Susan M. Brigham

Internationally Educated Female Teachers Who Have Immigrated to Nova Scotia: A Research/Performance Text

This research/performance text emerged from a study involving internationally educated female teachers who have immigrated to Atlantic Canada. The text features the words and artwork of the research participants as well as excerpts from newspapers, academic writing, and documents about immigration in Nova Scotia juxtaposed so as to foreground the complexity of the womens immigration and integration experiences. Introductory comments provide contextual information about the research project, the participants, and the evolution of, as well as rationale for, the text as performance piece.

Internationally Educated Female Teachers' Transformative Lifelong Learning Experiences: Rethinking the Immigrant Experience through an Arts-Informed Group Process.

This article is based on two phases of a five year arts-informed study that involved 24 women who immigrated to Maritime Canada as adults and who were all teachers in their countries of origin. In groups of approximately six, research participants gathered together in workshops held in two teacher training institutions in two Maritime Provinces over a period of several months to critically reflect on teaching and learning, as well as immigration experiences. In the workshops the women, along with two researchers/workshop leaders, one of whom was the author, engaged in writing, story telling, art-making, dialogue, and critical reflection. Drawing on the theory of transformative learning I analyse the research data presented in two vignettes. The workshop practices, methods, and materials engaged the participants in the imaginative domain and in the exploration of multiple modes of knowledge construction and dimensions of identity.

Learning to Listen An Analysis of Applying the Listening Guide to Reflection Papers

The Listening Guide (LG) is a relational, voice-centered method to analyzing qualitative research data. This article provides an account of how the LG was modified for a study that examined personal critical reflection papers written by 27 fourth-year dietetics university students after they participated in an arts-informed module on body image in a dietetics professional practice course. By relying on the main principles of the LG, we demonstrate how the LG can help us to listen and hear previously unnoticed and underappreciated voices. The purpose of this article is to serve as a source of guidance and support for researchers looking to implement the LG method beyond its original purpose, which was for transcribed interviews.

Filipino Overseas Domestic Workers: Contradictions, Resistance, and Implications for Change

Today close to half of the world’s migrants are women and their numbers are rising (Morrison et al., 2007). Indeed ‘women are on the move as never before in history’ (Ehrenreich & Hochschild, 2002, p. 2). In 2010, the female migration flow was estimated to comprise over 104 million women out of the total estimated 213 million international migrants (UN, 2008). Many women follow a migration flow that their country folk have taken over time, and others are forging new paths—clandestine and legal. Like those who migrated before them, they hope that migration will provide opportunities for education and employment, and allow them to support their families financially, and in some cases escape the hierarchical structures and discriminatory practices and policies in their post-independence home countries.

What participatory photography can tell us about immigrant and refugee women’s learning in Atlantic Canada

Abstract Migration is a gendered phenomenon, embedded within patriarchal structures and social relations that extend beyond State borders. We draw on a transnational feminist framework to explore the gendered dimensions of young refugee and immigrant women’s migration and learning experiences. Ten women were involved in a participatory photography research project over a period of two years in which they took and shared photographs, and engaged in storytelling and self-reflection through writing and dialogue. Through the photo-stories, the women demonstrate the plurality of refugees’ and immigrants’ stories and how these contribute to the larger social analysis of what it is to be an immigrant or refugee woman in Atlantic Canada. We focus this paper on three key themes: (1) formal and informal learning experiences; (2) the essential role relationships play in the women’s migration experiences; and (3) the importance of reflecting on and embracing life’s journeys.

Race and Well-being: The Lives, Hopes, and Activism of African Canadians (review)

This book fills a gap in research that focuses specifically on one of the largest racialized groups in Canada, African Canadians. The authors define the term “African Canadian” as a diverse group which includes Canadian-born Blacks (i.e., third generation and more), firstor second-generation Blacks of Caribbean descent, and firstor second-generation Black immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa. The research data were gathered in three cities: Halifax, Calgary, and Toronto, a small, medium, and large city, respectively. The key research questions addressed in the book are: