The importance of principals and vice-principals in leading anti-oppression work in schools cannot be understated. The Wallace report reminds us that “the effectiveness of the principal is more important than the effectiveness of a single teacher” (Wallace Foundation, 2021) and other research shows that “to enhance staff capacity, principals must directly address issues of race, provide ongoing training that focuses on equity, empower staff members with greater professional freedom, and hire specifically with social justice in mind”(Ross, J. A., & Berger, M. J. (2009).
How can you move your well-intentioned allyship into strong advocacy and collaboration? Your voice and your leadership in this work is essential, regardless of your own personal identity. In fact, the work of anti-oppression needs the voices of those who are part of the dominant identities and can use their agency and positional power to further the work and model for others. What you do and how you model your approach to anti-oppression and equity work influences the work of others in your school and in your system. There are many points of entry and many opportunities to further your own learning, practice doing the work and supporting your staff in engaging. The one approach that definitely will not work – to do nothing.
The end result is to have a school system that acknowledges and centers the needs of its learners; a system that would see similar patterns of success regardless of the identities of the learners. Students should feel that their unique identities are recognized and honoured and that they can truly feel like they belong and contribute. This would be evident in the entire school experience – whether that is about the types of instructional and assessment practices that are used, the physical spaces available on campus, the books and resources that are used and the opportunities that are being offered.
But we can’t start at the end.
One of the challenges in this work, or any work that involves systemic change, is identifying where and how to start. Too often, we start at the middle or the end. In education we like to focus on policies or products – like a pronouns policy to accommodate gender diversity or new resources in the library or classroom to provide better representation of diverse identities. These are not bad things to do, but they often don’t have the impact that we had hoped; they are often ineffective, inauthentic or met with resistance. Believing that the creation of a new policy will fix a problem is like believing that posting speed limits means people won’t drive too fast – in fact, its actually just evidence that the problem exists.
Equity work in schools has been happening for decades, yet the patterns of disproportionate opportunities and outcomes for under-represented identities mainly continues. These are patterns that include Indigenous and racialized students being over-represented in disciplinary actions and under-represented in academic opportunities; the wants of dominant identities being prioritized over the needs of the most under-served identities; acts of harm being allowed to go uninterrupted and at the expense of those most impacted. Too often, we have approached this with a mindset of trying to ‘fix the student’ as opposed to recognizing that the system that they are in doesn’t support their success.
So where should we begin? With ourselves – with the adults that make decisions, set policies and reinforce practices that create environments that are truly inclusive or that result in the perpetuation of disproportionate outcomes. We can make new rules and new policies but if implement them without a change in our mindsets, we will see they same results – the new rules will continue to be used to marginalize some identities.
The work of becoming an anti-oppressive leader or using an ‘equity lens’ starts with reflection of one’s self, experiences, attitudes, behaviours and past decisions. This is often challenging and often evokes emotional responses including guilt, resentment or fear. How can you lead your staff down a journey that involves acknowledging that they are likely a product of and a participant in a system that continues to perpetuate harm on students? Most educators and school leaders likely experienced a lot of success in the school system as it is, so it is very natural for them to reinforce practices and not notice how the system may exclude or marginalize some. Ask yourself the question – who didn’t I know in school and what was their experience like?
Leading any transformational change in schools requires many of the same things: trust, relationship development, building knowledge and listening and engaging with others. School leaders have been using these approaches consistently and successfully for decades for many initiatives. As they engage in leading anti-oppressive work, they should also add aspects such as cultural humility, compassion and self-awareness. Recognizing your own personal identity, positional power and privilege are essential to creating the conditions where others can feel safe to learn, grow and participate.
Creating the conditions of belonging and identity-safety is incredibly important to moving your staff or system forward. It’s like building the foundation of a house – without a strong foundation, it won’t matter what colour you have painted the walls.
But this isn’t an excuse or advocacy for people to ‘wait until we’re comfortable’ before we engage in the transformational work that needs to be done. We need to acknowledge that every day that we are not engaging in the work individually and collectively is another day that students face harm. Our purpose must be to center the needs of the most under-served and under-represented students and families in our systems. And there must be some urgency to our commitment to it.
Consider what learning you have done to focus on Indigenous Rights and Truth and Reconciliation by engaging in the Calls to Action. How do you engage with Land and Territorial Acknowledgements and interrupt conversations and patterns that reinforce deficit mindsets regarding Indigenous students and families?
How do you combat transphobia and interrupt cis-heteronormativity by modelling the use of pronouns and honouring diverse lived gender identities? How do you support student affinity groups such as GSAs? How do you ensure staff are embedding 2SLGBTQQIA+ identities into their curricular conversations? Some of these are low risk and low cost actions that have large impacts on school communities.
How do your spending decisions centre the needs of the most under-served and under-represented groups? People will always challenge spending decisions that go against what has always been done or that focus on smaller groups of individuals – but isn’t that the point of ‘equity’? That we focus on those who need it the most? Remember that ‘equity’ is the process that leads us to the goal of equality of outcomes. It’s important to challenge the notions that somehow the majorities are losing out when we focus on those who are most in need of support. Most often, we find that everyone benefits, and the groups that already have the most aren’t generally negatively impacted.
I encourage you to engage in the work in the way that you can at this point, but as always, to keep yourself moving along that journey. As I have been saying to many people – there are many ways to do anti-oppressive work…but doing nothing isn’t one of them.
By: Irfan Toor (he/him), Social Justice and Anti-Oppression Advisor, Ontario Principal’s Council
