SIXTH INTERNATIONAL METROPOLIS CONFERENCE

WORKSHOP 17: Difficulties of Immigrant Families in Contacts with
Elementary School Teachers: Case studies of Russians in Israel and Latinos in Canada.

Tuesday, November 27, 2001
16:00 - 17:30

ORGANIZERS

Judith K. Bernhard, Ph.D., Professor
Faculty of Community Services, Ryerson University
350 Victoria Street, Toronto, Ontario, CANADA M5B 2K3
Phone: (416) 979-5339; Fax: (416) 413-1940
E-mail:bernhard@ryerson.ca

Ron Shor, Ph.D., Head of the B.A. Program
Paul Baerwald School of Social Work
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Mount Scopus, Jerusalem 91905 Israel
Phone: 972-2-5881477; Fax 972-25823587
E-mail:msshor@mscc.huji.ac.il

WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION

Immigrant children encounter difficulties in the educational system, and some
of these are due in part to teachers' lack of knowledge of cultural
differences in parenting approaches. Further, because of the lack of
comprehensive knowledge base about what constitutes appropriate child-rearing
practices in the immigrant's culture, there is a serious potential for
inadequate assessment of situations of child risk, including inaccurate
reports of child abuse. Our investigation is intended to provide a basis for
policy revisions and more effective practice for professionals. In this session, we report on interviews with two sets of approximately 50 immigrant families whose children attend elementary schools in Israel and Canada, respectively. The countries were chosen because of their high volume of immigration: Israel has received over one million
immigrants from the former Soviet Union, and Canada accepts over 235,000
immigrants annually. The main research questions were: what are
difficulties that immigrant families experience in contact with professionals
regarding the appropriateness of child rearing practices; what is the
parents' approach towards physical punishment; and what are the situations in
which immigrant parents might feel comfortable asking for help from
professionals. Our findings indicate a serious discrepancy between
officially labeled 'appropriate practices' and those endorsed and carried out
by the parents. We argue that the discrepancy should not always be construed
against the parents; rather our data about the strengths of these families
bring to light the unexamined assumptions of the professionals involved. We outline how our findings may assist in policy revision and propose ways in
which teachers and service givers may correctly assess cultural dimensions of
parental practices. We consider requisite improvements in professionals'
training. Further, we propose how more appropriate interventions may be
designed based on better relations between professionals and families.

DURATION: one 90-minute workshop

PARTICIPANTS

Judith Bernhard, Ryerson University, Canada
Ron Shor, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
Marlinda Freire, Toronto Board of Education, University of Toronto, Canada

Commentators:
Margo Greenwood, University of Northern British Columbia, Canada
Trees V. M. Pels, ISEO/Erasmus University, Rotterdam