Crystena A . H . Parker-Shandal | University of Waterloo (original) (raw)
Books by Crystena A . H . Parker-Shandal
As communities around the world continue to attract international immigrants, schools have become... more As communities around the world continue to attract international immigrants, schools have become centers for learning how to engage with people’s multiple ethnic and cultural origins. Ethnocultural minority immigrant students carry diverse histories and perspectives—which can serve as resources for critical reflection about social conflicts. These students’ identities need to be included in the curriculum so that diversity and conflictual issues can be openly discussed.
Immigrant children embody the many issues confronting today’s youth in a global, transnational, and interconnected world. Drawing on in-depth empirical case studies, this book explores the classroom experiences of these children. Varying in social and cultural capital, they contend with social and cultural conflict influenced not only by global politics and familial prejudices, but also by structural exclusion in Western curricula.
In democratic peacebuilding education, diverse students express divergent points of view in open, inclusive dialogue. Negotiating their multiple identities, such children develop skills for managing and responding to that conflict, thereby acquiring tools to challenge dominant hegemonic systems of oppression and control later in life.
In vivid classroom depictions, the reader learns of many outcomes: Young, quiet, and marginalized voices were heard. Dialogic pedagogies encouraged cooperation among students and strengthened class communities. What is more, the implicit and explicit curricula implemented in these diverse classrooms served to shape how students interpreted democracy in multicultural Canada.
The diverse experiences of the young people and teachers in this book illuminate the innermost landscapes of multicultural classrooms, providing deep insight into the social and cultural challenges and opportunities that ethnocultural minority children experience at school.
Papers by Crystena A . H . Parker-Shandal
Teaching and Learning Inquiry
This study examines the impact of students’ identities on how students participate in classroom d... more This study examines the impact of students’ identities on how students participate in classroom discussions in postsecondary courses. Participation in such discussions is known to increase students’ learning, but, despite this, little is known about how students’ identities influence how and whether they choose to participate. Drawn from a larger study on the experiences of postsecondary instructors and students, this article focuses on students’ perspectives and experiences. Survey data were collected from undergraduate students enrolled in an interdisciplinary undergraduate program. Students’ race, religion, gender, and their first- or continuing-generation university status were found to have varying influences on their participation in classroom discussions. Most students with marginalized identities opted out of actively participating in discussions about contentious or sociopolitical topics. This study suggests that inclusive approaches to classroom discussion can be useful in...
Teaching and Teacher Education
Refugees and Canada 21 spark deep reflection upon, dialogue with, and activism over how refugees ... more Refugees and Canada 21 spark deep reflection upon, dialogue with, and activism over how refugees are supported, integrated, and included in Canada.
Comparative and International Education, 2016
Theory and Research in Education
Journal of Moral Education
Restorative justice pedagogies, such as dialogue or peacemaking circles, allow students to learn ... more Restorative justice pedagogies, such as dialogue or peacemaking circles, allow students to learn how to share and listen with peers, set boundaries for moral dialogue, and engage constructively with each other's perspectives. This study is part of a larger project focused on teachers' professional development and circle implementation. The focus of this article is on one teacher's approach to using circles in teaching her intermediate health curriculum unit, situated in a school with a strong restorative justice initiative. In this restorative classroom, dialogue was integrated into regularly enacted academic as well as interpersonal curriculum; this interrupted, or at times reaffirmed, the status quo. Data includes classroom observations, professional development observations, teacher and student interviews, and a reflective researcher journal. Dialogue enacted in this classroom illustrated moral issues students grappled with, relating to sexual health, inclusive sexual identities, and sociocultural relationships. Results illustrated how the teacher's pedagogical choices transmitted values and shaped opportunities for critical dialogue, and that students' social and cultural capital impacted how certain topics were discussed.
Comparative and International Education
Applied Theatre Research
Understanding generational diversity has important implications for building capacities for devel... more Understanding generational diversity has important implications for building capacities for developing healthy intergenerational relations and social cohesion, and for challenging oppression. Preparing young people in urban communities to understand and empathize with older adults could have lasting benefits for engaging community members and families to come together to transform culturally divided urban spaces. This qualitative research project drew on arts-based approaches to examine how dialogue between youth and older adults in a community-based theatre education program sought to lessen intergenerational and intercultural divides. While forum theatre is widely used to challenge oppression, this article considers how it could also lead to further exclusion of marginalized voices, if facilitators and participants are both inadequately prepared to engage in dialogue. It offers practical suggestions for community educators in diverse urban settings, particularly in the use and application of the arts.
Journal of Teaching and Learning
Teaching, in settings with globalized migrant populations, does not automatically lead to peace. ... more Teaching, in settings with globalized migrant populations, does not automatically lead to peace. For example, social conflict and exclusion may be exacerbated when Othering narratives (in interpersonal interaction or curriculum texts) are not contested. However, paradoxically, in pedagogies that do invite discussion of conflicting viewpoints, marginalized students may be reluctant to voice divergent perspectives, or may be treated disrespectfully. We probed this puzzle through an exploratory quantitative and qualitative survey of how 68 novice teachers approached conflict and ethnocultural diversity in their classrooms. Most expressed some confidence in their capacities to address conflict, though many reported feeling alone, intimidated, or unwilling to engage students in constructive conflict talk. Several emphasized that responding to students’ diversities was an important part of their conflict management, while others said they treated all students the same way. Most said they ...
FIRE: Forum for International Research in Education
In 2015, Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) documented 94 callsto-action in relat... more In 2015, Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) documented 94 callsto-action in relation to the institutional and debilitating legacy of the Indian Residential School System towards Indigenous culture, language, identity, and knowledge in order to actualize reconciliation between Indigenous peoples and Canada. In it, Justice Murray Sinclair explained that education caused much of the problem but is also part of the solution. Concurrently, the Ontario Human Rights Code (OHRC) updated its policy on preventing discrimination based on creed that includes religious and non-religious systems that influence a person's identity, worldview, and lifestyle. In accordance, drawing on a framework of peace education, we present religious literacy and spirituality as pedagogy as potential responses to concerns raised by the TRC and OHRC, and as a means to inform and dialogue about Indigenous cultures and spirituality that have been silenced from public education for centuries. Thus, we reflect on further opportunities towards reconciliation and pathways to peace education in Ontario.
Journal of Teaching and Learning
This study is concerned with how children conceptualize their cultural identity, and how this con... more This study is concerned with how children conceptualize their cultural identity, and how this conceptualization may impact their learning and socialization at school. It explores how students’ self-concept and perception of others can develop through investigations of their own cultural and ethnic backgrounds while situating their familial history within the multicultural city in which they live. Participants in this study, a class of 29 grade four students in the Greater Toronto Area, conducted online research, interviewed relatives, and created family trees to learn about their cultural heritage and gain a better understanding of themselves and their family’s history. The following paper provides an in-depth case study of three of these participants. Insights into their experiences and learnings as they engaged in this process of cultural investigation are explored and implications for policy and practice are identified.
Theory & Research in Social Education, 2016
Abstract This qualitative study used classroom observations, teacher and student interviews, and ... more Abstract This qualitative study used classroom observations, teacher and student interviews, and document analysis to examine the degree to which peacebuilding dialogue processes were implemented in 3 elementary school classrooms and how diverse students, particularly newcomer immigrants, experienced these pedagogies. The study critically examines how ethnocultural minority immigrant students aged 9 to 13 responded to conflictual issues pedagogies and discussions and how such pedagogies facilitated inclusive spaces for all students to participate in the curricula. The study’s results show that when content was explicitly linked to students’ identities and experiences, opportunities for democratic peacebuilding inclusion increased. In this research, diverse students’ classroom participation was influenced by various peacebuilding pedagogies, particularly when teachers engaged with conflictual issues in ways that encouraged students to develop acceptance and empathy for other perspectives. Using peacebuilding dialogue pedagogies to guide curriculum engagement with alternative viewpoints may contribute to diverse students’ inclusion in the classroom.
International Journal of Peace Studies
ABSTRACT
Conflict Resolution Quarterly, 2015
ABSTRACT
Choice Reviews Online, 2007
As communities around the world continue to attract international immigrants, schools have become... more As communities around the world continue to attract international immigrants, schools have become centers for learning how to engage with people’s multiple ethnic and cultural origins. Ethnocultural minority immigrant students carry diverse histories and perspectives—which can serve as resources for critical reflection about social conflicts. These students’ identities need to be included in the curriculum so that diversity and conflictual issues can be openly discussed.
Immigrant children embody the many issues confronting today’s youth in a global, transnational, and interconnected world. Drawing on in-depth empirical case studies, this book explores the classroom experiences of these children. Varying in social and cultural capital, they contend with social and cultural conflict influenced not only by global politics and familial prejudices, but also by structural exclusion in Western curricula.
In democratic peacebuilding education, diverse students express divergent points of view in open, inclusive dialogue. Negotiating their multiple identities, such children develop skills for managing and responding to that conflict, thereby acquiring tools to challenge dominant hegemonic systems of oppression and control later in life.
In vivid classroom depictions, the reader learns of many outcomes: Young, quiet, and marginalized voices were heard. Dialogic pedagogies encouraged cooperation among students and strengthened class communities. What is more, the implicit and explicit curricula implemented in these diverse classrooms served to shape how students interpreted democracy in multicultural Canada.
The diverse experiences of the young people and teachers in this book illuminate the innermost landscapes of multicultural classrooms, providing deep insight into the social and cultural challenges and opportunities that ethnocultural minority children experience at school.
Teaching and Learning Inquiry
This study examines the impact of students’ identities on how students participate in classroom d... more This study examines the impact of students’ identities on how students participate in classroom discussions in postsecondary courses. Participation in such discussions is known to increase students’ learning, but, despite this, little is known about how students’ identities influence how and whether they choose to participate. Drawn from a larger study on the experiences of postsecondary instructors and students, this article focuses on students’ perspectives and experiences. Survey data were collected from undergraduate students enrolled in an interdisciplinary undergraduate program. Students’ race, religion, gender, and their first- or continuing-generation university status were found to have varying influences on their participation in classroom discussions. Most students with marginalized identities opted out of actively participating in discussions about contentious or sociopolitical topics. This study suggests that inclusive approaches to classroom discussion can be useful in...
Teaching and Teacher Education
Refugees and Canada 21 spark deep reflection upon, dialogue with, and activism over how refugees ... more Refugees and Canada 21 spark deep reflection upon, dialogue with, and activism over how refugees are supported, integrated, and included in Canada.
Comparative and International Education, 2016
Theory and Research in Education
Journal of Moral Education
Restorative justice pedagogies, such as dialogue or peacemaking circles, allow students to learn ... more Restorative justice pedagogies, such as dialogue or peacemaking circles, allow students to learn how to share and listen with peers, set boundaries for moral dialogue, and engage constructively with each other's perspectives. This study is part of a larger project focused on teachers' professional development and circle implementation. The focus of this article is on one teacher's approach to using circles in teaching her intermediate health curriculum unit, situated in a school with a strong restorative justice initiative. In this restorative classroom, dialogue was integrated into regularly enacted academic as well as interpersonal curriculum; this interrupted, or at times reaffirmed, the status quo. Data includes classroom observations, professional development observations, teacher and student interviews, and a reflective researcher journal. Dialogue enacted in this classroom illustrated moral issues students grappled with, relating to sexual health, inclusive sexual identities, and sociocultural relationships. Results illustrated how the teacher's pedagogical choices transmitted values and shaped opportunities for critical dialogue, and that students' social and cultural capital impacted how certain topics were discussed.
Comparative and International Education
Applied Theatre Research
Understanding generational diversity has important implications for building capacities for devel... more Understanding generational diversity has important implications for building capacities for developing healthy intergenerational relations and social cohesion, and for challenging oppression. Preparing young people in urban communities to understand and empathize with older adults could have lasting benefits for engaging community members and families to come together to transform culturally divided urban spaces. This qualitative research project drew on arts-based approaches to examine how dialogue between youth and older adults in a community-based theatre education program sought to lessen intergenerational and intercultural divides. While forum theatre is widely used to challenge oppression, this article considers how it could also lead to further exclusion of marginalized voices, if facilitators and participants are both inadequately prepared to engage in dialogue. It offers practical suggestions for community educators in diverse urban settings, particularly in the use and application of the arts.
Journal of Teaching and Learning
Teaching, in settings with globalized migrant populations, does not automatically lead to peace. ... more Teaching, in settings with globalized migrant populations, does not automatically lead to peace. For example, social conflict and exclusion may be exacerbated when Othering narratives (in interpersonal interaction or curriculum texts) are not contested. However, paradoxically, in pedagogies that do invite discussion of conflicting viewpoints, marginalized students may be reluctant to voice divergent perspectives, or may be treated disrespectfully. We probed this puzzle through an exploratory quantitative and qualitative survey of how 68 novice teachers approached conflict and ethnocultural diversity in their classrooms. Most expressed some confidence in their capacities to address conflict, though many reported feeling alone, intimidated, or unwilling to engage students in constructive conflict talk. Several emphasized that responding to students’ diversities was an important part of their conflict management, while others said they treated all students the same way. Most said they ...
FIRE: Forum for International Research in Education
In 2015, Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) documented 94 callsto-action in relat... more In 2015, Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) documented 94 callsto-action in relation to the institutional and debilitating legacy of the Indian Residential School System towards Indigenous culture, language, identity, and knowledge in order to actualize reconciliation between Indigenous peoples and Canada. In it, Justice Murray Sinclair explained that education caused much of the problem but is also part of the solution. Concurrently, the Ontario Human Rights Code (OHRC) updated its policy on preventing discrimination based on creed that includes religious and non-religious systems that influence a person's identity, worldview, and lifestyle. In accordance, drawing on a framework of peace education, we present religious literacy and spirituality as pedagogy as potential responses to concerns raised by the TRC and OHRC, and as a means to inform and dialogue about Indigenous cultures and spirituality that have been silenced from public education for centuries. Thus, we reflect on further opportunities towards reconciliation and pathways to peace education in Ontario.
Journal of Teaching and Learning
This study is concerned with how children conceptualize their cultural identity, and how this con... more This study is concerned with how children conceptualize their cultural identity, and how this conceptualization may impact their learning and socialization at school. It explores how students’ self-concept and perception of others can develop through investigations of their own cultural and ethnic backgrounds while situating their familial history within the multicultural city in which they live. Participants in this study, a class of 29 grade four students in the Greater Toronto Area, conducted online research, interviewed relatives, and created family trees to learn about their cultural heritage and gain a better understanding of themselves and their family’s history. The following paper provides an in-depth case study of three of these participants. Insights into their experiences and learnings as they engaged in this process of cultural investigation are explored and implications for policy and practice are identified.
Theory & Research in Social Education, 2016
Abstract This qualitative study used classroom observations, teacher and student interviews, and ... more Abstract This qualitative study used classroom observations, teacher and student interviews, and document analysis to examine the degree to which peacebuilding dialogue processes were implemented in 3 elementary school classrooms and how diverse students, particularly newcomer immigrants, experienced these pedagogies. The study critically examines how ethnocultural minority immigrant students aged 9 to 13 responded to conflictual issues pedagogies and discussions and how such pedagogies facilitated inclusive spaces for all students to participate in the curricula. The study’s results show that when content was explicitly linked to students’ identities and experiences, opportunities for democratic peacebuilding inclusion increased. In this research, diverse students’ classroom participation was influenced by various peacebuilding pedagogies, particularly when teachers engaged with conflictual issues in ways that encouraged students to develop acceptance and empathy for other perspectives. Using peacebuilding dialogue pedagogies to guide curriculum engagement with alternative viewpoints may contribute to diverse students’ inclusion in the classroom.
International Journal of Peace Studies
ABSTRACT
Conflict Resolution Quarterly, 2015
ABSTRACT
Choice Reviews Online, 2007
Theory & Research in Social Education, 2014
ABSTRACT