5 ways school boards can address racial injustice
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Loading... - Sascha Esser
- 26 May 2022
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Schools and school boards struggle to respond to racism — and continue to fail to dismantle systemic barriers that affect Indigenous, Black and racialized students and families.
These barriers affect not only student learning, but student, family and staff well-being and sense of belonging.
Amid debates about school board effectiveness, some provinces across Canada have abolished or changed public governing structures overseeing school boards, or are debating doing so: for example, Québec abolished school boards in 2020 and Nova Scotia abolished boards in 2018. In April, New Brunswick’s minister of education defended plans to eliminate current district education councils and replace these with a provincial board and regional councils.
But school boards matter if they are places where parents and community members can engage in democratic discussion and decision-making, and respond to the needs of communities that have been historically excluded in public education.
Boards under review
In Ontario, over a number of years, several school boards have been under review by the Ontario Ministry of Education to address challenges in governance and racial injustice.
School boards have been facing demands for greater transparency and accountability.
Parents or community groups are rallying against anti-Black racism, Islamophobia, anti-Asian racism and other forms of racism against students, families and educators.
We have also noticed a rise among some white and middle-class families, school trustees and media personalities resisting or criticizing anti-racist efforts.
Anti-racism research hasn’t had significant impact
With our colleague Joseph Flessa, we synthesized and reviewed research about school board reform. We found that even though substantial research exists about anti-racism education in Ontario, it hasn’t had a significant impact on Ontario’s district policies and practices over the past two decades.
We also interviewed 12 superintendents of education in five Ontario public school districts who are engaging in anti-racist leadership. These leaders were Black, South Asian and White. Some held equity portfolios, and some were responsible for families of schools. Read More...
