Featured speaker Dr. Jerome Cranston, a former faculty professor, who currently serves as dean at the Faculty of Education, University of Regina, was the first speaker in a series that is planned to focus on the theme of reconciliation during the 2020-21 season.

“We are called to listen with open ears to the stories of Indian residential schools’ survivors,” Cranston said. “And to remember and honour those who didn’t make it.”

Race-conscious approach

Cranston introduced the audience to critical-race scholars who have uncovered how racist ideologies, structures and institutions create and maintain inequality and injustice. Using this race-conscious approach, he hopes that society can find solutions that lead to racial justice. 

Cranston pointed to headlines worldwide about systemic racism, and including Canada, and described the impact—from job opportunities to poverty and health determinants. The presentation then turned to education and the data revealing uneven outcomes based on race. 

In order to change systems that are inherently racist, Cranston encouraged the audience to bring an end to not only quantifying overtly racist incidents, but also denying systemic racism exists in the society and the education system and making excuses for a lack of change. 

Creating change

Among the ways education leadership can create change, Cranston called for an end to policies and practices that reinforce white privilege. He asked educators to commit to enacting equity measures that dismantle barriers denying opportunities to racialized students, staff and faculty. 

Human resources policies should be changed to create more opportunities racialized people to access senior administration roles. 

And Cranston added that faculty and staff that more closely reflects the diverse makeup of the student body and national pool of candidates. 

Cranston concluded his lecture with a list of ways to disseminate knowledge that dismantle systems of racism that included: 

• Learning history and how has influenced your identity. 

• Studying systemic racism. 

• Explicitly teaching about school practices that sustain racism, power and whiteness, among others. 

Cranston’s entire lecture can be accessed on the faculty’s YouTube channel here. 

To Moore, it seemed as if the voice came from under the car. Shrieking, she hit the brakes.

Regaining her composure, she realized the Danes used children’s voices on GPS notifications to alert drivers once they’ve entered school zones.

Then it hit her—bolt out of the blue. She could use this.

Students, families get a role

Now a leading thinker and lecturer on inclusive education, at the time, Moore was working in British Columbia with K-12 students who had exceptional learning needs. She was working to reform the Individual Education Plans (IEPs) meant to assist students with special needs.

Getting back to that school zone in Denmark. Moore realized in that moment, the student’s voice was missing from the plan. In other words: If she would slow down in a school zone because a child’s voice asked her to, would teachers respond to learning plans if the children’s voice was included in writing them? From that moment forward, Moore worked to ensure students and their families had a role in writing the IEPs. 

Speaking to some 360 Manitoba educators over two speaking engagements, Moore shared her experiences, her frustrations and eventual success in reforming BC’s IEPs to become a student-focused two-page document from a 27-page irrelevant bureaucratic form.

‘Revolutionary’

It took her seven years and the backing of over 30 school divisions to convince the province to change IEPs from a totally self-contained specialized program to an inclusive program where all kids in the school had access to both electives and academics from grades 8 to 12.

“Every student now has access, which, if you’ve been in a high school, is revolutionary,” Moore said.

Moore realized the problem with IEPs when a student presented her with a report card that came with no feedback. In consulting with teachers, she realized that the education plans contained information about the student’s ability to use a bathroom independently, but no goals related to curriculum or specific classes the students are attending.

“We went from zero-per-cent teacher participation to 100% teacher participation in one term once we figured that out,” Moore said. “Because, all of a sudden, we’re not inviting teachers to talk about bathroom goals, we’re inviting teachers to talk to them about their curriculum. All of a sudden, they saw purpose in the IEP. This was huge.”

The solution was several-fold:

• Change the IEP’s focus to a goal and strength-focused statement aligned with the curriculum of their peers from a deficit-focused stat document that focused on the student’s challenges.
• Make the IEP flexible and responsive to the places where high-school students are in a day.
• Include input from parents and students.

“This document represents a person,” Moore said. “Not accountability. Not a policy. Not all of the political things that it’s become, but this is a person that we’re responding to.”

Moore said she is working on a book scheduled to be published this year that speaks to her experience reforming IEPs.

• • •

The faculty next hosts Dr. Elyse Eidman-Aadahl, executive director, National Writing Project (NWP) University of California, Berkeley. Details as follows:

What: Dr. Elyse Eidman-Aadahl, executive director, National Writing Project (NWP)University of California, Berkeley

When: Friday Evening, April 24,

Time: 5 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.

Where: Room 224, Education Building, Fort Garry Campus, U of M

• Register here.
• Paid parking at University parkade.
• Free parking available on campus at St. Andrew’s College.

For more information, contact:

Charlie McDougall, communications coordinator, Faculty of Education, 204 474 7402, or email: Charlie [dot] McDougall [at] umanitoba [dot] ca