The Cultural Re/Production of an "Educated Person"

Perhaps the most emblematic example of social integration of immigrant minorities is how they interpret and adjust to the sociopolitical and cultural discontinuities that exist between the culture of their homelands and that of the host country. With an increasing number of immigrants from developing countries in Western universities, it becomes of paramount importance to understand the processes of their academic, cultural and social integration. From a sociocultural perspective, race and gender have a profound influence on the perceptions and experiences of minority students in higher education. This book draws from the narratives of a group of Muslim Iranian immigrants in Canadian universities and sets out to investigate how challenges of linguistic and cultural barriers inform and shape their awareness of race and gender in these institutions. In the absence of in-depth scholarship on the Iranian immigrant communities, and the gap in our understandings of their patterns of academic integration, this book is unique in providing a comprehensive account of the connections between culture and pedagogical beliefs and practices.