Performativity, Resistance, Commitment, and the Institutional Limitations of Enacting Equity from the Perspectives of Educators in Ontario, Canada: A Critical Policy Analysis

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Friday 1:45 pm - Gold 1
  In Roundtable Session: Implementing Reform, Unraveling Futures: The Micropolitics and Meaning of Educational Change

Abstract

Despite the Ontario Ministry of Education (2009) requiring all public school boards to have equity policies, this paper shares the perspectives of 21 educators who speak to the challenges of enactment. This study reveals that not only are educators not provided adequate professional development about the equity policy, but that there is little accountability from school leaders to realize enactment. In the face of both indifference and overt resistance to equity by educators, school leaders, and community members, this paper calls into question whether equity policies could be effectively enacted or whether they stand as mere performative documents. Within this context, the legislative power of human rights appears to offer some equity-oriented educators the opportunity to advance discussions of social justice.

Authors

• Shirin Abdmolaei, University of Western Ontario

• Goli Rezai-Rashti, Western University