This collaborative action research project in Alberta, Canada, explored how dual-language books (DLBs) can foster literacy instruction and learner engagement through language awareness. Canada’s changing demographics have resulted in mother tongue diversity and many urban schools identifying at least 25% of students as being English language learners, making it crucial to include a mix of languages in classroom interactions to engage all learners. The case study combined prereading linguistic prompts with a reading of 10 DLBs, one each week, by guest readers in Urdu, Tagalog, and Spanish, alongside the teacher reading in English. Video recordings and surveys collected data on the teacher’s, guest readers’, and learners’ reflections on the experience. Findings indicate that regardless of the learners’ linguistic heritage or English language competence, the DLBs offered a unique support for literacy engagement while fostering a focus on language awareness, reading strategies, and higher order engagement with text.

This study sought to determine the role pedagogical love can play in the emotional experience of (Arabic-speaking) refugee families in Calgary, Canada, as they engaged with the public education system at the Grade 4–12 level. Through a cooperative inquiry approach, based on a shared agenda and interests, the researchers used cycles of action and reflection to elicit and analyse the experiences of parents, teachers, and in-school support workers. Contextualized within a LEAD (Literacy, English, and Academic Development) program, the study triangulated data from focus groups comprising Syrian and Iraqi Arabic-speaking families, educators, and settlement workers. Specifically, participants in the LEAD program were invited to articulate how pedagogical love could serve as an overarching orientation in making educational transition as successful as possible for refugee families. Using Braun and Clarke’s thematic analysis, the researchers analyzed data in the form of reflections from parents, educators, and in-school support workers. Based on these data, we extrapolated four interconnected themes that demonstrated the positive correlation between incorporating pedagogical love into the classroom and refugee families’ educational experience: (1) promoting pedagogical love through empathetic outreach; (2) promoting pedagogical love through increased societal exposure; (3) promoting pedagogical love through flexibility, trust, and confidence; and 4) promoting pedagogical love through individualized care.

The growing number of international students studying at Canadian universities has exacerbated the need to address identity, cultural aspects of teaching, and the commonalities of different cultures through a transcultural lens. To explore these concepts, researchers conducted a qualitative study using a workshop format at a large university in western Canada with graduate students, postdoctoral students, and faculty members from multiethnic backgrounds (N = 9). Two questions were posed to precipitate the research: 1) What does being transcultural mean to you? 2) Have you experienced cultural dissonance as part of your professional life? In a series of three activities, participants explored how to use identity texts (written, spoken, visual, musical, or multimodal sociocultural artefacts produced by participants) as an intervention to foster transculturalism and reduce tension and dissonance in a cross-cultural educational setting. Results indicated that using identity texts increased self-awareness, built trust, enhanced belonging, and revealed common humanity, thus creating opportunities to develop a successful professional identity in a multiethnic milieu.

The increasing number of Syrian families seeking safety and security in Middle Eastern, European, and North American countries has given rise to conversations around resettlement and a timely and pertinent research theme. Through an arts-based lens reflecting on social integration post-arrival, trauma awareness, and resilience, this study follows one Syrian refugee family’s experience immigrating to Canada after living in Jordan, also as refugees. The study explores social and educational occurrences of oppression, belonging, and resilience among five family members (e.g., two parents and three children). The researchers postulate that refugee families need to adapt to a new country and meet the social expectations that often fall short of refugees’ new home’s reputation as a stable and safe place. The study informs critical refugee educational research and advocates for more situated resettlement practices in the facilitation of social integration.

This study explored racialized newcomer student participants' experiences in a rural high school in Western Canada, and utilized critically engaged language and literacy workshops (CELLWs) as a means to authentically represent participants' interrelationships with and relatability to their school and community spaces. CELLWs are an important avenue for self‐reflection that fosters socially just, diverse, and equitable educational practices. Understanding the nuanced lived experiences of newcomers, and how these inform educational practices today, represents a pivotal need in the development of educational pedagogies that encompass past and present experiences reinforced within different places and spaces. The study was guided by the following question: To what extent can CELLWs afford multicultural and plurilingual identities to establish a disruptive pedagogy and re‐imagine classroom spaces? The researchers centered arts and walking methodologies within four CELLWs sessions to open up subjective practices and analyses that intersect equitable, inclusive, and diverse theories and participants' life experiences. Data was drawn from a qualitative and thematic analysis that was obtained from participants' artwork, written reflections, and individual/group interviews. The study revealed the importance of CELLWs in research and in‐classroom practices as practitioners and scholars become accountable when appropriating such activities to create spaces for meaning‐making processes that consider relevant personal experiences and feelings within schools and communities.