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Areas
of Focus for Antiracism and Ethnocultural Equity Policy Development and Implementation
Ontario Ministry of Education and Training, 1993
3.1 Board
Policies, Guidelines, and Practices
3.2 Leadership
3.3 School-Community Partnership
3.4 Curriculum
3.5 Student Languages
3.6 Student Evaluation, Assessment, and Placement
3.7 Guidance and Counselling
3.8 Racial and Ethnocultural Harassment
3.9 Employment Practices
3.10 Staff Development
Principles of antiracism and ethnocultural equity shall permeate all aspects of the board's organizational structure, including its mission statement and strategic plan, where applicable, and all areas of the board's operations, policies, guidelines, programs, and practices. Barriers to equity shall be identified and addressed. Board policies and guidelines are important because they define the principles and objectives that direct board activities and day-to-day practices.
Board policies, guidelines, and practices shall ensure that the needs of all students are addressed. They should reflect diverse viewpoints, needs, and aspirations in the community, particularly of those groups that have traditionally been excluded. The board shall have an appropriate mechanism in place to ensure accountability for achieving that goal.
As stated earlier, French-language boards and sections shall submit policies and plans that respect Section 23 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and Parts XII and XIII of the Education Act, R.S.O. 1990, Chapter E.2. These policies shall include clear criteria that will guide admissions committees in their recommendations to the board. The ministry encourages boards to develop criteria that will facilitate the admission of students from diverse racial and ethnocultural minority communities.
Core Objectives:
School boards shall provide informed leadership at board and administration levels, with a commitment by all staff to identify systemic inequities and barriers and support to enable them to do so. In this regard, the role of school board trustees, directors of education, superintendents, principals, and teachers is pivotal.
School boards are inextricably linked to parents, racial and ethnocultural communities, universities and colleges, and others who support the educational system. Leaders in the educational system must share responsibility for decisionmaking with these groups.
Shared leadership with regard to antiracism and ethnocultural equity demands that all partners in education become responsible for preparing students to live in a racially and culturally diverse society, that teaching reflects the contributions of diverse cultures, and that all forms of racism are challenged and removed.
Core Objectives:
Schools shall meet the needs of their increasingly diverse communities. Active involvement and participation by members of the community in the development, implementation, and monitoring of school board policies and programs will ensure that community perspectives, needs, and aspirations are included and addressed.
School boards shall develop constructive and open dialogue and partnerships with parents and community groups to increase co-operation and collaboration among home, school, and the community. School-community partnerships shall involve diverse racial and ethnocultural groups. This applies particularly to the development of antiracism and ethnocultural equity policies, since such policies require the support of the entire community in order to be effective.
Core Objectives:
The term "curriculum" encompasses all learning experiences the student will have in school. These include such aspects of school life as the general school environment, interactions among students, staff, and the community, and the values, attitudes, and behaviours conveyed by the school.
Much of the traditional curriculum focuses on the values, experiences, achievements, and perspectives of white-European members of Canadian society and excludes or distorts those of other groups in Canada and throughout the world. The value system of the dominant culture tends to become the norm and the only point of reference. This affects students' values, attitudes, and behaviours and, whether intentionally or not, may have a discriminatory effect. Students need to understand and respect cultures and alternative ways of living, and they benefit from a knowledge of the experiences and contributions of people of cultures and races other than their own.
Antiracist curriculum provides a balance of perspectives. It enables all students to see themselves reflected in the curriculum and provides each student with the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviours needed to live in a complex and diverse world. It consciously examines and challenges the Eurocentric nature of curriculum and of the society in which young people are growing up.
Curriculum development and selection is made on the basis of what a student requires to function effectively in a culturally and racially diverse society.
Core Objectives:
Language is a tool for learning, and access to education depends on language competence. Language proficiency underlies success in most, if not all, curriculum areas. All students, therefore including those with a first language other than English or French - must be enabled to acquire competence in one or both of Canada's official languages. Students who have a first language other than English or French should be seen as needing to add to their linguistic repertoire rather than as deficient in language or linguistically deprived.
Teachers in all curriculum areas should recognize the importance of the language the student already speaks. Competence in the first language provides students with the foundation for developing proficiency in additional languages, and maintenance of the first language supports the acquisition of other languages. The first language also serves as a basis for emotional development and provides a vital link with students' ancestral heritage. Multilingualism enhances students' intellectual functioning and the ability to communicate, as well as their career opportunities.
Limited proficiency in the language of instruction is likely to have an impact on students' academic performance. Research shows that most newly arrived immigrant students achieve conversational fluency in the language of their receiving environment in approximately one and a half to two years, but require a minimum of five to seven years to become proficient in abstract thought in the language to be learned and to function academically like native speakers.6
In addition to those students who need to acquire English or French, there are some students who have not had the opportunity to attend school regularly and who may be speaking a variety of English or French different from that of their teachers. Social and cultural variations in language are to be expected, because language systems are not static. Teachers need to indicate that sociocultural varieties of language are entitled to respect and recognition. They also need to help these students to become competent in the language of instruction so that they will have the same economic and educational opportunities as their peers. It is important to provide opportunities to enable these students to upgrade their literacy and academic skills and to add to their knowledge in a variety of subject areas.7
Core Objectives:
The purpose of student evaluation and assessment is to obtain as accurate a picture as possible of students' capacities in order to ensure that they are provided with a program that enables them to fulfil their potential. Student evaluation and placement are based on both teacher perceptions and the results of formal and informal assessments of students' academic and intellectual performance.
It is important that teachers have high expectations of all students. Racial and ethnocultural biases and stereotyping may influence teacher perceptions and expectations of what students are capable of achieving. In turn, such expectations may influence students' expectations of themselves.
A multifaceted approach to student evaluation and assessment is essential to provide a comprehensive picture of what students are capable of achieving. Caution needs to be used in interpreting the results obtained from standardized tests used in assessment. Most standardized tests (achievement, aptitude, psychological) measure knowledge and experiences that have been acquired within a given cultural and linguistic environment. They have limited validity for students whose culture and/or first language are different. Results from such tests can lead to misconceptions about students' capabilities and to their placement in inappropriate academic programs.
There is evidence that many Aboriginal and other racial and ethnocultural minority students have been inappropriately streamed into programs
with low expectations. The programs in which students are placed may have a significant impact on students' future career aspirations and their longterm quality of life.
Antiracist student evaluation and assessment seek to achieve an accurate picture of students' capabilities to maximize their learning potential. They take into account students' prior learning, their previous school experience, and their cultural and linguistic backgrounds, including, if relevant, limited competence in the language of instruction. They ensure.ongoing communication with parents and involve them in all placement decisions.
Core Objectives:
Guidance counsellors play a central role in the assessment and placement of students, and in helping them to enhance their self-esteem and relationships with others. They assist students in developing high expectations for themselves and appropriate educational plans, and provide support with life-skills training, pre-employment skills development, career orientation, exploration, and planning.
Informed counselling can help to remove discriminatory barriers for students in the school system and the world of work, and can provide proactive strategies to ensure that Aboriginal and racial and ethnocultural minority students achieve personal growth and realize their full potential. To respond effectively to the needs of all students, counselling must be culturally sensitive, supportive, and free of racial and ethnocultural bias.
Core Objectives:
Racial and ethnocultural harassment is demeaning treatment based on race or ethnicity. It is a form of discrimination that is prohibited by the Ontario Human Rights Code. Harassment can be overt or subtle, intentional or unintentional. It can involve verbal or physical abuse or threats; unwelcome remarks, jokes, innuendoes, or taunting about a person's race, ethnicity, national origin, faith, dress, or accent; graffiti or the displaying of racist pictures; the composition and/or distribution of derogatory material; exclusion, avoidance, or condescension because of race or ethnocultural background; or a series of individual incidents which, when examined in their totality, can be seen to have a negative impact on an individual or group.
Harassment can have a profound impact upon the victim's self-esteem and limit the ability of the individual or group to function effectively on a day-to-day basis. It can occur among Students, teaching and support staff, administrators, trustees, and other individuals in and having involvement with a school board.
Core Objectives:
Equitable employment practices are an integral part of antiracism and ethnocultural equity. The work force in a school board should reflect and be capable of understanding and responding to the experiences of a racially and culturally diverse population.
Good employment practices remove barriers that prevent fair and equitable hiring, promotion, and training opportunities for everyone, at every level within the workplace. Following such practices is considered good human resources planning, as it ensures that all individuals who can do the job are considered.8 Equitable employment practices ensure fair treatment for all working people in Ontario.
Core Objectives:
Staff development on antiracism and ethnocultural equity is an integral part of the process of changing organizational culture and practices. Such change requires trustees and all staff to take ownership and responsibility for promoting antiracism and ethnocultural equity. All trustees and school board staff need to acquire the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviours to identify and eliminate racial and ethnocultural bias and discrimination. Improved awareness of inequities and their effects can help trustees and staff to change individual behaviour and institutional practices to eliminate barriers to equity. All staff need to participate in staff development activities.
Core Objectives:
6. J. Cummins and M. Swain, Bilingualism in Education (New York: Longman, 1986); V. Collier, "How Long? A Synthesis of Research on Academic Achievement in a Second Language", TESOL Quarterly 23 (1989), pp. 509-31.
7. D. Corson, Language Policy Across the Curriculum (Philadelphia: Multilingual Matters Ltd., 1990), pp. 16, 34, 130-33. English As a Second Language and English Skills Development, Intermediate and Senior Divisions (Toronto: Ontario Ministry of Education, 7988).
8. Further guidance on this section will be provided when Bill 79, An Act to Provide for Employment Equity for Aboriginal People, People With Disabilities, Members of Racial Minorities and Women, becomes law.