Isn’t it about time we admit that race matters?

In a recent Toronto Star article: “The face of education: is it too white?”, education reporter Louise Brown writes that in one school board “community members staged a protest” in which they were demanding that “more South Asian teachers” be hired. The presumption is that with “more diversity among teachers” – specifically “visible minority” teachers – racial minority students with be able to have, as the president of the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO) puts it, “appropriate role models’ – people who ‘look’ like them and with whom they are “able to relate more completely” because “they have some background experience in common.” And as the Ontario Minister of Education asserted, “It’s critical students see themselves reflected in their teachers and principals.”

If indeed we are to eventually have a teaching population that is representative of the students, then we need to do more than base our assertions on hunches, and move to collect data, including race data, on the composition of the teacher and student populations. How else will we be able to ascertain that the goal of representation is attained? But more than representation, inclusive and equitable schooling requires recognition that race, like gender, social class and sexuality (and their interrelationship with each other), operates to inform the education and schooling experiences of students. We cannot be colour-blind and still expect to create an equitable and inclusive schooling environment.

This role model discourse of equity and inclusivity for racial minority students seems to be gesturing toward an acknowledgement that race is a significant factor in the lives of racialized students – at least in terms of their relationships with teachers. And notwithstanding that we live in a society where there is a reluctance to identify people by colour, it is encouraging to see our educational leaders asking that teaching staff “reflect” or “mirror” the student population. If indeed we are to eventually have a teaching population that is representative of the students, then we need to do more than base our assertions on hunches, and move to collect data, including race data, on the composition of the teacher and student populations. How else will we be able to ascertain that the goal of representation is attained? But more than representation, inclusive and equitable schooling requires recognition that race, like gender, social class and sexuality (and their interrelationship with each other), operates to inform the education and schooling experiences of students. We cannot be colour-blind and still expect to create an equitable and inclusive schooling environment.

The fact is, for some decades now, school boards and educators throughout the country have been grappling with how best to respond to the needs, interests, and aspirations of their diverse student populations. A pivotal period in their attempts was the 1970s with the introduction of multicultural education, following the establishment of the Federal Multicultural Policy (1971). But the problems of student disengagement and concomitantly low academic attainment persist, particularly in the case of racialized students. This situation has not gone unnoticed, as the above newspaper article demonstrates, for educators continue to grapple with how best to meet the needs of these students. In terms of my experiences in Southern Ontario, the educational and schooling programs (with their related curricular content and pedagogy) based on paradigms of interculturalism, cross-culturalism, race relations, antiracism, and more recently, culturally relevant and responsive pedagogy, coupled with sensitization workshops for teachers have not produced the expected outcomes.

Achieving a schooling environment which is equitable for all students has been an elusive goal of many school boards. Nevertheless, it is a goal that cannot be sidestepped for ultimately our democracy and economy is strongest when we have a population with at least a high school diploma. To this end, therefore, we need to build a culture in school in which diversity is not a code word for race, and racial minority teachers are not brought in merely to be “role models” for racial minority students but because they bring approaches to teaching and learning that are necessary and relevant to all students. It is also a culture of schooling in which teachers and educational leaders want to know and are comfortable knowing, based on data, the composition of their school population in terms of gender, class, race, ethnicity, sexuality, language, home neighbourhood etc. because these factors play a role in the educational experiences, knowledge and aspirations of students.

Related Education Canada articles:

• Safe Schools: The Threat From Within?
• Assimilation to Accommodation – Immigrants and the Changing Patterns of Schooling
• Black-Focussed Schools: A Call for Re-visioning
• Debating Values: Race, Class and Academic Achievement

Meet the Expert(s)

Carl E. James

Carl James is the Director of the York Centre for Education and Community (YCEC) in the Faculty of Education, York University. His research interests include examination of issues of equity, particularly in relation to access and inclusivity in the schooling of marginalized youth, and the place of sports in their educational outcomes.

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