Stereotypes in a school book: a shocked family

Honoré Orogbo, a father from Ottawa, says the schoolbook contains simplistic clichés about Africa.

The facts would have occurred in an elementary establishment of the Council of Catholic Schools of the Center-East (CECCE). In response, the Council says it has taken certain measures, but parents still fear that teachers are not sufficiently equipped to deal with the challenges of diversity.

In the book titled The houses of the world, different dwellings of several countries such as Japan, Madagascar, and the African continent, are presented. The basic materials with which these houses are built are also included in the form of an exercise to be done with the student.

The Orogbo family is of Caribbean and African descent. Mr. Orogbo’s son is in second grade. He brought home exercise sheets from the book in question.

” The only thing they showed of Africa was just the straw house and the mud. »

Mr. Orogbo said he was shocked that, on the one hand, countries were presented for the regions in the world where the majority of people of European and Asian descent lived, while to speak of black peoples, it was the African continent in complete which is mentioned. For them, this is equivalent to saying that Africa is one and the same country. Africa is presented as a country of mud and strawhe laments.

Mr. Orogbo is originally from Benin. I have lived all my life in Africa. My whole family lives in a brick house. There are buildingshe said.

By this event, he claims to have lost confidence in the school system. I think I will teach black history in Africa to my son so that he is proud of his origins. The Ottawan, however, fears that other young people will grow up with stereotypes about Africa. He would also like to see the Ontario school curriculum reviewed in this regard. Many things can change.

For its part, the management of the Catholic School Board of the Center-East claims to take the situation reported by the Orogbo family very seriously. We removed the book The houses of the world as well as the exercise sheet, Types of dwellings of yesteryeartablets of this schoolreads a note from the Council.

It is also said that the material was used to open a discussion on traditional dwellings of the past and those of today, but the administration intends to reassess its educational relevance. A meeting with school staff was organized to take stock of the quality of the tools chosen in relation to teaching and equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI).

It also states that school personnel have been made aware of this situation.

For her part, Carole Fleuret, full professor at the Faculty of Education at the University of Ottawa, does not believe that Ontario teachers are sufficiently equipped to deal with cultural diversity. There is a lot of substantive work to be done with teachers. There must be a real political willshe adds.

” We want to accept more and more francophone immigrants for the vitality of francophone schools, in particular, but we still have to give them a place of choice that is rightfully theirs and that is not always the case. »

Same story on the side of Mélissa Villela, professor of school administration and director of the graduate diploma specialized in management of educational establishments at the University of Quebec in Abitibi-Témiscamingue (UQAT).

Ms. Villela believes that teachers are not sufficiently supervised. The Ontario Ministry of Education’s Trillium List of Approved Textbooks does not contain any approved K-6 French social studies resourcesshe notes. The societal racism here lies in the fact that even the Ministry of Education would not seem to place importance on approved inclusive resources for all school curricula.

” Therefore, a teacher is likely left behind to find their own resources to be able to teach curriculum expectations, unless a school board or the school has approved textbooks. »

In addition, Ms. Fleuret says that teachers often have to compensate with obsolete resources. I go to schools a lot, the equipment used is not the latestshe notes.

The School Board of Catholic Schools of the Center-East affirms that the book The houses of the world was released in 2006.

Of systemic anti-black racism

Ms. Villela believes this incident is part of a bigger issue. She sees it as a problem related to systemic racism. The choice and use of shared resources highlights how systemic anti-Black racism spreads, whether intentionally or unintentionally.

Ms. Villela also indicates that the book and the student activity book are written in the present tense. For her, this reinforces stereotypes towards racialized people. Student workbook […] also reinforces the idea that people in the West, all white, live in conditions considered more favorable, since all other comparisons of houses are made from this image which serves as a starting pointshe judges.

Moreover, the professor believes that the use of such resources in the classroom can intensify racism on an individual level. We propagate, consciously or unconsciously, various racial biases associated with negative stereotypesshe believes. We present these resources, we teach some children erroneous social representations that they did not know.

The teacher is also concerned that some racialized children internalize more stereotyped social representations. As long as the Canadian-born white French-speaking elite more often associates black people with recent immigrant status, systemic racism will continue to breed.she adds.

These experts agree that combating systemic racism in a concrete way would be the solution to prevent similar situations from persisting in schools.

Ms. Villela suggests possible solutions such as the development of courses that value the identity and lived experience of black students.

For her part, Ms. Fleuret believes that publishers should work to contextualize educational manuals in order to avoid blunders or reinforce racial prejudices. The new textbooks should be designed in this order and should be placed in parallel with the old ones. According to her, this will serve to make students aware of the evolution of mentalities in the face of prejudices and stereotypes.