- Keywords: Pluralism, awareness, education.
- Timeline: Early 2000s.
- Summary: Peck and Sears identify their core argument as follows: “We argue that students understand the concept of ethnic diversity in a limited number of qualitatively different ways, and that, in general, these understandings are far less sophisticated than those outlined in curricular expectations” (p. 101). Peck and Sears call for social justice education: “It is not enough to recognize diversity and teach students about accommodation, we also need to enact the rhetoric of social justice in a much broader sense” (p. 117). Peck and Sears see the understanding of ethno-cultural and ethno-racial diversity as a necessary starting point when working towards transformative critical thought and social action: “We are left wondering how we (educators and curriculum developers) can expect students who have little or no understanding of ethnic diversity to progress on a continuum that moves from recognition of diversity to advocacy for accommodation and rights” (p. 117-118).
Petroff, L. (1977). Macedonians: From village to city. Canadian Ethnic Studies, 9, 29-41.
- Keywords: Macedonian-Canadian, immigrant experiences, community building.
- Timeline: Early 1900s.
- Summary: Toronto’s Macedonian-Canadian community was partly reshaped by larger social institutions, including public schooling: “Under pressure from assimilating agencies, the new Macedonian Canadian identity emerged in the second generation, but the history and vicissitudes of the first generation on both sides of the ocean – and the nature of their insertion into Toronto’s society and economy – shaped that identity” (p. 39).
Petroff, L. (1978). Macedonians in Toronto: From encampment to settlement. Urban History Review, 7, 2, 58-73.
- Keywords: Macedonian-Canadian, immigrant experiences, community building.
- Timeline: early 1900s
- Summary: Toronto’s Macedonian-Canadian community shifted from a temporary one to a permanent one over a period of years: “The temporary quarters of the boarding house, the sense of impermanence of men whose priority was to a home and family in a Macedonian village gave way before men who had a stake in Toronto. The end of the dream of return created new realities. It remade attitudes” (p. 73).
Petroff, L. (1995). Sojourners and settlers: The Macedonian community in Toronto to 1940. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
- Keywords: Macedonian-Canadian, immigrant experiences, community building.
- Timeline: Early 1900s to 1940.
- Summary: This book explores the challenges and changes experienced within the Canadian-Macedonian community in Toronto between the early 1900s and 1940.
Pratt, A.; & Valverde, M. (2002). From deserving victims to “masters of confusion”: Redefining refugees in the 1990s. Canadian Journal of Sociology, 27, 2, 135-161.
- Keywords: Somali-Canadian, immigrant experience, refugee.
- Timeline: 1990s.
- Summary: Pratt and Valverde considers the impact on Somalis of negative public and popular views of social services, crime, immigration: “In recent years government as well as populist discourses have crossed these lines in interesting and often dangerous ways. The spectre of crime, particularly when articulated with the spectre of ‘welfare fraud,’ has been used to govern immigration in new ways and has especially affected deportation practices” (p. 159).
Premdas, R.R. (2004). Diaspora and its discontents: A Caribbean fragment in Toronto in quest of cultural recognition and political empowerment. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 27, 4, 544-564.
- Keywords: African-Canadian, diaspora, community building.
- Timeline: 1970s-early 2000s.
- Summary: Premdas outlines the core theme of the paper as follows: “This essay examines the role of a historic organization in offering succour and direction to a fragment of the Caribbean diaspora in Toronto” (p. 544). Later, Premdas describes the extensive nature of insititutionalized exclusion: “In Aristotelian terms, participation in collective decision-making stands at the heart of and is indispensable for meaningful citizenship. If inclusion is about all these positive goods, then exclusion is the opposite condition expressed in marginalization, disempowerment, discrimination, and oppression. The practices of exclusion are often institutionalized as a routine part of a regime of inequality that is accepted unquestionably as natural” (p. 561).
