Supporting refugee- and migrant-background students in a Canadian elementary classroom : challenges and promising teaching practices
department or school: Education, Faculty of
department or school: Language and Literacy Education (LLED), Department of
data provider: DSpace
degree campus: UBCV
creator: Blanch Zelada, Denise
issued: 2020-12-24T19:55:32Z
issued: 2020
related degree: Master of Arts - MA
degree grantor: University of British Columbia
description: Canada has a long history of resettlement of refugee and protected persons, and between 2015 and 2019, over 225,000 were resettled (IRCC, 2020). Many refugee background newcomers to Canada (42%) are school-aged children and youth, including students with limited or interrupted formal education (SLIFE) (IRCC, 2017); many have experienced triple trauma due to forced migration, during transition, and upon resettlement in Canada (Stewart et al. 2019). This lack of opportunity to attend school and traumatic experiences presents daunting challenges for refugee-background students and their teachers who may lack resources and preparation to meet their complex needs (Stewart et al., 2019). This study seeks to contribute to better understandings in this area through its exploration of what an expert elementary school educator, together with her team-teaching colleagues, perceived as the challenges and successful approaches to language and literacy education for Grade 6/7 refugee-and-migrant background students (RMBS). The study also explored the potential of multiliteracies pedagogies to leverage the multimodal communicative repertoires of RMBS, as they engaged in a cross-curricular unit of study in their mainstream Grade 6/7 classroom. The theoretical frameworks drawn from were a socio-cultural perspective of literacy, multiliteracies pedagogy and learning by design, as well as conceptions of identity and investment. Data was gathered through field notes, participant observation, audio recording of classroom interactions, student artifacts and texts, and semi-structured focus groups and teacher interviews. The data collected was inductively and deductively thematically analyzed. Findings illuminated the teaching team of expert educators’ perceptions of the challenges of working with RMBS students, as well as successful educational approaches to support RMBS and enhance their achievement. The findings also contributed to a better understanding of the development of innovativ…
aggregated CHO: https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/76903
note: SUPPORTING REFUGEE- AND MIGRANT-BACKGROUND STUDENTS IN A CANADIAN ELEMENTARY CLASSROOM: CHALLENGES AND PROMISING TEACHING PRACTICES by Denise Blanch Zelada B.A. Universidad Católica de Chile, 2004 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES (Language and Literacy Education) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) December 2020 © Denise Blanch Zelada ii The following individuals certify that they have read, and recommend to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies for acceptance, a thesis entitled Supporting refugee- and migrant-background students in a Canadian elementary classroom: Learning challenges and promising teaching practices submitted by Denise Blanch Zelada in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL) Examining Committee: Dr. Margaret Early, Language and Literacy Education, UBC Supervisor Dr. Maureen Kendrick, Language and Literacy Education, UBC Supervisory Committee Member Dr. Kathryn Accurso, Language and Literacy Education, UBC Supervisory Committee Member iii Abstract Canada has a long history of resettlement of refugee and protected persons, and between 2015 and 2019, over 225,000 were resettled (IRCC, 2020). Many refugee background newcomers to Canada (42%) are school-aged children and youth, including students with limited or interrupted formal education (SLIFE) (IRCC, 2017); many have experienced triple trauma due to forced migration, during transition, and upon resettlement in Canada (Stewart et al. 2019). This lack of opportunity to attend school and traumatic experiences presents daunting challenges for refugee-background students and their teachers who may lack resources and preparation to meet their complex needs (Stewart et al., 2019). This study seeks to contribute to better understandings in this area through its exploration of what an expert el…
has type: Thesis/Dissertation
date issued: 2021-05
is shown at: 10.14288/1.0395412
language: eng
degree discipline: Teaching English as a Second Language
provider: Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
publisher: University of British Columbia
rights: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
rights URI: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
scholar level: Graduate
type: Text
identifier URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/76903