Search

Background: International and migrant students face specific challenges which may impact their mental health, well-being and academic outcomes, and these may be gendered experiences. The purpose of this scoping review was to map the literature on the challenges, coping responses and supportive interventions for international and migrant students in academic nursing programs in major host countries, with a gender lens. Methods: We searched 10 databases to identify literature reporting on the challenges, coping responses and/or supportive interventions for international and migrant nursing students in college or university programs in Canada, the United-States, Australia, New Zealand or a European country. We included peer-reviewed research (any design), discussion papers and literature reviews. English, French and Spanish publications were considered and no time restrictions were applied. Drawing from existing frameworks, we critically assessed each paper and extracted information with a gender lens. Results: One hundred fourteen publications were included. Overall the literature mostly focused on international students, and among migrants, migration history/status and length of time in country were not considered with regards to challenges, coping or interventions. Females and males, respectively, were included in 69 and 59% of studies with student participants, while those students who identify as other genders/sexual orientations were not named or identified in any of the research. Several papers suggest that foreign-born nursing students face challenges associated with different cultural roles, norms and expectations for men and women. Other challenges included perceived discrimination due to wearing a hijab and being a 'foreign-born male nurse', and in general nursing being viewed as a feminine, low-status profession. Only two strategies, accessing support from family and other student mothers, used by women to cope with challenges, were identified. Supportive interventions considering gender were limited; these included matching students with support services' personnel by sex, involving male family members in admission and orientation processes, and using patient simulation as a method to prepare students for care-provision of patients of the opposite-sex. Conclusion: Future work in nursing higher education, especially regarding supportive interventions, needs to address the intersections of gender, gender identity/sexual orientation and foreign-born status, and also consider the complexity of migrant students' contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For many novice teachers, their first year on the job can be a roller coaster experience of 'ups' and 'downs' as they transition from their teacher education programs to teaching in real classrooms. While to 'ups' are always good to experience, the 'downs' can be so traumatic that novice teachers can feel so stressed that their teaching is adversely impacted and burned out to the point that they consider resigning for the profession. For the most part, however, the language teaching profession has not addressed this aspect of a novice ESL (English as a second language) teacher well-being in terms of their personal and emotional investment as they transition from trainee to novice teacher in their first year. This paper attempts to shed light on the emotional experiences of three female novice ESL teachers in a university language school in Canada as they reflected during regular group discussions and journal writing during their first semester (12 weeks) as novice ESL teachers. The results reveal that the group discussions and journal writing provided a platform for the teachers to articulate their mostly negative emotions with three most frequently expressed: frustration, anger and boredom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rationale for exploring this research area is that there is limited information available on how TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) teacher education programs in Canada address the needs of immigrant teachers. To further contribute to the Non-Native English-Speaking Teachers NNESTs discussion, it is essential to explore how immigrant NNESTs' selfperceptions, especially with respect to their ascribed or perceived non-nativity, impact their teaching practice and professional status within TESOL in Canada. The goal of this paper is to explore insight from selected contemporary, relevant, and empirical literature on INNESTs' perceptions within the TESOL context of Canada to draw implications for developing NNESTs' more positive selfperceptions via a community of practice that empowers them to gain selfadvocacy, agency, and legitimacy. The exploration is driven by the intriguing question, what are the factors that contribute to the immigrant NNESTs' selfperceptions in the TESOL context of Canada? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ePortfolios, initially viewed as a technology in 1990s, gathered momentum a decade later and began to position themselves as a powerful pedagogy in education. Experience over three years with five groups of intermediate-level English as a second language learners (before and during the pandemic) has cemented the notion that the core value of an ePortfolio is predicated on the ability of the students to become aware of their learning history. A blended course (with a capstone project in the fifth and final module) developed for a learning center in Canada helped make visible student engagement during peer-feedback interactions which led to critical reflection throughout the ePortfolio development process. In this paper, I (a language instructor) share direct practical experience implementing ePortfolios as a capstone project in five iterations of a blended course with five stand-along modules. I also describe the evidence-based theoretical constructs undergirding the development of the projects and the interconnectedness with ePortfolio learning episodes in the designing, developing, and evaluating stages of the capstone project. As a robust field of inquiry and a digital transformation pedagogy, ePortfolio projects are part of a growing movement in the field of education. They are a substrate for a variety of learning behaviours among students, demonstrate alignment with some of the learning theories, and capacitate instructor and student philosophical positioning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of TESL Canada Journal / Revue TESL du Canada is the property of TESL Canada Journal and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article reports on an exploratory study that examined bilingual/multilingual university students' perspectives on how language affects their information searching and use. The study also examined instruction librarians' perspectives on information literacy instruction in general and their approaches in providing information literacy instruction to international students and English as a Second Language (ESL) students. A qualitative research approach using focus group discussions and semi-structured interviews was used in the study. Nineteen (19) international and ESL students participated in the discussions while 8 instruction librarians were interviewed. Fifty-six (56%) of the students were aware of information literacy instruction as a service that was offered by the University library but only 37% had used this service. Only one of the librarians had had a significant encounter where language issues closely intersected with information literacy instruction. This study makes a connection between language and information literacy and reports on perspectives from both librarians and students' point of view. While proposing a possible working definition of Multilingual Information Literacy (MLIL), the study makes the case for MLIL as a necessary skill for the twenty-first century. The study also proposes ways in which Library and Information Science (LIS) professionals could be involved in promoting and enhancing multilingual information literacy and further suggests Specialized Information Literacy Instruction (SILI) and Personalized Information Literacy Instruction (PILI) as suitable models for providing instruction to Limited English Proficient (LEP) users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]