Meaning-making for South Asian immigrant women in Canada.
Published: 2004
Language: eng
Number of pages: 414
Subjects: South Asians -- Canada -- Social conditions.; Women immigrants -- Canada -- Social conditions.; English language -- Study and teaching -- Foreign speakers -- Social aspects.; Language and culture.; Abused women -- Canada -- Social conditions.
Description: My doctoral dissertation is a study in exploring ways of making LINC (Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada) curriculum more responsive to the needs of South Asian immigrant women in Canada. As a former LINC teacher, I had found the LINC curriculum deficient because I felt that (a) it did not acknowledge the rich cultural background of the learners and (b) it did not address the emergent needs of the immigrants in the new country. I therefore hypothesized that one of the reasons that South Asian immigrant women dropped out of LINC classes despite the various incentives offered by the government was these women's inability to relate to the curriculum being offered. In my view, a curriculum based on their everyday needs and their cultural demands would prove beneficial for the women settling in Canada and coming to terms with their identity---an identity influenced by the discourses of patriarchy, racism, sexism and stereotypes. In keeping with the humanistic tradition, I locate the origin of knowledge within the learner himself/herself. Dewey believed that "...education in order to accomplish its end both for the individual learner and for society must be based upon experience---which is always the actual life experience of some individual" (1938, p.113). Hence, my approach to understanding South Asian women's lives was to focus on their immigration experiences and I used narrative inquiry for the purpose.The stories of Razia, Saima and Rukhsana---my participants from Bangladesh, Pakistan and India, respectively---epitomized the challenges immigrants face in Canada. They revealed details of their personal and professional life that require a new curriculum forum for helping them become acculturated in the Canadian society. Using Connelly and Clandinin's work (1988) on personal practical knowledge, I suggest the need to initiate self study as a way of enhancing the critical awareness in South Asian immigrant women to overcome the challenges in their lives and question their redundant cultural assumptions. I have proposed a postmodern, multidimensional narrative curriculum to address issues around their identity in Canada by designing a replicable, tentative course outline for a narrative approach to curriculum in LINC.
Notes: Adviser:  Michael F. Connelly.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Toronto, 2004.

Electronic version licensed for access by U. of T. users.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 65-05, Section: A, page: 1623.