23 SEP 2019 · This podcast problematizes conceptions of youth leadership and offers insight into the depth, breadth and promise of youth civic engagement, community organizing and youth activism. The speakers name many of the challenges that young people face as leaders and provide insights for both youth and adults in supporting the conditions for youth voice, agency and activism. They also share ideas on how youth leadership can inform traditional notions of teaching, learning and leading. About The Speakers Charlotte is a Mi’kmaw (meeg-maw) and Innu (een-ou) creator, protector, and advocate. She is from a small community in Unama'ki (oon-ah-mah-ghee), Nova Scotia called Mekaqanji’jk (mehg-ahq-an-jee-jig) where she spent summers learning traditional ways of life from her grandparents. She currently lives here in the GTA, working within the community to facilitate workshops and presentations for students and staff to learn more about Indigenous culture and history as well as helping with and participating in local events to support various social justice movements, most pertaining to Indigenous and land rights. Her work centers around keeping her culture and language alive and passing on ancestral knowledge to younger generations, as well as raising awareness around the barriers that Indigenous communities face. Charlotte is also an avid beadworker and sewer, drawing inspiration from the rough waters and wind-blown landscape of her homelands as well as ancestral patterns and designs to create traditional and contemporary regalia. Follow Charlotte on Instagram. Aliénor, or Allie, Rougeot has been an environmental and human rights activist since she was about 10 years old. Having grown up in a gorgeous part of France, surrounded by nature’s beauty, she has learned to cherish the Earth and all its beings and has also wanted to protect it. She is now a climate justice activist, working on-campus at the University of Toronto and off-campus as the coordinator of the youth climate strikes, Fridays for Future, in the GTA. Climate justice matters to her deeply because it is an intersection of environmental rights and human rights, as it is no mystery that not all communities are equally responsible for the ecological crisis, nor equally affected. She hopes, through speaking, organizing rallies and lobbying, to advocate for a just and inclusive transition towards a more sustainable lifestyle for all. As she is now 20 years old, her focus is increasingly on empowering other younger people to become activists too and allow their voices to be heard.

23 SEP 2019 · This podcast problematizes conceptions of youth leadership and offers insight into the depth, breadth and promise of youth civic engagement, community organizing and youth activism. The speakers name many of the challenges that young people face as leaders and provide insights for both youth and adults in supporting the conditions for youth voice, agency and activism. They also share ideas on how youth leadership can inform traditional notions of teaching, learning and leading. About The Speakers Riven Thorne is a transgender person and youth advocate whose been working with LGBTQ2S youth, people who use drugs and youth with disabilities for two years. They are passionate about equity and justice, spoken word poetry, and fostering community in the spaces he occupies. Riven has been working as a peer harm reduction worker, primarily doing drug and safer sex education for youth and mental health service providers for the last year and a half.  Curtis Carmichael is a Keynote Speaker, STEM educator, cross Canada cyclist (Sponsored by Specialized Canada) and the founding force behind Ride for Promise – a nationwide movement cycling across Canada. Raised in poverty, he channeled his entrepreneurial skills, hustling lifestyle and focus on self-education to become a trailblazer. Leading a successful $100,000 fundraising campaign, his grassroots movement is featured in the award-winning documentary Ride for Promise. As a respected speaker, Curtis has delivered engaging presentations across Canada and has appeared on CBC National, City News and Global News. He has received several prestigious awards including the USPORTS National Russ Jackson Award, Herbert H. Carnegie Future Aces National Citizenship Award & the City of Toronto Spirit of Sport Diversity and Inclusion Award. Curtis is most driven by topics focusing on social change, leadership, overcoming adversity and digital equity. Connect to Curtis: Curtis' website & Instragram.

23 SEP 2019 · This podcast explores the many ways that students are streamed and sorted in elementary and secondary schooling practices and structures and the impact that has on their educational and life opportunities. These structural barriers reproduce historical social, economic and political marginalization and disproportionately impact Black, male youth and youth living in poverty. The speakers challenge us to consider the ways in which we have normalized and continue to perpetuate marginalization and offer ideas to educators, schools and school districts to disrupt these patterns.  About The Speakers Alison Gaymes San Vicente is a Centrally Assigned Principal Coach for School Improvement with the Toronto District School Board. Her work to disrupt educational practices that continue to disadvantage historically marginalized/underserved students has led to a secondment at York University’s Faculty of Education, leadership with girls’ mentorship and multiple teaching praxis initiatives.  In addition to being a member of the provincial writing team for the Principal’s Qualification Program (2017), she is also an author in: The Leader Reader, Not Here: Principal Power Meets Relationship Power (2018); “Our Schools, Ourselves - Community Watch: Marginal At Best, A Narrative on Streaming in Public Education”(2016); “Restacking the Deck: Streaming by class, race and gender in Ontario schools (2014); “Rhymes to Re-education: A Hip Hop Curriculum Resource Guide for Educators with Social Justice Activities” (2014). Finally, Alison has been the recipient of the Queen Diamond Jubilee Award (2014) and Canada’s Outstanding Principals Award (2016). Dr. Gillian Parekh is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Education at York University. With a doctorate in Critical Disability Studies, Gillian has conducted extensive research with the Toronto District School Board in the areas of structural equity, special education, and academic streaming. In particular, her work explores how schools construct and respond to disability as well as how students are organized across programs and systems. Diana Grimaldos is a Community Engagement Coordinator at Working Women Community Centre where her work focuses on facilitating equitable and inclusive involvement of immigrants on issues of integration and civic engagement. For the past three years, she led the Latinx Parents for Change project, which enabled the active participation of Toronto’s Latinx families in school and community life. Diana sits as a steering committee member of the Coalition for Alternatives to Streaming in Education (CASE) and is currently a DiverseCity Fellow with Civic Action. Diana is pursuing her Master’s in Leadership and Community Engagement at York University – Faculty of Education. Video Resource: Academic Streaming: A Path Without a Choice Annie Kidder is the Executive Director and a founder of People for Education. Formerly a theatre director, Kidder became involved in public education in Ontario in the late 1990’s and since then has become an expert on policy education policy and funding. She regularly provides advice to policy-makers and government, and her writing on education has been published in a range of media. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Ontario Principals’ Council 2004 Outstanding Contribution to Education Award, the Canadian Teachers’ Federation 2005 Public Education Advocacy Award, and in 2018, an honourary doctorate from York University. She has spoken at conferences in Canada, the United States, Europe, Africa and South America.  She is regularly quoted in the media as an expert on education issues. She lives in Toronto.

23 SEP 2019 · This podcast explores how colonization and anti-Indigenous racism operates in schooling. The speakers explore concepts such as decolonizing and Indigenizing educational spaces and the importance of Indigenous sovereignty and self-determination in how we conceptualize the future of education. Listeners are invited to consider their responsibilities as treaty people on this land in interrupting the historical legacy of cultural genocide and its contemporary impacts on Indigenous students, families and communities. *Editor’s Note: For more information, please see bio available below. About The Speaker Tanya Senk is a Métis/Cree/Saulteaux educator, researcher, artist and speaker. She has been working in the Toronto District School Board for over two decades. During this time she has been a classroom teacher, seconded as a course director at York University, in the Faculty of Education, in both the Urban Diversity and Regent Park Teacher Education program sites, an Instructional Leader, AQ Instructor, Program Coordinator and Central Coordinating Vice-Principal in Indigenous Education. She is currently the Indigenous Education Board Lead, Centrally Assigned Principal for Indigenous Education with the Urban Indigenous Education Centre and Principal at Kapapamahchakwew – Wandering Spirit School. She has also written and reviewed with publishers such as Pearson, Goodminds, Indigenous Education Press, Nelson, Emond Montgomery, ETFO, and Pembroke – on Indigenous Education. As a PhD candidate, her research interests include Decolonizing and Indigenizing Education, Professional Learning and Teacher Education. Resources: Linda Tuhiwai Smith, Decolonizing Methodologies; Gerald Vizenor; Willie J. Ermine on “Aboriginal Epistemology” and “Seeking Mamatowisowin”

23 SEP 2019 · This podcast explores how colonization and anti-Indigenous racism operates in schooling. The speakers explore concepts such as decolonizing and Indigenizing educational spaces and the importance of Indigenous sovereignty and self-determination in how we conceptualize the future of education. Listeners are invited to consider their responsibilities as treaty people on this land in interrupting the historical legacy of cultural genocide and its contemporary impacts on Indigenous students, families and communities. About The Speaker Pamala Agawa, Anishinaabe-kwe from Batchewana First Nation. She is a mom, a daughter, an auntie, a niece, a granddaughter and a sister. She is a Secondary Vice Principal at a secondary school with the York Region DSB. Pam is a coach and a lifelong learner who seizes every opportunity possible to grow as a person.  Currently, her interests are focused in decolonizing instructional practice to create amazing spaces for learning for all (especially Indigenous youth) acknowledging that this is a journey and that this is really rooted within the colonial/ western structure we have all adopted as a system in public education.  Pam loves working alongside youth and believes she is a strong advocate for them in a good way.

23 SEP 2019 · This podcast explores how colonization and anti-Indigenous racism operates in schooling. The speakers explore concepts such as decolonizing and Indigenizing educational spaces and the importance of Indigenous sovereignty and self-determination in how we conceptualize the future of education. Listeners are invited to consider their responsibilities as treaty people on this land in interrupting the historical legacy of cultural genocide and its contemporary impacts on Indigenous students, families and communities. *Editor’s Note: At 27:35, the question and tension addressed is: How can we address anti-Indigenous racism work, and simultaneously focus on Indigenous brilliance and Indigenous imaginaries? About The Speaker Diane Longboat, MEd is a member of the Turtle Clan and Mohawk Nation. She is a ceremonial leader, traditional teacher and healer. She has served as Elder for CAMH since January of 2014 and is currently the Senior Project manager, Guiding Directions Implementation. Diane is founder of Soul of the Mother. She is a professional educator with a Master's degree in education and has taught at universities nationally and internationally on the topic of traditional Indigenous knowledge systems and spirituality as the fuel for innovation. She possesses an in-depth understanding of Indigenous history, loss and trauma, as well as the resiliency factors that are embedded in culture and knowledge systems. She has published extensively and written numerous reports on Indigenous education and law for the Assembly of First Nations and the Chiefs of Ontario. Diane is the founder of First Nations House (Office of Aboriginal Student Services and Programs) at the University of Toronto and Soul of the Mother, a traditional healing lodge on the shores of the Grand River at Six Nations Grand River Territory. Diane was the Indigenous Education Advisor to the Premier of Ontario and the Ontario Minister of Education from 2018-2018. Recently Diane was Co-Chair of the Indigenous Peoples Program at the Parliament of the World’s Religions, a global gathering for 8,500 visitors in November 2018.  The program hosted over 100 Indigenous spiritual leaders and leading climate activists from 80 countries.

23 SEP 2019 · This podcast explores what it means to lead for social justice and how this form of leadership differs from more traditional notions of leadership. Leadership is conceptualized very broadly to challenge hierarchical, individualistic and neutral notions of leadership. The speakers name the ways that leadership is experienced and practiced differently depending on social positionalities, roles and titles and provide important insights for us all to deepen our leadership practices. About The Speakers Tina Lopes is an independent organizational development consultant, facilitator and mediator, skilled in promoting organizational change processes. Since 1990, she has focused on furthering equity and inclusion work with federal, provincial and municipal government departments as well as with child welfare agencies, school boards, health and social service organizations. She has extensive experience coaching senior and middle managers to integrate equity into core organizational policies and practices. In addition to advising institutional leaders on strategies for change, Tina educates and coaches senior managers to lead more effectively when contentious issues related to equity arise. Over the years, Tina has conducted human rights investigations and assisted organizations to put in place effective policies and practices to uphold human rights in the workplace. With her colleague Charles Smith, Tina was appointed as consultant to the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal, and asked to steer a province-wide systemic change process to address racism in the Ministry of Correctional Services. Tina is also co-author of Dancing on Live Embers: Challenging Racism in Organizations which was awarded the Myers Outstanding Book Award. Debbie Donsky is an elementary principal in the Peel District School Board. She has worked throughout the GTA and at the Ministry of Education for over 25 years as an educator. Debbie is a mom of two wonderful teenagers and has been married for over 20 years to a man who puts up with her many interests and hobbies such as reading voraciously, blogging and drawing. One of her proudest moments was on the TEDx stage last year where she shared stories about the impact of body shaming in her talk, Reclaiming Space. She has made a career focused on creating spaces of possibility–whether as an advocate, leader, writer and artist. Debbie believes that stories are what connects us. Learn more about Debbie's work by visiting her website: www.debbiedonsky.com   Nouman Ashraf is an Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream within the Organizational Behavior area at the Rotman School of Management.  He possesses a broad range of professional, academic and research interests, with a specialized focus on enabling inclusive and innovative practices within teams, organizations and boards. For the last decade and a half, he has held progressively senior roles at the University of Toronto, including most recently as an advisor to the Vice President of HR and Equity at the University of Toronto. He is a recognized thought leader in governance and has taught thousands of directors in the national Rotman program on Not for Profit Governance in partnership with the Institute for Corporate Directors since its inception in 2007.

23 SEP 2019 · This podcast explores what it means to lead for social justice and how this form of leadership differs from more traditional notions of leadership. Leadership is conceptualized very broadly to challenge hierarchical, individualistic and neutral notions of leadership. The speakers name the ways that leadership is experienced and practiced differently depending on social positionalities, roles and titles and provide important insights for us all to deepen our leadership practices. About The Speaker Donna Cardoza is passionate about creating excellence through equity and making equity in education a reality in schools. As a Community Support Worker in the Toronto District School Board, Donna is a leader in family and community engagement and is committed to building bridges between the home, school and community. For the past eleven years Donna Cardoza has been instrumental in developing and launching The Nubian Book Club, which builds networks and communities of learning comprised of youth, families, educators and community members, committed to the success of students of African and Caribbean heritage.   Donna is also actively involved in the community and has been recognized for her expertise. She received an award for Black History Month (2009) from the Town of Markham for her contribution in the community. She was also the recipient of the 2009 YMCA Peace Medallion, and the 2011 Ontario Medal for Good Citizenship Award. Donna was named as one of the 100 Accomplished Black Canadian Women in 2016 and received the York Region Diversity, Equity & Inclusivity Award for Service and Innovation (Individual) from the Community Inclusivity Equity Council of York Region in 2019.   To learn more about the Nubian Book Club and how to get involved, contact Donna directly.

23 SEP 2019 · This podcast explores how anti-Black racism functions in schools and society both historically and contemporarily and the impact is has on Black students, families and educators. The speakers provide concrete examples of how educators can identify and disrupt structural patterns and ideologies that continue to disadvantage and harm Black students. *Editor’s Note: At 3:56, when Tana states, “…streaming of Black students before their level of ability”, the correct phrasing is: “…streaming of Black students below their level of ability.” About The Speaker Tana Turner is an independent equity consultant. She has a B.A. and Master's degree in Sociology and has worked as a Researcher and Policy Advisor in the provincial government.  For the past 17 years, Tana has led her own consulting firm, Turner Consulting Group, which provides program evaluation, research, and community consultation expertise to support non-profits and public sector organizations to understand and better respond to the diversity of their employees and service users.  She also was the co-investigator with Dr. Carl James of York University of the Towards Race Equity in Education Report. 

23 SEP 2019 · This podcast explores how anti-Black racism functions in schools and society both historically and contemporarily and the impact is has on Black students, families and educators. The speakers provide concrete examples of how educators can identify and disrupt structural patterns and ideologies that continue to disadvantage and harm Black students. About The Speakers Phiona Lloyd-Henry is an educator. She has worked with the Peel District School Board for more than ten years. During that time, she has been an English, history, careers and civics teacher. She has been a curriculum head of English and has served as the instructional resource teacher for equity and inclusive education, whose core responsibility includes coordinating the Peel District School Board’s We Rise Together Action Plan. This includes facilitating anti-racism training, leading the development of curriculum, learning resources and materials -  and providing system-wide facilitation/training related to the School Success planning process and the Board’s Plan for Student Success. Phiona is a member of an amazing team of educators that is dedicated to serving students and creating anti-oppressive educational spaces.  She is interested in critical democratic pedagogy and anti-oppressive forms of teaching and learning; she values the development of critical literacy and the integration of student voice and choice in schooling. She also values the development of student efficacy and social activism. Phiona’s main interest is to serve students; to that end she is dedicated to the integration of culturally responsive instruction and assessment and evaluation practices that reflect students’ multiple identities and build on students' knowledge and schema. Phiona believes in the transformative power of education - of its ability to create successful, critically aware citizens that are dedicated to justice and peace.  Natasha Henry is the We Rise Together Curriculum Consultant with the Peel District School Board. She is the president of the Ontario Black History Society. Natasha is a historian and has been an educator for 19 years. She is an award-winning author and an award-winning curriculum developer, focusing on Black Canadian experiences. She is committed to anti-racism in her teaching practice, through the creation of accessible, rich content that supports the promotion of culturally-relevant pedagogy and equity in classrooms, and through the professional development workshops and presentations she offers. Through her various professional and community roles, Natasha’s work is grounded in her commitment to research, to collect, preserve, and disseminate the histories Black Canadians. Natasha Henry is currently completing a PhD in History at York University, researching the enslavement of Africans in early Ontario.