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The purpose of this research is to explore how immigrant library users view Auckland Libraries as a multicultural bridge in New Zealand. The research explored the various factors keeping different cultures apart in the New Zealand socio cultural systems and to find out the gaps in the provision of multicultural services in Auckland public libraries. The study also discusses the specific roles Auckland public libraries play in the development of multiculturalism in New Zealand from the perspective of immigrant users.

The study uses a qualitative research approach. Semi-structured interviews conducted with 15 participants including five library staff members and ten users of the Auckland library. Thematic analysis (qualitative data analysis, where data is grouped into themes) was used for data analysis.

Participants perceive that the Auckland Library had an advantage over other citizen service institutions in the development and services of multiculturalism in New Zealand. The participants understand that language, cultural background, beliefs and values are some of the causes of gaps between different ethnic groups, and only by learning from each other can groups enhance mutual understanding between them. The services and programs Auckland Library offer to immigrant enable various interactions among different cultural groups and enhance learning from one another to facilitate their integration into the New Zealand society. The findings show that Auckland public libraries have some gaps in multicultural services. In particular, there are more than 200 different ethnicities in Auckland, but the Auckland library's website does not have the function of a multilingual search tab service, lacks a multicultural book collection and some of the existing collections of books are of low quality, low literary value and so on. The study suggests that these issues need to be improved.

This was small-scale research involving the perspectives of only 15 participants. Nevertheless, the findings provide constructive insight into the development of multicultural services in Auckland libraries that can serve as a useful basis for a broader exploration of more immigrant groups in Auckland and New Zealand as a whole.

The results of this research will provide valuable information for the Auckland libraries to have a better plan for multicultural services in the future. The findings will also serve as a reference for improving multicultural services in the Auckland libraries.

Although other studies have looked at immigrants’ behavior and perception on various issues in New Zealand, this study is the first to look at how different immigrant groups percept Auckland libraries as a multicultural bridge to help integrate them.

“Black Day to Freedom” project was the culmination of five years of performance ethnography research that continues today in various forms through BeyondLabels. The title “Black Day to Freedom” came from an asylum seeker participating in a “free verse” workshop where all participants expressed their views on globalisation, social movement of people and identity. “Black Day to Freedom” his title, provides an insight into his perceptions of life and this framed a need to conduct further research into providing a voice for refugees and asylum seekers through informal multicultural education and associated visual arts expression.

The research follows a performance ethonographic perspective into the informal multicultural education project specific to exploring expressions of identity of refugee by migrant artists.

The informal multicultural education initiative specific to exploring expressions of identity of refugee by migrant artists was highly personalised and immersive in style with both educators and learners being co‐producers. This immersive, challenging, absorbing project required a passion by all to the mode of communications (visual arts) and the subject focus of refugee identity. The key implication of the informal multicultural education initiative is the unique insights provided by the migrant voices.

A key implication of this research into informal multicultural education practice in the context of supporting expressions of refugee indentity by migrant artists is the need for further research into pedagogy equity in the context of personalised learning design for non‐traditional learners. One key question for future studies would be how we can improve our understanding of the “bridge” between informal and formal education and as a consequence engage the non‐engaged from cultural diverse backgrounds in our educational institutions.

Provides insights into multicultural education initiatives.

This chapter highlights a College of Education’s revision of required undergraduate courses into service-based initiatives engaging students with their local communities to enact change. These courses include a 20-hour field experience component, where faculty provide education majors with hands-on experiences illustrating the importance of reciprocal community–university partnerships, linking theory and practice, and demonstrating the ways in which students can become engaged citizens. This chapter focuses on the development of one such partnership with a secondary school. In particular, the author discusses two course-specific projects: a mentoring program for students labeled as “at-risk” and a multicultural learning community where future educators taught students in In-School-Suspension (ISS). Both illustrate the importance of utilizing critical multicultural education (CME) and intersectionality as a combined framework for teacher education partnerships, but also for projects in other majors, disciplines, and colleges. This year-long qualitative case study shows that such a foundation can provide a space for all participants to understand cultures other than their own, participate in knowledge construction, and understand their roles and responsibilities in contributing to socially just environments. This is not a one-size-fits all approach to community–university partnership development, but such studies can highlight the challenges and successes faced along the journey.

The purpose of this study is to examine the interactions among superintendents' chief executive school officers, multicultural attitudes and actions for children from marginalized populations.

Members of the American Association of School Administrators, 945 school superintendents, completed the self‐reported, single‐staged, electronic survey. The survey consisted of four sections: a modified multicultural questionnaire; a modified diversity action survey; a national diversity leadership questionnaire; and a personal heritage questionnaire.

Respondents scored moderate (2.0‐3.0) on both multicultural attitudes and diversity actions. The study found a positive correlation between multicultural attitudes and diversity actions. Through a regression analysis, a significant model predicting diversity actions from multicultural attitudes was selected. The study found a positive significant correlation between attitudes and diversity actions.

There is limited theoretical and practical implications regarding the multicultural attitudes of school leaders and how these attitudes influence their decision making. This paper addresses this.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the community development experiences of a communitarian leader who has worked with various global institutions. Through interviews and the examination of lived experiences, findings yield new insights into the complexity of human identity and the flexibility of decision making in a multicultural setting. The narrative also aims to inform current discourse on leadership in the non-profit sector.

Narrative analysis was used to investigate outcomes and relay the personal anecdotes of the interview participant. Formal and open-ended questioning generated comprehensive responses concerning the participant’s personal and professional interactions while completing work-related tasks for global development projects. In general, questions that referenced conflict among colleagues, cultural proclivities, and gendered decision making allowed the participant to expound on answers that explored workplace relationships, organizational structures, and leadership perspectives. Interview responses were examined for emergent patterns or categories and detailed analysis of codes from interviews guided the creation of four key themes: feminine ethos, organizational identity, self-perception, and sociocultural interaction.

The narrative delves into the important human and humanitarian experiences that have shaped the professional life of Dr Thomas Bruce, an exemplar of leadership in the global non-profit sector. Bruce, a self-described communitarian, served as Chairman of the Board of Directors at Heifer International and oversaw community outreach initiatives in South Africa for the Kellogg Foundation. Based on Bruce’s knowledge, expertise, and responses, findings suggest global leaders take a multidimensional approach to colleague interaction and project completion. Narrative outcomes also indicate the evolving nature of grassroots initiatives requires both assertive and cooperative management styles.

Due to the chosen research method, findings focus on the experiences of one global non-profit leader. Narrative outcomes are unique and may not have the requisite data to be applied to cases or situations beyond the global non-profit sector. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to interview other leaders who have worked on global humanitarian initiatives to further understand their diverse experiences.

The narrative includes practical implications for practitioners who oversee global development projects and other humanitarian initiatives in an interdependent world. Use of compromise, collaboration, and compassion often aid community outreach efforts and strengthen communication in the workplace, particularly for leaders who manage a multicultural workforce.

In an interdependent world shaped by the forces of globalization and cosmopolitanism, leaders of global non-profit organizations regularly manage a multicultural workforce and resolve public disputes in order to address prevailing humanitarian challenges. Understanding the lessons learned by one exemplar in the global non-profit sector can aid cross-cultural communication and enhance community development activities in various countries.

This narrative fills an identified need to study and understand how global leaders work with diverse communities and a multicultural workforce to complete important institutional and humanitarian goals.

The essentiality of family involvement in the schooling process is evident from the vast directives embedded within federal mandates, professional standards for teachers and administrators, parent organizations, and advocacy groups. Yet, as explicit as legislative mandates and professional standards are regarding parental rights and involvement, they do not require definitive roles of the family. Several factors influence the lack of a decisive definition regarding the role of the family in the schooling process. Those include the different perspectives on what constitutes a family structurally and functionally, the socio-cultural and political diversity within and among populations, the move to an inclusive education framework, the various terms used to describe parental involvement, the realization that no one family model fits the demographic diversity existing in today’s school districts, and the rights of family members to select their level of involvement. Given the importance of family engagement and student outcomes, three fundamental questions addressed in this chapter are, “How can inclusive schools enhance productive collaborative family engagement networks?” “How can the family be empowered to voluntarily participate within those networks?” and “How can inclusive schools connect with teacher preparation programs to promote the competency of educators for those collaborative family/school engagement networks?” In this chapter we delineate an interactive triad conceptual model with the school as the “connecting agent” to build relationships with families and teacher preparation, setting the stage for productive family engagement as partners in inclusive settings.

Purpose – Latino and African-American children and families in Washington, DC, face difficult circumstances, including high poverty, crime, and teenage pregnancy rates coupled with lower educational attainment. This chapter describes empirically supported approaches to positive development within and between the Latino and African-American communities, highlighting those utilized by CentroNía, a community-based, multicultural learning community in Washington, DC.

Approach – Community psychology promotes strength-focused, evidence-based practices shown to enrich child, family, neighborhood, and societal development among disenfranchised groups. This community psychology framework is used to examine CentroNía's work in support of the Latino and African-American communities of Washington, DC.

Findings – CentroNía espouses many of the tenets of community psychology. Its systematic efforts include the promotion of cultural unity and development, preventive interventions in early childhood and during the after-school hours, and context-enhancing practices at the family, school, and city levels.

Social implications – As the neighborhood of Columbia Heights becomes gentrified and the cost of living increases, Latino and African-American families find it increasingly difficult to remain in the community they have established together over the past 25 years. The consequences for low-income children, youth, and families, along with the evolution of CentroNía in this rapidly changing context, are discussed.

This special issue aims to address the complexities and dynamics in contemporary China’s citizen-making processes, with a focus on the educational dimension.

The four articles in this special issue present citizen-making processes in both educational and cultural arenas. Based on the rich, first-hand data collected inside and outside China, the researchers revealed the dynamics of the educative processes, as the interplay of different mechanisms produces new understandings of citizenship practice.

This special issue sheds light on the rise of new types of citizens, who are emerging at the grassroots level in China, beyond the state’s strict direct regulations, along with the rise of market forces and multicultural communities in Chinese society today. Contributors to this special issue have captured an ongoing change, in that the diversified citizen-making mechanisms are, to a certain extent, mitigating the party-state’s definitive monopoly on forging citizens and are creating new spaces for individuals to develop fresh forms of political subjectivity and citizenship practice. In this sense, we argue for the unpacking of the citizen-making processes in present-day China not only from the lens of state-dominated, top-down initiatives but also from that of participatory, bottom-up initiatives performed by grassroots groups with differentiated socio-economic statuses and cultural traditions.

This special issue can be regarded as a contribution to the growing field of Chinese citizenship studies, which constitutes an integral part of the unfinished project of citizenship after orientalism.