Peel math teacher Krishna Nankissoor says he was twice denied a promotion to head his department and blames it on the fact he is South Asian. He reached agreement with the board last month and withdrew his complaint.
RICK MADONIK/TORONTO STARMalton math teacher Krishna Nankissoor says he was twice denied a promotion to be head of his department and blames it on the fact he was South Asian.
Yet in nearby Brampton, Harjit Aujla is settling in as new principal of Calderstone Middle School, the latest stop on a brisk climb through the ranks of the Peel board since he started teaching nine years ago.
He speaks Punjabi every day with students’ families — half the school’s 800 students are of South Asian background, like him. He says board staff has mentored him from the start.
Meet two faces on one of the hottest frontiers in public education — the drive to hire teachers who reflect the racial rainbow of their students.
Some claim schools are dragging their heels; others say doors are flinging open. Some argue there just aren’t enough qualified non-white teachers; others blame principals for hiring teachers who look like them — which, in the past, has tended to mean white.
Like any racial issue, the colour-coding of teachers and students is highly charged.
“We’re still seen as outsiders, we’re not part of the team because schools are kind of clique-ish to those who aren’t Caucasian,” charged Nankissoor, who said he failed a total of four bids for promotion — twice for vice-principal — before he complained to the Ontario Human Rights Commission. He said he reached an agreement with the Peel District School Board last month and withdrew his complaint.
Tony Pontes is the director of education for Peel, where community members staged a recent protest to demand more South Asian teachers. Pontes said he knows the board needs more diversity among teachers, and insisted it is a priority in a region where one in three people are South Asian and some 57 per cent are visible minorities.
“Would we like to see more teachers from visible minorities in our schools? Absolutely. We know our staff is not quite as diverse as we would like,” said Pontes, “but we’ve made great strides in the last few years and it takes time to change.”
Nina Jaiswal never had a South Asian teacher when she grew up in Peel. The Indian-born educator is now principal of Ruth Thompson Middle School in Mississauga.
“I think it does matter to have a diverse staff as role models for children,” said Daiswal, who speaks Punjabi and Hindi. “I have at least three teachers on staff who speak these languages too.”
The board is seeking advice from advisory groups representing visible minorities, as well as disabled, aboriginal and gay people on how to lift barriers to hiring. It’s hard to know how well Peel is doing because, like most boards, it does not track the demographic traits of staff. But Ponte said all principals have been told to consider diversity when hiring.
The issue goes far beyond Peel. The Centre for American Progress reported this week that while 40 per cent of all students in the United States belong to visible minorities, only 17 per cent of teachers are non-white. It warned that this leaves many children without role models.
The Ontario Ministry of Education has told school boards this year to make equity a focus in hiring.
“It’s critical students see themselves reflected in their teachers and principals,” said Education Minister Laurel Broten. But Queen’s Park will not force boards to track the race of teachers, so it’s unclear how boards will show they’re making progress.
The Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario has asked members to indicate their racial background since 2002, but a scant 5 per cent check off the “racialized” box and that number isn’t going up, which makes president Sam Hammond suspect the number is too low. Still, the union runs outreach programs in schools to encourage a broader range of students to consider teaching.
“We don’t mirror the student body, yet that’s what we need. It’s so important that students have appropriate role models,” he said.
The Toronto District School Board does ask teachers to indicate their background, and about 35 per cent of teachers hired last year were visible minorities, as were 30 per cent of those who were promoted, said Pardeep Nagra, the board’s manager of employment equity.
“Principals are the true stakeholders of equity because they’re the ones doing the hiring,” said Nagra. “I meet with principals and remind them that every single hire they do is important.”
Teachers’ colleges say they work hard to recruit more diverse students, but it’s tough to find them jobs when the job market is stalled, noted Dean Alice Pitt of York University’s faculty of education, where some 33 per cent of the 1,100 students identify themselves as visible minorities.
“The supply of teachers has probably never been as diverse, but the demand for teachers is at an all-time low. To change the face of a profession you have to have a flow out and a flow in, but if the pot is full of potatoes, there’s no room for carrots,” she said.
Yet it’s crucial to have diversity among teachers, says Julia O’Sullivan, dean of the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) at the University of Toronto, where 30 per cent of 1,500 students are visible minorities.
“Students and teachers often are able to relate more completely if they have some background experience in common.”
Avi Rakhra graduated three years ago from Rick Hansen Secondary School in Mississauga, where he said he is glad he had a Punjabi math teacher as a role model. “I wish there were more diverse teachers; it would reassure parents and students that there isn’t discrimination,” he said, “and we could breathe easier.”