Community Connections (Asynchronous Session)
Towards the Inclusion of #Blasians #Hafus #Daburus : Black Hafus’ Identities and Engaged Embodied Practices On-and-Off-line View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Maiko Le Lay
In this paper, I present an overview of my work on the identities and embodied practices of Black Hafu people (Black and ethnically half Japanese). More specifically, I offer a few examples of socially engaged social media posts, videos, and performances created and published by Black Hafus globally and analyze how they use various social media platforms and contents to combat racial injustice and discriminations and promote racial and ethnic diversity. I start by giving some background context on the politics of being biracial Black and Japanese as well as a list of relevant terminologies, movements, and online spaces existing today. I continue by discussing the diverse racial politics associated with being mixed-race Black and Japanese by elaborating on the tensions, navigation, and negotiation that Black Hafus can experience on-and off-line. Indeed, we see how Black Hafus’ identities and embodied practices differ greatly depending on their socio-cultural setting and therefore countries, communities, and institutions. Finally, I end the paper with examples of the ways Black Hafus circulate Blackness, Hafuness, and messages of hope through their embodied performances on-and-offline.
Rethinking Resilience: A Quantitative Study of the Experiences of Refugee and Immigrant Youth in Montreal View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Charles Gyan
Canada and many other countries offer permanent resettlement to a limited number of refugees each year. In 2017, Canada received 44,000 refugees who were resettled as permanent residents. Due to rising conflict in many parts of the world, a notable increase in the number of refugees to Canada is expected. Although permanent resettlement allows for immigrants and refugees to live in a safer place, they must still cope with any premigration traumatic experiences, as well as the hardships of establishing a new life in a different social and cultural environment. For young people, these challenges are often intensified as they work to overcome major school adjustments, social challenges, and acculturative stress. In Canada, most mental health agencies heavily focus their services for refugee and immigrant youth on enhancing resilience in response to trauma. Despite the agencies' focus on resilience, there have not been efforts to upstream measures and policy that enhance refugee and immigrant youth’s resilience. Resiliency of refugee and immigrant youth is often associated with their assimilation into the Western culture such as learning the dominant language and integrating into the dominant culture. This conceptualization of resiliency is insensitive to cultural, religious, and social factors that contextualize their definition of resilience. This research focuses on the preliminary findings of a quantitative study that explored how resilience is conceptualized and assessed for refugee and immigrant youth and their experiences with mental health services and interventions which are geared towards fostering resilience in Montreal.
Designing Workshops on Civic Culture for Inclusive Transmedia Storytelling View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Ismael Cardozo Rivera, Aurora Madariaga
Active learning revolves around experiences that involve as many senses as possible. Pedagogical activities are therefore usually designed using visual, sound, and audio-visual tools, among others. But what happens when these activities are carried out with children with a visual or hearing impairment? And just to go a bit further: How can civic culture be addressed in a way that not only stimulates meaningful learning, but also enables the construction of a transmedia narrative? This study seeks to formulate a series of active-learning based activities that not only allow children with visual or hearing disabilities to recognise civic culture, but also help them to relate it to their own daily experiences; and that, in turn, serve as input for the subsequent creation of an inclusive transmedia storytelling approach. It starts with a theoretical review based on active learning and inclusion, and then goes on to describe the ‘Peace is my Story’ project conducted by the Secretariat for Peace and Citizen Culture of the Mayor's Office of Santiago de Cali, Colombia (‘La Paz es mi Cuento’ de la Secretaría de Paz y Cultura Ciudadana de la Alcaldía de Santiago de Cali, Colombia). This is followed by a description of how the workshops were restructured by relying on inclusive active learning on civic culture. This should be conducive to creating outcomes that lead to the future development of an inclusive transmedia storytelling approach.
Diversity Management and Intercultural Training for Social Workers: An Example of Intervention in the Italian Healthcare and Reception System View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Stella Pinna Pintor, Roberta Ricucci
Contemporary society, characterized by strong demographic and social changes, brings with it the emergence of new challenges, such as the integration of the increasing migrant population. Among the various challenges, there is a need to update social workers’ skills for more effective management of the relationship with foreign citizens. In response to this, diversity management training practices are an innovative tool for the enhancement of intercultural competencies, which allows addressing with greater cultural awareness the different needs of the service users. This contribution focuses on an intervention carried out in Italy in the health care and reception systems, using intercultural training as the main tool. The training was addressed to social workers and operators working at the local level, both in public and private services. In particular, the intervention aims to respond to the organizational needs, with regard to the management of particularly vulnerable cases: asylum seekers with mental or addictive health problems, both minors and adults. Different disciplines were involved – with a multidisciplinary approach – and the method of concrete case analysis has prevailed. This method allows addressing the issues starting from the daily work experience of the operators, promoting an operational confrontation. The trainees were assigned to sub-working groups with a criterion of heterogeneity of professional roles, so as to ensure the exchange of expertise. This frame of the intervention has enabled us to achieve another fundamental goal for a more effective reception system: the implementation of the service network.
Minority Teachers Dealing with Diversity in Times of COVID-19: The Case of Arab Teachers in Israel View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Rawan Sabbah Munayer
The study focuses on diversity in educational institutions, and suggests a framework for exploring perceptions of and approaches toward diversity in schools. The purpose of the research is to investigate teachers’ approaches and perspectives toward diversity in the classroom, in the Arab minority sector in Israel. The research covers teachers dealing with religious diversity, gender diversity and cognitive abilities amongst students. This research examines the relationship between teachers’ psychological and professional variables, such as: personality traits, authoritarianism, cognitive closure, teaching style and organisational culture of the school, and teachers’ approaches toward diversity. The research suggests how dealing with diversity is related to: (1) Teacher Well-Being and (2) Teacher Burnout. In addition, the research deals with teachers' approaches toward diversity during the e-learning in times of COVID-19. A mixed method methodology was conducted in this research: Part A: A quantitative study that focuses on the perceptions and attitudes of teachers toward diversity through questionnaire. Part B: A qualitative study aimed at identifying and characterizing the coping strategies of teachers with diversity with a special focus on diversity in site of COVID-19. The conceptualization and methodology of the DOPA model that is used in this research can contribute to the theoretical and practical understanding of diversity in organizations in general and at schools in particular, for research and the mapping of diversity. In addition, the study may serve as an empirical basis for building intervention programs, developing professional skills and assisting teachers in coping with heterogeneous student populations and the challenges involved.
