RESEARCH

ABSTRACT

Making the argument for equitable racial and ethnic representation in education in Ontario is not a novel idea. Community organizations, educational institutions and various scholars have made important arguments suggesting that increasing the number of racialized teachers will immensely benefit Canada’s growing diverse student body. Public school boards in Ontario have made many attempts to implement employment equity policies over the last thirty years. The 2011 Employment Equity Data Report, however, suggests that out of approximately 83,590 combined elementary and secondary school teachers 24.6% of them are racialized. This pales in comparison to the 44.1% of racialized people that make up the population of Toronto. The incongruity in these statistics shows that with all the attempts that Toronto school boards have made to establish employment equity over the last twenty years, there appears to be a disconnect between the formidable equity policies adopted and the implementation process.

I aim to challenge normative positivist forms of policy research methodologies, by attempting to combine a critical race cognizant approach coupled with a decolonizing praxis. This combination will allow for a more nuanced understanding of how racist tendencies and encounters still exist and do not appear to be diminishing in multiple facets of Canadian institutions. This approach will allow the critical examination and assessment of the literature surrounding racism in the labour market and how it specifically relates to the public education system, as well as existing policies regarding employment equity in this field. Despite the many policies implemented to mitigate racism and other forms of discrimination in the education sector, one just has to look at the racial and ethnic makeup in the boardrooms and the teaching body in school boards to see that current employment equity strategies and policies are not doing what their intended purposes are for. These well intended policies may on the surface may appear to address inequities by attempting to check off a box to meet legal requirements, however, they do not always get at the structural power dynamics grounded in race which continue to perpetuate systemic racism as it relates to not only its employment practices, but also in its pedagogical practices.

Although this research project may focus on employment equity within the Ontario public education sector, it can have broader implications that relate to other equity minded issues in education that involve curriculum development, pedagogical approaches and student safety. Rather than dance the “equity waltz” I hope this research digs deep to deconstruct the underlying systemic culture of whiteness that pervades the classrooms, hallways, and the boardrooms of Ontario school boards by offering those who have been historically marginalized from decision-making, a seat at the table. By using a race-cognizant/decolonizing framework, I look to go beyond the superficial attempts to garner inclusivity through equity policies that continually fail to heal this wound of exclusion by stacking multiple “band aid” policies on it rather than formulating a restructuring of public education in Ontario that will allow multiple equity seeking groups a place at the table.

 Published by York University March 1, 2018, available at: http://hdl.handle.net/10315/34336 

ABSTRACT

This research project examines systemic forms of racism that limit the employment chances of racialized workers in the Toronto Metropolitan Area labour market. Through a situated analysis of racialized workers, institutional actors, and public policies, I explore the nuances of racialized individuals’ encounters with discriminatory hiring practices and job promotion procedures that exist in the labour market. Through the perspectives of racialized workers’ lived experiences, and by bringing into question the employment practices of hiring managers and human resource personnel, this project addresses the following key questions: 1) How do racialized workers negotiate their movement through places of employment in the Toronto Metropolitan Area? 2) How might we understand the operation of racism in hiring practices and what are the mechanisms under which it remains institutionally entrenched? The significance of this research will be threefold: First, by examining racialized individuals’ access to employment, their challenges with respect to the validation of their credentials and qualifications, and their earnings gaps and mobility within the labour market, this study stands to inform public policy and further improve issues of inequity relating to places of employment within Canada. The Canadian government has historically addressed these barriers through policies and legislative instruments such as Employment Equity Act, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and the Multiculturalism Act. Although, these policies appear to be progressive, the real issue lies in their implementation and, indeed, their efficacy in combating systemic racism in the labour market. Second, this work emphasizes the need to sensitize hiring agents and human resources departments and their role in eschewing racism in their employment practices. Finally, this research study provides racialized individuals with the opportunity to name and voice their lived experiences about the impacts of racism and the racial microaggressions encountered as condition of existence in their everyday working lives.   

ABSTRACT

This research project examines the systemic forms of discrimination faced by members of the South Asian diaspora in the Canadian labour market. It explores the obstacles and challenges faced by these individuals as they seek employment and participate in the labour market, using data from their lived experiences. The study investigates how problems of accessibility to the workplace, the “(in)validity” of their credentials and qualifications in the job market, as well as their upward mobility in places of employment are grounded in multiple forms of systemic racism. The ways the Canadian government has over the years attempted to address these barriers through policies and legislative instruments such as Employment Equity Act, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and the Multiculturalism Act will be carefully examined for their effectiveness. In many cases, these policies appear to be progressive, but the real issue lies in their implementation and, indeed, their efficacy in combating systemic discrimination in the labour market. 

ABSTRACT

This paper presents a framework for analysis of the dimensions that exist in the extraction industry as a means of development for Peru through a social relations perspective. This perspective centers on the social and economic structures that are transformed by the extraction industry. By outlining the structural interconnections between the global, state, local community and at the level of the family, we begin to see the uneven power dynamics that exist between transnational mining corporations and the Peruvian state, which not only shadows the relationship between the Peruvian state and its citizens, but also in turn highlights the intensification of uneven gender roles between men and women within the family unit that are apparent in the mineral extraction sectors in Peru.   This analysis lays out the complex hierarchies are embedded within these spheres and how they intersect with one another from a macro and micro level.  Further, I question how Canada's foreign aid initiatives, masked as economic development, are actually intended to support the reinforcement of Canadian mining companies in Peru. 

ABSTRACT 

In an attempt to raise awareness and end the violence against women in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), The V-Day campaign supported by UNICEF was launched in August of 2007. The initiative is called City of Joy. As the Congo wars began in 1996, this also marked when the campaign claimed the commencement of sexual violence in this region. The V-Day campaign can be credited with bringing a great deal of awareness about rape and sexual violence against women in the DRC, however it manages to fall short in creating a long term solution towards truly ending this violence. This paper will offer a gendered critique of V-Day’s approach in its attempt to eliminate gendered sexual violence in the DRC. The V-Day campaign prides itself in their ability to empower victims of rape and sexual violence in the DRC, but in doing so encounters many short comings. The campaign proclaims on their website that since 1996 sexual violence has been used as a way to torture and humiliate women and their families. Its inability to link the DRC’s colonial history to the recent wartime atmosphere ignores the historical aspects of gendered violence that is deeply rooted in ideals of hegemonic masculinity. I argue that it is these ideals entrenched within hegemonic masculinity that existed before 1996 have attributed to creating the current toxic conditions in the DRC. Furthermore, by not challenging the social construction of masculinity in the DRC and by simply focusing on victims’ empowerment, the V-Day campaign falls short in finding a more long term solution to ending sexual violence. Finally, by not addressing the latter concerns, the V-Day campaign reinforces a patriarchal hierarchy created between Western NGOs and women from the DRC.