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PurposeOur thematic analysis of the academic literature on Canadian Muslim Youth aims to identify and describe the factors which contribute to the construction of identity among Muslim youth in Canada and make some research and policy recommendations to address this issue. In this review, we responded to the following questions: What is the current research evidence for Canadian Muslim Youth identity construction? What are the major themes included in the identified publications?Design/methodology/approachWhat does it mean to be a Muslim youth in Canada and how do Canadian Muslim youth negotiate and construct their identities in a globally polarized world? Using Arksey and O'Malley's framework (2005), a scoping review of empirical studies published between 2000 and 2021 was conducted to explore the diverse contexts that intersect in the creation of Canadian Muslim youth identity.FindingsA thematic analysis of the literature identified five key themes: religiosity, racism and discrimination, parental influence, citizenship and gender that intersect in multiple ways to contribute to the construction of diverse and complex Muslim youth identities. The scoping review highlights a gap in community-based research and the need for a broader range of theoretical perspectives on Muslim youth identity construction, as well as culturally appropriate policies and social work practice models for positive youth development.Originality/valueIn contemporary Canadian culture, Muslim youth must negotiate and create their own exclusive identity, which justifies the context of what it means to be Canadian and Muslim at the same time. As highlighted in the literature, a number of tensions within the Canadian policy, between the policy and the Muslim tradition and within the Muslim community itself pose challenges in the identity development among Muslim youth. Therefore, It is critical for social work practitioners, researchers and policymakers to consider above mentioned socio-political and religious dimensions while designing, implementing and evaluating youth programs for Muslim communities.

Research supports that the positive involvement of fathers in caregiving activities cultivates family cohesion and fosters the emotional well-being of fathers and their families. However, there are limited community-based resources that support and celebrate the development of nurturing fatherhood and focus on strengthening father-daughter relationships. In collaboration with diverse communities in Calgary, Canada, a local network launched a community-based and culturally relevant program, Honouring Fathers and Daughters, to promote positive fatherhood roles and to celebrate both nurturing fatherhood practices and the significance of father-daughter relationships. Participants (N=65), from ethnically and socioeconomically diverse backgrounds, including 19 fathers, 17 mothers, and 29 children, joined the program. A community-based research approach (CBR) was employed to gather participant responses through feedback forms. Through qualitative analysis, responses indicated three key themes: valuing and appreciating father-daughter relationships, the need for social and cultural spaces for the engagement and transformation of fathers, and the importance of providing opportunities for fathers to learn new strategies for parenting and bonding with their daughters. This article highlights the importance of community-based engagement programs for nurturing father-daughter relationships and provides insights for communities.

While cohesive teams are essential to advancing interdisciplinary research, few frameworks exist to guide team development. In this article, eight academic women adopt a participatory process of inter-relational reflexivity to reflect upon our interdisciplinary research and propose a best-practice framework for sustained effectiveness of interdisciplinary collaboration.

International field education offers an exemplary means by which social work students can enhance cultural awareness and develop skills in working with diverse communities. This article describes an exploratory study using 14 key informant interviews to establish a social work group study program in Mexico. Findings illustrate how the incorporation of key academic and community-based stakeholders using an anticolonial/postcolonial framework in international field education can contribute to an enriched experience for all participants. Providing social work students with exposure to epistemologies and ontologies that may differ from the Western-dominated education are important in understanding the human experience in different contexts.

The participation of men is critical to preventing domestic violence, however, there is still little understanding of the capacities and supports that men need for well-being and healthy relationships. A men’s survey was designed to explore and identify the capacities and resources required by a diverse population of Canadian men. Data was collected on-line and through trained community-based research assistants. Over 2,000 men from 20 ethno-cultural groups responded, and multiple challenges and enablers were identified. Responses from Indigenous and African Canadian men highlight the need for an intersectional lens in understanding men’s well-being and violence prevention.

Non-status migrants are individuals who do not hold a valid immigration document or official status to stay in Canada. This paper presents a case study on the experiences of non-status migrants seeking access to health, social, and community services. Through interviews with five non-status migrants, the authors explore the specific needs, rights, services and barriers they encountered. Our findings highlight five case-based themes that centre on the (1) undocumented and hidden costs of striving for status, (2) aspirations to stay in Canada, (3) navigation through the everyday struggles to survive, (4) acts of selflessness and (5) resistance against the stigmatisation of being labelled a non-status migrant. Despite their fear of exposure to professionals, non-status participants express willingness to utilise services in the community. However, there is considerable paucity of information about the resources that they could access freely and without risk. This paper offers key recommendations for social work practitioners who engage in social justice and advocacy work alongside non-status migrants in Canada.

Purpose Student mental well-being is a matter of increasing concern on university campuses around the world. Social, psychological, academic and career aspects of graduate learning are enriched through peer mentorship. Peer-mentoring experiences and the impacts of these relationships on the mental well-being of graduate students remain underexplored in the scholarship of teaching and learning. The purpose of this study was to explore how engagement in formal and informal peer mentorship, as described by students across four academic disciplines, impacts the social connectedness and well-being of graduate students. Design/methodology/approach A convergent mixed methods research design was used, with quantitative and qualitative data gathered in parallel to gain a comprehensive, corroborated and integrated understanding of graduate students’ perspectives and experiences with peer mentorship. Online survey and interview data were collected from graduate thesis-based master’s EdD and PhD students in education, medicine, nursing and social work. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and thematic analysis. Findings The authors found a commonality of graduate student experiences across disciplines with respect to the diverse psychosocial impacts of graduate peer mentorship. Peer-mentoring relationships offered mentees emotional support, motivation and a sense of community and offered mentors opportunities for self-development and gratification. Originality/value This research is unique in its in-depth exploration of the interdisciplinary perspectives and experiences of graduate students from Education, Nursing, Medicine and Social Work. While further research is needed to explore the implementation of structural approaches to support the development of peer-mentoring relationships in graduate education, the multidisciplinary focus and depth and breadth of this inquiry suggest the potential transferability of the study findings to other disciplines and academic settings. The findings from this study further highlight the need for strategic activation of existing program resources to foster greater connectedness and well-being among graduate students.

The objective of this study was to explore the role of peer mentorship in facilitating graduate student resiliency, knowledge acquisition, and development of academic competencies. We conducted a qualitative case study, using in-person interview data from sixty-two students recruited from four professional faculties (Education, Medicine, Nursing, and Social Work) at a large Canadian University. We identified four broad themes derived from a thematic and constant comparative analysis of interview data: (1) knowledge sharing, (2) skills development, (3) academic milestones, and (4) program supports. Graduate students reported that peer mentorship promoted the development of learning environments that emphasized community, collaboration, and shared purpose. Students believed that peer mentors facilitated their access to essential procedural and disciplinary knowledge and helped them to develop academic and research skills and achieve key academic milestones. While the majority of the students interviewed had not participated in any formal peer-mentoring program, they recommended that any future program incorporate mentorship training and include access to collaborative spaces and targeted opportunities for students to develop these relationships.

Employing Reid and Frisby’s feminist participatory action research model (FPAR) as a guide, men from diverse ethno-cultural backgrounds worked with women leaders to take action on the issue of intimate partner violence. Engaging with four interconnected phases, the research team adopted shared roles of leadership which led to 29 collective actions. Through trust-building dialogues, we interrogated issues related to masculinity, gender equity, anti-racism, and decolonization. A “collective cultures approach” to men’s violence prevention work was articulated and a grassroots movement emerged. As white women situated in both academic and community spaces, we discuss knowledges, actions, and learnings from this FPAR process, underscoring the tensions and contradictions of employing FPAR in real-life contexts. The importance and limitations of inter-relational reflexivity and power accountability are emphasized as a core tenet of FPAR.

This paper examines the role of podcasting in teaching and learning for social justice, especially within schools of social work. Using a critical pedagogical teaching and learning lens within soci...

Critical pedagogy is congruent with the social work discipline, which is engaged, people-focused, and centers on social justice, liberation and human rights. While there is growing recognition of t...

IntroductionCaring professions attend to the health, educational and social needs of society rather than its material needs. Caring professionals are a vital part of the world’s response to COVID-19, yet the global pandemic and its aftermath have significantly changed the ways in which care is provided. The rapid pivot to remote care, where the essential caring cues and opportunities are not as readily available, has put unprecedented pressure on caring professions. There is currently a lack of clear understanding and accepted standards for teaching caring profession students how to provide care remotely. The objective of this systematic review is to identify and assess the ways in which educators can integrate online learning opportunities to help students develop effective caring practices and translate these into today’s remote and virtual care environments.Methods and analysisThis systematic review will consider diverse quantitative, qualitative and mixed-methods studies of innovative online education initiatives and required technology for caring profession education. Articles will be retrieved from academic databases and limited to articles reporting primary data and published in English within the last 10 years. Data extraction procedures will follow the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses reporting guideline. The methodological quality of all studies will be assessed using the Effective Public Health Practice Project Quality Assessment Tool and/or the Joanna Briggs Institute Critical Appraisal Checklist for Qualitative Research. Study characteristics will be tabulated and narratively synthesised to integrate and explore relationships within the data.Ethics and disseminationNo ethics approval is required to conduct this review. Review findings will be disseminated through peer-reviewed publications, conference presentations and be used to inform and guide caring profession education policy, practice and research agendas with the goal of improving education for caring profession students, and care for the patients, clients and learners they serve.

In the early months of COVID-19’s proliferation through Canadian communities, the now largely documented uneven impacts and burdens of the illness were emerging. Among the early COVID-19 casualties were workers in Alberta’s meatpacking plants, with infection rates so high that the news quickly gained international attention. The Cargill meatpacking plant, overwhelmingly staffed by temporary foreign workers with no permanent status or citizenship rights, was the site of the largest single coronavirus outbreak in Canada. The need for a community response to this emerging crisis was a focal discussion for a newly formed network of social workers. A multileveled series of actions and systems advocacy were put in place. These actions would foment a vibrant and diverse “community of communities” while also unveiling challenges and obstacles to the work during a period of a shifting health landscape, shutdowns, and changing legislation. This article focuses on the development of a grassroots and transformative community-led response to COVID-19, describing strategies, implementation, and challenges in the “real life” context of the recent pandemic. Key learnings for postpandemic community organizing and social work solidarity actions are highlighted.

Background: Medical residents may experience burnout during their training, and a lack of social support. This can impact their overall wellbeing and ability to master key professional competencies. We explored, in this study, the extent to which peer mentorship promotes psychosocial wellbeing and the development of professional competencies in medical residency education. Methods: We searched six databases (MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycINFO, Academic Research Complete, ERIC, Education Research Complete) for studies on peer mentoring relationships in medical residency. We selected any study where authors reported on outcomes associated with peer mentoring relationships among medical residents. We applied no date, language, or study design limits to this review. Results: We included nine studies in this systematic review. We found that medical residents received essential psychosocial supports from peers, and motivation to develop academic and career competencies. Medical residents in peer-mentoring relationships also reported increased overall satisfaction with their residency training programs. Conclusions: Peer-mentoring relationships can enhance the development of key professional competencies and coping mechanisms in medical residency education. Further rigorous research is needed to examine the comparative benefits of informal and formal peer mentoring, and identify best practices with respect to effective design of peer-mentorship programs.

A climate of structural violence, built on heteronormativity, heterosexism and sexual stigma shapes the lives of gender and sexually diverse (GSD) persons. This reality creates the social conditions within which interpersonal and intimate partner relationships are established, and within which domestic violence can occur. This article argues that a climate of structural violence against GSD persons creates specific risk factors for domestic violence victimization and unique barriers to receiving safe, appropriate and accessible services and supports act as obstacles to healthy intimate relationships. We purport that GSD persons experience additional risk factors such as heteronormativity, heterosexism, sexual stigma; traditional gender and sexuality norms; early stigma and homophobic harassment; social exclusion and isolation; and lack of appropriate domestic violence prevention services and supports which enhance the risk for domestic violence within GSD intimate relationships and limits the potential of prevention efforts. They emphasize that domestic violence will not be eradicated using a solely heteronormative interventionist approach and that the inclusion of a primary prevention approach that takes account of these additional risk factors is necessary to stop the violence before it starts.

Background Many medical residents lack ready access to social and emotional supports that enable them to successfully cope with the challenges associated with medical residency. This absence of support has been shown to lead to high levels of burnout, decreased mental wellbeing, and difficulty mastering professional competencies in this population. While there is emerging evidence that peer mentoring can be an important source of psychosocial and career-related support for many individuals, the extent of the evidence regarding the benefits of peer mentorship in medical residency education has not yet been established. We describe a protocol for a systematic review to assess the effects of peer mentoring on medical residents’ mental wellbeing, social connectedness, and professional competencies. Methods Studies included in this review will be those that report on peer-mentoring relationships among medical residents. Quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods studies will be eligible for inclusion. No date or language limits will be applied. We will search EMBASE, MEDLINE, PsychINFO, Web of Science, Scopus, ERIC, Education Research Complete, and Academic Research Complete databases to identify relevant studies. Two authors will independently assess all abstracts and full-text studies for inclusion and study quality and extract study data in duplicate. Discussion This is the first systematic review to explicitly explore the role of peer mentoring in the context of medical residency education. We anticipate that the findings from this review will raise awareness of the benefits and challenges associated with peer-mentoring relationships, further the development and implementation of formal peer-mentoring programs for medical residents, and, through identifying gaps in the existing literature, inform future research efforts. Systematic review registration This protocol has not been registered in PROSPERO or any other publicly accessible registry. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s13643-017-0571-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

The World Café (TWC), used as an effective conversational tool around the world, shares several tenets with other participatory approaches to learning and development. It has not been critiqued, however, for its insufficient attention to reflexivity, power differentials, and structural inequalities within its process, specifically in relation to TWC facilitators. As a group of women from diverse social locations and backgrounds committed to the pursuit of social justice, we sought this opportunity to explore and investigate the transformative learning capacities of TWC, with the broader goal of enhancing its usability in education and community settings. We reviewed and critiqued TWC conversation approach, suggesting stronger links to liberatory education and transformative learning theories. Using a participatory action research process leading to cocreated knowledge, we developed an Emancipatory Learning Charter, a new tool that can enhance the transformative learning potential of TWC.

The paper presents an overview of “The Journey Guides Program” - a mentorship and experiencial learning framework developed by the Faculty of Social Work, University of Calgary in Canada. This program was implemented in an Advanced Graduate Seminar, a preparatory course for graduate Social Work students prior to entering their field placements. This article begins by discussing critical pedagogy, the theoretical framework that undepinned the “The Journey Guides Program”, followed by a description of the eight-step process we adopted to implement this program. The authors conclude by discussing the benefits of the Journey Guides program, and plans for ongoing development and transferability of this model. Keywords: Journey guides, transformative learning; mentorship; social work

Participatory Action Research (PAR) is increasingly recognized within academic research and pedagogy. What are the benefits of including feminism within participatory action research and teaching? In responding to this question, we discuss the similarities and salient differences between PAR and feminist informed PAR (FPAR). There are eight themes or categories to provide a structure for this discussion: (a) theories and methodologies developed from popular movements and dissent; (b) marginalization within academia; (c) theories and methodologies critiqued for exclusivity; (d) focus on researcher reflexivity and subjectivity; (e) education for personal transformation; (f) critical research methodologies; (g) flexible and diverse theoretical and methodological interpretations; and (h) social justice and emancipation. Implications for education and research are highlighted.

The congruence between social work activism and transformative research resonates with those who are looking to change the root causes of oppression. This article reflects the journey of integrating the identity of activist practitioner and researcher. The process of becoming a social justice researcher includes the discovery of a new set of lenses, emerging tools, and new pathways while maintaining a critical perspective rooted in antioppressive praxis. Research becomes an extension of one’s own identity as a human rights activist, which requires leveraging the skills and capacities of research as a strategy to move to a more socially just world.

Community Voices is a participatory action research study conducted in collaboration with people with lived experiences of homelessness in Calgary, Alberta to gather insights into service provision. Following convenience and snowball recruitment strategies, seven focus groups with members of the homeless community were conducted by trained facilitators. Participants and other community members were invited as co-researchers to analyze focus group transcripts, highlight key issues, develop themes and recommendations, and share key findings with stakeholders. Study findings suggest that people who are homeless experience oppression at the personal, cultural and structural levels which make it less likely for them to exit homelessness. Our findings suggests that a housing first approach coupled with intensive personalized case management embedded within a human rights framework has the capacity to reduce homelessness and overcome the barriers that prevent individuals from exiting homelessness. Such interventions, however, require substantial investment to increase the stock of affordable housing units, improve current shelter facilities, educate personnel in anti-oppressive practices and a political commitment to recognize housing as a human right.

There is a lack of interpretive research in the domestic violence literature and, in particular, within an ethnocultural context. Interviews were held with four Filipina women in Calgary, Alberta who had previously been in violent relationships, in combination with a referral group of key informants with leadership and knowledge of community issues related to domestic violence. By adopting a phenomenological approach to the research, it was hoped that new understandings of what is identified in clinical paradigms as the “risk” and “protective” factors associated with domestic violence would be unearthed. This research study is at once exploratory and informative and is intended to contribute to the development of a province-wide plan to address and prevent domestic violence through the Brenda Strafford Chair in the Prevention of Domestic Violence at the Faculty of Social Work, University of Calgary.

Aboriginal women in Canada are at significantly higher risk for spousal violence and spousal homicide than non-Aboriginal women. Although the majority of Aboriginal people in Canada live in urban settings, there is a dearth of literature focusing on the experiences and violence prevention efforts of urban Aboriginal peoples. In order to understand issues relevant to the prevention of domestic violence among this population, we employed Aboriginal community development principles to conduct a scoping review of the relevant literature to explore the meanings and definitions, risk and protective factors, and prevention/intervention strategies within urban Aboriginal communities. Our study underscores that a number of domestic violence risk and protective factors are present in both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal communities. However, the multifaceted impacts of colonization, including residential school trauma is a key factor in understanding domestic violence in urban Aboriginal contexts. The limited available research on this topic highlights the need for Aboriginal-led research directed towards eliminating the legacy of violence for Aboriginal peoples in Canada.