What Did the Multicultural Policies of the Last Century Promise that Need to Be Re-Imagined in Today’s DEDI Post-Secondary World?
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.53967/cje-rce.6233Keywords:
equity, diversity, inclusion, decolonization, CanadaAbstract
This article is an expanded version of the 2023 Plenary Lecture at the Canadian Society for the Study of Education (CSSE) Conference held at the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences. This invited essay explores the extent to which the promise of DEDI’s (decolonization, equity, diversity, and inclusion) polices and initiatives might bring about the imagined institutional changes in today’s context. Contending that we have been here before, the essay reckons that changes will not come about simply through verbal rhetoric, targeted hiring, or training sessions where individuals engage in self-reflection on their attitudes, values, and behaviours, but through critical examination of institutional policies, programs, and practices that result in the removal of systemic barriers which have operated over the years to maintain the inequitable situation being addressed.
References
Abella, R. (1984). Equity in employment: A Royal Commission report. Ministry of Supply and Services.
Applebaum, B. (2020). The call for intellectual diversity on campuses and the problem of willful ignorance. Educational Theory, 70(4), 445–461.
Baker, O. (2021, June 18). Honouring Black-Indigenous bloodlines. The Local. https://thelocal.to/honouring-black-indigenous-bloodlines/
Blackwell, T. (2022, February 11). How critical race theory sparked controversy in the U.S. and influenced Canadian education. National Post. https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/what-is-critical-race-theory
Bradburn, J. (2018, February 18). The story of Ontario’s last segregated black school. TVO Today. https://www.tvo.org/article/the-story-of-ontarios-last-segregated-black-school
Canadian Multiculturalism Act. (1985). R.S.C., 1985, c. 24 (4th Supp.). https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/C-18.7/page-1.html
De Houwer, J. (2019). Implicit bias is behavior: A functional-cognitive perspective on implicit bias. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 14(5), 835–840.
Employment Equity Act. (1995). S.C. 1995, c. 44. https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/e-5.401/FullText.html
Federation of Humanities & Social Sciences. (2023). Congress 2023: Reckonings and re-imaginings. https://www.federationhss.ca/en/congress-2023-reckonings-and-re-imaginings
Follert, J. (2022, May 31). Anti-racism policy approved by Durham Catholic, definitions of terms like ‘white supremacy’ and ‘colonialism’ removed. DurhamRegion.com. https://www.durhamregion.com/news/anti-racism-policy-approved-by-durham-catholic-definitions-of-terms-like-white-supremacy-and-colonialism/article_e8c15d8a-f321-5b8b-90f6-274f7bef1eff.html?
Gavshon, M. H., & Roberts, N. (Producers). (2023, February 12). Canada’s unmarked graves: How residential schools carried out “cultural genocide” against Indigenous children [TV series episode]. In M. H. Gavshon & N. Roberts (Producers), 60 minutes. CBS. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/canada-residential-schools-unmarked-graves-indigenous-children-60-minutes-2023-02-12/
Henry, F., Dua, E., James, C. E., Kobayashi, A., Li, P., Ramos, H., & Smith, M. S. (2017). The equity myth: Racialization and Indigeneity at Canadian universities, University of British Columbia Press
James, C. E., & Shah, V. (2022, June 20). Why critical race theory should inform schools. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/why-critical-race-theory-should-inform-schools-185169
James, C. E., Joseph-Salisbury, R., & Gooden, A. (2021). Differences, contradictions and racial reckoning in higher education in the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States. Journal of Interdisciplinary Humanities, 23(1), 94–121.
Kundnani, A. (2020, December 13). Training is the graveyard of struggle: An anti-racist history: Arun Kundnani on race, culture and empire. Talk given at the Department of Media, Communication and Cultural Studies, Goldsmiths College. Available at: https://www.kundnani.org/
Lewis, K. R., & Shah, P. P. (2021). Black students’ narratives of diversity and inclusion initiatives and the campus racial climate: An interest-convergence analysis. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, 14(2), 189–202.
Muñoz, S. M., Basile, V., Gonzalez, J., Birmingham, D., Aragon, A., Jennings, L., & Gloeckner, G. (2017). (Counter)narratives and complexities: Critical perspectives from a university cluster hire focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion. Journal of Critical Thought & Praxis, 6(2), 1–21. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/326967026_Counternarratives_and_Complexities_Critical_Perspectives_From_a_University_Cluster_Hire_Focused_on_Diversity_Equity_and_Inclusion
Otis, D. (2023, May 4). Canadian Indigenous leaders, Governor General meet with King Charles. CTV News. https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/canadian-indigenous-leaders-governor-general-meet-with-king-charles-1.6384480
Rancic, M. (2023, May 24). Pushing for a culture shift at Congress 2023. University Affairs. https://www.universityaffairs.ca/features/feature-article/pushing-for-a-culture-shift-at-congress-2023/
Spector, D. (2023, June 8). McGill music instructor claims he lost promotion to less qualified candidate. Global News. https://globalnews.ca/news/9753491/mcgill-instructor-lost-job-lawsuit-diversity/
Tamtik, M., & Guenter, M. (2019). Policy analysis of equity, diversity and inclusion strategies in Canadian universities – How far have we come? Canadian Journal of Higher Education, 49(3), 41–56.
Tate, S. A., & Bagguley, P. (2017). Building the anti-racist university: Next steps. Race Ethnicity and Education, 20(3), 289–299.
Tate, S. A., & Page, D. (2018). Whiteliness and institutional racism: Hiding behind (un)conscious bias. Ethics and Education, 13(1), 141–155.
Universities Canada. (2019). Equity, diversity and inclusion at Canadian universities. https://www.univcan.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Equity-diversity-and-inclusion-at-Canadian-universities-report-on-the-2019-national-survey-Nov-2019-1.pdf
University of Toronto, Scarborough. (2022). Scarborough Charter on anti-Black racism and Black inclusion in Canadian higher education: Principles, actions, and accountabilities. https://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/scarborough-charter/sites/utsc.utoronto.ca.scarborough-charter/files/docs/Scarborough_Charter_EN_Nov2022.pdf
Weidner, J. (2022, June 13). Anti-racism lessons essential in Waterloo region’s schools, public board trustees hear. Waterloo Region Record. https://www.therecord.com/news/waterloo-region/anti-racism-lessons-essential-in-waterloo-region-s-schools-public-board-trustees-hear/article_72ca3dc1-8bd2-5a5b-82d6-b33ae28551d6.html?
Yancy, G. (2023, May 5). Jordan Neely is being blamed for his own death due to Sanism and racism: Disability scholar Idil Abdillahi analyzes how Blackness and “madness” are pathologized in overlapping and violent ways. Truthout. https://truthout.org/articles/jordan-neely-is-being-blamed-for-his-own-death-due-to-sanism-and-racism/
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2022 Canadian Society for the Study of Education
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
The Canadian Journal of Education follows Creative Commons Licencing CC BY-NC-ND.
