“Against the Tide”: Advocating for Race Equality in Toronto and London, 1978-2008

• In Event: The Principal as Educational Researcher: School Leaders’ Use of Educational Research for School Improvement, Past and Present

Abstract

On January 29, 2008 the Toronto District School Board approved the development of an Africentric school under their Alternative School policy. While this decision resulted from decades of activism by Black parents and community organizations, it was also represented the behind-the-scenes work of principals and district leaders who documented the underachievement and 40% dropout rate of African Canadian students and the need for more culturally responsive curriculum.

In London, race equality work culminated in the mid-1980s when newly appointed Black, South Asian, and progressive White headteachers and officials from the Multicultural Inspectorate of the Inner London Educational Authority developed and studied the effects of anti-racist policies and multicultural curriculum at the Center for Urban Studies and the Afro Caribbean Education Project.

This comparative study examines the activism by principals, headteachers and school board officials in two global cities who used research on the systematic disparities for students of color to promote race equality policies and culture-based curriculum over a thirty-year period.

Utilizing a comparative historical case study approach, archival research was conducted on-site in both Canada and England. Primary sources in both cities included published school board records, curriculum guides, photographs, and popular and professional media. Oral history interviews were conducted with 10 former principals and school district officials in both cities.

This historical study reveals the often-neglected role of progressive school leaders who bridged the school bureaucracy and Black and South Asian community concerns. These advocacy leaders were public school principals or district leaders by day, community activists by night, and volunteer teachers in culture-based "supplementary schools" on Saturdays. They utilized both formal research and community-based knowledge to advocate for better opportunities and life chances for Black youth. As advocates they were often "caught in the crossfire" when their decisions and far-ranging alliances were questioned by governmental officials and radical community-based groups alike.

Although current urban school bureaucracies are often portrayed as fortresses by parents and community activists, these historical cases provide salutary examples of how school officials and community activists can collectively marshal multiple sources of evidence to work for educational change. The study also indicates cross-national borrowing of reform initiatives and signals how progressive school-community alliances can be dismantled through political forces and policy changes.

References
Anderson, Gary, Advocacy Leadership: Toward a Post Reform Agenda in Education (New York, Routledge, 2009).

Johnson, Lauri, "Segregation or 'Thinking Black'?: Community Activism and the Development of Black-Focused Schools in Toronto and London, 1968 – 2008," Teachers College Press 115 (November, 2013).

Olowe, Sarah, Against the Tide: Black Experience in the ILEA. (London, The Inner London Educational Authority, 1990); Len Garrison, Resources for Education in a Plural Society: 'Policy to Practice'. (London, ACER Centre, 1985).

Spencer, John, In the Crossfire: Marcus Foster and the Troubled History of American School Reform (Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012).

Archives:
The Runnymede Trust Collection, Black Cultural Archives; ILEA collection, London Metropolitan Archives, London.

Toronto District School Board archives, TDSB Heritage Services, 263 McCaul Street, Toronto, Ontario

Author

• Lauri Johnson, Boston College