Engaging difference as resource and deficit

The notion of difference was expressed in the study as both a resource and a deficit, and a basis for discrimination. As a resource, Giroux (1992) and Trifonas (2012) view

difference as a lens to look at ways school curriculum may respond to the education of groups and individuals who are minoritized in society. In this sense difference becomes

important to the literacy learning for diverse students who have been marginalized by the dominant educational practices (Giroux, 1992). According to Giroux, the relationship among difference, culture and identity presents an opportunity for educators to explore how they may restructure school curriculum to provide opportunities for CLD youth to shape social futures and resist subject positions. Difference in this sense is understood as a resource for literacy learning, and is articulated by the NLG (2000) as,

To be relevant, learning processes need to recruit, rather than attempt to ignore and erase the different subjectivities, interests, intentions, commitments, and purposes that students bring to learning. Curriculum now needs to mesh with different subjectivities, and with their attendant languages, discourses, and registers, and use these as a resource for learning (p.18).

Utilizing difference as a resource in literacy learning and identity negotiation implies the multiliteracies pedagogy (NLG, 1996) notion of recognizing diverse knowledge,

languages and other communicative resources among other funds of knowledge as important in the teaching and learning in the classrooms that are becoming largely CLD. This will be taken up in chapter six.

The youth in this study encountered the deficit form of difference manifested as

discrimination by ability, color, race, language and nationality. They engaged difference as a new lens to define themselves and also to interrogate social relationships in which they were excluded by mainstream students and others in their new social location. The youth viewed difference as not being treated the same (Shujaa, Mwangaza, Mwezi and Nyota)to make connections among different experiences. For example, the youth had come to understand that they were not as valued in Canada as they were in their home countries in Africa.

The participants identified difference and were not comfortable in their relationship with English speaking peers, and harmony and comfort with other minoritized students who were more accommodating and friendly than Canadian-born students. Hongera stated: the people are nice. It may be because the [they] are from different country too. Difference

also emerged as a marker of identity, ability, language/s, colour, and country, among others. Being different was a new experience for the youth that may have changed their everyday functioning.

Difference was also located in various experiences such as: learning new and different things; enrolment in applied and locally developed courses; being at different levels of English language and ability with other students; being ELL segregated in classrooms with students from many different countries; and being embarrassed and discriminated against because of bearing a different race, nationality, language, accent, and color. The youth’s contact with difference meant they needed to learn to negotiate and cope through difference. Excerpts from the data illustrate youth’s encounters with difference:

When I am here from different country, it’s hard for me to do different kinds of stuff; like you are at different level with other students. First of all when you talk to other students they don’t treat you like they treat other people. May be because of my skin color, maybe how I speak, but it was very hard. They made fun of me. I can’t say what they said, but it was not good. I feel different like the people who surround me are different here than Congo and Kenya. Back in Africa we worked together, we made our own friends and supported each other (Nyota).

Mwangaza shared similar sentiments:

Well, it was very difficult for me. It was different. Things are different here than in my country. I was in a lot of trouble and got suspended from school. I was

suspended twice because of fighting and this affected my learning; my experience with other students was not good. There were racist people. The way I was treated was different because of who I am; I came from a different country and speak a different language, and I have a different accent. The way they treat me is not how they treat other people. Like Canadian students they did not treat me well and I had a lot of problems; I never felt different before. When I came here it was evident [word for the week] that I was different than other people; I did not know I was different before.Now I don’t feel different. [What he would say to new students from Africa]: because of who they are, they will not be treated well like in Sudan because here they are different. They need to do well. They will be treated different and they need to know to be patient with it, like not to get in trouble like I did (Mwangaza).

Well, like my friend, back home we are like more close but here it’s not the same. Like we are not treated the same.

The findings suggest that discrimination was constructed in the social structure of the school and classroom, and in the cultural world of the wider society. In the school, it was manifested through actual and perceived problematic representation and treatment of ELLs by some English-speaking peers, which may have constricted language and literacy learning and identity of the African youth. Learning for immigrant youth undergoing adaptation and learning challenges was complicated by acts of discrimination, racism, and exclusion (as in Dlamini et al 2009; Gunderson, 2009; Stewart, 2010; Kanu, 2008). Discrimination also inhibited interaction with English- speakers and limited the

opportunity to interact and learn together. Social isolation and conflicts, for example, led to Mwangaza’s suspension from school, which interfered with his learning. Suspicion and discomfort among the students also complicated learning environments.

Chapter 6 Understanding of Literacy and Identity