Natasha Blanchet-Cohen | Concordia University (Canada) (original) (raw)

Papers by Natasha Blanchet-Cohen

À la démarche ont participé jeunes de à 17 ans de différentes organisations locales (voir Tableau... more À la démarche ont participé jeunes de à 17 ans de différentes organisations locales (voir Tableau 1) : Centre communautaire Walkley : cet organisme à but non lucratif basé dans le quartier Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, est le fruit d'une collaboration entre la Ville de Montréal, Prévention NDG et le Comité Jeunesse NDG. Centre François-Michelle : cette école accueille des jeunes ayant une déficience intellectuelle légère et dont le potentiel est ralenti par une atteinte neurologique ou physiologique, un problème de langage, de perception ou de motricité. C-Vert Mercier-Hochelaga-Maisonneuve : ce programme d'écologie urbaine des YMCA du Québec vise à former de jeunes leaders environnementaux de 14 à 16 ans grâce à des projets concrets dans la communauté. C-Vert MHM est un des 7 groupes C-Vert du Québec. Groupe de jeunes réfugiés syriens : il s'agit d'un groupe d'élèves de l'école secondaire Pierre-Laporte, constitué dans le cadre du programme de sensibilisation aux études, à l'université et à la recherche (SEUR), parrainé par l'Université de Montréal. Maison Saint Columba : cet organisme établi à Pointe-Saint-Charles fait promotion de la justice par le biais du développement de l'autonomie personnelle et collective, de l'éducation et de l'action sociale. École primaire St. Willibrord : cette école de la commission scolaire New Frontiers se trouve à Châteauguay, sur la rive sud de Montréal avec une forte représentation d'élèves autochtones.

The International Journal of Children's Rights, Jun 6, 2022

What is the meaning of 'appropriate' methods for empowering children in designing curriculum? Con... more What is the meaning of 'appropriate' methods for empowering children in designing curriculum? Conceptualizing empowerment • Typology of participation recognizes that there are degree of involvement-ladder of participation (Hart, 1997), participation as a function of opportunities (Shier, 2001); a function of youth/adult control (Wong Zimmerman and Parker's; 2010). • Underlying this study was an understanding of the multidimensional nature of participation-beyond that of merely giving 'voice' (Lundy, 2007) : Space: Children must be given the opportunity to express a view Voice: Children must be facilitated to express their views Audience: The view must be listened to Influence: The view must be acted upon as appropriate Methods • Issue of access greatly facilitated by the context: schools, a community-based environmental organization and a university research team involved in creating a child-informed multicultural environmental education curriculum • Research conducted in three elementary schools located in a district in Montreal where immigrants and nonpermanent residents comprise 67.6% of the population with low SES. Students high cultural diversity • 98 grade 4 to 6 children participated (54% girls 46% boys) for a total of 15 'focus groups' which lasted 1.5 hrs (two class periods) • Refer to 'focus groups' to collectively create shared meaning and knowledge (Krueger & Cassey, 2009) but design critical Dominant Themes Creating Spaces Establishing the relationship Being mindful Pacing Giving voice Diversify format Imaginative what 'if questions' 'Dotmocracy' adapted Providing for audience Peer group Recognition of contribution Having influence Defined curriculum approach « R. Comment veux-tu que l'enseignant soit? P1: Joyeux. P2: Quand on joue on trouve que c'est pas plate du tout. T'as de la joie et t'es content. » !

Action Research, Oct 8, 2014

This article considers environmental projects as means for engaging elementary school-aged immigr... more This article considers environmental projects as means for engaging elementary school-aged immigrant children in their community. Based on an environmental research project with children aged 9–12 involved in their school’s Green Committee (GC), we identify multiple components for enabling meaningful children’s participation. Space was essential in creating a context for children to discover and express their voice. The combination of capacity-building and research activities as well as rapport-building between children, adults and the environment fostered care and ownership. Reaching out to a variety of audiences including peers and parents helped orient and strengthen the GC’s actions. The children were listened to but also actively sought and responded to audiences. Influence involved receiving external funding, completing landscaping of the school’s front courtyard as well as engagement with adults considering (or not) members’ views. The project showed that if supported by committed and facilitating adult educators these children remained motivated and that their process had the power to lead others into action and change. Children valued the socio-physical and aesthetic aspects of the environment, and furthermore, their engagement provided them with a sense of belonging. The GC experience itself illustrates how an action research project that involves a small group of children can serve as a model to create meaningful participation of children and broader partnerships in schools on collective interests.

Sociological Studies of Children and Youth

This chapter examines how young people relate to and engage with their city. Framed by a sociolog... more This chapter examines how young people relate to and engage with their city. Framed by a sociological approach to childhood, we assert that young people are competent social actors, living a complex relationship with their urban environment, while facing paternalism. The study draws on participatory activities including focus group discussions, neighbourhood walks, city mapping and song and video creation with 54 youth aged 9–17 years from six areas of Montreal (Canada). Our findings point to young people’s mixed experiences and views of Montreal. On the one hand, the city is experienced as unwelcoming, excluding, homogenising and stressful. Among recreational facilities, mental health services and venues to hang out, there is little that meets youth’s specific needs and aspirations. They also pointed out the inequalities across neighbourhoods, pressures to fit into uniformising models, the limitations of gender roles and a lack of support from adults. On the other hand, youth are responding to and shaping their environment by seeking belonging in the city. They question the inequalities and homogenising forces, seek meaning in places and community and value relationships and diversity. We contend that moving towards child–youth friendly cities calls for better listening to youth to enhance the type of opportunities that reflect their needs and aspirations, while providing for inclusive cities that feature alternative forms of citizenship, accessibility to local places, diversity and community.

Canadian Journal of Program Evaluation

This article focuses on developmental evaluation, based on an action research study involving a g... more This article focuses on developmental evaluation, based on an action research study involving a group of developmental evaluators in a three-year comprehensive community initiative on youth and community change. The study presents ve practices found central to the art of the nudge: (a) practicing servant leadership, (b) sensing program energy, (c) supporting common spaces, (d) untying knots iteratively, and (e) paying attention to structure. These practices can help developmental evaluators detect and support opportunities for learning and adaptation leading to right-timed feedback. Résumé : Cet article se penche sur le concept d'évaluation de développement, dans le cadre d'une étude recherche-action menée durant trois ans lors d'une initiative communautaire étendue au sujet des jeunes et le changement communautaire. L'étude présente cinq pratiques centrales pour développer « l'art de la persuasion » : (a) mettre son leadership au service des autres, (b) se montrer sensible à l'énergie du programme, (c) soutenir les espaces communs, (d) défaire les « noeuds » de façon itérative, et (e) poser une attention particulière à la structure. Ces pratiques peuvent aider les évaluateurs de développement à décerner et soutenir les opportunités d'apprentissage et d'adaptation, et à élaborer la rétroaction opportune.

Children, Youth and Environments

O SOCIAL EM QUESTÃO

This article considers how decolonial learnings can contribute to (re)imagining children's partic... more This article considers how decolonial learnings can contribute to (re)imagining children's participatory rights. We first situate decolonial learning and its relation to children's participation. We then explore some implications as it relates to the connection between children's participation rights and other key articles in the UNCRC, namely three guiding principles of the convention: non-discrimination (article 2); best interests (article 3); and right to life, survival, and development (article 6). As part of deconstructing the ways participatory rights have been shaped by colonizing projects and to explore alternative ways of thinking and doing, we offer some probing questions designed to redirect and shape a (re)imagining of children's participation.

Revue des sciences de l'éducation

Enfance en difficulté

Le présent article mobilise les voix de jeunes Innus fréquentant les écoles publiques québécoises... more Le présent article mobilise les voix de jeunes Innus fréquentant les écoles publiques québécoises de la Côte-Nord afin d’aborder la participation des jeunes et le bien-être des élèves dans un contexte de diversité sociale et culturelle en éducation. À partir de huit groupes de discussion menés avec un total de 18 jeunes ayant récemment terminé l’école ou la fréquentant encore, nous présentons le vécu des jeunes à l’école en rapport avec leur culture, ainsi que leurs visions de la réussite éducative et du mieux-être holistique. Ressentant une pression pour une adaptation à sens unique et ne se sentant pas à leur place, les jeunes ont soulevé avoir besoin d’être mieux compris, et ils insistent sur l’importance de la dimension relationnelle dans la sécurisation culturelle. Le concept innu demenuinniunreprésente justement la sécurité et le soutien auxquels aspirent les jeunes.

The International Journal of Children’s Rights

This article examines the potential of human rights education (hre) for youth engagement in promo... more This article examines the potential of human rights education (hre) for youth engagement in promoting human rights and children’s rights for diversity and inclusion. The retrospective study of Speaking Rights, a programme implemented by a community-based organisation for over a decade across Canada, presents the outreach, outcome and approach of youth-led community action projects (cap s). The accessible, practical, relational and reflective approach was generative. The iterative and multi-pronged work provided opportunities for broad outreach and awareness amongst a range of youth-serving organisations. We discuss the transformative prospects of the cap s as illustrative of a broadening of children’s rights and a renewal of hre, along with the limitations of bringing the emancipatory nature of hre to scale, and the need to allow for a critical stance throughout the hre process that includes supporting disruptive spaces to meaningfully tackle injustices.

First Peoples Child & Family Review, Dec 3, 2020

This article presents the process and contributions of the Witcihitisotan committee (mutual help ... more This article presents the process and contributions of the Witcihitisotan committee (mutual help in Atikamekw), implemented by parents of teenagers in a Native Friendship Center in Quebec. To this day, adequate forms of support for Indigenous adolescent families remain under-documented, which represents a gap, considering the particular issues experienced by Aboriginal youth in urban areas. Analysis of the documents from 14 months of the committee's meetings showed three interdependent and complementary forms of support: the committee meetings allow parents to “express” themselves (to exchange and share advice); to “engage” with one another (to listen to each other to help on the path towards healing); and to “envision” their community living their culture in the city. Implementing an approach similar to that of storytelling, the committee offers an intergenerational place to appreciate, strengthen and heal, providing for the collective learning of families towards the (re)appropriation of parenting skills and community wellbeing. The opportunity to come together in an emotionally and culturally safe place is an integral part of the strength-based decolonizing approach. This case study demonstrates the importance of fostering peer support and having a collective space that is responsive to the needs of the group. This type of initiative helps in improving parent-youth relationships and better communication and self-awareness, which would be unattainable with the often predetermined and deficit-based approaches brought in by outside experts.Cet article présente le processus et les apports du comité Witcihitisotan (entraide, en atikamekw), mis en oeuvre par des parents d’adolescents dans un Centre d’amitié autochtone au Québec. À ce jour, les formes de soutien adéquates pour les familles d’adolescents autochtones demeurent sousdocumentées, ce qui représente une lacune, considérant les ruptures et transitions particulières vécues par les jeunes autochtones en milieu urbain. L’analyse de la documentation des 14 mois d’activité du comité fait émerger trois formes de soutien interdépendantes et complémentaires : le comité permet de « se dire », pour échanger et partager des conseils entre parents ; de « se raconter », où l’écoute permet de cheminer vers la guérison ; et de « se projeter », afin de s’exprimer sur la façon de vivre sa culture en ville. Mettant en oeuvre une approche semblable à celle du storytelling, le comité offre un lieu intergénérationnel de valorisation, de renforcement et d’autoguérison qui soutient l’apprentissage collectif des familles vers la réappropriation de compétences parentales et un mieux-être de la communauté. L’occasion de se rassembler dans un lieu émotionnellement et culturellement sécuritaire fait partie intégrante de l’approche décolonisante axée sur les forces. Cette étude de cas démontre l’importance de stimuler l’entraide entre pairs et de se moduler aux besoins du groupe. Ce type d’initiative permet de cheminer vers une amélioration des relations parent-jeune et une meilleure communication et connaissance de soi, qui seraient irréalisables par l’intermédiaire des approches apportées par des experts extérieurs, qui sont souvent préformatées et centrées sur les lacunes

This report describes an interim data gathering process conducted in Burundi and Chad in 2015. Th... more This report describes an interim data gathering process conducted in Burundi and Chad in 2015. The research focused on community efforts to protect children and build social cohesion in countries undergoing conflict or in post conflict settings. The report is a precursor to capacity building tools that will aim to strengthen social cohesion by reinforcing non-formal, community based resilience. The project is supported by UNICEF’s Peacebuilding, Education and Advocacy Programme (PBEA) and led by the International Institute for Child Rights and Development (IICRD).

Canadian Journal of Children's Rights / Revue canadienne des droits des enfants, 2014

Each year, thousands of children enter Canada, fleeing from countries where there has been armed ... more Each year, thousands of children enter Canada, fleeing from countries where there has been armed conflict. In Quebec alone, between 1998 and 2007, 8 of the top 10 source countries for accepted refugees were war-affected nations, representing 34,838 people, including children. Yet, this group has been largely overlooked in Canadian research, policy and service provision. This paper traces the lived realities and resettlement experiences of a sample of war-affected children and youth living in Quebec who arrived accompanied by a parent or caregiver, alone as refugees, or without documented legal status, seeking asylum. Drawing upon in-depth interviews with 22 war-affected youth, the paper considers youth's perspectives on the lasting war-related distress experienced in Canada. The paper critically identifies the impact of the UNCRC on their lives in their countries of origin, in their resettlement to Canada, as well as Canada's role and obligations in meeting the needs and rig...

The International Journal of Children's Rights, Jun 6, 2022

Action Research, Oct 8, 2014

Sociological Studies of Children and Youth

Canadian Journal of Program Evaluation

Children, Youth and Environments

O SOCIAL EM QUESTÃO

Revue des sciences de l'éducation

Enfance en difficulté

The International Journal of Children’s Rights

First Peoples Child & Family Review, Dec 3, 2020

Canadian Journal of Children's Rights / Revue canadienne des droits des enfants, 2014

International Journal of Child, Youth & Family Studies, 2020

This special issue aims to explore Canadian pedagogical and curricular practices in child and you... more This special issue aims to explore Canadian pedagogical and curricular practices in child and youth care and youth work preservice education with an emphasis on empirical and applied studies that centre students¶ perspectives of learning. The issue includes a theoretical reflection and empirical studies with students, educators, and practitioners from a range of postsecondary programs in Quebec, Ontario, Alberta, and British Columbia. The empirical articles use various methodologies to explore pedagogical and curricular approaches, including Indigenous land- and water-based pedagogies, ethical settler frontline and teaching practices, the pedagogy of the lightning talk, novel-based pedagogy, situated learning, suicide prevention education, and simulation-based teaching. These advance our understanding of accountability and commitment to Indigenous, decolonial, critical, experiential, and participatory praxis in child and youth care postsecondary education. In expanding the state of knowledge about teaching and learning in child and youth care, we also aspire to validate interdisciplinary ways of learning and knowing, and to spark interest in future research that recognizes the need for education to be ethical, critically engaged, creatively experiential, and deeply culturally and environmentally relevant.