'avenir. Comme la prononciation différentielle avait l'effet de placer les instituteurs aux périphéries du discours en classe, nous avions conclu que l'acceptation des accents divers (ou le manque de) est une barrière entre l'idéal (politique) et l'expérience (vécue) d'un milieu à cultures multiples.

In this paper we argue that a multimedia composition of various data sources is an ideal and appropriate medium for conveying the contextspecific, teacher-directed, flexible and cyclical (non-linear) nature of collaborative action research (CAR). This compilation also expresses four main process outcomes of eight CAR studies in southwestern Ontario during 2007-2008: bridging the school-university gap, meaningful professional development, the "catch-22 of time," and complexity.Almost a half-century since Marshall McLuhan (1964) first coined the phrase, "The medium is the message," his most quoted dictum continues to be routinely acknowledged and just as routinely ignored. While technologies of the 21 st century enable unprecedented levels of creativity and variety in presentation media, most scholars still "give papers" aurally, often alongside visual, textbased, projections. Though graphics and photographs appear more frequently through such programs as Power Point, users may remain unconscious to the reality that these programs come with their own sets of aesthetic and semiotic templates (Van Leeuwen, 2008) with conservative, predictable appearances and limited choices. It appears that by focusing almost exclusively on the central, obvious figure or "content" of the message, the "ground" or medium of the message is still often ignored (Federman, 2004;McLuhan). This being the case, researchers may be unknowingly limiting the "impact" of findings by limiting the medium of expression almost exclusively to text.We propose that, while text-based presentations may effectively convey some academic ideas, for other messages, they are inadequate and perhaps even misrepresentative in their relatively simplistic, predictable, linear format. To elaborate the latter case, this paper relates the rationale behind choice of medium to communicate findings about the process of a collaborative action research (CAR) project undertaken by eight teams of teacher-researchers in Southwestern Ontario. By integrating conceptually our research findings and medium of presentation, we offer a format that explains our findings in a more holistic manner and comes closer to expressing the essence of our findings than could be affected through text-only presentation. Finally, we invite readers to experience our multimedia presentation online and then, if suitably provoked, to join in the

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This paper and its appended multi-media production describe the rationale and process of creating and presenting a “digitally saturated” (Lankshear & Knobel, 2003), multi-layered, synchronous “montage” (Denzin & Lincoln, 2003) of educational Action Research findings. The authors contend that this type of presentation, arising from the fusion of Collaborative Action Research (CAR) and arts-based research (ABR), conveys more fully the complexity of context-specific, classroom-based CAR. Viewers and readers are invited to experience vicariously, interpret critically, and construct uniquely this “new type of knowledge.”