Encounter and Engagement with Curricular Material Culture in Multicultural Educational Contexts

The number of immigrants entering Canada annually is projected to rise to 333,600 by 2035 (Statistics Canada, 2010). This migration increase also means an upsurge in newcomers in Canadian classrooms, which creates pedagogical challenges and concerns (Canadian Teachers’ Federation, 2013). These students arrive in Canada either alone, or with their families, as refugees from war torn countries or other natural disasters, or as children whose skilled parents are searching for better educational and economic opportunities (Hastedt, 2016). These students face many socio-economic and pedagogical challenges in the Canadian classroom (Canadian Teachers’ Federation, 2013). Moreover, these learners bring with them cultural experiences different from those of their Canadian counterparts. As they enter the Canadian classroom, they encounter an unfamiliar power-laden education system rife with all forms of discrimination. The teachers, most of whom belong to the dominant group are then tasked with interpreting curricular material culture for and instruction of these diverse learners. This process is influenced by the teacher’s own realities which exist within the broader privileged positions. This research study thus applied intersections of critical multicultural education theory and Pierre Bourdieu’s major concepts of habitus, field and capital, to respond to the research question: How might encounter and engagement with curricular material culture in educational contexts unfold for culturally diverse individuals? Findings indicated that the teacher participant operated within a hegemonic position. She reproduced those same values that are promoted by dominant communities within a pluralistic classroom environment. The teacher occupied a position of power and the students being the minority accepted their subordinate position and opted to take on the dominant ideologies. A critical multicultural educational approach is proposed if the contexts are to achieve balance of cultures.This inquiry took the shape of a qualitative case study in which three major concepts advanced by Pierre Bourdieu (1977, 1984), habitus, field, and capital, were juxtaposed against the experiences of four culturally diverse participants in a Grade 10 high school foods studies classroom in an urban setting. These four participants included one Caucasian teacher and three migrant students in her classroom, from three different countries. Data were collected from interviews with each of the four participants, observation of the actual lessons in the food studies lab, and document analysis of the curriculum materials such as the program of studies, teacher plans, student workbooks, and recipe books used by the teacher and students.Participants discussed their learning experiences around food and related curricular material culture inside and outside the classroom. The transcripts identified recurring themes intersecting or paralleling participants’ experiences. The teacher participant shared the challenges and strategies of having to constantly navigate the needs of diverse learners in her classroom and steer them towards learning from a mandated curriculum. A habitus that resonated with the mainstream Canadian culture was key to her success. The learners described their constant (re)positioning as they adapted their habitus when they traversed the various fields between classroom and home. The curriculum documents revealed more of a standardized curriculum created within a mainstream Canadian cultural field that each individual, no matter the cultural capital background, had to fit into. This study underscored the constant internal mobility that diverse individuals, in this case, immigrant students, experience as they encounter different contexts, particularly in education. Teachers can either be a bridge connecting previous learner experiences to the content so as to aid learning, or, they can be gatekeepers and disregard the students’ past experiences thus delegitimizing it. Teachers, however, find themselves in a dilemma as they are expected to implement a mandated curriculum to students from multiple backgrounds. Attending to individual students’ cultural needs in a diverse context presents as a challenge, so finding a balance is key for teachers to support learning. Curricular material culture was highlighted as an untapped teaching/learning tool which needed to be attended to in the pedagogic process, especially in multicultural contexts. Inviting students to attend to curricular material culture encourages students to connect previous knowledge to what is being taught, thus creating space for multiple ways of knowing. This approach can be a fall back place for teachers as they bridge various learning environments for students.

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