Academic Well Being Of Racialized Students

Canadian universities have a sordid history steeped in colonialism and racism. Racialized students, who would have once been forbidden from academic spaces and who still feel out of place, must navigate these oppressive structures in their educational journeys. Through the multiple genres of essay, art, poetry, and photography, this book intelligently examines the experiences of racialized students in Canadian academe. Though the contributors discuss the challenges they face, the book emphasizes the crucial connections that racialized students purposefully forge, which transform an otherwise hostile environment into a space of good relations, intellectual collaborations, community-building, and kinship: academic well-being. Lovingly curated by Dr. Benita Bunjun, this book's existence is a living example of mentorship, reciprocity, and resilience.

Canadian universities have an ongoing history of colonialism and racism in this white-settler society. Racialized students (Indigenous, Black and students of colour), who would once have been forbidden from academic spaces and who still feel out of place, must navigate these repressive structures in their educational journeys. Through the genres of essay, art, poetry and photography, this book examines the experiences of and effects on racialized students in the Canadian academy, while exposing academia’s lack of capacity to promote students’ academic well-being. The book emphasizes the crucial connections that racialized students forge, which transform an otherwise hostile environment into a space of intellectual collaboration, community building and transnational kinship relations. Meticulously curated by Dr. Benita Bunjun, this book is a living example of mentorship, reciprocity and resilience.

Canadian universities have an ongoing history of colonialism and racism in this white-settler society. Racialized students (Indigenous, Black and students of colour), who would once have been forbidden from academic spaces and who still feel out of place, must navigate these repressive structures in their educational journeys. Through the genres of essay, art, poetry and photography, this book examines the experiences of and effects on racialized students in the Canadian academy, while exposing academia’s lack of capacity to promote students’ academic well-being. The book emphasizes the crucial connections that racialized students forge, which transform an otherwise hostile environment into a space of intellectual collaboration, community building and transnational kinship relations. Meticulously curated by Dr. Benita Bunjun, this book is a living example of mentorship, reciprocity and resilience.

Emerging from the Shadows aims to enlighten academics, researchers, university students, and the general public about the development of mental health services in a university environment—with a special focus on racialized students. Based on research exploring the perceptions of racialized and non-racialized students at York University towards seeking help for mental health problems, this book collects the findings gleaned from nearly 500 students. The majority (84%) identified as Canadian racialized, mainly Asian, South Asian, Caribbean, Middle Eastern, and African. The remainder were Canadian non-racialized students identifying with the dominant Canadian culture. The study results showed that the shadows of attitudes and intentions toward seeking help were more negative among the racialized students, and a higher level of stigma was found to be a predictor of negative attitudes and lower intentions towards seeking mental health counselling among the racialized students. Interestingly, stigmatization among the racialized and non-racialized male students was higher than among the female students, while older racialized students tended to have higher positive scores for attitudes toward seeking help than younger students reported. Attitudes toward seeking help were more positive among the students who lived with their families. Previous mental diagnosis was also a significant predictor of a more positive attitude toward seeking help. Yet despite these findings, very few students in both groups used the counselling services or the online information system at York University to obtain support on mental health issues. Emerging from the Shadows sheds light on this still-taboo subject to enable educators and student communities to increase their awareness, enabling improvement to systems designed to help—especially for those racialized students in need.

Coloniality and Racial (In)Justice in the University examines the disruption and remaking of the university at a moment in history when white supremacist politics have erupted across North America, as have anti-racist and anti-colonial movements. Situating the university at the heart of these momentous developments, this collection debunks the popular claim that the university is well on its way to overcoming its histories of racial exclusion. Written by faculty and students located at various levels within the institutional hierarchy, this book demonstrates how the shadows of settler colonialism and racial division are reiterated in "newer" neoliberal practices. Drawing on critical race and Indigenous theory, the chapters challenge Eurocentric knowledge, institutional whiteness, and structural discrimination that are the bedrock of the institution. The authors also analyse their own experiences to show how Indigenous dispossession, racial violence, administrative prejudice, and imperialist militarization shape classroom interactions within the university.

This book explores ways in which education supports or negates the wellbeing and rights of young people in or from the Americas. It shows how young people diagnose problems and propose important new directions for education. A collective chronicle from researchers working alongside young people in Chile, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Honduras, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and the Caribbean and Latin American diaspora in Canada, the authors embrace the work in terms of justice: intergenerational, racial, cultural and ecological with/by/for various groups of young people. This book delves into the wide gap between the expressed rights of young people in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and the ways in which education operates. In so doing, it examines the entrenched colonial legacies which persist, including systemic racism, flabby curriculum, hyper-surveillance and broken promises for care and human relationships needed to support youth. The resourceful young people shown here – who identify as Latin American, Black, Indigenous and/or diasporic – are diagnosing and negotiating these injustices in revolutionary moves for education. Teachers, parents, communities and youth themselves could learn from these critical, transformative and anticolonial youthful pedagogies for being with education. This book will appeal to scholars, students, policymakers and practitioners in the areas of youth studies, education, social justice, sociology, human rights, wellbeing and social work.

How do race and class intersect to shape the identities and experiences of Black middle-class parents and their children? What are Black middle-class parents’ strategies for supporting their children through school? What role do the educational histories of Black middle-class parents play in their decision-making about their children’s education? There is now an extensive body of research on the educational strategies of the white middle classes but a silence exists around the emergence of the Black middle classes and their experiences, priorities, and actions in relation to education. This book focuses on middle-class families of Black Caribbean heritage. Drawing on rich qualitative data from nearly 80 in-depth interviews with Black Caribbean middle-class parents, the internationally renowned contributors reveal how these parents attempt to navigate their children successfully through the school system, and defend them against low expectations and other manifestations of discrimination. Chapters identify when, how and to what extent parents deploy the financial, cultural and social resources available to them as professional, middle class individuals in support of their children’s academic success and emotional well-being. The book sheds light on the complex, and relatively neglected relations, between race, social class and education, and in addition, poses wider questions about the experiences of social mobility, and the intersection of race and class in forming the identity of the parents and their children. The Colour of Class: The educational strategies of the Black middle classes will appeal to undergraduates and postgraduates on education, sociology and social policy courses, as well as academics with an interest in Critical Race Theory and Bourdieu. The Colour of Class was awarded 2nd prize by the Society for Educational Studies: Book Prize 2016.