Chasing Encounters

We had an interesting conversation with Dr. Balyasnikova, working at York University. In this special summer edition, we got together at Queen’s Park in Toronto to have a chat about educational gerontology and community-engaged research. From Russia to the USA and now Canada Dr. Balyasnikova describes educational gerontology as a subset of adult education and health science that tries to understand learning experiences at a later life. For example, how certain learning experiences affect ageing or how ageist stereotyping impacts learning in older adult learners. She is also interested in community-engaged research which is embedded in the idea of working together to inform research and we see participants as collaborators rather than subjects of study while we build relationships. She invites us to question whether participants need research or not and what form research needs to take. Additionally, Dr. Balyasnikova enjoys using various art and narrative methodologies to understand participants’ lived experiences. She uses arts-based research as possibilities for participants to express themselves and she engages participants with stories, theatre, drawing or painting as multimodal narratives.

Bio

Originally from Saint Petersburg Russia, Natalia Balyasnikova completed her Ph.D. in Language and Literacy Education at the University of British Columbia in July 2019. She explores older immigrants’ educational engagement in community-based settings. Using narrative ethnographic methods, she merges traditional ethnographic data generation with the facilitation of oral, written, and multimodal storytelling. With a focus on community-based research and public scholarship, Dr. Balyasnikova works with attention to the needs of the research partners and facilitates their vision for positive change. By analyzing learning that occurs at the intersection of ageing and immigration, her work suggests new pathways of community-based curriculum and educational policy in the context of changing demographics in Canada.

Cite this podcast (APA):

Ortega, Y. (Producer). (2020, August 5). CES3E9 – Community-Engaged Research. https://soundcloud.com/chasingencounters/ces3e9-community-engaged-research

Sources

Balyasnikova, N., & Gillard, S. (2018). " I Love to Write My Story": Storytelling and its role in seniors' language. Canadian Journal for the Study of Adult Education, 30(2).

Balyasnikova, N., Higgins, S., & Hume, M. (2018). Enhancing Teaching English as an Additional Language Through Playfulness: Seniors (Ethno) Drama Club in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. TESOL Journal, 9(3), 481-497.

Gómez, D. R. (2016). Language teaching and the older adult: The significance of experience. Multilingual Matters.

Andrew, P. (2012). The social construction of age: Adult foreign language learners (Vol. 63). Multilingual Matters.

Jeffery, B., Findlay, I. M., Martz, D. J. F., Clarke, L. (2014). Journeys in community-based research. University of Regina Press

In this episode, I embark on a monologue discussing what solidarity means and how it connects to ideas of community building. I answer questions from fellow colleagues who argue that solidarity goes beyond empathy and support but to acts of love and understanding others. In these unprecedented times, we have found the need to be in touch with others and show our acts of solidarity in order to survive.

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Bio

Yecid is a Ph.D. candidate in the language and literacies (LLE) educations & comparative, international, development education (CIDE) programs at OISE. His main research focuses on social justice and peacebuilding pedagogical approaches to language education in international contexts from ethnocritical and decolonial methodologies vantage points.

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Cite this podcast (APA):

Ortega, Y. (Producer). (2020, April 27). CES3E8 – Solidarity in Uncertain Times. https://soundcloud.com/chasingencounters/ces3e8-solidarity-in-uncertain-times

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Sources

Freire, Paulo. (1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed. Seabury Press.

Gaztambide-Fernández, R. A. (2012). Decolonization and the pedagogy of solidarity. Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society, 1(1), 41–67.

Ng, W. (2012). Pedagogy of solidarity: Educating for an interracial working-class movement. Journal of Workplace Learning, 24(7/8), 528–537.

Phoebe Kang came to our Chasing Encounters studios to help us uncover how English as the language of “respect, status, power, and reputation” has become a cultural capital in non-English speaking countries, but when it comes to Canada, the ESL industry is relegated to the margins and lacks regulation - somehow ESL is perceived as not real education. When she decided to come to Canada and extend her professional endeavors, she encountered cultural, professional and economic stumbling blocks which made her question what is considered to be a good and decent job. Phoebe discusses her future research about the lack of internationalization strategies regarding international students’ equity issues what it is meant by student success for policy leadership initiatives. She argues that international students face challenges to enter higher education as international students in Canadian higher education as they bring invaluable experience to local students.

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Bio

Phoebe Kang is an experienced academic coordinator with a demonstrated history of working in the higher education industry. Skilled in English as a second language (ESL), E-Learning, Classroom Management, and lesson planning, she has a strong education professional with a Master of Education (M.Ed.) focused in Curriculum Studies (Specialized in TESL) from Brock University in Canada.

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Cite this podcast (APA):

Ortega, Y. (Host). (2020, April 7). CES3E7 – Higher Education: Identity Crisis [Audio podcast]. Chasing Encounters. https://soundcloud.com/chasingencounters/higher-education-identity-crisis

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Acronyms used in this episode:

EAP – English for academic purposes

ESL – English as second language

EFL – English as a foreign language

TESOL – Teaching English for Speakers of other languages

TESL – Teaching English as a second language

PBLA – Portfolio-Based Language Assessment

As an Afro Peruvian person living in the Canadian diaspora, Roxana Escobar Ñañes explains the concepts of human geography as a point of entry to understand how our lives are shaped by spaces and how our social interactions are produced. She explores Afro Peruvian communities as domestic spaces for healing and connection. She argues that “these spaces become places because we give them meanings and emotional attachments and we transform them.” Also, Roxana posits that although being black became an archetype of negativity that haunts people’s lives, blackness becomes the center of human geographies - Blackness becomes healing. She finishes her talk by encouraging us to celebrate black identities and Afrolatinidad in which we enjoy the company of others in relation to our communities as we support each other when it comes to challenging racism, machismo and patriarchal mindsets in Latinamerica as a revolutionary act.

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Bio:

Roxana Escobar Ñañes is an Afro-Peruvian Ph.D. student in the geography department at the University of Toronto in Canada. She is an activist and scholar who investigates the relationship between human bodies/geographies of Afro-descendants’ rights in Canada and Latin America.

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Sources:

Escobar, M.R. (2018) ¿El Enfoque Actual de Interculturalidad Contribuye Realmente en la Lucha contra la Discriminación Estructural Perpetrada Hacia las Poblaciones Afrodescendientes en el Perú? In: Cultura Afroperuana. Enncuentro de Investigdores 2017. Lima, PE: Ministry of Culture of Peru

Escobar, M.R. (2017). Interculturalism in Peru and Canada. A Functional Project? In A. Soltani and J. Newton (Eds.), New Framings on Anti-Racism: Resistance and the New Futurity. Toronto, ON: Sense Publishers

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Cite this podcast (APA):

Ortega, Y. (Producer). (2020, March 24). CES3E6 – Celebrating Afrolatinidad [Audio podcast]. Retrieved from https://soundcloud.com/chasingencounters/ces3e6-celebrating-afrolatinidad

Mike Mena spent some time with us to discuss his cultural and linguistic background. He helped us understand the intricacies of being Latino or Latinx in North America and other sometimes confusing identity markers such as Hispanic, Chicano or Mexican American. In our conversation, we challenged the identity labels that have been imposed when we navigate the different academic and non-academic spaces. Now, as a graduate student in New York, he problematizes what it means to be a diverse scholar in elite institutions when academic linguistic registers promote hierarchies and question our intelligence. Also, he recommends people of color to surround themselves and support each other as he suggests that the academic world can become difficult and prevent marginalized peoples to have access to certain funds of knowledge. Finally, he promotes his academic YouTube channel to provide resources to scholars of color so they do not feel intimidated by academic discourses.

Bio:

Mike Mena (@MikeMenaNYC) studies how ideologies of race and language converge in ways that reproduce hierarchical arrangements and income inequality. In 2018, Mike founded “The Social Life of Language,” an award-winning educational YouTube channel emphasizing the importance of understanding the work language performs in everyday life.

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Sources:

Mena, Mike & Ofelia Garcia. (forthcoming) “‘Converse Racialization’ and ‘Un/marking’ Language: The making of a bilingual university in a neoliberal world.” Language in Society.

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Mike Mena YouTube Channel

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7H1rLtG-2UOOVk_sD6uBUA

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Cite this podcast (APA):

Ortega, Y. (Producer). (2020, March 16). CES3E5 – Latino or Latinx

[Audio podcast]. Retrieved from

From a marketing career to social justice education, Meng Xiao helps us to understand the different experiences among international students who travel from China to Canada. In her research, she examines Chinese students’ engagement in higher education. She highlights that multiple intersecting identities are defined by the students themselves, their communities and their experiences when it comes to how they engage in graduate studies. She explains that factors affecting this engagement are field-related, whether they come from the hard sciences or humanities. For example, English as a second language poses linguistic challenges when students are faced with communicating their ideas via academic writing or oral engagements. Also, she argues that mental health also affects community engagement as some students feel isolated and vulnerable. To minimize these challenges, Meng created a handbook to support both administrators from institutions and graduate students to better navigate the Canadian system and engage in communities. As Meng’s name means “dreams”, she invites us to pursue your dreams and never give up.

Bio

Meng Xiao is a student engagement educator and researcher, currently an Ed.D. student specializing in Social Justice Education and Comparative Education. Her doctoral project aims to support Chinese international students’ engagement in and out of the classroom in Canadian graduate schools theoretically and practically.

Cite this podcast (APA): Ortega, Y. (Producer). (2020, March 9). CES3E3 – Graduate student research [Audio podcast]. https://soundcloud.com/chasingencounters/ces3e4-chinese-graduate-student-engagement

Today we have Shirin, Norin and Lepin who are graduate students at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto. They are the co-chairs for this year’s graduate student conferences. We discussed research engagement, knowledge mobilization and the importance of disseminating research, especially when it comes to graduate studies. As co-chairs, they came to Chasing Encounters not only to promote the conference but to have an in-depth conversation about asking intrinsic questions that help us transform our societies and explore the opportunities we find while doing research. In the end, knowledge mobilization is about connecting, learning and connecting with others who share similar interests.

Norin Taj is a PhD candidate in Educational Leadership and Policy (ELP) at OISE. She received her master’s degree in ELP with a specialization in Comparative, International and Development Education. Her research interests are in gender and education. She is looking at the global policy discourses on girls’ education and their understanding in the South Asian context, particularly in Pakistan. When not working, she enjoys painting and writing poetry.

Leping Mou is a PhD candidate in Comparative Higher Education at OISE, University of Toronto. His doctoral research focuses on how liberal arts education could contribute to the cultivation of whole persons with capabilities for the 21st century. He is interested in and utilising mixed methods in his research.

Shirin Haghgou has worked as an educator and community organizer with newcomer youth in Toronto. Shirin managed the first ever project in Toronto addressing issues of gender identity and sexual orientation within the Farsi speaking diaspora. She is currently pursuing her PhD in the department of Adult Education and Community Development at the University of Toronto.

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Cite this podcast (APA): Ortega, Y. (Producer). (2020, March 2). CES3E3 – Graduate student research

[Audio podcast]. https://soundcloud.com/chasingencounters/ces3e3-graduate-student-research

Dr. Amir Kalan talks about his upcoming book “Sociocultural and Power Relational Dimensions of Multilingual Writing”. Here, Dr. Kalan explains how Western academic writing follows a process of capitalist industrialization of levelling and separating the languages skills as if this were a mechanical system. He suggested several solutions to these mentalities such as restructuring writing classes and some pedagogical practices from creative narrative formation to collaborative and identity writing while paying attention to multimodal forms of assessment.

This podcast is also available as a video podcast through Roots Media here:

https://youtu.be/BD3bH7Pj03g

Bio:

Dr. Amir Kalan is a Lecturer at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto. He teaches educational research methods and research writing to Canadian pre-service teachers in the Master of Teaching program. His research interests include critical writing studies, multilingual writing, multiliteracies, digital humanities, and practitioner inquiry.

Sources:

Kalan, A. (2016). Who’s Afraid of Multilingual Education?: Conversations with Tove Skutnabb-Kangas, Jim Cummins, Ajit Mohanty and Stephen Bahry about the Iranian Context and Beyond. Multilingual Matters.

Cite this podcast (APA):

Ortega, Y. (Producer). (2020, February 5). CES3E2 – Deindustrializing writing education

[Audio podcast]. https://soundcloud.com/chasingencounters/ces3e2-deindustrializing-writing-education

From New York city in the United States, Justin Gerald, the host of Unstandardized English Podcast, joined us in this crossover episode to share his thoughts and ideas about starting a podcast. He went to South Korea to teach English where he got motivated to continue his research work. Growing up in white spaces, as a black person, he started questioning what it means to be educated and have economic resources. Inspired by his wife, he took this questioning to his podcast in order to engage in conversations about language and race. Although technologically difficult in the beginning, he explains all the advantages of doing a podcast. From reaching out to broader audiences and diverse guests, Justin hopes Unstandardized English Podcast becomes an accessible space for more critical conversations.

You can have access to his part of this crossover episode here:

https://anchor.fm/unstandardized/episodes/Chasing-Encounters-Crossover-e9vug8

Bio:

JPB Gerald is a doctoral student in Instructional Leadership at Hunter College in NYC. He has a decade of experience in language teaching and is particularly interested in the intersection of race, whiteness, and linguistic discrimination.

Sources:

Gerald, J. (2020). Combatting the altruistic shield in English language teaching. NYS TESOL JOURNAL, 7(1), 4. Retrieved from http://journal.nystesol.org/jan2020/3_AP.pdf

Cite this podcast (APA):

Ortega, Y. (Producer). (2020, January 15). CES3E1 - Unstandardized Podcasting [Audio podcast]. https://soundcloud.com/chasingencounters/ces3e1-unstandardized-podcasting

Cristina has international experience teaching in formal and informal spaces in Japan and in Canada. She was born in Trinidad and is the first woman in the family pursuing a Ph.D. We discussed how the English language has been used for domination and control but also shaped the way we think in a capitalist society. Mainly, these mentalities stem from colonization. To this, Cristina explains how colonialism is very different depending on the contexts, however, there are some patterns that help us understand what happens to the local languages, cultures and knowledges and what counts and what is being valued or not. We engaged in conversations around questioning why some people denigrate local languages and cultures in order to behave and speak properly to fit in this society and be perceived as more intelligent so they can move socially. While mastering English may be practical and gives us power, multilingualism helps us understanding other human beings and other modes of understating the world, and it allows personal and societal transformation. We finish our talk by discussing how decolonization is not only in psychological, material terms but an intentional practice about actions to challenge and change systems on a daily basis.

Bio:

Cristina Sherry Jaimungal is a scholar pursuing her PhD in Social Justice Education and Comparative, International, and Development Education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), University of Toronto. Anchored in critical language studies, anti-colonial theory, anti-racism studies, and decolonial praxis, Jaimungal examines the colonial enterprise of English language education.

Sources:

*Cheuk, F., and Jaimungal, C.S. (March 2018). Paper Presentation “Unsettling Tongues and Tones: Fleshing Out the Colonial Reproduction of English Language Education”. Paper presented at the 2018 Comparative International Education Society Conference, March (25-29), 2018, Mexico City, Mexico.

*Dei, G. J. S., & Jaimungal, C. (Eds.). (2018). Indigeneity and Decolonial Resistance: Alternatives to Colonial Thinking and Practice. Stylus Publishing, LLC.

*Lippi-Green, R. (2012). English with an accent: Language, ideology and discrimination in the United States. Routledge.

*Lordan, M., George, J., & Dei, S. (Eds.). (2016). Anti-colonial theory and decolonial praxis. Peter Lang Incorporated, International Academic Publishers.

*Motha, S. (2014). Race, empire, and English language teaching: Creating responsible and ethical anti-racist practice. Teachers College Press.

Cite this podcast (APA):

Ortega, Y. (Producer). (2019, December 18). CES2E9 – Language, Race, and Colonialism [Audio podcast]. Retrieved from https://soundcloud.com/chasingencounters/ces2e8-language-race-and-colonialism