ABOUT the resource creator
I am a racialized individual, who checks off many visible minority boxes in Canada. I am an Arab, Muslim, hijab-wearing female. Not only that, but I teach Physical Education, a subject nobody expects me to teach, because how could someone like me teach something so active? How could someone as “oppressed” as I am have the freedom to teach such an active class? I get these questions a lot, but they disappear the second I am put in a school with students who look, sound, and act like I do. Why? Because people start to recognize the importance of representation, and the detriments of underrepresentation. For my PSII I was placed at a school in Brooks, Alberta. Brooks is a small town in Southern Alberta that no one expects to have a diverse population, but it does. Over 50% of my students were members of the Black Indigenous People of Colour (BIPOC) community. They were immigrants and refugees from Syria, Somalia, Sudan, the Philippines, etc. Most of my female students wore the hijab, spoke Arabic, and followed the Islamic faith, just like me. The reason I am mentioning this experience is because I was told that these students participation rate in PE went up the second I showed up. Why? Because they felt represented. I was the only person of colour in the school who was not a student.
I am motivated to complete this research for all of those girls in hijab who did not run, because they did not know that they could, for all of the refugees who escaped war and who want people to understand their trauma, and for all those students who want role models who look, sound, and act like them. Let us work together to not only better represent our students, but educate ourselves on where they come from, and what they came from.
About the resource
This resource was created to help educators and students alike, by tackling the issue that is underrepresentation. For far too long, underrepresented students in majority white schools have struggled to have their voices heard, and their histories acknowledged. This resource is the first step at addressing these struggles. It is recommended that you first administer the student survey, before utilizing the other resources. The resources are split up into the same categories found in the survey. The four main resource categories are Citizen (born and raised), Immigrant, Refugee, and FNMI populations. Each of these categories is broken down into further categories. The reason for this is the acknowledgement of the fact that citizens, refugees, immigrants, and indigenous persons have different stories that affect their experience. For example, a black male student born and raised in Canada, and an African Refugee who fled war to Canada have completely different stories, but both struggle with underrepresentation. The way you would tackle this underrepresentation would then be different for each of these students, despite them sharing the same race. The surveys have been translated into different languages, to allow for increased student comprehension of the questions, and a more comprehensive description of their experiences.
CONSIDERATIONS
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Rhetoric to look out for in the articles:
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Accommodate: In some of the articles, you will see the word accommodate used in sentences like "accommodating for people from culturally diverse backgrounds..." The word accommodate makes whatever you are accommodating feel like a burden. So, instead let us use words like embrace.
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"Issues with...": In some of the articles you may also come across rhetoric such as "issues with cultural diversity...". This adds negative connotations to cultural diversity, as if it brings with it a lot of issues. Instead of issues, let us use the world challenges.
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Stop comparing us to Finland. Finland has one of the most homogenous populations in the world. There is no doubt that there education system is one of the most equitable in the world; however, it is easy to practice equity when everyone belongs to the same culture, having the same basic needs. Canadian classrooms are some the most diverse in the world, making practicing equity challenging, but never impossible.
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Coloured diversifies white, not the other way around. Unfortunately, coloured diversifies a white space, and white exalts a coloured space. This is important to consider because the word diversity is only used to classify members of the BIPOC community. We use terms like "diverse students", "diverse workers", etc. furthering the othering of these students.
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Most underrepresented students are not here by choice. Asylum seeking and immigrating are not things people want to do. Coming to Canada was not a choice for our immigrant and refugee students; they are here because they could no longer live in their own countries. Even citizens of this country may not be here by choice. For example, I myself was born in Canada; however, I was only born here because my parents were forced to flee war torn countries in the Middle East.
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Colour blindness. Never say you do not see colour; you are stripping students of a part of their identity they were never ready to let go of in the first place.