I
Peel occasional teacher Natasha Henry.
recently participated in a curricu- lum workshop for teachers hosted by Natasha Henry. The focus was how to incorporate African Cana- dian history throughout the year and across curricular areas. The workshop was engaging and infor- mative, and challenged the way I had viewed the use of cultural his-
tories in my own teaching. Her research into new ways to incorporate African Canadian history in everyday curriculum is inspiring. A dedicated educator and historian, Natasha has applied her research to the classroom. She has produced articles, books and teach- ing resources, as well as the workshop series I first attended, to support students and teach- ers in maintaining connections to the stories of Black Canadians.
LB: How did you come to write about Black history? Did you find that there were gaps in the curriculum?
NH: I did find gaps in the curriculum. First, when I was a student in Toronto I did not see or hear much about Black history. I had questions about the Black presence in Cana- da and how long Black people had been here. My own parents were immigrants to Canada. I wondered how far back the immigration of Blacks to Canada went. Were Black people here before my family immigrated to Cana- da? Where did they live; what did they do? I wanted to understand what it meant to be Black in Canada and to locate myself on the Canadian landscape as a person of African descent born in Canada. So I started seek- ing out the information for myself. When I became a teacher, the community where I taught had a large Black population. I felt a more inclusive curriculum would help my students better connect with their learning. This is where I began to develop the cur- riculum resources that I shared with my colleagues. The gap I identified when I was a student was still present and I wanted my students to have a different experience.
LB: Can you talk about the importance of students seeing themselves reflect- ed in their curriculum?
NH: Well, students really feel a sense of pride when they see themselves reflected in the curriculum. It helps them identify as Cana- dian, especially when, sometimes, students don’t feel like they’re a part of the history taught in the classroom. Or they are made to feel that they don’t belong. When you learn
ELEMENTARY TEACHERS’ FEDERATION OF ONTARIO 21
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52
