ESSAH: A step forward

November 1st, 2011 was a very special day. It was the launch of Educators for Students of South Asian Heritage (ESSAH) at a Markham school. This group of committed educators had existed within our Board for many years and now has it's new avatar.

Inaugurated by our Superintendent of Schools, it was well attended by over 40 teachers, administrators, EAs and SOAs.

As discussed in many intellectual gatherings (including the forthcoming Quest conference), the achievement gap for our students from historically and currently marginalised communities are direct result of many factors such as:

• social and cultural capital (therefore my children have advantages that my students do not)
• socioeconomic status
• lack of equitable access to information and resources
• invisibility amidst mainstream populations that hold and withhold power

What happens to students is also happening to many teachers who reflect these communities. These are the silent voices. One needs to reflect about the working conditions of disenfranchised teachers who are unable to stand up for their students until they first stand up for themselves.

It is upto each one of us to strengthen our voices against discriminatory practices so that we can learn how to support one another and our students in more respectful ways. And how to educate others with empathy and insight.

I would like to invite you to my classs to learn with us sometime. Thanks to the Literacy@School initiative, we are able to afford technology that we can now embed into our learning framework as we become critical consumers of information.

 And we continue to push back the boundaries. I have been engaged in courageous conversations this week to pave the way for my own advocacy journey. The future is promising.