Articles by author: Brock University

• New book explores why Canada outperforms peers on immigrant student achievement

  Tuesday, October 02, 2018 | By Brock University

  MEDIA RELEASE: 2 October 2018 – R00172

  Growing up in the 1970s with his family new to the country, Louis Volante and his siblings experienced the challenges many Canadian immigrants face, both inside and outside of the classroom.

  Now a professor in Brock University’s Faculty of Education, Volante has edited a recently released book that explores how some of these issues affect immigrant students in schools, while also looking at immigrant student performance in various countries around the globe.

  As it turns out, despite challenges that exist, Canadian immigrant students in select provinces outperform their peers elsewhere in the world.

  Volante edited and included some of his research in the book Immigrant Student Achievement and Education Policy: Cross-Cultural Approaches with Don Klinger from Waikato University in New Zealand and Ozge Bilgili from Utrecht University in The Netherlands.

  Authors from several countries contributed 10 chapters to this cross-comparative edited volume, comparing the collective achievement of first- and second-generation immigrants with their non-immigrant peers. Countries examined include Canada, England, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Finland, the Netherlands, Republic of Ireland, Australia and New Zealand.

  First-generation immigrants are those who were born outside of their country of residence, while second-generation immigrants, such as Volante, are those whose parents were born in another country.

  “Around the world, immigrants typically underperform. We refer to that as the performance disadvantage,” says Volante. “Canada is quite unique in the sense that our immigrants are on par with, and in some provinces ahead of, their same-age peers. We actually have a performance advantage, not a disadvantage, when it comes to our immigrant students.”

  About 30 per cent of students across Canada are first- or second-generation immigrants, one of the highest proportions in the western world, explains Volante. First- and second-generation immigrants make up about 37 per cent of students in Ontario and 39 per cent in B.C. In the U.S., New Zealand and Australia, the percentage is lower than 25 per cent.

  Canada is also unique among its peers in not having centralized national education policies, leading to varied provincial education systems. Immigrant students in Ontario and B.C., for example, perform better than those in other provinces.

  The book reveals several trends around immigrant student success as well as policies that can help improve their achievement.

  One factor related to success is the age of arrival. Students who immigrate before the age of 12 tend to perform better than those who arrive as teenagers. One possible reason is that those who arrive later may not have enough time to become proficient in a new language before finishing secondary school. Volante suggests policy-makers can increase immigrant student achievement by providing more supports for these older students.

  For many immigrants, language is a significant factor in academic success. Overall, the book shows the current trend is to mainstream students, supporting their movement into a new language and a regular classroom as quickly as possible.

  “We know in the research that additive bilingualism, which is the ability to develop proficiency in a second language while maintaining your home language, tends to lead to better outcomes as opposed to subtractive bilingualism,” Volante says.

  The subtractive method was favoured during the 1960s and 1970s, with the aim being to help students learn a new language quickly by diminishing the importance of their home language in school environments. This was the experience of Volante, whose parents and siblings immigrated from Italy.

  For the teacher candidates Volante instructs in the Faculty of Education, these findings have real implications for their classroom practices, from having material available in a student’s home language to developing an understanding of the unique learning needs immigrant students might have.

  These discussions matter for communities too. When immigrant students don’t realize their full potential, communities don’t benefit from the many ways they could contribute to social and economic development.

  “They deserve an opportunity to thrive based on their abilities and they’re not getting it in some cases,” says Volante, who was awarded a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Insight Grant in 2017 for a pan-Canadian analysis of immigrant student achievement and education policy. Part of this volume was supported by SSHRC funding.

  For more information or for assistance arranging interviews:

  * Dan Dakin, Manager Communications and Media Relations, Brock University ddakin@brocku.ca, 905-688-5550 x5353 or 905-347-1970

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  Categories: Media releases

• Niagara’s manufacturing sector still going strong, says Brock NCO research

  Thursday, September 27, 2018 | By Brock University

  MEDIA RELEASE: 27 September 2018 – R00171

  For those in Niagara who continue to mourn the decline of the region’s traditional manufacturing sector, Sean Calcott and Charles Conteh have some good news.

  True, the sector is very different than it was 20 or 30 years ago and it has seen some tough times, says Conteh, Associate Professor of Political Science at Brock University and Director of the Niagara Community Observatory (NCO). “But the general trend is that manufacturing has been very resilient, has stayed in the region and, in fact, has seen an upswing since 2012, so there’s a bit of a wind in our sails,” he says.

  Conteh is co-author of the NCO’s latest policy brief, “Shifting Gears: Examining the recent upswing of Niagara’s manufacturing sector.”

  In their brief, Conteh and co-author Calcott, a recent master’s graduate in the Department of Political Science, examine Niagara’s recent economic history with fresh eyes, avoiding comparisons to the region of long ago.

  “The strength of manufacturing in Niagara is not as visible to the naked eye as when large plants and factories were prominent in the sector,” says Calcott. “There is a multitude of small firms making diverse products that account for the bulk of the job growth in this sector.”

  In the past six years, Niagara’s manufacturing sector has continued to be a main driver of job growth and economic development, says the brief.

  It notes that, as of 2016, 243 manufacturing firms in Niagara exported goods totalling about $3.7 billion. Machinery, boilers, mechanical appliances, engines and parts accounted for about one-third of this total, with nickel, plastics, railway and tramway vehicles, parts and accessories also being significant exports.

  Across the sector, manufacturing employment increased by 2,075 jobs between 2012 and 2018.

  The largest increases are in plastics and rubber products manufacturing (70 per cent), beverage and tobacco product manufacturing (44 per cent), chemical manufacturing (40 per cent) and transportation equipment manufacturing (23 per cent).

  Niagara has moved away from the “large branch-plant model” typical of the previous century, with manufacturing jobs being concentrated in small-to-medium size firms (SMEs) with fewer than 500 employees, says the brief.

  “SMEs present advantages over larger enterprises because their smaller footprint enables more risk-taking and innovation than firms which have invested greater resources into an established business model,” says the brief, adding that they can “adapt more quickly to changing market conditions.”

  The brief points out one dark lining in an otherwise silver cloud: wages today are generally lower than they were in the manufacturing sector of the past.

  “The middle-tier of manufacturing jobs are being displaced by lower-paying positions, while higher-paying managerial and supervisory positions are stable,” says the brief.

  To address this challenge, the brief recommends building upon the tremendous strides in education and skills training being offered in the region’s post-secondary institutions that would see “more investment in specialized industrial skills in targeted labour-intensive manufacturing sectors.”

  The authors urge Niagara to align itself with the economies of Hamilton, the GTA and Buffalo. “This means building an integrated system of design and production nodes in a distributed network of interlocking supplier and customer firm relationships that spans the QEW industrial corridor and extends to the Buffalo market.”

  It also calls for small and medium-sized entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, university and college researchers, economic development officials and others to come together to identify Niagara’s existing strengths and map out strategies to attract investment and build skills training.

  Conteh says the take-away message from the NCO’s latest research is that Niagara’s manufacturing sector still forms the bedrock of the economy despite earlier upheavals, and has a bright future.

  He says that when they started the research, he already had an “indication” of something positive happening, “but the compelling data gave us evidence beyond a shadow of a doubt that Niagara is resilient and has the adaptive capacity to weather storms.”

  For more information or for assistance arranging interviews:

  * Dan Dakin, Manager Communications and Media Relations, Brock University ddakin@brocku.ca, 905-688-5550 x5353 or 905-347-1970

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  Categories: Media releases