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Afghan Teachers for Afghan Students in Montreal

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Afghan Teachers for Afghan Students in Montreal Transferring Cultural Knowledge and Skills: Afghan Teachers for Afghan Students in Montreal Jackie Kirk Abstract qui finit par les forcer à quitter leur patrie. En tant This article describes the experiences and perceptions of a qu’immigrantes au Canada, elles font face à de nom- small group of Afghan women teachers who have set up a breux défis relativement à l’intégration individuelle et fa- small community school for Afghan children in Montreal. miliale. Toutefois, comme enseignantes communautaires It situates the work that they are doing in the context of bénévoles, elles ont une opinion définie sur le travail knowledge transfer and of social capital building in a dias- qu’elles font et visent des buts bien précis. Elles se servent poric context and discusses this heritage education pro- de leurs propres connaissances et compétences profession- gram in relation to transnational processes of living and nelles pour transmettre le savoir culturel et les habiletés learning in multiple sites. The women, who were all teach- langagières qu’elles jugent nécessaires aux jeunes Cana- ers in Afghanistan, experienced conflict and a political dians afghans et à leur famille à Montréal. situation which ultimately forced them to leave their homes; as immigrants to Canada they experience the mul- Introduction tiple challenges of individual and family integration. ince it opened on October 18th, 2003, a new Dari However, as volunteer community teachers, they have language and culture program for Afghan children strong ideas about the work they do and a strong sense of Sliving on the Island of Montreal has enrolled over purpose to it; they use their own professional under- thirty children. These young Afghan Canadians spend from standings and skills to transmit the cultural knowledge 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. every Saturday in the classes which are and language skills which they believe are important for held at an inner-city primary school and are taught by two young Afghan Canadians and their families in Montreal. Afghan women teachers. Other students, who live on the South Shore of Montreal, have been attending similar classes Résumé since December 2002. This article describes the experiences L’article décrit les expériences et les perceptions d’un petit and perceptions of the small group of Afghan women teach- groupe d’enseignantes afghanes qui a mis sur pied une pe- ers who have initiated and developed this program as an tite école communautaire pour les enfants afghans à initiative of the Afghan Women’s Association in Montreal. An introductory section of the article introduces the school Montréal. Il situe le travail qu’elles font dans le cadre du and describes the student and teacher population. This is transfert de connaissances et de l’investissement social, followed by a discussion of the teachers’ own experiences, dans le contexte de la diaspora, et met ce programme their perceptions of the knowledge transfer processes they d’éducation sur le patrimoine en rapport avec les proces- are engaged in, of what is important for them to teach the sus transnationaux de vie et d’apprentissage dans des en- students and why. This data is collected from a series of droits variés. Les enseignantes, œuvrant toutes en informal visits to the school, from a group discussion, and Afghanistan, vivent des conflits et une situation politique then from a follow-up, in-depth interview with the school 45 Volume 23 Refuge Number 1 director. The women talk about the importance of mother lives. The students have a variety of immigration stories tongue instruction, and of the development of tarbia, which themselves; some were born in Montreal to parents who left is a particularly significant Afghan concept that refers to Afghanistan in the 1990s, others remember their early years good manners and proper development of a child. The in Afghanistan, and many have memories of refugee life and article concludes with some thoughts on the multi-levelled schooling in Iran or in Pakistan. benefits of this program, and some recommendations for further research and policy development. The Teachers This education program in the two sites depends on four A Community School for Young Afghan women teachers who give up their Saturdays and/or Sun- Canadians days to teach these students; this is in addition to the time, According to the Statistics Canada census of 2001, there are effort, and energy of the director who handles all the admin- approximately 2,900 people of Afghan origin living in Mont- istrative work, including recruitment and registration, and real. This population is relatively spread out, with families negotiation with the school board and the mosque for the in Park Extension, Côte des Neiges, and also further east on space. Two of the teachers, Amina and Mariam, teach in Henri Bourassa. There is also a concentration of Afghan both classes, travelling from their homes on the South Shore Canadians on the South Shore. The relatively small numbers to the inner city school each Saturday. Discussions with mean that there are few services specifically for Afghans. For them and with their colleague Rozia, as well as with the example, Afghans have no special mosque in Montreal, but director of the program, provide insights into the back- will attend with other Muslims from other countries. The ground knowledge, perceptions, and priorities these teach- Afghan Women’s Association is a new initiative aimed to ers bring to their work with the students in Montreal. provide specific information and services, in Dari and All four of the women were trained and experienced Pashto, to women in Montreal; Afghan women are wel- teachers in Afghanistan. Rozia, for example, taught for comed to the South Asia Women’s Community Centre, but twenty-five years, having completed a two-year training at financial restrictions mean there are limited services specifi- a teacher training college. She specialized in Dari and in cally for them. maths, and came to love her work, saying how it made her The “Afghan school” is a project of the Afghan Women’s happy that her students “became good people for society.” Association, and was initiated by the director and founder Having said this, teaching was not her first choice of career; of the association, Makai Aref. There are the thirty children after high school she was desperate to be a doctor, and when enrolled in the Montreal class and there are approximately her grandfather refused to allow this, she cried “for three fifty students enrolled in the three-hour program which months” until she was eventually allowed to go to teacher takes place every Sunday during the school term in a class- training college. room at a local Islamic centre in Brossard, on the South Amina married young, straight out of high school, and Shore. Both classes comprise a special program of Dari although she too wanted to continue her university studies, language and Afghan culture, with some Koranic instruc- her husband’s family was not keen on the idea, and so tion. The program has been developed by the teachers and instead she became a teacher. Through high school she had the director, based on a small selection of materials, origi- already been volunteering as a teacher, so she knew what nally from Afghanistan and Iran. she was getting into. What she was not prepared to deal As a result of the immigration and education laws in with, however, was the shock and distress of the children Quebec, the students who attend the program are all at- when conflict broke out and the shelling of Kabul started, tending French schools in Montreal; in fact outside of the with rockets falling around the school. Amina explains how class time, most of them chat to each other in French. They she tried to keep the children calm and concentrated on are aged between 6 and 15, with most in the upper primary their studies, telling them that this was the most important grades, and the classes include several brothers and sisters thing to do. One day, however, a rocket landed in the school from the same family. Even outside these family groups, grounds causing destruction, chaos, and distress. It was a many of the students know each other and their families real shock for all the students and their parents, and the very well as, living in a certain few neighbourhoods, they building was so badly damaged that the school then had to may attend the same school, the same mosque, and the close. After that incident, her family were reluctant for her same cultural, community events. Some of the families to return to work; by now she had five children of her own, know each other from Kabul or other places of origin in so she stayed at home with them. Afghanistan, and family, clan, and regional networks and Mariam too was married soon after she graduated from ties continue to play an important part in their Montreal high school, but she continued on to university, studying 46 Afghan Teachers for Afghan Students in Montreal part time in the faculty of literature, whilst at the same and enthusiasm. In the camps in Pakistan this was especially time looking after her three children. She had always challenging; the heat was almost unbearable, and the school wanted to be a journalist, but it was her own children who had no supplies or even seats for the students. As Rozia says, wanted her to become a teacher and persuaded her to the most important aspects of her job at that time were to apply to different schools. With no pre-service training, convince the students that they do have a future, and to she was able to accumulate experience on the job and to keep them as relaxed as possible in the circumstances.
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