Should Toronto’s schools speak one cultural language, or many? | Toronto Star

2014/04/08 Leave a comment

The usual debate over targeted vs general programming. It starts with having information regarding which communities are struggling, and then developing appropriate supports. When such programs complement regular school programming, these can address the problems while not “ghettoizing”. Separate schools for ethnic and other groups, on the other hand, do not foster integration.

Canada’s award-winning mentoring program Pathways to Education has helped wrestle dropout rates to the ground in 15 of the country’s poorest communities by offering scholarships, tutoring and mentoring to entire neighborhoods — not the ethnic groups within them, said Vivian Prokop, president of Pathways Canada. Still, she noted there are different challenges when working with new immigrants, with aboriginal students and with home-grown “generational poverty.”

“The barriers to education vary based on a child’s postal code, and we don’t want to label or segregate students into ethnic groups,” said Prokop. “We offer wraparound supports — deep intervention — to the whole community.”

Jo-Ann Davis, the chair of Toronto’s Catholic board, believes you can serve specific groups without fuelling stereotypes. “We want kids to do well, and I believe cultural background is very important and has to be honoured. “We’re trying to bring those voices to the centre of the conversation, even though the practices will be different.”

Professor Carl James, who teaches urban diversity at York University’s faculty of education, said he’s not worried about giving extra help to certain ethnic groups as long as they don’t forget they’re part of a larger society.

“It might build the confidence and knowledge needed to feel more comfortable going into the larger community,” he said. “Whatever we are as a country is a combination of all of us.”

Should Toronto’s schools speak one cultural language, or many? | Toronto Star.

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It’s Somali vs Somali at TDSB | Opinion

2014/01/24 Leave a comment

Tarek Fatah on the divisions within the Somali Canadian community over whether special programs or enrichment needed to address the poor educational outcomes of some in the community. Not surprisingly, the community is divided, but this also reflects a maturing to have active and diverse debate and participation. We also had debates within government over whether we should “target” or focus on specific communities with specific issues, and I would make a distinction between specific programs  and separate schools for a community:

Liibaan Moalin, a father of three children in the TDSB system, started an on-line petition addressed to Chris Bolton, Chair of the TDSB and Premier Kathleen Wynne, asking, them to “Stop Ghettoizing Canadian Children of Somali descent.” The petition, which already has over 500 signatories, says:

“We are parents of Canadian children of Somali descent who find the idea of the proposed TDSB-funded “Somali Task Force” extremely offensive and racist. We believe if such a program is implemented, an entire community that is already part of a marginalized group, will further be stigmatized and segregated from the mainstream Canadian community.”

School Superintendent Jim Spyropoulos of TDSB, who is spearheading the “Somali Task Force” proposal acknowledges, “Labelling and stigma are an issue,” but told me, “it’s the Somali-Canadian community that is insisting on having the label ‘Somali’ attached to the taskforce.

“We met with hundreds of Somali-Canadians at meetings held in the Abu-Hurraira Mosque and the IMO Islamic Centre in Rexdale,” he said.

It’s Somali vs Somali at TDSB | Columnists | Opinion | Toronto Sun.

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Quebec: Education charter chill

2013/12/07 Leave a comment

An in-depth piece on recent history of Quebec headgear debates, starting with efforts, under then Education Minister Marois to open up, and concluding with PM Marois’s current focus on the Charter, proposed reversing some of that opening.

Speaking the day after the head of the Quebec women’s federation was booed and heckled at a discussion at Université du Québec à Montréal, McAndrew said the debate is bringing out the worst in Quebec society. She added that it also might encourage teachers to dismiss any efforts to adapt to students of diverse ethnic backgrounds — in the way they teach their history course, for example — or accept different eating habits, or have patience with parents who haven’t mastered French.

“We are encouraging people to say OK we’re done with being open to different religions, but also to different cultures and languages, especially given the early ambiguity of the charter of ‘values’ before coming back to ‘laïcité’ (secularism) and the attitude that we must ‘put our pants on’ to deal with immigrants. …

“There’s so much tension and so much aggression,” McAndrew said. “It’s very worrisome. Will we feel it in the schools? I won’t say this is the end of our openness to pluralism, but we’re taking two steps backward for one step forward. And there are so many other things we should be working on in the schools for both the majority and the minority students.”

Education charter chill.

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Un cours d’histoire trop «orienté» au goût des profs | Le Devoir

2013/11/30 Leave a comment

Debate over the consultation document for Quebec’s high school history course. Written too much for the teachers, not the students. Some of the debate seems like typical debates between experts, not terribly profound.

Un cours d’histoire trop «orienté» au goût des profs | Le Devoir.

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