University of Windsor Applied Social Welfare Research & Evaluation Group
Personal Information
Teaching Activity
Course Design
Research
Publications
Conference Papers
Service Activity
Contact Me
Home Page
Research Funding

External Research Funding
      Funded
      Submitted/Pending
Internal Research Funding


External Research Funding

Diversity, Learning and E-technologies: Research Project to Investigate Youth Involvement with Technology, supported by a three year grant from the Canadian Council on Learning.

The Diversity, Learning, and E-technologies project, a three year research initiative funded by the Canadian Council on Learning to the tune of $70,000 a year, will investigate the engagement ethnic minority students have with e-learning in formal school settings as well as in social arenas. Examining the factors that enhance and/or limit these students from meaningful engagement and development of cultural, symbolic, and material capital will contribute to new thinking about e-learning. The project takes a unique position in examining the human rather than the technical aspects of the practices associated with e-learning. Our investigation will also involve examining how the engagement with e-technologies is intertwined with identity constructions and negotiations, which are informed by culture and embedded in power relations.

Brief Description of the Diversity and E-Technologies Project (30KB PDF file)


Immigrant Women Negotiating Canadian Work Cultures, supported by a $30,000 grant from the Race Relations Foundation.

This research study seeks to examine and understand how the social and human capital that immigrants acquired outside Canada is converted for use in the Canadian economy. The study also seeks to understand how gender and other variables such as race/ethnicity mediate the conversion of foreign-acquired social and human capital, thus influencing access to employment opportunities for immigrant women. This study is informed by an anti-racism framework that locates experiences of racism at the individual, systemic, and cultural levels (Dei, 1996); therefore, the investigations proposed herein take into consideration these multiple sites of struggle. The research team includes multidisciplinary academic researchers working collaboratively with key stakeholders who will be impacted and/or will implement policies and practices that will be developed from the research findings. The findings will inform the development of culturally sensitive policy-making and enactment in work places, consequently leading to the development of relevant economic strategies for foreign-trained immigrant professionals. The geographic location of this research is the Windsor/Essex region, an area that Census Canada Data names as the second fastest-growing community in Ontario after Toronto and as having Canada¡¯s fourth largest proportion of foreign-born residents after Toronto, Vancouver and Hamilton. Situated in central Canada, Windsor is also a border city next door to Detroit.

Brief Description of Immigrant Women Negotiating Canadian Work Cultures Research Project (14KB PDF file)


Intergenerational Links and Community Engagement of Youth from African Communities, supported by a $49,146 Strategic Grant from SSHRC.

The study will examine the community engagement of Canadian youth of African descent in order to identify factors that enhance or limit youth civic participation and the socio-economic outcomes of this participation. Working closely with a community advisory committee in Windsor, this research will conduct in-depth interviews with 25 African Canadian youth and their parents, and focus group meetings with youth agencies and service providers regarding youth civil engagement. Integration of the findings from this multi-level approach will result in a conceptual framework delineating appropriate strategies to encourage minority youth participation, based on an understanding of the particularities of their individual historical experiences of civic engagement, their community-based interaction patterns, and their experiences of the multiple barriers that limit their access to social and economic opportunities in Canada. To date, very little, if any, research has focused on the local and regional context of the civic engagement of Canadian youth from African communities.

Brief Description of Intergenerational Links and Community Engagement of Youth from African Communities Research Project (13KB PDF file)

Community Forum, June 3, 2005

Contact the Research Team With Suggestions or Comments


What is the Relevance of Social Capital to the Welfare of Immigrant Women? A Multilevel Analysis of Four Communities, supported by a $78,545 grant from Status of Women Canada.

This study will examine the creation and use of social capital by immigrant women in four ethnic communities in Windsor . Social capital refers to people's ability to get benefits because of their membership in social networks. This research also seeks to understand the impact or "return" of immigrant women's use of social capital on social and economic performance indicators. Working closely with a community advisory community, this research will: construct profiles of 30 organizations to understand the creation of social capital at the organizational level; conduct a survey of 300 immigrant women and men and in-depth interviews of 20 immigrant women. An integration of findings from the four methods will allow a holistic and comprehensive understanding that can potentially guide the development of policy at different levels (micro, mezzo and macro). 

Brief Description of Social Capital and Immigrant Women Research Project (14KB PDF file) 


The Multidimensional Impact of Information Communication Technology (ICT) on Ethnic Minority Communities, supported by a $80,082 Strategic Grant from SSHRC.

This study examines the effects of ICT technology on high school students in Census Metropolitan Areas (CMA) in Ontario with special focus on socio-economic status and ethnic origin. Specifically, this study will examine access to, and the effects that ICT has on minority students. Minority students have, in the past, been disadvantaged in many respects. This study will use four sets of data from Statistics Canada Data Sources: Transition and Learning outcomes, School Assessment Survey (SAIP); Youth in Transition Survey (YITS); Access to and Use of Information Communication (GSS 14) and National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth (NLSCY). 

Brief Description of the Multidimensional Impact of Information Communication Technology (ICT) on Ethnic Minority Communities. Research Project (13KB PDF file) 


2000. Canadian Heritage, Millennium Call, Dlamini (P.I). Negotiating school culture-a pilot study, Type C, $10,600. Purpose: Research.


Submitted/Pending
August, 2004. Canadian International Development Agency, Clovis (P.I), Dlamini, Egbo, Allen, Beckford, Eizefe (Co-investigators). Building Capacity and Empowering Women in Tanzania. Type G, $1 million. Purpose: Research and Teacher Education.

Internal Research Funding

2004. University of Windsor, Assessment of school performance, Type 0, $2,200. Purpose: preliminary research
2004. University of Windsor, Teacher education as location, geography and melancholy, Type 0, $1,000. Purpose: travel
2003. University of Windsor, Tanzania teacher education and women's centre, Type 0, $2,000. Purpose: preliminary research
Copyright © 2005 By Jia Liu