SUPPORTING EAL IMMIGRANT YOUTH
AND IMMIGRANT TEACHERS IN
MANITOBA
Prairie Metropolis Centre Brown Bag Seminar
October 8, 2009
Clea Schmidt, Faculty of Education
University of Manitoba schmidtc@cc.umanitoba.ca
Introduction
Preparing future teachers for culturally and
linguistically diverse classrooms is seen as a
priority in the teacher education literature (e.g.,
Nieto & Bode, 2008).
 However, the need to diversify the teaching
force to better reflect and respond to the
diversity of student populations has been
largely disconnected from this conversation.
This session shares insights from research,
policies, and programming relevant to preparing
teachers for diverse classrooms and supporting
diverse teachers in integrating into the
profession.

Why do we need diverse teachers
for our diverse learners?
The integration of teachers from diverse backgrounds with
a range of life experiences in schools allows for:
• teacher knowledge exchange in schools between
teachers from the dominant national group and
immigrant teachers as well as teachers from other
backgrounds
• greater involvement of minority group and immigrant
parents in schools with minority group and immigrant
teachers acting as a bridge for families
• teachers with expertise in teaching a range of languages
• diverse role models for all children
Manitoba Context
Provincial population of 1.2 million
 Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) has as
its annual target 20,000 immigrants
 Top source countries: the Philippines,
Germany, India, China, and Korea
 Majority of newcomers between the age
of 0-24
 Settlement outside of urban areas

Action Plan for Ethnocultural Equity
(MECY, 2006)

The need to build a more inclusive and
representative teacher force was a common
theme at virtually every consultation session.
While some acknowledged that there were
increased numbers of educators of diverse
backgrounds working as teachers and in other
related roles, most participants expressed the
view that teachers and administrators do not
reflect the rich diversity of peoples and cultures
that are present in our communities.
Action Plan for Ethnocultural Equity,
cont’d

While perspectives differed on what was
needed to address the situation, generally,
participants supported enhanced efforts
in this area. Some participants called for
the extension of government employment
equity policies to school boards and
funded independent schools, and an
affirmative action plan and policy that
prepares cultural minorities for success in
the workplace when hired. (p. 23)
Research Study #1
Goal: To document the successes and
challenges of EAL youth in rural MB
 Mixed methods approach combining
analysis of student records and interviews
with English as an additional language
(EAL) students, parents, and teachers
(total of 40 participants)
 Funded by the Prairie Metropolis Centre

Research Study #2



Goal: To document education stakeholders’
perceptions of the issues and challenges
facing immigrant teachers as they attempt to
resume their careers in Manitoba
Critical ethnographic approach involving
observations, interviews, and focus groups
with immigrant teachers, their mentors,
school division personnel, immigration
authorities (total of 45 participants)
Funded by Manitoba Labour and
Immigration
Theoretical Framework (Kincheloe, 2008)
 Critical
pedagogy-a perspective toward
education that is concerned with
questions of justice, democracy, and
ethical claims
 Power functions in a way that solidifies
dominant discourses, in the process
erasing the presence of marginal voices
(Bakhtin)
To contribute to the effort to improve
education, students, teachers, parents,
politicians, and community members must
gain a more textured understanding of
the issues
 Research seeks to question the
problematic ways that students are
categorized, differences between students
are represented, educational purposes are
defined, schools are organized, and
relationships between communities and
schools are developed

Critical Race Theory


Assumes there are oppressive social
structures to maintain hegemonic or
dominant groups’ privilege. CRT contends
that progressive social change occurs when
those dominant groups experience
themselves as the beneficiaries of the
change.
“Racial equality and equity for people of
color will be pursued and advanced when
they converge with the interests, needs,
expectations, and ideologies of Whites”
(Milner, 2008, p. 332).
Marginalization of EAL Youth
and Families
When I visit school, I see the homeroom teacher and
other subject teachers as well. I usually ask them if
my children have been doing well, then they mostly
answer me in such ways that it’s getting better…
and he/she needs this or that area a little bit more.
Once, something happened. It was a computer
teacher…my child used a lot of computer at home,
so she knows a lot about computer. But she didn’t
express herself in the classroom...thus, the
[computer] teacher assumed that she didn’t know
much about computer, and told me that he had no
idea if my daughter knows computer or not.
-EAL Parent
[We’ve had] next to no contact other than a
school event and an attempt to converse with
the teacher who did not understand or try to
understand us. A challenge we face as
immigrants is wanting to express ourselves
clearly but not being able to. This makes us
more fearful to attempt communication
because we do not want to be misunderstood.
We fear we would only be further
misunderstood by this teacher and so, though
we would like to have more contact with her,
we feel she is rather unapproachable.
-EAL Parent
It was almost palpable the shift that was
occurring, because they were listening, it
was in their language and we were
explaining things. And after we did all of
that, we rang the bell and we brought the
kids in and we all ate together in the gym.
And I told all of my staff members and I
found out who speaks High German and
Low German and I said, ‘one of you per
table. I don’t want you wasting this
resource, you know?’ ”
- School Administrator
The Place of Immigrant
Teachers in a Diverse
Education System
We certainly have an increase of students
coming into the system, EAL students.
Which means that there are EAL
families….This year we have a school that
maybe three, four years ago would have
had two or three identified EAL kids; this
year there’s maybe fifty-three EAL kids in
the building. It means we have to look at
how we are going to support these kids
and their families.
-School Division Superintendent
The other challenge is the need to find a way to get
the message through to the powerbrokers in the
province, the people who control work in the
system, superintendents, human resource
personnel, boards of trustees. I think some of
them do not recognize the magnitude of what’s
happening in our province in terms of immigration
and the fact that the immigration numbers will go
from ten thousand to twenty thousand in the next
ten years, and many of these people are
professionals, many of them are teachers, and we
have to find ways to support them and get them
into classrooms.
-Mentor of Immigrant Teachers
What’s being done to prepare the system,
in terms of you know, getting them to be
supportive and inclusive? Educate the
teachers around the importance of having
people with international education
experience teaching kids.
-Immigration Project Officer
We are making every effort we can to have
teachers in our community that begin to
reflect the makeup of our student
population… Where we see the big
advantages is that it provides a bridge to
the community, especially communities
where we have large numbers of students
who are of that background.
-School Division Superintendent
Some of the children found it very funny
the way I’m saying words in English. And
they start to giggle…. I thought this could
be the first time, but maybe not the last
time. So I have to speak for myself. You
know, I have to do something if I want to
be respected, or to build my own
confidence. [So] the next time I [taught
about] cultural differences and what it
means to be different….
-Immigrant Teacher
I think [the] children understood what it means to be
different…they had grandparents, parents who
immigrated to Canada, who spoke English with a
certain accent. So it was a great success for me,
that lesson, because they start to understand me
and show their respect and understanding….They
wrote letters expressing their feelings about being
accepted and certain stories from their families,
what sort of people from their family have different
accents or culture shock. And I still have them in
my portfolio. It was very moving for me.
-Immigrant teacher