A New Immigrant Experience of Navigating Multiculturalism and Indigenous Content in Teacher Education

In this article, which is grounded in my own experiences, I discuss the responsibilities of new immigrant teacher educators when teaching courses related to diversity and multiculturalism in Canada. I highlight the complexities that underlie discourses of multiculturalism in teacher education, and the important role that new immigrant teacher educators have in locating themselves within the frame of settler colonialism in Canada. I argue that there is a need for genuine dialogue and critical reflexivity that encourage teacher educators and teacher candidates to locate themselves within a complex web of privileges and oppressions, and I explore possible new directions for teaching multiculturalism and Indigenous content in teacher education.  Dans cet article fondé sur mon expérience personnelle, je discute des responsabilités des formateurs en enseignement pour nouveaux immigrants lorsqu’ils donnent des cours sur la diversité et le multiculturalisme au Canada. Je mets en lumière la complexité inhérente aux discours sur le multiculturalisme dans la formation des enseignants et le rôle important que tiennent les formateurs en enseignement pour nouveaux immigrants quand ils se positionnent dans le contexte du colonialisme au Canada. Je maintiens qu’il est nécessaire d’établir un dialogue véritable et une réflexivité critique qui encourage les formateurs en enseignement et les étudiants aux programmes de formation en enseignement à se positionner à l’intérieur d’un tissu complexe de privilèges et d’oppressions. J’explore aussi de nouvelles avenues pour enseigner le multiculturalisme et les contenus autochtones dans la formation en enseignement.&nbsp

Mapping the Field: Examining the Recertification of Internationally Educated Teachers

In this article I examine the structural barriers in the recerti cation trajectory of internationally educated teachers (IETs) in British Columbia (BC). By applying the Bourdieuian concept of field, I extend from IETs’ experiences in the recertification process to institutional and political factors that affect these experiences. I demonstrate how policies and regulations that govern the field as well as the interplay between its main institutional players, namely, the Teacher Regulation Branch, teacher education programs, and school districts, result in unequal opportunities for IETs to be certified and hired as teachers. As a result, IETs’ potential contribution to diversifying the teacher force in BC is diminished.

Professionalism Discourses and Neoliberalism in Teacher Education

This article argues that discourses of “professionalism” can be used in K-12 teaching and teacher education, both in the service of neoliberal pressures and to push back against such pressures. By itself, the term “professionalism” is not evidence of either the spread of or resistance against neoliberalism, but considered in the context of a broader discourse, it may be used for both. The argument draws from Derrida’s discussion of the pharmakon, and Bourdieu’s discussion of symbolic capital. We argue that the concept of professionalism functions as a pharmakon in that it can be both toxic and medicinal, depending on how it is used, by whom, and to what ends. We take up Schinkel and Noordegraaf’s (2011) suggestion of enhancing Bourdieu’s framework of symbolic capital with that of professional capital. Considering professionalism as a kind of symbolic capital provides a critical lens on discourses of professionalism as both a help and a hindrance in K-12 teaching and teacher education. Both theoretical perspectives enable a critical questioning of discourses of professionalism, including for their constraining effect on greater diversity in professions.Cet article affirme que les discours sur le « professionnalisme » peuvent servir dans l’enseignement K-12 et dans la formation des enseignants, tant au service des pressions néolibérales que pour résister à ces pressions. En soi, le terme « professionnalisme » n’indique ni l’expansion du néolibéralisme ni l’opposition à ce phénomène; considéré dans un contexte élargi, le terme peut être employé dans les deux cas. Cet argument repose sur la discussion de Derrida sur le pharmakon et celle de Bourdieu sur le capital symbolique. Nous affirmons que le concept du professionnalisme fonctionne comme pharmakon dans le sens qu’il peut être ou bien un poison ou un médicament selon l’emploi qu’on en fait, la personne qui s’en sert et les raisons pour lesquelles on l’utilise. Nous faisons suite à la suggestion de Schinkel et Noordegraaf (2011) d’appuyer la notion du capital symbolique de Bourdieu avec celle du capital professionnel. Le fait de concevoir le professionnalisme comme une sorte de capital symbolique offre un angle critique pour étudier les discours proposant que le professionnalisme peut constituer un appui ou un obstacle dans l’enseignement K-12 et dans la formation des enseignants. Les deux perspectives théoriques permettent une remise en question des discours sur le professionnalisme, y compris de leur effet restrictif sur une plus grande diversité au sein des professions. Mots clés: néolibéralisme, formation des enseignants, professionalism

From experienced teachers to newcomers to the profession : the capital conversion of internationally educated teachers in Canada

My doctoral thesis, titled, “From Experienced Teachers to Newcomers to the Profession: The Capital Conversion of Internationally Educated Teachers in Canada,” examines the recertification process of internationally educated teachers (IETs). My main research question is: What conceptions of the “good teacher” are evident in the recertification trajectory of IET participants in this study, and how do these open up or close down spaces for IETs to bring their experiences and voices to bear on reconstructing their professional identity in Canada? I argue that assumptions about good teaching intersect with factors such as race, ethnicity, gender, language, and immigration status. Building on Bourdieu’s concept of symbolic capital and its sub-category of professional capital, I explore the conception of the “good teacher” in a recertification program for IETs at the University of British Columbia, and I do so as a way of illustrating the dominant professional capital circulating in teacher education in British Columbia. I argue that, in the field of teacher education, the “good teacher” is a manifestation of a specific form of professional capital, which serves as “local currency” for the field. However, whereas IETs are required to convert their professional capital to the local “currency,” successful conversion does not guarantee successful integration into the teaching profession in Canada. One of the concerns that emerged from my dissertation is that teacher education in Canada, in spite of its claim to foster diversity, often becomes a site for social reproduction. Holding unexamined conceptions of the “good teacher” can lead teacher educators to favour and create teachers who are “like us,” and to discourage different forms and models of teaching.Education, Faculty ofEducational Studies (EDST), Department ofGraduat