Education system must reflect communities’ diversity

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 20/10/2020 (1528 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

THE Winnipeg Indigenous Executive Circle and the Newcomers Education Coalition recently released their respective State of Equity in Education reports, which brought attention to the underrepresentation of Indigenous and racialized peoples as trustees on school boards, teachers in schools and students in the faculties of education.

A guiding principle identified in each of these reports is that in order to improve educational outcomes for Indigenous and racialized students, they must see themselves better reflected in the curriculum and teaching staffs in their local schools.

The reports call upon the school divisions in Winnipeg to be more intentional and accountable about addressing the underrepresentation of Indigenous and racialized teachers through the implementation of employment-equity policies and programs.

Of the six school divisions in the city, only the Winnipeg School Division has an employment-equity policy and program that monitors the extent to which the school division is building a workforce that is representative of the students and communities being served.

The foundational role that employment-equity programs play in working toward addressing the underrepresentation of Indigenous and racialized teachers is part of the focus of the Ontario provincial government’s effort to deal with systemic racism within the governance and operation of the Peel District School Board (PDSB), the second largest school district in Canada.

In June 2020, the PDSB was put under the supervision of the Ontario provincial government because it was seen to be incapable of addressing the issues of systemic racism identified in the provincial government’s external review of the school district.

Some of the findings identified by this external review of the PDSB, included:

• The absence of demographic diversity among school staff – while 75 per cent of the student body is racialized, only 25 per cent of the PDSB staff are from racialized communities;

• Black students and Indigenous students were overrepresented in school suspensions;

• Black students were underrepresented in academic level courses and overrepresented in applied level courses;

• There was a lack of equity data, capacity to use equity data and measurements, and accountability to drive equity initiatives throughout the school district.

Accountability is one of the school district’s greatest obstacles for fairness and equity in the workplace, including the fact the PDSB has not conducted a full employment systems review (ESR) employee data analysis of its organization.

The PDSB external review report states that “a detailed ESR is an irreplaceable best practice used to ferret out barriers to equity in workplace cultures, policies, procedures, and practices. Indeed, without a thorough ESR, it is difficult to understand how the Board of Trustees can properly establish accountabilities, goals and timetables necessary to conduct fair and transparent equity hiring.”

Key recommendations of the PDSB external review that should be considered by the public school system in Manitoba include:

• Importance of collecting equity-based data for both students and staff, to inform equity-based education goals and to benchmark progress through accountability measures for student achievement and student discipline;

• The critical role that ESRs and employment equity programs have in building a representative workforce;

• The need to establish organizational structures such as equity offices, with a superintendent of equity, that provides a leadership role to develop and implement equity action plans;

• Public transparency and accountability, as demonstrated through annual equity report cards published by local school districts.

The Manitoba government has once again signalled in its speech from the throne that changes are coming to the public school system. School-board amalgamations, as well as ending the role of school boards, are potential policy options under consideration.

Representation matters for Indigenous and racialized peoples regarding educational governance structures, the presence of classroom teachers, or student enrollment in the faculties of education whether there are six elected school boards, or one elected school board, or an appointed education advisory board in Winnipeg.

The challenges of underrepresentation identified in the State of Equity in Education reports are fundamental issues that the education community in our province must address in order to better meet the learning aspirations and needs of Indigenous and racialized students.

Tom Simms is co-director of the Community Education Development Association, a non-profit community development organization that has served inner-city residents for more than 40 years.