Mediating Postcoloniaity in Education: Mis/Representations of Muslim Girls using Technology

In this doctoral research, I explore how social systems and postcolonial cultural norms impact the process and outcome of digital media production created by girls who belong to ethnoracial minority groups living in low-income communities. The study was conducted as a Feminist Ethnography and feminist intervention in a Toronto school over three years, with a focus on Muslim girls in 2011-2012. The purpose of this research is to respond to both the ongoing marginalization of Muslim girls in Canadian schools and to examine how digital media production can be used to bridge ongoing divides between schools and communities in low-income urban and multicultural areas of Canada. Using digital media production to explore student experiences, I identify three topics for analysis that complicate the notion of student “voice.” In this work, I address how sociocultural structures inform the process of digital media production for racialized girls, exploring what kind of meaning can be derived from student-made media and considering how the videos and photos made by Muslim girls are framed within and informed by existing social structures, social expectations, and by the intentions and interests of adults. In addition, I also examine how student concerns over being seen and/or issues related to surveillance impact what they produce (or rather, end up not producing at all). Throughout this dissertation, I also consider how student engagement with different forms of new media and technology allow for varied behaviours and interests to be performed, offering a wider view into their lives. I conclude with a discussion of silence, addressing the importance of what was left absent in the process of making digital media with Muslim girls, and explore how these omissions relate to larger postcolonial power relations, to technology, and to media education for racialized girls in under-resourced schools and communities

Tracing pathways to higher education for refugees: the role of virtual support networks and mobile phones for women in refugee camps

In this paper, we explore the role of online social networks in the cultivation of pathways to higher education for refugees, particularly for women. We compare supports garnered in local and offline settings to those accrued through online social networks and examine the differences between women and men. The paper draws on complementary original data sources, including an online survey of Somali Diaspora (n=248) and in-depth interviews (n=21) with Somali refugees who do or have lived in the Dadaab refugee camps of Kenya. We find an important interplay of local and global interactions, mediated by mobile technology, that participants identify as critical to their access to higher education. Our analysis relates these interactions to shifting social norms and possibilities for refugee women’s education. Our findings directly address the use of ICT in expanding opportunities for higher education for women in refugee camps

Teachers’ Conceptions of Student Engagement in Learning: The Case of Three Urban Schools

Although student engagement plays a central role in the education process, defining it is challenging. This study examines teachers’ conceptions of the social and cultural dimensions of student engagement in learning at three low-achieving schools located in a low socioeconomic status (SES) urban area. Sixteen teachers and administrators from the three schools participated in two focus group discussions about their definitions of student engagement, indicators of and factors affecting student engagement, and how to facilitate it. The findings indicate that teachers’ conceptions of student engagement have profound ramifications for the ways that they approach their work. Additionally, the teachers recognize that student engagement is a symptom displayed by individuals, but the roots of engagement lay elsewhere. The teachers also described a wide range of strategies to enhance their students' engagement that focused primarily on the student, the teacher and the classroom through improving student-teacher relationships, incorporating out-of-school issues in the curriculum and the classroom, and having teachers show engagement with educational material. We conclude by outlining several implications for practice and policy and by calling for more research on the origins, development and consequences of teachers’ conceptions of student engagement.Alors que l’engagement des élèves joue un rôle central dans le processus éducatif, en définir le sens représente un défi. Cette étude porte sur les conceptions qu’ont les enseignants des dimensions sociales et culturelles de l’engagement des élèves dans trois écoles peu performantes situées dans des régions urbaines à faible statut socioéconomique. Seize enseignants et administrateurs de trois écoles ont participé à des discussions thématiques de groupe pour partager ce qu’ils entendaient par « engagement des élèves », les indicateurs de celui-ci, les facteurs qui l’influençaient et les moyens de le faciliter. Les résultats indiquent que les conceptions qu’ont les enseignants de l’engagement des élèves ont des répercussions profondes sur leur façon d’aborder leur travail. De plus, les enseignants reconnaissent que l’engagement des élèves est un symptôme que manifeste une personne, mais que les racines en sont ailleurs. Les enseignants ont décrit une vaste gamme de stratégies qui visent l’augmentation de l’engagement des élèves, qui sont axées surtout sur l’élève, l’enseignant et la salle de classe, et qui reposent sur l’amélioration du rapport enseignant-élève, l’intégration d’enjeux externes dans le programme d’études et une manifestation d’engagement de la part des enseignants avec la matière à l’étude. Nous concluons en présentant les grandes lignes des incidences de cette étude sur la pratique et la politique, et en réclamant davantage de recherche sur les origines, le développement et les conséquences des conceptions qu’ont les enseignants de l’engagement des élèves.

Ethics, Power and Agency in Transnational Qualitative Methods: Remote Collaboration in a Refugee Camp

This is a methodological paper discussing the ethical and power-based implications of conducting remote and participatory research in a refugee camp. The paper presents the methodological approach to a community-engaged project studying education and technology in a refugee camp in Malawi. Half of the research team lives in Canada and half in the Dzaleka Refugee Camp. This paper reflects on this study, with a focus on remote partnership, team building with community researchers, and the use of digital tools to coordinate and manage data collection and analysis. We also identify locations where ethics and power are both disrupted and affirmed in this participatory study

Serious Learning in Playful Roles: Socio-political games for education and social change

Educational practice is closely tied to social, cultural, and political economies (Brandt, 2003; de Castell & Jenson, 2004). As videogames dominate mass entertainment revenues (ESA, 2007), the production and play of videogames also influences society (de Castell & Jenson, 2004). New media forge new relationships between learners and teachers, creating tension between student attention and the focus of teachers’ limited time (McLuhan, 1959/2003; de Castell & Jenson, 2004). Today, 88% of parents with children between the ages of 6 and seventeen state that their children play videogames from once a month to every day (ESA, 2007). Of the commercial game market, “serious” games include educational games, games for military training, games for social change, and more. The serious games discussed in this paper attempt to ‘persuade’ the player toward a particular perspective through play. Each game addresses a social or political topic considered ‘serious’ by widely accepted social standards such as war, poverty, abuse, and homelessness. For the sake of brevity, I will use the term “serious games” throughout this paper to refer specifically to the kind of serious socio-political games just described, which have the intention of educating game players on a social or political topic, or that hope to influence social change

View to the U: An eye on UTM research

This is an audio recording from the podcast series "View to the U: An eye on UTM research".For this particular episode we focus on: “Why and how are mobile phones and social networks enabling education as it relates to refugees? How is this working in some remote places around the world?” We turn to Professor Negin Dahya from UTM’s Institute of Communication, Culture, Information, and Technology and UofT's Faculty of Information Studies for an answer to these questions, along with some other insights related to her research. Over the course of the interview we cover Negin’s work that considers the cultural and social contexts of digital media production and use through the lens of education and learning with a particular focus on women in refugee camps in Kenya. Negin also talks about how she got into the area of research initially, the potential impact of her work for things like educational design in blended-learning systems, and the importance of International Women’s Day on March 8 but also that feminism is a fight for equality that should be recognized the whole year through

(RE)MAKING DIGITAL IMAGINARIES WITH VIDEOGAME DEVELOPMENT: DO-IT-YOURSELF (DIY) DISRUPTIONS TO SOCIAL INEQUITY

Digital media has altered not only the form through which we communicate, but also the type of both communication and learning that transpires across transmedia platforms. ‘Do-it-yourself’ (DIY) productions reflect changing forms of communication, education and civic engagement (Ratto & Boler, 2014; Stack & Kelly, 2006) and represent new possibilities for not only imagining social interactions and opportunities, but also constructing them. In this paper, we draw on Charles Taylor’s (2005) definition of ‘social imaginaries’ to consider “the ways people imagine their social existence” (p. 23) in the context of digital industries and maker spaces. Networked digital technologies in particular enhance the possibility of sharing and collaborating across geographical and conceptual social divides. In recent years there has been growing recognition that digital media like film and videogames can create opportunities to interrupt social norms – to ‘show what you know’ to, with, at and across boundaries. Importantly, multimedia production creates a process of reflective (re)making that incorporates knowledge and experience from varied aspects of an individuals life into a product that can be reviewed, remixed, and reflected upon later on (Pink, 2001, 2007). This process of working with and creating digital artifacts informs and transforms society, creating an opportunity – a new imaginary – for continual dialogue and altered networks and social norms, circulating around digital artifacts throughout production and after

View to the U: An eye on UTM research

This is an audio recording from the podcast series "View to the U: An eye on UTM research".For this particular episode we focus on: “Why and how are mobile phones and social networks enabling education as it relates to refugees? How is this working in some remote places around the world?” We turn to Professor Negin Dahya from UTM’s Institute of Communication, Culture, Information, and Technology and UofT's Faculty of Information Studies for an answer to these questions, along with some other insights related to her research. Over the course of the interview we cover Negin’s work that considers the cultural and social contexts of digital media production and use through the lens of education and learning with a particular focus on women in refugee camps in Kenya. Negin also talks about how she got into the area of research initially, the potential impact of her work for things like educational design in blended-learning systems, and the importance of International Women’s Day on March 8 but also that feminism is a fight for equality that should be recognized the whole year through

Exploring the Challenges of Conducting Respectful Research: The Seen and Unforeseen Methodological Factors within Urban School Research.

<!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"Lucida Grande"; panose-1:2 11 6 0 4 5 2 2 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-520090897 1342218751 0 0 447 0;} @font-face {font-family:"ヒラギノ角ゴ Pro W3"; mso-font-charset:128; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 2059927551 18 0 131085 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin-top:0cm; margin-right:0cm; margin-bottom:10.0pt; margin-left:0cm; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Lucida Grande"; mso-fareast-font-family:"ヒラギノ角ゴ Pro W3"; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; color:black;} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-size:10.0pt; mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;} @page WordSection1 {size:612.0pt 792.0pt; margin:72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt; mso-header-margin:36.0pt; mso-footer-margin:36.0pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;} --> This paper discusses the significance of conducting respectful research within urban schools, using the example of one large-scale university-school board partnership in north-western Toronto. The authors, three research assistants on the project, use their experiences within three of the participating project schools to interrogate the research approach and methods involved and highlight the challenges of conducting respectful research. The critical reflection the authors engage with builds on the existing conception of respectful research with the added inclusion of ‘accountability’ as a primary focus. The paper outlines how aspects of respectful research are both included and overlooked within this research project.   Ce document traite de l'importance de mener des recherches respectueux dans les écoles urbaines, en utilisant l'exemple d'un partenariat de grande envergure entre un universite et plusieurs ecoles dans le nord-ouest Toronto. Les auteurs, trois assistants de recherche sur le projet, l'utilisation de leurs expériences au sein detrois des écoles participant au projet pour interroger la démarche de rechercheet les méthodes et de souligner les défis de la recherche respectueuse. La réflexion critique, les auteurs s'engagent à fond sur la conception actuelle de la recherché respectueuse avec l'inclusion ajoutée de la ‘responsabilisation’ comme une priorité.  Le document décrit comment certains aspects de la recherche sont à la fois respectueuses inclus et négligé dans ce projet de recherché.&nbsp