Early years educational settings are often the first social environment that new immigrant children and their families engage in. Research in the field of education shows that immigrant children and their families are often best served by the educators, who themselves, are also immigrants. It is believed that immigrant educators are culturally knowledgeable and responsive to the needs of the children due to the shared immigration experiences and/or mother language. To gain a better insight into an immigrant-Early Childhood Educator’s experience of working with immigrant children and their families, I engage in a self-study using Connelly and Clandinin’s Narrative Inquiry. By engaging in Narrative Reflective Process, a series of creative art activities as data collection, I gather and reflect on my lived experiences to deepen my understanding into what may be most significant to immigrants. Three narrative patterns (challenges in a new home, a sense of belonging, perseverance) emerge within and across the told stories. Through my inquiry I invite all Early Childhood Educators to consider these in their own practice, as well as to reflect upon their own personal-professional experiences, through creative self expression approaches, and so to ponder how their values and beliefs might inform their professional practice.

Early years educational settings are often the first social environment that new immigrant children and their families engage in. Research in the field of education shows that immigrant children and their families are often best served by the educators, who themselves, are also immigrants. It is believed that immigrant educators are culturally knowledgeable and responsive to the needs of the children due to the shared immigration experiences and/or mother language. To gain a better insight into an immigrant-Early Childhood Educator’s experience of working with immigrant children and their families, I engage in a self-study using Connelly and Clandinin’s Narrative Inquiry. By engaging in Narrative Reflective Process, a series of creative art activities as data collection, I gather and reflect on my lived experiences to deepen my understanding into what may be most significant to immigrants. Three narrative patterns (challenges in a new home, a sense of belonging, perseverance) emerge within and across the told stories. Through my inquiry I invite all Early Childhood Educators to consider these in their own practice, as well as to reflect upon their own personal-professional experiences, through creative self expression approaches, and so to ponder how their values and beliefs might inform their professional practice.

Following Dewey’s philosophy of experience that all our life events inform how we evolve, both personally and professionally, two educators reflect on their immigration experiences. Being uprooted from one’s place of birth to another, at an oftentimes turbulent stage of development, young people face challenges in finding their sense of belonging. We engage in creative writing to reflect on our respective experiences of immigration to Canada to support our scholarship of teaching and learning. Using Dewey’s three criteria of experience: continuity, relationship, and situation, and Connelly and Clandinin’s Narrative inquiry self-study framework, we delve deeper into understanding how the transplantation from one continent to another continues to impact who we are today as persons and professionals. This critical reflection is of further value to us as educators, because we also want to gain a greater appreciation for our students’ experiences, most of whom have lived the stories of immigration. In this way, we hope to more effectively support and encourage our students, not only to survive, but to thrive in their new landscape. We trust our work will, likewise, be of service to educators worldwide who want to engage in their own inquiry of personally significant life events, and thus support the same in their students.