The impact of media representations on Somali youth\u27s experiences in educational spaces

In this article, I examine how the politics of representation following September 11, 2001 attacks on the US impact the experiences of Somali youth in educational spaces in North America. This research draws from a discourse analysis of representations of Somalis and Somalia in North American newspaper articles (n=82) between August and October 2011 and 51 interviews with Somali youth between the ages of 14 and 30. It also draws from ethnographic fieldwork for 16 months (July 2010−October 2011) in Kitchener-Waterloo and Toronto, Canada and Minneapolis-St. Paul, USA. This includes participant-observation at Somali youth events, organizations, centres, homework programs, mosques and after-school and weekend Islamic schools that provide spaces of learning for Somali youth outside of public/private schools. In this article, I argue that the representations of Somalis in the media as either perpetrators or victims of violence are gendered and have variously politicized Somali men and women within the current ‘War on Terror.’ As a result, Somali youth are targets of routine forms of structural violence, expressed in discrimination and marginalization as well as interpersonal forms of violence, including bullying. I examine how these forms of violence are both carried out and resisted in educational spaces and how they variously affect Somali youth’s experiences in school. The article shows how Somali community educational spaces provide spaces of belonging and a space to learn the skills needed to challenge representations of Somalis and Somalia in the media. Somali youths’ experiences of violence and within educational spaces reshape their identities

Raising Citizens: Parenting Education Classes and Somali Mothers’ Experiences of Childrearing in Canada

Mothers are viewed as the people who are raising future citizens of Canada; therefore, their parenting practices are being targeted for intervention by civic organizations funded by the state. In this article, I argue that modernity narratives and neoliberalism approaches to mothering inform parenting education classes for Somali refugee women to Canada. Thus, Somali women are often seen as victims. Stereotyped identities conceal their social and historical agency. This research draws on 15 individual interviews with Somali mothers and participant- observation in two parenting education classes in Canada.

Raising Citizens: Parenting Education Classes and Somali Mothers’ Experiences of Childrearing in Canada

Mothers are viewed as the people who are raising future citizens of Canada; therefore, their parenting practices are being targeted for intervention by civic organizations funded by the state. In this article, I argue that modernity narratives and neoliberalism approaches to mothering inform parenting education classes for Somali refugee women to Canada. Thus, Somali women are often seen as victims. Stereotyped identities conceal their social and historical agency. This research draws on 15 individual interviews with Somali mothers and participant- observation in two parenting education classes in Canada

Astrocytic control of synaptic NMDA receptors

Astrocytes express a wide range of G-protein coupled receptors that trigger release of intracellular Ca2+, including P2Y, bradykinin and protease activated receptors (PARs). By using the highly sensitive sniffer-patch technique, we demonstrate that the activation of P2Y receptors, bradykinin receptors and protease activated receptors all stimulate glutamate release from cultured or acutely dissociated astrocytes. Of these receptors, we have utilized PAR1 as a model system because of favourable pharmacological and molecular tools, its prominent expression in astrocytes and its high relevance to neuropathological processes. Astrocytic PAR1-mediated glutamate release in vitro is Ca2+ dependent and activates NMDA receptors on adjacent neurones in culture. Activation of astrocytic PAR1 in hippocampal slices induces an APV-sensitive inward current in CA1 neurones and causes APV-sensitive neuronal depolarization in CA1 neurones, consistent with release of glutamate from astrocytes. PAR1 activation enhances the NMDA receptor-mediated component of synaptic miniature EPSCs, evoked EPSCs and evoked EPSPs in a Mg2+-dependent manner, which may reflect spine head depolarization and consequent reduction of NMDA receptor Mg2+ block during subsequent synaptic currents. The release of glutamate from astrocytes following PAR1 activation may also lead to glutamate occupancy of some perisynaptic NMDA receptors, which pass current following relief of tonic Mg2+ block during synaptic depolarization. These results suggest that astrocytic G-protein coupled receptors that increase intracellular Ca2+ can tune synaptic NMDA receptor responses