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Schooling the System: A History of Black Women Teachers

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Schooling the System: A History of Black Women Teachers

Using oral narratives to tell the story of black access and education in Ontario between the 1940s and the 1980s, Schooling the System provides textured insight into how issues of race, gender, class, geographic origin, and training shaped women’s distinct experiences within the profession. By valuing women’s voices and lived experiences, Funké Aladejebi illustrates that black women, as a diverse group, made vital contributions to the creation and development of anti-racist education in Canada. As cultural mediators within Ontario school systems, these women circumvented subtle and overt forms of racial and social exclusion to create resistive teaching methods that centred black knowledges and traditions. Within their wider communities and activist circles, they fought to change entrenched ideas about what Canadian citizenship should look like.

About the Author

Funkè Aladejebi is an assistant professor in the Department of History at the University of Toronto. Her research focuses on twentieth century oral history, Black Canadian women’s history, the history of Canadian education and transnationalism.

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