Conversation-Based Programming & Integration: From Aim to Outcome

JAMIE JOHNSTON, PHDLUND UNIVERS ITY & OSLO METROPOLITAN UNIVERS ITY

JAMIJO@OSLOMET.NO

OverviewConversation-based programming (CBP) and Integration

Role of Volunteers

Challenges and potential for public libraries

Conversation-Based Programming (CBP)

ProgramsLanguage cafes, conversation circles / groups

Conversation-based programming

A type of library programming based on

unstructured or semi-structured conversation

that offers immigrants an opportunity to

practice speaking the local language with

native speakers (Johnston 2016)

Aims of CBP

Integration

Language Learning

From Aim to Outcome

Program aim:

Integration

Conceptualizationof Integration

Program

Outcomes

Organization of Programs

IntegrationImmigrants:

• Retain their own culture and identity

• Attain full participation and inclusion in the receiving society

Two-way acculturation process (mutual influences) (Valtonen 2008)

IntegrationIntegration is “a dynamic, two-way process in which newcomers and the receiving society work together to build secure, vibrant, and cohesive communities” (Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees 2016)

Can we leave integration out of it?•Be clear on what you are aiming to achieve!

•Integration vs Assimilation • Different outcomes • Mutual influence vs conformity

• Different dynamics between volunteers and participants• Equal status contact vs. unequal status contact

VolunteersThe implications of the conceptualization integration on the role of volunteers

Integration & CBP

Language learning (basis for communication)

To support processes of:

• Participation and inclusion

• Mutual influence

Language LearningEngaging in Conversation• Opportunities to converse with native speakers are few for many of the participants

Outcome:“I get more confidence from [Språkhörnan] because when I go toschool I think if I say something wrong that maybe all the otherstudents will start laughing at me so I speak in English. But when Icome here, I speak, even if it is wrong, but I try to speak. Now I canspeak Swedish good. It’s a really, really enjoyable language ”

Participation and InclusionConversation topics relating to the various aspects of life in the receiving society:

• Volunteers are able to share their knowledge about various aspects of life in the receiving society

• Social, economic, political, health, education, etc….

Outcomes:

“Volunteers are prepared and help us get a lot of new information that is not found in books”

(participant)

“I been looking for a job also in Copenhagen because my profession is very specialized and there are not many companies in Skåne…a Swedish woman [a volunteer] told me of an office who can help me get advice, also a guy from Chile gave me some tips for websites, Danish websites, for looking for a job” (participant)

Mutual InfluenceConversation topics that open up for volunteers

and participants to share their cultures and

traditions, worldviews, and knowledge

Outcomes:

“I have gained insight into other people's lives and mindsets” (volunteer)

“I have learnt to express myself and learnt to tolerate other people's opinions” (participant)

Volunteer RolesFacilitating a process of empowerment

Teacher-Student

Co-participants

(Gilst 2010)

The teacher as traveler metaphor?The teacher acts as a guide who knows the area

and will guide their fellow travelers (students)

through that particular landscape. The teacher

will tell their fellow travelers about the landscape

based on their experience and knowledge of it,

however, the fellow travelers will also shape the

experience by bringing new influences,

discoveries, knowledge, and perspectives to the

journey. Everyone’s horizon is broadened as a

result of the journey (Fox 1993).

Challenges and Potential for Public Libraries

Challenges for Public Libraries•A need for establishing clear program objectives

• Language learning and sharing of information about the receiving society can be seen to support immigrants’ participation and inclusion in the receiving society, but without opening up for a process of mutual influence, CBPs may end up serving more assimilative aims rather than integrative aims.

• Clear program objectives will help define the role of volunteers within the programs

•How do these objectives fit with national or regional-level objectives?

Navigating a messy process…“Successful integration may be very messy. It may not follow the schemes of policies and

programmes; it may not lend itself to being systematically monitored. Instead, it may be a more

organic development of interactions between peoples; it may be “an unruly, untidy and convivial

mode of interaction in which differences have to be actively negotiated”” (Finney, 2009, p. 173).

Potential for Public Libraries•Key actor in facilitating integration

•Further establish the library’s role as a

meeting place and arena for discussion and

debate

•Support democratic processes in immigrant

receiving societies

References•Finney, N. (2009). Sleepwalking to Segregation?: Challenging Myths About Race and Migration. Bristol: The Policy Press.

•Gilst, A. V. (2010). "Perceptions of Volunteer Roles in English Conversation Circles." TESL Canada Journal 28(1): 77-96.

•Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees (2016). "Immigrant Integration ". Retrieved October 31, 2016, from https://www.gcir.org/integration.

• Johnston, J. (2016). "Conversation-based programming and newcomer integration: A case study of the Språkhörnan program at Malmö City Library." Library & Information Science Research: 10-17.

• Johnston, J. (2016). "The use of conversation-based programming in public libraries to support integration in increasingly multiethnic societies." Journal of Librarianship and Information Science.

• Johnston, J. & Audunson, R. (2017) "Supporting immigrants’ political incorporation through discussion and debate in public libraries. " Journal of Librarianship and Information Science.

• Johnston, J. (2017) “Friendship potential: conversation-based programming and immigrant integration.” Journal of Librarianship and Information Science.

•Valtonen, K. (2008). Social work and migration: immigrant and refugee settlement and integration, Ashgate.

Thank you!