ATEE 2010
Clea Schmidt, University of Manitoba, Canada
CRITICAL PARTICIPATORY ACTION RESEARCH
AND IMMIGRANT TEACHERS AS AGENTS OF
CHANGE
MANITOBA CONTEXT
Population 1.2 million
 PNP target of 20,000 newcomers annually by
2016
 Provincial supports for labour market
integration of immigrant professionals BUT
teachers not a priority
 Schools are increasingly diverse while teaching
force remains largely homogeneous

RESEARCH GOAL
"A critical complex epistemology is dedicated to
bringing individuals who had been traditionally
excluded to the scholarly conversation no
matter how déclassé such an objective appears
to the privileged epistemological trolls . . . "
(Kincheloe, 2008, p. 58)
CRITICAL PARTICIPATORY ACTION RESEARCH
Concerned with “what people do, how people
interact with the world and with others, what
people mean and what they value, and the
discourses in which people understand and
interpret their world”.
(Kemmis & McTaggart, 2005, p. 565)
 Collaboration and co-creation of knowledge
 Intentionally political
 Potential for social and cultural transformation

Critical: challenges existing inequities that
marginalize immigrant teachers in K-12 schools
and works toward social change;
 Participatory: ensures that the immigrant are
collaboratively engaged with the research process;
 Action research: facilitates outcomes that will
directly impact the teachers, their professional
practices, and the schools and classrooms in
which they work

PARTICIPANTS AND DATA SOURCES
Six immigrant teachers from India, the
Philippines, Ukraine, and Trinidad participated
in monthly focus group discussions from
September 2009-January 2010
 Background Questionnaires and Journals

SUCCESSES AND CHALLENGES WITH THE
RESEARCH PROCESS
Research ethics board
 Research assistance
 Focus group site
 Power and voice among participants
 Balancing individual agendas
 Member-checking and data analysis
 Giving back to participants
 “I want this to mean something”: Developing a
special area group for IETs run by IETs
