“If They Don’t Offer You a Seat at The Table Bring a Folding Chair”: Schooling To Produce Equitable Outcomes For Black Students in Ontario Schools

Abstract

The persistence of inequitable schooling outcomes for Black students in Ontario is unacceptable. Literature codes this student achievement disparity as the achievement gap, a race binary comparison. This research uses inequitable schooling outcomes instead shifting the burden for schooling outcomes to the schooling production systems and structures. Black Feminist Thought (BFT) and Critical Race Theory in Education (CRT) inform the theoretical and conceptual frameworks. The Delphi Technique is the method of the research. Its panel is comprised of six Black youth aged 18-24 who attended K-12 schools in Ontario. The composition of this panel challenges the status quo regarding who carries expertise. This research also supports the notion that achievement based on meritocracy is a flawed concept as it excludes from the matrix of the production systems and structures of schooling outcomes major elements such as race, gender, wealth, and health. Recommendations from the Delphi panel concerning change include making the Ontario curriculum inclusive, replacing academic streaming with a non-linear K-12 process in which students progress through school based on interest and readiness, prioritizing student belonging, rethinking and replacing the current regimen of discipline and punishment practices with student centered conflict-resolution approach, and funding schools for full inclusion. The panel also re-imagines notions of discipline and punishment suggesting the engagement of a collaborative learning approach.