African immigrant secondary school students’ participation in health promoting schools: Perspectives from Nova Scotia

This study focused on African immigrant secondary school students’ participation in health promoting schools (HPS). The purpose of the study was to examine African immigrant youth’s school experiences as newcomers who came to Canada from different nations and cultures. I employed a philosophical bricolage or hybrid based on social constructivism and critical race theory. Data sources for this investigation which draws from a basic qualitative research design were people and photographs whose data was collected through photovoice, focus groups, and individual interviews. To be eligible for data collection, a school had to offer at least two health-related programs aimed at enhancing students’ health and wellbeing, such as breakfast program, youth health centre, or student support services. The research project was conducted over a period of four months in the winter of 2016 with four high schools in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. Study participants were 15 youth, aged between 12 and 21 years, who migrated from Africa and the Caribbean region within the last 10 years. Participants chose various resources to help them navigate foreign secondary school environments, such as African Nova Scotian students support workers, physical activity, and race consciousness. These motivational supports kept participants’ hopes alive in alien school settings where they encountered one key social determinant of health, race and two (subsets of) social determinants of health, pedagogy and school health culture. Analysis of participants’ narratives and photovoice pictures enabled the development of a model of “the cultural identities of African immigrant students” defined by familiarity, ‘blackness,’ and Afro-Caribbean cultural food. The participants perceived their participation in HPS as empowering and racially and pedagogically challenging, to a lesser or greater extent. I conclude by providing recommendations for HPS programming and future research in relation to African immigrant youth.