The first time I saw Francisca, I saw a woman of the Mapuche culture from Chile. For me, her physical resemblance with the “people of the land” (1) from my country was very clear. Even her clothes looked familiar. I approached her with this assumption in my mind. I was expecting a cold and disparaging reception, because for many Mapuche people I would be considered a “huinca” – a foreigner and usurper. This opinion/classification is supported by a violent history of oppression by Spanish colonists and present exclusionary social dynamics. But when I saw her relaxed and welcoming, I realized that I needed to be open to her particular worldview, which could be very different from my previous references and experiences.

After realizing how my previous experiences could shape my observation, I focused on discovering the patterns and dynamics of the people working at the farm. Observing both groups, the volunteers from the Urban Farmers Program and the people from the Maya Garden, I realized that everyone has a migration story. For example, most volunteers came to Vancouver from distant and neighbouring cities of Canada, and the most common reason to move was to study. This challenged my first assumption that the migration stories were only present in the experiences of people from Guatemala working at the Maya Garden.

Besides ethnicity, there is a clear difference among the two groups of people I am observing in the farm. This difference is the time they spend, or have spent, working on the farm. While volunteers from Urban Farmers Program spend three to twelve hours on the farm in one season, the people from the Maya Garden have been working on the farm for eleven years. They told me that after all these years, they felt a sense of place and belonging, but it was not the same at the beginning. It took time to develop this relationship with the place, but now they plant and grow their traditional seeds in the garden using traditional methods; do their traditional ceremonies; and communicate with each other in Maya language. I think the farm cultivates this paradox, in which “locals” feel like “immigrants”, and “immigrants” feel like “locals”. In this regard, so far I could say that what makes you “local” is time in contact with the ground and your traditions. In this sense, when I say local, I mean having a sense of belonging in a place. But what happens outside the piece of land called Maya Garden? Do they become immigrants when they are outside of this garden? Is the experience of the Maya Garden enough to confer them a sense of place and belonging in a new nation? So far, I can only say the Maya Garden is the place where this group of people can grow the food they are used to eat and like, and do the activities that they were used to do. By the way, I wonder if the younger relatives of this group feel the same need to work the land as the elders do.

(1) In Mapudungun (Mapuche language), “mapu” means land, and “che” means people. (www.mapuche-nation.org/english/main/feature/m_nation.htm)

Serving the West End for 70 memorable years

Gordon Neighbourhood House celebrates its 70th anniversary this year on August 11th 2012, in conjunction with its 15th annual West End Summer Block Party. To kickstart the commemoration of almost three quarters of a century of serving the community, the house has put forth an ambitious and creative project to be displayed at the event proper: an artistic timeline depicting the house’s history and involvement with the neighborhood, from its establishment in 1942 to the present age.

We have thus implemented a preliminary idea for what to accomplish in the 3 remaining weeks. So far, we have decided to base our timeline on three thematic categories: The untold past of the West End from the perspective of Aboriginal displacement from the lands, the subjective histories by prominent Gordon House seniors, and the memories and experiences of exemplary volunteers and staff. Combined, these intergenerational categories are to be incorporated into the timeline project to form a thematic perspective on the levels of voluntary involvement and participation with the community and how it shapes the imagined roles and lives of residents in the West End.

A snapshot from the 10th block party, 5 years ago. This year's party promises to larger in scale and even more memorable in significance.

1940s Gordon House seniors enjoying a game of cards (Source: Vancouver Archives)

1940s Children at study and play (Source: Vancouver Archives)

Concerning our division of labour, my partner, Jenn will focus on Aboriginal settlers and the untold stories /counter histories of the neighbourhood through archival research and interviews with several experts on the matter. I will be focusing on interviewing prominent seniors, staff and model volunteers from Gordon House. My part will deal with the subjective and unofficial histories derived from the memories and experiences of seniors and model volunteers that define and shape the imagined community of the West End. The key here is a creative juxtaposition of the past and present with an objective to tell a story of the neighbourhood and house’s history and cultural heritage. Concurrently, both of us are searching for photographs of the house and the West End. Our main challenge is finding a to develop a creative way to integrate the 3 themes together with imagery and to develop cohesive and inter-relatable research questions for the presentation in June and event in August.

A trip down memory lane in the form of newspaper clippings....A written tribute to English Bay's very own, Joe Fortes who passed away in 1922 at age 55 (The Province, 1982). With the widespread racism in the early 1900s, he was the only black lifeguard allowed to work at the beaches of English Bay, due to his exceptional swimming abilities and good record of life saving (26 counts). He eventually won the hearts of many with his sincere devotion to his job and kindness to kids..He remains a key icon to the West End to this very day.

About my initial experiences of doing field research, admittedly it has been limited at best to searching the archives at the public libraries for photos and establishing liaisons with key personnel within Gordon House. With the interviews scheduled for this week, I am looking forward to finally getting my hands dirty. If there’s anything I can take away from these initial weeks of planning, would be that the preparation for fieldwork is expansive. “Much of fieldwork involves confirming unity – unity of themes and patterns that hang together in the data” (Sunstein and Chiseri-Strater, 2012, p. 194). Organized planning aides fieldwork by laying the basis for initiating research and locating trends and themes within the theoretical structures. Secondly, it also involves performing relevant historical research, determining how to make contacts with subjects and maintaining relationship with the subjects (Babbie and Benaquisto, 2002).

Scouring the archives at the Vancouver Public Library (Week 1 of the course, a tedious but interesting experience....Clicking on the image just sums up my thoughts to the process)

An endless sea of...Oops! I meant shelf of photos dating back to the 1900s (The Vancouver Public Library Archives)

Finally, with the responsibility of conducting interviews with seniors, staff and volunteers on my shoulders, I also am well aware that my own personal biases and opinions may inherently in some manner, influence my observation process, amidst working with an abundance of evidence from my field notes,interview transcripts and photographs. I would have to mindful of this aspect and maintain an inward and reflexive perspective when analyzing the data ( Sunstein and Chiseri-Strater, 2012). To sum it up, these are among the important considerations to remember as I take my neophyte steps towards becoming an ethnographer.

References

Babbie, E., & Benaquisto, L. (2010). Fundamentals of social research. T.O., ON, Canada: Nelson Education.

Sunstein., B., S.,& Chiseri-Strater, E. (2007). FieldWorking: Reading and Writing Research. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

“Theories do not spring tabula rasa from the data but are carried forward through intellectual debate and division. They then re-enter the wider world of participants, there to be adopted, refuted, and extended in intended and unintended ways, circulating back into science. Science offers no final truth, no certainties, but exists in a state of continual revision.”

– Michael Burawoy, “The Extended Case Method”, p. 16

Fieldwork has been difficult, to put it simply. The difficulty arises neither from the different techniques that can be employed nor from understanding my role as a researcher but from a lack of desirable access to the field site. At least from my perspective, I haven’t had much of an opportunity to really feel immersed or involved in what Mount Pleasant Neighbourhood House (MPNH) has to offer in terms of programs and services. So far, I’ve worked two shifts at the front desk of MPNH doing reception work. While the benefits of this position include the ability to see every person that walks through the doors and answering phone calls inquiring about MPNH, it has not allowed for involvement in a specific program or interaction with participants.

Reception as first point of contact.

Like Burawoy has alluded to, without dialogue and immersion in a field site, it’s tough to recognize any relevant emerging theories or threads of knowledge, which makes me nervous about my final project and what it will end up consisting of. Hopefully this will all change when I start a supplemental volunteer shift with Strong Start, an initiative that teaches parents “affective” early learning strategies for their pre-school aged children. It’s only a couple of hours every week which will challenge me to be a better researcher and extract as much as I can from each shift.

Burawoy’s idea of reflexive science and the extended case method seems like a good technique to employ. The acknowledgement that regarding science as a process “outside” of the subjects they study is outdated and incomplete provides an avenue for a different kind of research method. Burawoy suggests that engaging directly in participant observation can provide different perspectives for research as it “distorts and disturbs,” and reveals a social order responding to pressure (Burawoy pp. 16-17). As well, it’s hard to maintain the position of an “outsider” because of the human element of what we’re dealing with. Working with others is naturally entwined with human interaction and dialogue, as familiarity with people and the environment allows us to become a part of the subculture.

What Elizabeth Chiseri-Strater and Bonnie Stone Sunstein call the “subculture” refers to the socially cultivated environments of special languages used to communicate, different ways of behaving and interacting, and shared belief systems that develop in places and spaces inhabited by people, whether it’s a cultural background or membership in a school (pp. 4-5). Though I’ve only worked at the front desk so far, I’ve already noticed a subculture of employee behaviour developing. Throughout the day, many female employees will congregate at the front desk to chat and “gossip” about what’s happening around MPNH or in their lives. Being a female, I don’t think my presence inhibits or alters these social patterns. It would be interesting to note what it would be like if a male was working instead.

So far, fieldworking has been a little tough to navigate and undertake in terms of figuring out a final project but it’s evident that even with little access, my role as a participant observer has provided me with a plethora of anecdotes just from working reception. I’m looking forward to seeing the different field notes that will be produced from working in an actual program provided by MPNH.

Snapshot of the entrance to Mount Pleasant Neighbourhood House.

References:

Burawoy, Michael. “The Extended Case Method.” Sociological Theory 16.1 (1998): 4-30. Web. 17 May 2012.

Chiseri-Strater, Elizabeth and Bonnie Stone Sunstein. Fieldworking: Reading and Writing Research. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall Inc., 1997. Print.

Painting from Frog Hollow's Homelessness Action Week.

If I am to be completely honest, this research experience has been quite stressful.  My multi-faceted role of student/ researcher/ volunteer is much more difficult than I had imagined it would be.  With week four of IVEFS approaching, I am starting over, from scratch, on brainstorming for my final project.  Because Frog Hollow Neighborhood House focuses on families with children aged 0-6, all of the programs take place in the morning.  This means that any opportunity to observe the day-to-day of my neighborhood house is missed as I am in class during that time.  My expectation was that by now I would have had plenty of time to spend in the company of the members of Frog Hollow.  At this point in my research I am reexamining my expectations, and therefore, attempting to develop a valuable research project that will be a contribution to my program and my placement (or at least one of the two), and to my experience in fieldwork.

This process of reexamining my expectations is allowing me to really think about my position in this project.  In their book FieldWorking, Elizabeth Chiseri-Strater and Bonnie Stone Sunstein’s explain how, “the point of doing fieldwork is to learn to see not just the other but ourselves as well.  The special gaze demands that we look – and then look back again at ourselves.”  The conflict I am facing as a novice researcher trying to find a balance is, in effect, helping me with that balance.  As a student, enrolled in a program, and assigned to Frog Hollow, I realize that I have carried with me the expectations and worldview of one with those roles.  As a student, I expected that my placement would work around my class schedule.  As a volunteer, I expected that my supervisor would have programs and activities for me to be a part of and contribute to.  And as a researcher, I expected that members of Frog Hollow Neighborhood House would be available for me to “research.”

This frustration and process of examining and reexamining my position is really helping me to understand my assumptions.  Not only is it necessary for me to physically step in and out of my field site, it’s imperative that I constantly reflect on my position of insider/ outsider, and what Chiseri-Strater and Sunstein refer to as one’s subjective/ objective self.  Up to this point, I worried that my limited access to the Frog Hollow community and members would prevent me from having a deep, meaningful project.  I worried that without adequate time to get to know, build rapport, and interview people, I couldn’t possibly have enough time to delve into a topic as complex as immigration.  My expectations were forcing me to miss many opportunities I had for inquiry, both in and around Frog Hollow.  I see now first hand how important the reflexive/ reflective process is to my research. And as long as I continue with this process throughout my research, I should be able to be part of a meaningful project.

_________

References

Chiseri-Strater, Elizabeth and Bonnie Stone Sunstein.  2007.  FieldWorking: Reading and Writing Research.  Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Frog Hollow Neighborhood House.  2011.  Painting.  Art Show: Homelessness Action Week.  Retrieved May 23, 2012.  From http://www.froghollow.bc.ca/gallery/youth/art-show-homelessness-action-week.

I have been partnered to work with the Gordon Neighbourhood House based in the West End, and my project for this organization is to help commemorate the GNH’s 70th anniversary, and trace some of the West End’s history in a timeline. While brainstorming ideas, I couldn’t help but mention histories that are often forgotten, such as the case of the last Native woman to live in Stanley Park – Aunt Sally – and her claims to that land. My supervisor Julio Bello found this story fascinating, and decided that this would be a story worth reviving.

In my project, I hope to reveal some “untold” stories, beginning in 1900 with First Nation’s histories, through the decades and highlighting differing immigrant shifts and its impact on the West End. I plan to meet with UBC professor Jean Barman, the author of Stanley Park’s Secrets. Her work has given me an altered perspective on one of Vancouver’s most famous landmarks. I hope to gain insight from her stories of the West End, and her experiences compiling all of this information – both personal and archival. Barman is not only interested in the Native histories that seem to have been written over by “official” text books, but she also focuses on the interaction between the “inhabitant” and the “immigrant”. Through her accounts, it becomes clear that different immigrants/settlers deal with similar situations in drastically different ways, which proves that the term “immigrant” is not a homogenous category. Some immigrants have been deemed fit to live in Vancouver, while others have not.

This relates to a similar point by Peter S. Li in his book Destination Canada[1]. On page 39 he mentions how many of the terms that Canadian policy makers and academics use are problematic. The word “immigrant,” for example, carries a host of connotations that not all people are aware of. The understanding of how “immigrant” should be used is inconsistent, and is highly contingent on what social circumstance the assessor and/or the newcomer find themselves in. There are a number of standard procedures that all outsiders must abide by. However, it would be a gross understatement to say that all immigrants receive the same treatment from embassies, borders, officials, and the general public of Canada. I wonder what entering Canada must have been like 100 years ago, 50 years ago, 10 years ago? I wonder when experience abroad became less acceptable to Canadian professions? Why do we praise certain histories through plaques and statues, while others are silenced and forgotten? These are some of the many questions I hope to uncover throughout the next few weeks of my research.

I have emailed many West End establishments with the goal of collecting as many personal photos and stories as possible. So far I have contacted the group in charge of the Pride Parade, the West End Community Centre, the Heritage Building Foundation, and the Davie Village Community Garden Committee. I hope to incorporate these personal “histories” within the timeline of the “official” or “archival” history of the West End, Vancouver, Canada, and beyond.

The cover of Stanley Park’s Secret: The Forgotten Families of Whoi Whoi, Kanaka Ranch and Brockton Point by Jean Barman.

In Burawoy’s article, he introduces the reflexive approach to ethnography which explores the idea of actively engaging in one’s surroundings. Burawoy focuses on this approach to explore the practice of extended method, where the observer is immersed their environment and applies theories (I will be using a postcolonial perspective, as well) to understand how events that occurred on a macro level can be related back to how it affects the particular environments on a micro level.

In my case, by immersing myself in an environment with children and their nannies, I have discovered how post-colonialism had affected the use of language(s) of myself, the children in the program and the nannies who attended them. I was better able to relate with the nannies because I am a product of one country occupying another for a long period of time: growing up on an American military base in Japan, I experienced splitting my life between two cultures. The nannies I spoke to were from India, which was colonized by Britain decades ago.

In Stephanie’s Creative Playtime program, children around the ages of 2 – 3 come visit with an adult – usually a parent or a nanny. As the room began to fill up with fair-skinned, blond haired children, I also noticed the adults who were bringing them in: usually dark-skinned and dark-haired. I entered the observation with a presupposition that mothers will walk in with their children. Little did I know that non-Canadian nannies were a commonplace. This dissonance was unnerving. I spoke with two nannies who were from India, who spoke to their children in Hindi as well as (British) English. Even if this may be a tiny detail, I realized that if India had not been colonized by the British decades ago, the possibility of them speaking English with that particular accent may not have happened. I suspect that their language skill has greatly contributed to their transition to Vancouver where immigrants (Asians especially) have concentrated in the urban areas.

While the immersion brought shared feelings, it also made me aware of my position in the greater environment of the neighborhood/Vancouver. I grew up on an American military base where English (especially Ebonics) was the main language. The usage of Ebonics has affected the way I communicate with people, even to this day. In a city where Black Americans are a rarity, Ebonics is difficult to put into practice without first wondering whether it may sound too direct and perhaps derogatory. My particular experience on the base primarily with non-White individuals has affected my speech, thus influencing the way I form bonds and connect with others. Had the military occupation not occurred as the result of the War, my bilingualism most definitely would not have developed in such a way. Because I had experience embodying two cultures (thus two languages) I was able to see the similarities with the nannies and the differences, as well.

References:

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2012/03/18/sunday-review/18GRAY/18G
RAY-articleLarge-v2.jpg

The environment at the Frog Hollow Neighbourhood House (FHNH) has been very busy recently, as the staff members prepare for a large event: the June 9^th Parent Conference. The Parent Conference is held annually by the Community Action Program for Children, a neighbourhood-collaborated organization that promotes health and well-being for immigrant families who have children aged six and under (FHNH). The theme of the conference this year is “Healthy Families & Happy Future,” and its main topics cover food safety, healthy eating, and nutritional guidance; the conference will also host food demonstrations.

Food education has been the focus of FHNH for a long time, so the centre expects many participants for the conference. According to the FHNH Family Program coordinator, Chinese immigrant families, the dominant “visible minority” in the neighbourhood, enjoy and appreciate the communal kitchen and cooking classes.

Food education is an important tool for dietary acculturation, the process of immigrant groups adopting the dietary behaviour and cultural traits of the host country (Satia et al. 2001:548). With respect to FHNH, it is noteworthy that Chinese health beliefs and dietary habits differ considerably from those of Canadians. For example, Chinese eating habits traditionally emphasize vegetables and rice, while Western people consume more milk products, meat and snacks (ibid.).

As a Chinese woman who immigrated to Canada four years ago, I feel I can empathize with what some of the Chinese immigrants experience. My dietary habits changed a bit after I moved to Canada, but I have also maintained many Chinese habits. I prepare Western-style breakfasts for my family, such as milk and bread. However, most of our lunches and dinners are Chinese-styled. For example, we eat rice with stir-fried vegetables and soup. Meanwhile, I like to cook some tonics soup to maintain good health of my family, and advise my daughter not to drink cold milk and eat cold food as they are too “yin” according to traditional Chinese beliefs. From my experience, food acculturation is a long and complex process, as it involves people adjusting to what is convenient, but also feeling comfortable in their new home. Thus, FHNH regards food education as a priority to promote social health and social integration.

Two child-care programs at FHNH provide ideal starting places for food acculturation.  The Family Drop-in Program, which provides hot lunches for children, has been running for 15 years. Most of the participants are Chinese immigrants, and the prevailing language is Cantonese. All of the staff, including those working in an adjacent kitchen, is Chinese immigrants. Nevertheless, the lunches offered normally are in Western style. Last Thursday’s hot lunch had spaghetti, potatoes, mushrooms and ground pork, and each child also had a couple slices of apple and pear, with a cup of milk. Strong Start, a program FHNH operates in collaboration with the Vancouver School Board, prepares crackers, cheese, and fruit as snacks for the children. The staff emphasize that all foods they provide are healthy. Both the hot lunch and the snacks suggest characteristics of the ideal Canadian diet: high fruit and dairy intake, and spaghetti, potatoes or crackers for protein and carbohydrate sources.

One parent in the Drop-in program commented to me that FHNH offered the food in Western-style because it was more convenient to cook, but she might ignore the efforts made by FHNH in regard to food education. Smith contends, all the routine, daily activities are “accomplishments of ongoing courses of action in which many are implicated” and “their concerting or coordering is an ongoing process” (1988:141). Food education campaign targeted to immigrant families and free lunch and snacks provided in the family programs may suggest a process of promoting food acculturation and Canadian dietary in FHNH.

Reference Cited:

Frog Hollow Neighbourhood House

N.d. Family Programs. http://www.froghollow.bc.ca/capc-community-action-program-children, accessed March 23, 2012

Satia, J A, Ruth E. Patterson, Alan R. Kristal, T.Gregory Hislop, YuTaka Yasui, and Vicky M.Taylor.

2001 Development of scales to measure dietary acculturation among Chinese-Americans and Chinese-Canadians. Journal of the American Dietetic Association. 101(5):548-553.

Smith, Dorothy E.

1988 The Everyday World as Problematic: A Feminist Sociology. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

The image is edited in Photoshop based on the images as follows:

http://hrsbstaff.ednet.ns.ca/mstoilov/Health/canadafoodguide.htm

http://chineseppl.blogspot.ca/2011/08/dim-sum-etiquette-tapping-to-say-thanks.html

One of the Bird’s Nest necklaces I help make for Volunteer Connections – sometimes fieldwork feels as complicated as these little circles of twisted wire.

Before beginning my research I had a bit of a naive vision of what doing field work was like.  I expected conversation with participants to flow easily and naturally, and that whenever I wanted to I could just nonchalantly duck off to the side and jot down notes.  It’s not that easy.   Much of the time (and especially in the beginning) fieldwork is awkward.    There have been moments where I have felt put on the spot as the “researcher” and have struggled with exactly where I should fit in.

My first experience with one of the groups I work with, a leadership group called Volunteer Connections, was full of such moments.  Firstly, as Chiseri-Strater and Sunstein emphasize, doing your background research before directly interacting with people  is important (FieldWorking 2007: 221).  I wish I had done this more thoroughly, because as I learned quickly a newcomer always sticks out.  I had assumed Volunteer Connections only met to work on their projects, so I was surprised when everyone gathered around at the beginning for a talking circle. Many of the participants shared very personal stories about their lives, and the experience was quite emotional.  When it was my turn to share something with the group I felt I had been caught off-guard.  All of these people were strangers, but I now knew very personal things about many of them.  Was it impolite of me to not reciprocate with a story on an equally personal and intimate level?  But wasn’t it also inappropriate of me as a researcher to break this boundary so early on?  I chose a safe route and told a mundane anecdote, which was an appropriate choice considering that I was there as a newcomer.   However, this left me feeling a little unbalanced, like I was only receiving information but keeping myself distant from the group.  As we moved onto the crafting section of the workshop I found myself in more moments of discomfort as the group was silent a lot of the time while learning some new instructions on how to make our bird’s nest necklaces (pictured above).  I wasn’t sure how to naturally strike up conversation with the people sitting next to me without feeling like I was conducting a mini interview.  I wasn’t even entirely sure how to watch without feeling too much like I was “studying” them.  This is an ongoing struggle in ethnographic research – you’re a researcher asking about peoples’ lives.  It’s personal, yet distant at the same time.  The next time I volunteered in a program that I hadn’t been to before I made sure I was better prepared.  I read about the program beforehand and asked my supervisor questions to clarify the project.  Throughout the next workshop I felt more at ease, since there were not as many surprises and I was familiar with the purpose and structure of the group.

As Chiseri-Strater and Sunstein point out, “[w]hat’s important about researching place is to understand how we acquire our spatial gaze, how that gaze informs our look at others, and what’s behind the gaze of others who look back at us.” (2007: 198)  Doing hands-on ethnographic research is an enriching way to explore the perspectives of yourself and others, and learning about how others see the world is a complex and intricate process.  When one adds language and cultural differences, then mistakes and miscommunication are bound to happen.  What matters is being able to get past the uncomfortable feelings and use that moment as a learning experience, a chance to point out something to yourself that you didn’t know before.

References

Chiseri-Strater, Elizabeth & Bonnie Stone Sunstein

2007    FieldWorking: Reading and Writing Research. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins

My placement at Mount Pleasant Neighbourhood House (MPNH) is in two basic computer skills classes.  The first class teaches basic computer skills to newcomer women who have immigrated to Canada within the past five years.  The other class also teaches basic computer skills, and is part of the neighbourhood house’s community literacy program.   Although this class is open to anyone who wishes to join, all the participants are women, mostly seniors.  In both classes, all the women (with the exception of one) have English as a second language with minimal English literacy and fluency.

Given that all the class participants are women, I have attempted to approach my fieldwork from a feminist perspective, as discussed in Dorothy Smith’s chapter on feminist methodology.  In her work, Smith speaks about “how we might proceed in exploring the everyday world from the standpoint of women” (Smith, 1988).  In my research, I am trying to connect more macro-level themes around migration, technological capital, and gender to the micro-level, personal stories and lived experiences of these women.  As I do research, it is important for me to be conscious of my own role as a researcher, to acknowledge my own positionality (i.e. my worldview, experiences, biases, privileges, etc), and to be careful not to make broad assumptions about these women’s lives.  The women I am working with are diverse, not homogenous, as are their experiences.  They are mothers, grandmothers, newcomers, speakers of many languages, and have varying levels of education and class backgrounds.  These women carry unique perspectives from countries around the globe such as Mexico, China, Japan, India, Korea, and the Philippines.

I am beginning to understand how challenging it is to learn to use a computer as an adult, particularly in a new language.  While I don’t consider myself to be a tech genius, I am fully computer literate.  For instance, I can use Mac or PC operating systems without difficulty, I can touch type quickly, I can navigate web-based social media, and I can effortlessly search for information online.  In addition, I have ready access to a computer when I need it, either at home, at school, or at a friend’s place. While I use computers daily and with ease, this is not the case for the women and seniors with English as a second language I have encountered at MPNH.

This has made me think about the connections between gender and technology, specifically about women and computer literacy.  Why is it that only women are in these classes, and not men? What does this say about the opportunities women have to learn computer skills and access technology?  Are there no male participants in these classes because many of them are working during the day?  Or is it perhaps because men already possess greater computer skills than their female counterparts?

Participating in these computer classes has made me more aware of the value of computer literacy and accessibility.  For these women, computer literacy means greater access to information and communication – being able to communicate with friends and family who live far away, to access information about services and job opportunities, to write a resume, and to practice English.  Thus, the ability to use computers is a kind of social capital, a valuable skill for work and life, and one that the women in these computer classes hope to gain.

For the past two weeks I have been immersing myself in the youth programs at the South Vancouver Neighbourhood House (SVNH).  I am there to conduct qualitative research on youth settlement through the many programs that   SVNH provides.  I have been participating in both settlement and non-settlement youth groups.  The SVNH programming staff as well as the youth participants have been helpful and forthcoming about issues and experiences.  Thus, I have gained insight into what these programs do for the new immigrant community.  To my surprise the non-settlement programs are a very important piece in integrating immigrant youth into Canada.  As a researcher, I have tried to immerse myself as much as possible within the organization by joining in the program activities in hopes to gain more information on the subject of youth settlement.  The result has been a wealth of information and unexpected discoveries.

I went into this research project with a particular interest in mind; I wanted to know more about the experiences of youth navigating between old and new cultures.  However, the more I participated in the youth programs and talked with the youth and group leaders, the more new questions emerged and possible directions to take.  It was while participating in the non-settlement programs that I realized some of the major youth settlement issues at hand.  For example, while volunteering in the Afterschool Homework Club, I learned that one of the biggest challenges for staff is that some students have no desire to learn English or be successful in school, even to graduate.  These youth have job goals of working in Chinese restaurants or family businesses where they do not need to know English or have formal education credentials.  This was an unexpected discovery and went against all my assumptions.

By participating in the Friday Night Volunteer group, I have had opportunities to chat with many youth immigrants.  A general theme I have noticed so far is that making friends is hugely important to them and their Canadian experience; the programs through SVNH enable them to do this.  However, some have told me that they do not always like being in Canada and I was surprized to learn that many of them eventually wanted to return to their home country.

I realized that being a researcher means that you start out with one question and end up with many, many more.  In fact, it is rather overwhelming and daunting.  These issues that I am starting to uncover through my participation, has led me to new questions and different directions to focus my research.  What does it truly mean to be ‘settled’?  Is this definition the same for youth immigrants as it is for the program developers at SVNH?  What is it that is difficult for newcomer youth to Vancouver?  What needs are getting met and what needs are not?  What factors or challenges influence the type of programming and resources made available to new immigrant youth?  During the next three weeks, I will continue my participation within the youth programs.  I plan to interview several staff members as well as engage in conversations with the immigrant youth who use SVNH’s program resources in order to answer these questions and develop these themes.  However, from what I learned thus far, I must remain open and fluid because there are likely to be more unexpected discoveries.