Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario addresses the urgency of recruiting Black teachers

BY PAUL JUNOR

There have been many reports that have brought attention to the lack of Black educators in Ontario schools. In order to bring increased focus on this issue, the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO) hosted a symposium on Saturday, October 1^st. It was held at the Hyatt Regency on King Street West in Toronto and featured teachers from: across Ontario, the Ontario Principals’ Council, university professors, parents, and concerned community members.

The title of the symposium will be “Generation Black: You’re Next!” which seeks to “Addressing the urgency of recruiting Black teachers and the necessity of retaining Black educators to improve the representation of Black people in education.”

In the opening message President of ETFO, Karen Brown mentioned that today’s symposium is one of the multi-year strategies and that ETFO intends to bring stakeholders together for collective action to address this long-lasting issue that is vital in public Education. She states, “It is the first step in a series of actions that ETFO is taking working alongside our partners to profile and demand action on this important issue.”

There were five outcomes expected by the symposium:

• Identify the barriers for Black students to enter the teaching profession
• Develop strategies to increase representation of Black educators
• Supporting and amplifying issues raised by Black community organizations and parent organizations
• Work in partnership with Black organizations to advance Black lives within the broader community
• Address intentional recruitment, and hiring that fosters an environment that attracts, retain and nurtures diverse Black talent in the teaching profession

The “Theoretical Framework Panel” was the first one and it focused on research about why Black teachers matter and the positive impacts that Black teachers have within their classrooms, learning communities, and the broader educational system.

Four panelists, Dr.Andrew Allen, Dr. Andrew Campbell, Dr. Carl James and Marva Wilson participated in the discussion. Dr. Allen highlighted several research reports, which showed the benefits of having Black teachers to students’ overall performance.

Dr.James stated how education takes place outside of schools and schooling refers to the policies, programs, and procedures. He reiterates that we are not just looking for Black teachers for Black students, but for the system. He emphasized that Critical Race Theory is a framework that provides a perspective of seeing the world. Decolonization needs to be done. CRT allows one to see decolonization through an intersectional analysis. It is not just the school system, but also other systems that have to be examined.

Marva shares her work with the BEP, and the impact of this study.

Dr. Campbell known as Dr. ABC talked about the level of stress and violence that Black teachers face. He spoke about the role of heavy lifting in doing educational work and the impotence of protecting Black students in these alienating academic spaces.

The “Black Excellence Panel’ was the second one and it centered on diverse perspectives within the education system. Four panelists: Wesberlyne Avril, Jhonel Morvan, Tyrone Russell and Pierette Walker-Ennis shared what motivated them to pursue teaching as their career choice and the obstacles they faced as Black teachers.

The “Parent, Student and Community Voices Panel,” examined different experiences of navigating the education system and the personal impacts that Black teachers have within their learning communities. Three panelists: Rihanna Harris, Stephen Mensah and Natasha Shakespeare shared their lived realities with respect to the education system.

Wes “ Maestro” Williams delivered the keynote speech. He shared personal memories from his high school days at Senator O’Connor College School. He spoke about his parents as his first educators and the importance of high expectations and having positive Black models.

The specific calls to action include:

• Government to have intentional investments in the hiring of Black educators in Ontario

• Government provides financial incentives to Faculties of Education to recruit

Black teachers

• Faculties of Education to develop intentional recruitment of Black teachers
• Faculties of Education need to hire more Black teachers
• School Boards need to encourage, promote and support Black teachers
• Encourage Faculties of Education to collect race-based data of teacher candidates applying to programs and staff

• Mandatory race-based data collection of candidates applying to school boards for teaching positions

The executive of ETFO recently passed a Generation Black Campaign pilot. The goals of it would be to:

• Encourage more Black student enrolment in Faculties of Education
• Advocate for better retention of existing Black teaching staff
• Build on the work and advocacy of Black ETFO members by profiling them
• Amplifying their calls for more Black teachers in the classroom
• Value the work of Black teachers in the classroom
• Highlight the work ETFO is doing to advance equity and social justice in the classroom

Details about this important symposium can be seen at the following:

Website: etfo.ca/generation-black

YouTube: Generation Black: You’re Next! – ETFO’s Public Symposium