Initiatives undertaken by the Centre for Urban Schooling.
BIPOC Future Teachers @ OISE (BIPOCFT@OISE)
BIPOC Future Teachers (BIPOCFT@OISE) (formerly Educators of Colour in Conversation) is a space for Master of Teaching (MT) candidates, future K-12 teachers, who identify as Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour (BIPOC) to gather, learn, and uplift one another as they navigate the MT Program and prepare to teach in K-12 schools and beyond.
BIPOCFT@OISE recognizes BIPOC communities are oppressed by White supremacy; White supremacy interlocks with anti-Indigenous racism and anti-Black racism, and deeply affects Indigenous communities and Black communities in ways settlers from communities of Colour may not experience; and BIPOC communities experience racism differently. Most BIPOC MT candidates are preparing to work in K-12 schools in the Greater Toronto Area, where BIPOC teachers and administrators remain minoritized. The majority of children and youth in K-12 schools are now from BIPOC communities, and all children and youth need BIPOC teachers in their classrooms and schools.
BIPOCFT@OISE is facilitated, private, and confidential.
Dr. Sameena Eidoo created Educators of Colour in Conversation (EOCC) in 2014 to support OISE students from BIPOC communities, and reimagined Educators of Colour In Conversation as BIPOC Future Teachers @ OISE in 2021.
Coordinator & Facilitator: Dr. Sameena Eidoo (she, her)
For more information about BIPOCFT@OISE and upcoming gatherings, please email bipocfutureteachers@gmail.com.
Blackwell, K. (2018, August 9). Why people of Color need spaces without White people. The Arrow. https://arrow-journal.org/why-people-of-color-need-spaces-without-white-people/
Eidoo, S. (2017). Solidarity as praxis: Injury, ethics, and hope in teacher education. In B. Picower & R. Kohli (Eds.) Confronting racism in teacher education: Counternarratives of critical practice (pp. 110-117). Routledge.
Pour-Khourshid, F. (2018). Cultivating sacred spaces: a racial affinity group approach to support critical educators of Color. Teaching Education. 29(4), 318-329.
Smith, W. A., Yosso, T. J., & Solòrzano, D. G. (2006). Challenging racial battle fatigue on historically White campuses: A critical race examination of race-related stress. In C. A. Stanley. (Ed.). Faculty of Color: Teaching predominantly White colleagues and universities (pp. 299-327). Anker Publishing.
Tatum, B. D. (2017). Why are all the Black kids sitting together in the cafeteria? And other conversations about race. Basic Books.
Abawi, Z. (2021). The effectiveness of educational policy for bias-free teacher hiring: Critical insights to enhance diversity in the Canadian teacher workforce. Routledge.
Dubinski, K. (2020, June 15). Did you ever have a Black teacher? We spoke to 3 educators who want the answer to be yes. CBC. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/london/london-ontario-black-teachers-1.5608255
Lac, V. T. (2019). The critical educators of color pipeline. Leveraging youth research to nuture future critical educators of color. The Urban Review, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11256-019-00507-4
Moss, J. (2016). Where are all the teachers of color? Ed. Harvard Ed. Magazine. https://www.gse.harvard.edu/news/ed/16/05/where-are-all-teachers-color
Turner, T. (2014, October 30). Teacher diversity gap. https://www.turnerconsultinggroup.ca/blog/teacher-diversity-gap
Vangool, H. (2020, September 3). Schools need BIPOC educators now more than ever. CBC. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatoon/op-ed-sask-diversity-teachers-bipoc-1.5703711
Queer/Trans @ OISE
Queer/Trans @ OISE (QT@OISE) is a place for 2SLGBTQIA+ teacher candidates and allies in the Master of Teaching (MT) program! We host weekly informal gatherings from September to April (except when students are on practicum).
We recognize that gender and sexual identities are understood through diverse lenses, including different personal, political, and cultural contexts. The ways that gender and sexual diversity work is done in mainstream culture often centers white thin able-bodied settlers, further marginalizing Indigenous/Two-Spirit, Black, Brown, and Asian queer and trans folx. It can also overlook the ways that ableism, saneism, classism, sexism, and fat-phobia intersect with many queer and trans people's lived experiences. Gender and sexuality do not exist in a vacuum from other marginalized identities. This is a space that Black, Brown, Indigenous, Asian, fat, neurodiverse, autistic, disabled, chronically ill, anxious, depressed, mentally ill people are welcome and will be centered. We are a support space and value care, reciprocity, and community-building.
Additional Information
We create a community space where queer and trans future educators can share their experiences and build a sense of community.
Our weekly gatherings are part social, part resource sharing, and part queering, trans-ing and femme-inizing education. We recognize that formal education is often homophobic and transphobic and otherwise hostile to people who are outside of cis and het identities, and we seek to both make change and support each other.
We share resources and information about events through our email blasts.
We can act as a resource for faculty and staff at OISE. If you are a faculty member wanting to learn more, please reach out and build relationships with us; we would love to support you in queering, trans-ing and femme-inizing your pedagogies
Outside of our weekly drop-in meetings, we will be trying to put together a panel of queer and trans educators this year.
We welcome people of all sexual orientations and gender identities but center the needs of people who are themselves part of the 2SLGBTIQQA (Two-Spirit, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Intersex, Queer, Questioning, Asexual) spectrum. Allies are welcome, but we ask you to be aware of how you take up space.
This space is designed for teacher candidates in the MT program. That being said, if you are a grad student or faculty member who identifies as somewhere on the 2SLGBTQIA+ spectrum at OISE, you are more than welcome to attend. We would love to have you here!
We post the link to our weekly meetings on our Facebook group and in our email blast.
Contact coordinator Kitty Reid at jade.reid@utoronto.ca.
Toronto Writing Project
The Toronto Writing Project (TWP) is based on the model of the National Writing Project, the largest research and professional development network by and for teachers in North America, which uses practitioner research as a vehicle for grassroots change efforts in classrooms, schools, and communities. Funded by the Ruth and Alexander Dworkin Tolerance fund, TWP supports activist educators to address equity issues in their classrooms through writing and research by conducting inquiries into their own classroom practices and share knowledge with peers who may face related issues teaching diverse students in urban schools. Composed of teachers, activists, and researchers who view writing as a mechanism for addressing equity issues across subject matter, across core subjects, TWP encourages formal and informal research opportunities for youth and teachers working individually and collaboratively to address equity issues in their classrooms, schools, and communities.