1. Settlement and Schooling: Unique Circumstances of Refugees and Forced Migrants in Post-War Toronto Suburbs.
- Author
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DIPPO, DON, BASU, RANU, and DURAN, MARCELA
- Subjects
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REFUGEES , *SUBURBS , *COMMUNITY-school relationships , *IMMIGRANTS , *SOCIAL history , *TWENTIETH century , *HISTORY - Abstract
This paper explores the possibilities of discovering, sharing, and transforming school-community linkages through proactive outreach programs that are of particular relevance to public elementary schools catering to a large refugee and immigrant population. The authors argue that community-school linkages, as currently understood and discussed in the literature, are primarily focused on unidirectional relations, but certainly have the potential of furthering the particular needs of these children and their families in more productive ways. A wealth of untapped opportunities and creative capacities exist in the community that provide the potential for 'bridging and bonding' social capital where the response is sensitive to power relations that can arise from hegemonic interactions. School-community linkages are crucial for displaced communities further isolated and stigmatized in underserved and deprived pockets of the city. These are particularly evident in Toronto's post-war suburbs, such as Scarborough, where the concentration of neighbourhood poverty is well documented, but where the energy and creativity in the production of its social and cultural landscape, and the commitment of its citizens, are less noted. Based on an outreach workshop held in one such school, the potential of a sustainable emancipatory school-community framework is explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2012