Newcomer youth school integration : informing culturally responsive practice through an arts-based engagement ethnography

In the context of Canada's high immigration rates, newcomer youth are a unique group who undergo immigration-related transitions during their formative developmental years. For these youth, schools have been highlighted as key sites for both integration and broader development. Despite Metro Vancouver, British Columbia, being one of Canada's most diverse urban centres with a large community of newcomer youth, relatively few studies have explored their school integration experiences in this context. In this manuscript-based thesis, we adopt a social constructionist epistemology with a critical theoretical and social justice orientation to address this gap. We ask: Prioritizing the voices of newcomer youth, how can we better understand their needs and lived experiences to support their school integration? In Manuscript One, we present an arts-based engagement ethnography exploring the school integration experiences of five newcomer youth at a designated Metro Vancouver high school. Through our data analysis, we developed seven interconnected structures to reflect our participants’ experiences: (1) cultural and linguistic transitions, (2) social and interpersonal aspects of integration, (3) educational and school experiences, (4) opportunities in Canada, (5) adjustments to new physical environments, (6) access to resources and financial considerations, and (7) transnational influences and diasporic identity. Together, our findings from this study reinforce the complex and far-reaching nature of school integration experiences and their embeddedness within social, institutional, and historical contexts. In Manuscript Two, we build on these insights to present a framework for culturally responsive practice to support newcomer youth as they integrate into the school system. Using the knowledge creation component of the Knowledge-to-Action model, we offer a five-facet framework involving considerations for: (a) inclusive school climate and collective identity, (b) classroom culture and instructional practice, (c) social connection, (d) school-family collaboration, and (e) school-community partnership. Overall, in this work, we offer an in-depth qualitative understanding of newcomer youths’ school integration experiences and practical applications for culturally responsive practice grounded in our participants' insights. Our discussion further highlights important implications for school psychological research, immigration theory, school-based practice, and systems-level advocacy.