Inclusive Multicultural Schooling:

1
Inclusive Multicultural Schooling

• How to enhance the participation of immigrant
  parents in the education system

2
Immigrant Involvement in the School System

• School populations increasingly diverse
• Planning often ad hoc and non-accountable
• Immigrant parents under-represented at
  parent-teacher meetings, on school councils, on
  school boards, etc.
• Linguistic and cultural diversity in the
  community not matched by diversity among educators

3
Enhanced confidence gt increased participation?

• Educational opportunity is a strong pull factor
  for immigrant parents
• Education system is often their first point of
  contact local and personal
• Increased confidence, satisfaction, and
  involvement with education system may enhance
  participation in other institutions and processes

4
Exemplary Programs and Services

• Reception centres
• ESL support
• Upgrading programs
• Homework clubs
• Bilingual or first language tutoring
• First language assessment
• Multilingual resource collections

• Translation/interpretation services
• Orientation/mentoring for teachers trained in
  other countries
• Heritage language schools
• Heritage language programs
• Visiting artists and writers
• Programs for parents
• Multicultural Liaison

5
Roles and Responsibilities

• At the school level
• At the school board level
• At the provincial level
• Federal involvement?

6
At the School Level

• Reception and orientation
• Assessment and placement
• ESL programs
• Monitoring/counselling
• Ongoing communication and involvement

7
At the School Board Level

• Reception centres
• Data collection
• Multilingual services
• ESL and heritage language programs
• Programs for parents

8
At the Provincial Level

• Data collection asking the right questions
• Funding for ESL and heritage language programs
• Multilingual communications
• Recruitment/training of teachers

9
Federal Involvement?

• Data collection
• National standards and transfer funds for the
  provision of ESL support and multilingual
  services
• National benchmarks for second language
  acquisition among school-aged learners

10
Indicators of Success

• Equitable academic achievement among immigrant
  children and the children of immigrants
• Equitable academic achievement among sub-groups
• Equitable participation of immigrant parents and
  educators at school, school board, and provincial
  levels