Transcending cultural differences: the role of language in migrants' integration

This research seeks to contribute to current debates on migration by examining the role of language in the process of migrants’ integration. It will consider how migrant workers living in an area with little history of international immigration navigate their way within a new destination to cope with language difference. The paper is based on empirical research (interviews and focus groups) conducted in Northern Ireland, an English speaking region with a small proportion of Irish-English bilinguals (10.3 percent of population had some knowledge of Irish in the 2001 Census). Much of the research to date, while acknowledging the importance of culture and language for migrants’ positive integration, has only begun to unpack the way in which cultural difference such as language is dealt with at an individual, family or societal level. Several themes emerge from the research including the significance of social and civil structures and the role of individual agents as new culture is created through the celebration of difference.

Cultural threat and anti-immigrant prejudice: The case of Protestants in Northern Ireland

Using data from the 2002 and 2009 Northern Ireland Life and Times (NILT) surveys, we examine attitudes towards immigrant and ethnic minority groups in Northern Ireland. We suggest that Protestant and unionist communities experience a higher level of cultural threat than Catholic and nationalist communities on account of the ‘parity of esteem’ principle that has informed changes in the province since the Belfast Agreement of 1998. Our analyses confirm that, while there is evidence for some level of anti-immigrant sentiment across all groups, Protestants and unionists do indeed report relatively more negative attitudes towards a range of immigrant and ethnic target groups compared to Catholic, nationalist, or respondents who do not identify with either religious or political category. The analyses further suggest that their higher level of perceived cultural threat partially accounts for this difference. We suggest that cultural threat can be interpreted as a response to changes in Northern Ireland that have challenged the dominant status enjoyed by Protestants and unionists in the past.

An Absence of Ghosts: cultural and theatrical translation in the British Reception of The Mysteries-Yiimimangaliso

Mark Dornford-May’s widely-acclaimed adaptation of the medieval English Chester “mystery” plays, The Mysteries-Yiimimangaliso, reveal the extent to which theatrical translation, if it is to be intelligible to audiences, risks trading in cultural stereotypes belonging to both source and target cultures. As a South African production of a medieval English theatrical tradition which subsequently plays to an English audience, The Mysteries-Yiimimangaliso enacts a number of disorientating forms of cultural translation. Rather than facilitating the transmission of challenging literary and dramatic traditions, The Mysteries-Yiimimangaliso reveals the extent to which translation, as a politically correct - and thus politically anaemic - act, can become an end in itself in a globalised Anglophone theatrical culture.

The effect of teachers trained in a fundamental movement skills programme on children’s self-perceptions and motor competence

Perceived and actual motor competence are hypothesized to have potential links to children and young people’s physical activity (PA) levels with a potential consequential link to long-term health. In this cross-sectional study, Harter’s (1985, Manual for the Self-perception Profile for Children. Denver, CO: University of Denver) Competency Motivation-based framework was used to explore whether a group of children taught, during curriculum time, by teachers trained in the Fundamental Movement Skills (FMS) programme, scored higher on self-perception and on core motor competencies when compared to children whose teachers had not been so trained. One hundred and seventy seven children aged 7–8 years participated in the study. One hundred and seven were taught by FMS-trained teachers (FMS) and the remaining 70 were taught by teachers not trained in the programme (non-FMS). The Harter Self-Perception Profile for Children assessed athletic competence, scholastic competence, global self-worth and social acceptance. Three core components of motor competence (body management, object control and locomotor skills) were assessed via child observation. The FMS group scored higher on all the self-perception domains (p < 0.05). Statistically significant differences were found between the schools on all of the motor tasks (p < 0.05). The relationships between motor performance and self-perception were generally weak and non-significant. Future research in schools and with teachers should explore the FMS programme’s effect on children’s motor competence via a longitudinal approach.

Children’s attributions of belief to humans and God: cross-cultural evidence

The capacity to attribute beliefs to others in order to understand action is one of the mainstays of human cognition. Yet it is debatable whether children attribute beliefs in the same way to all agents. In this paper, we present the results of a false-belief task concerning humans and God run with a sample of Maya children aged 4–7, and place them in the context of several psychological theories of cognitive development. Children were found to attribute beliefs in different ways to humans and God. The evidence also speaks to the debate concerning the universality and uniformity of the development of folk-psychological reasoning.