ABSTRACT Italian Canadian women "crossing the border" to graduate education BY Josephine Mazzuca Ph.D Dissertation Department of Sociology and Equity Studies in Education Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto 2000 This dissertation examines the educational experiences ofwomen in graduate education whose parents are Italian immigrants. Data are collected through in-depth interviews with Italian Canadian women about schooling, family, ethnicity and relationships. The women's experiences are discussed in the interconnected contexts of the Italian immigrant experience, the education system, and, in particular, graduate education. Although Italian immigrants and their descendants form one of the largest ethnic groups in Canada, their participation in the educational system has gone largely undocumented except as part of large studies on various ethnic groups in the Metropolitan area. The second generation of Italian Canadians has been educated in the Canadian system and raised by immigrant parents who have had little experience with this system. Using qualitative methods, this study examines the educational experiences of Italian-Canadian women. The women are graduate students who were born and educated in Canada and whose parents immigrated to Canada in the post World War Two period. Being raised in an immigrant home has influenced the women's encounters with education and the decisions they have made. Issues of resistance and assimiletion are considered in this study. Findings from this research include the discovery of four roles which the women adopt in order to "survive" graduate school. The women develop these roles in order to find ways to approach their graduate work while maintaining the important relationships in their personal lives. ACKNOWLEDGEMI I would like to thank my thesis supervisor, Sandra Acker for her ongoing support and guidance, and my committee members, George Dei and Grace Feumerger for the interest they have taken in my work. All three have generously shared their knowledge with me. To my family, my parents, Ida and Agostino and my brother Michael I owe a huge debt of gratitude for their constant belief in my ability to be successfiJ in my endeavours and for encouraging me to challenge myself in this way. FinaLy, my husband Benjamin Roberts, for his patience and emotional and practical support while I completed my graduate work. He never wavered in believing that this was an important pursuit and that I was capable of completing it. TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS CHAPTER ONE: Introduction Relevance of Research Study Research Questions Research Objectives Theoretical Framework Methodology Dissertation Outline CHAPTER TWO: Italians in Canada Post War Italian Immigration to Canada Educational Background of Post War Italian Immigrants Educational Experiences of Post War Italian Immigrants Current Opinions on Education Conclusion CHAPTER THREE: Studies on Graduate Students Overview Considering Graduate Students Defining Difference in Educational Research Experiencing Difference Assimilation and Identity Conclusion CHAPTER FOUR: Methodology Subjectivity Selecting a Topic Participants Qualitative Research Ethics Collecting the Data Designing Questions Interview Process Researcher's Role Listening and Questioning Keeping a Journal Coding Conclusion CHAPTER FIVE: Participant Profiles Parents' Education and Employment Childhood Neighbourhood Early School Experiences In-depth Profiles Kate Francesca Rita Diane Conclusion CHAPTER SIX: University and Graduate Studies Experiences University Experiences Deciding to Pursue a Graduate Degree Graduate School Experiences Dual Roles CHAPTER SEVEN: "Suwiving" Graduate School "Crossing the Border" Adopting a Role Conclusion CHAPTER EIGHT: Experiencing Ethnicity The Centrality of Family ltalian Canadian Identity Italian Canadian Community Conclusion CHAPTER NINE: Conclusion Review of Study Objectives Studying Graduate Education Suwiving Graduate School "Transition Class" Assimilation Survival Strategies Future Directions and Implications for Graduate Education 224 REFERENCES 228 APPENDM: Interview Questions 241 CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION This dissertation examines the educational experiences ofwomen in graduate education whose parents are Italian immigrants. Data are collected through in-depth interviews with Italian Canadian women about schooling, family, ethnicity and relationships. The women's experiences are discussed in the interconnected contexts of the Italian immigrant experience, the education system, and, in particular, graduate education. In this introductory chapter I will explain the relevance of this research study, present the research questions and clarify the research objectives, as well as give an outline of the dissertation. I will also provide a review of relevant literature and outline the theoretical framework which informed this research. A brief discussion of methodology is also included here and expanded upon in Chapter Four. Relevance of Research Study I undertook this research project for many reasons, both academic and personal. One reason is the need to rectify an oversight in academic literature. As with many minority groups, the education of Italian Canadians has not been a popular topic of study. A few studies have been carried out which look at second generation Italian Canadian women (Colalillo 1974, 1979; Jansen 1993). It is disturbing to me as an Italian Canadian woman engaged in higher education to find so little documentation of my experiences. Through the research process I discovered that I am not alone in my concerns. Over and over again participants expressed a profound interest in this research project and its findings. They reinforced my contention that this type of research endeavour is needed in order to begin to counter a near absence of research on this group of women. Participants thanked me for including them in this, as they described it, "important work." Their reactions speak clearly of the lack of attention granted to their cultural background. By acknowledging the presence of Italian Canadian women in academia in this project, I hope to alleviate their and other student groups' feelings of being "invisible" in academic literature. Moreover, the relationship between school and home or between public and private, is one that we all strive to balance. My research examines this struggle as it pertains to daughters of Italian immigrants. Understanding the barriers to graduate education that exist for some students and the strategies they use to overcome them will inform us about graduate education for minority students in general. Many people who have embarked upon post- secondary education are likely to recognize some of the experiences of these women, though doubtless some individuals will be able to empathize more than others. This research has personal meaning for me as the daughter of Italian immigrants. As mentioned, this research partially stems from my own experiences of being an Italian Canadian woman pursuing a graduate education. My parents are immigrants from Italy who came to Canada in the 1950s as teenagers. They received little formal education in this country but encouraged my older brother and I to pursue it. Doing well in school was consistently reinforced in our home despite my parents' lack of experience with the education system. I received support but not practical guidance or advice as I continued on to university and graduate school. Although I have chosen to pursue academics for many years as an adult, I continue to experience a disjuncture between my home culture and that of academia. Like other students from minority backgrounds who have written about their experiences in graduate school, "I, too, began to experience, although not quite hlly understand, the pain that comes from cultural separation. I began to think about how the rewards of academic success were in stark conflict with most of my past" (Rendon 199255). It was inevitable then that, "1 wonderred] how my research reflects the questions of my own" life (Peterson 1997: 210). "Did I really need to reject my past in order to attain success in the present? Was there some way to reconcile days gone by with my contemporary experiences?" (Rendon 1992: 56). This dissertation is my attempt to resist "rejecting my past" and to engage in "reconciling," not just my past, but my current personal reality (as an Italian Candian woman) with my academic experiences. Giroux (1983) stresses the need to elaborate resistance theories by looking beyond the standard forms of resistance, such as "overt acts of rebellious student behaviour" (Giroux 1983: 287). He suggests that some students may "resist" the dominant ideology of schooling in a more covert way which allows them to remain and be successhl in the system and "gives them the power to reject the system on a levd that will not make them powerless to protest it in the fbture" (Giroux 1983: 288). A study in which I was involved @ei, Mazzuca, MacIsaac and Zine 1997) found that for Black students resistance took many forms. For example, as a means of self- preservation, some chose to leave the education system that marginalized and alienated them. Others remained in the system and attempted to make changes within their reach, for example, initiating clubs for Black students, organizing events for Black history month and demanding inclusive curriculum. In their study of women of color graduate students in sociology, Margolis and Romero found the following examples of