Exploring Linguistic, Cultural, and Religious Diversity in Canadian Schools: Pre-Service Teachers’ Learning from Immigrant Parents

Abstract

The knowledge immigrant parents hold about their children is often unrecognized by Canadian educational systems. Parent knowledge has vital implications for Canadian school systems and for teacher preparation. Based on interviews of parents from 15 countries, this study presented three types of parent knowledge: First language, cultural and religious knowledge. Then, parent knowledge was shared with a group of pre-service teachers. Results reveal some pre-service teachers encouraged the use of students’ first language in their practicum whereas others internalized their monolingual ideology despite multilingual realities. They recognized cultural misunderstanding between immigrant parents and Canadian teachers and systemic racism, and questioned the feasibility of accommodating everyone’s religious needs. The study calls for the reconstruction of difference and the inclusion of epistemological pluralism, particularly immigrant parent knowledge, within teacher education. The study also suggests that it is important to help pre-service teachers shift their representation of multilingualism from being a problem to a resource, challenge their Eurocentric perspectives, understand immigrant students’ cultural backgrounds, and address religious-based exemptions and accommodation.

‘Unlearning Privileges’: Interrupting Pre-Service Teachers Deficit Thinking of Immigrant Students with Origins in the South

“…Many pre-service teachers in my study (Guo, 2012b) reported that they felt helpless because they did not know how to support EAL children. For example, one pre-service teacher reported:…”

“…Throughout this 11-year period I have developed and facilitated purposeful educational experiences in all of my courses which are intended to challenge pre-service and in-service educators to rethink and reconceptualize the ways in which schools develop and structure formal and informal educational policies regarding 'the position' meaning the ranking, rating and valuing/devaluing of immigrant, English as an Additional Language (EAL). Drawing from critical and postcolonial theoretical perspectives and further exemplified with the inclusion of examples from my earlier study (Guo, 2012a(Guo, , 2012b and university teaching of pre-service teachers, this paper demonstrates how I have implemented some experiential strategies in order to encourage pre-service teachers to challenge their largely unexamined, deficit thinking regarding their EAL. Teacher educators preparing teachers to work effectively and equitably in a linguistically, culturally and racially diverse context can employ teaching strategies described in this paper.…”

“…They have parents who don't speak English" (Guo, 2012b). As such, these generalizations perpetuate the traditional missionary perspective that EAL children and families are deficient and in need of remediation.…”

“…Some pre-service teachers in an earlier study (Guo, 2012b) were shocked to see the large number of EAL students in the schools to which they were assigned for their practicum (field experiences):…”

“…How would I handle the language barrier? (Guo, 2012b) Some pre-service teachers chose to ignore EAL students and furthermore, perceived the difficulties faced by EAL students as evidence that there is something wrong with these students.…”