Browsing by Author "Priolo, Alissa"

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    Attending to the Needs of Newcomer Youth: A Collective Case Study of School Integration
    (2021-08-23) Priolo, Alissa; Kassan, Anusha; Zaidi, Rahat; Goopy, Suzanne
    In recent years, scholars have been calling for more innovative research in the area of immigration. Specifically, they are challenging the common acculturation strategies often used to describe the experiences of newcomer youth. Newcomer youth themselves have described school as a primary arena influencing their post-migration experiences. However, comprehensive reports continue to reveal unjust educational practices that place newcomer youth at risk of school disengagement. In response, this body of work focuses on the phenomenon of school integration. School integration represents a new point of entry to explore the adjustment of newcomer youth across all aspects of student life. This includes language acquisition, academic performance, classroom behaviour, social networking, identity negotiation, emotional and familial well-being, involvement in school life, and understanding of the academic system.A social constructionist epistemology, incorporating an integrated social justice lens, guided a collective case study within a single high school in Alberta. This inquiry was guided by the following overarching research question: How do participants perceive and describe newcomer youths’ experiences integrating into high school? Consisting of three manuscripts, this dissertation critically explores the experiences of three stakeholder groups (i.e., newcomer students, teachers, and service providers), with the aim of systematically weaving together a more holistic narrative of the factors impacting school integration.Manuscript 1 highlights the voices and experiences of 13 newcomer youth who entered high school in Alberta and offers insight into the triumphs and perils they face within a singular high school setting. Manuscript 2 explores the perspectives of eight teachers who support newcomer students in their daily practices, three of whom teach English as an Additional Language (EAL) courses. Finally, Manuscript 3 centres on the perspectives of six services providers, including a vice principal, school guidance counsellors, settlement workers, and an at-risk youth coordinator.Taken together, the findings from the case study complement traditional immigration frameworks and offer systemic solutions to help improve the social, emotional, and academic transitions of newcomer youth as they enter a new school system. It pushes beyond multicultural initiatives and strives towards more socially just research, training, policies, and practices.
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    Investigating Migration through the Phenomenon of School Integration: Anaya’s Experience of Resettlement in Canada
    (2019-10) Kassan, Anusha; Priolo, Alissa; Goopy, Suzanne; Arthur, Nancy
    Using a social justice framework, this arts-based engagement ethnography (ABEE) investigated the phenomenon of school integration among newcomer youth who migrated to Canada. Defined broadly, this phenomenon captures the adjustment of newcomer youth across all aspects of student life – both inside and outside the school context, including English Language Leaning (ELL), academic performance, classroom behaviour, social networking, emotional and familial well-being, involvement in school life, and understanding of the educational system. Specifically, two research questions were investigated: 1) How do newcomer youth experience school? and 2) How do these experiences influence their positive integration into the school system? Results from one participant – Anaya, a 19-year-old cisgender female who migrated to Canada from India with her family at the age of 12 – are presented to illustrate the manner in which the phenomenon of school integration can be used as a point of entry to study migration. These result included the following five themes: 1) The Struggle to Fit In / “I regard myself as a social outsider”, 2) Managing Parental Expectations / “Our values started to clash”, 3) Implications of Self-Exploration / “I was kind of in the middle”; 4) Finding a Passion and Getting Involved / “I became a lot more friendly”, and 4) Embracing a Multicultural Identity / “I am reembracing my heritage.”