Research articleConnecting identities through drawing: Relationships between identities in images drawn by immigrant students
Section snippets
1 Introduction
Globalisation, combined with the rapid growth of information technologies, has changed tremendously the impact immigration can have on identity construction. On one hand, globalisation exposes people to new ways of thinking and of doing things that can disturb and transform sociocultural markers called upon for identity construction (Caneva, 2017, Vinsonneau, 2012). On the other hand, the infrastructure offered by social media also facilitates the preservation of immigrants’ cultural traditions
2 Immigration, identity, and psychosocial and school adjustment
Immigration is an extremely stressful process that has an important psychological impact on children, especially on their identity construction. No matter the reasons for leaving their country of origin, be it voluntary or forced migration (e.g. refugees), children need to adjust to their new society by making sense of the changes they experience (Suárez-Orozco, 2000). Yet, meaning-making is not always easy. Immigrant children might experience a sense of discontinuity between their culture of
3 Drawing and psychosocial and school adjustment
Despite adverse circumstances that can potentially encourage the development of adjustment problems, immigrant families make very little use of mental health resources and services provided by the government (Whitley, Wang, Fleury, Liu, & Caron, 2016). For immigrant families who might feel socially excluded due to experiences of discrimination or for whom access to mental health services is financially or geographically difficult, schools could be considered more accessible and a less
4.1 Identity construction in school settings
Put very simply, identity is defined as what makes people similar to themselves while being different from others (Tap, 1988). When taking a closer look, identity is also a concept that fuses children’s life experiences on both temporal and spatial dimensions:
Developmentally, identity is an integrative concept. It may capture the objective and subjective; it commonly connects between the self and aspects of the world-out-there; it synthesizes past, present and future experiences. The process of
5.1 Art and Storytelling program
Art and Storytelling is a classroom-based, arts-based program aiming at preventing exacerbation of emotional and behavioral difficulties stemming from migration. The program was elaborated by the Transcultural Research and Intervention Team (Erit) in collaboration with schools and community organizations. It is based on the notion that opening free creative and supportive spaces in the classroom allows children to find healing resources within themselves and to create meaning from their
6 Results
In their drawings, immigrant children expressed their identity in ways that potentially reflect their internal identity conflicts. The metaphor of combat could well portray the different ways in which children tried to resolve these conflicts. Indeed, combat implies a tension between parties, identities in this context, and could represent the different movements and connections between them. In some instances, the fight was apparent, with real or fictitious characters adopting good and evil
7 Discussion
The interactions immigrant children experience at school with other peers and school staff may orient substantially the strategies they use to express their identities. These identity expression strategies can be made visible in the drawings of children through the processes of projection, identification and symbolization. According to situations, immigrant children could rely on different strategies to arrange their identities in different configurations that could support the resolution of
8 Limitations
One limitation of this study lies in the interpretative framework of the research. The presence of the teachers, peers and researcher inevitably produced complexity in terms of what students drew that required subjective interpretation (Devereux, La Barre, & Sinaceur, 2012). However, the use of images as research data implies that they must be interpreted in order to be used. Images can be interpreted in multiple waysways. The researcher must discern and develop the credibility of the narrative
9 Conclusion
Although children never cease to construct and express their identity, immigration is a situation in which the identity process is intensified in reaction to contact with new identity markers provided by host society. For this reason, immigration brings conditions more likely to engender identity conflicts (Ward et al., 2011). In this context, drawing could be a good way to support identity conflict resolution in immigrant students, especially when creative expression activities are integrated
Acknowledgement
This research was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the Fonds de recherche du Québec – Société et culture.
References (58)
- et al.
Gender typicality in children’s art development: A cross-cultural study
The Arts in Psychotherapy
(2014) Who Am I? Ethnic identity formation of Arab Muslim children in contemporary U.S. society
Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry
(2008)«Wearing a mask» vs. connecting identity with learning
Contemporary Educational Psychology
(2012)- et al.
Identity formation in educational settings: A contextualized view of theory and research in practice
Contemporary Educational Psychology
(2012) - et al.
Gluing the pieces together: Female adolescents’ construction of meaning through digital metaphoric imagery in trauma therapy
The Arts in Psychotherapy
(2017) - et al.
Evaluation of a school-based creative arts therapy program for adolescents from refugee backgrounds
The Arts in Psychotherapy
(2016) Probing identity, integration and adaptation: Big questions, little answers
International Journal of Intercultural Relations
(2013)Les identifications de l’enfant à travers son dessin
(1992)- et al.
Le travail du dessin en psychothérapie de l’enfant
(2012) L’intégration linguistique, scolaire et sociale des élèves allophones d’origine immigrante dans la région du Grand Montréal: portrait des modèles et perceptions des acteurs
(2012)
«Les histoires, ça montre les personnes dedans, les feelings. Pas possible si pas de théâtre. » (Tahina) Ateliers d’expression théâtrale plurilingues en classe d’accueil. Lidil
Revue de linguistique et de didactique des langues
Making sense of collective identity and trauma through drawing: The case study of a palestinian refugee student
Journal of Intercultural Education, Special Issue: Refugees, Interculturalism and Education
Les groupes ethniques et leurs frontières
Two kinds of identity crisis
Journal of Personality
Immigrant youth: Acculturation, identity, and adaptation
Applied Psychology: An International Review
Identity processes in the global era: The case of young immigrants living in Italy
Journal of Youth Studies
A normative study of children’s drawings: preliminary research findings
Art Therapy
De l’angoisse à la méthode dans les sciences du comportement
Clearing hurdles: The challenges of implementation of mental health evidence-based practices in under-resourced schools
Advances in School Mental Health Promotion
Identity, narrative, and lived experience After postmodernity: between multiplicity and continuity
Journal of Phenomenological Psychology
Faits et chiffres 2015–Aperçu de l’immigration: Résidents permanents
Loi sur l’instruction publique, RLRQ c I-13.3 §
Fiche synthèse sur l’immigration et la diversité ethnoculturelle au Québec
A scoping review of mental health issues and concerns among immigrant and refugee youth in Canada: Looking back, moving forward
Canadian Journal of Public Health
The communicative potential of young children’s drawings
Cited by (7)
Painting
2023, PaintingFree drawing learning to recognize children’s characters
2022, International Journal of Evaluation and Research in EducationCondors and tigers: a literature review on arts, social support, and mental health among immigrant children in Canada
2022, Social Work in Mental HealthDesigning and assessing of an art-based intervention for undocumented migrants
2022, Arts and Health