INTERVIEW WITH THE PRESIDENT
A VISION FOR PUBLIC EDUCATION
VOICE IN CONVERSATION WITH ETFO’S NEWLY ELECTED PRESIDENT KAREN BROWN
VOICE: Karen, you were elected President at this year’s annual meeting after serving on the executive for 12 years. Can you tell members about yourself and your work as an educator?
KAREN BROWN: When I was in high school, I took co-op and was placed in a va- riety of settings, including a school. That led to my interest in working with children. I en- rolled in the child studies program at Brock University and that confirmed my love of working with children. I decided to pursue a program at the Institute of Child Studies, University of Toronto, which provided me with a certificate in early childhood educa- tion, but also led to a teaching certificate. In 1993, I was fortunate enough to be one of a few new hires at the Scarborough Board of Education to teach in one of their Section 23 (now section 19) classrooms at Aisling Dis- coveries Child and Family Centre. I have a passion for the early years, and I am a special education teacher at heart. I spent the first two years of my career working with children with autism spectrum disorder and speech and language delays. In those days, I actually did home visits to help students transition and become more independent at school and at home. I understood the impact I could make as an educator. It was also where I first encountered rac-
ism as a teacher when a parent questioned my qualifications and wanted to know if I had gone to university. I informed him that I was qualified like all the other teachers in the building and, had additional qualifications in special education. This experience of hav- ing my credentials questioned is not unique to me, but a reality shared by many racial- ized teachers. After three years of teaching,
6 ETFO VOICE | FALL 2021
I applied for a Grade 3 position at West Hill Jr. Public School at Morningside and Law- rence and that is where I gained my experi- ence working with refugee and immigrant children living on the motel strip. I soon learned that for most of my students, home was a motel, and mornings involved wait- ing for several families to use the communal kitchen, resulting in many of my students being late. I also learned that fire alarms sounded like bomb alerts. It was at West Hill Jr. Public that I realized the impact represen- tation had on racialized and non-racialized students and that representation matters for everyone! For two students one Black and one white it was the first time in five years of schooling that they had a Black or racial- ized teacher. They and their parents articu- lated the excitement of having Ms. Brown as their Grade 3 teacher. Yes I was the teacher and not the education assistant, which was another issue I had to constantly address throughout my teaching career. Might I add it was also the inaugural year of EQAO test- ing and my students had fun trying to fig- ure out the circumference of a zucchini leaf, once I explained what a zucchini was. The students I taught were more familiar with spinach, callaloo, broccoli and cabbage. With five solid years of teaching behind
me, I applied for a Primary Chairperson position at Fairglen Junior Public School. I worked with another dynamic team and amazing staff before starting a new jour- ney as an executive officer with the newly formed ETFO local the Elementary Teach- ers of Toronto. It’s in the classroom that you see first- hand the inequities of the system and try to cushion that by bringing in extra hats, mitts and snacks; and having those courageous
conversations that foster inclusion and di- versity. The detrimental impacts of food in- security, the lack of affordable housing, pre- carious work and children living in poverty make me want to fight for a better tomorrow. I took that fight b eyond t he c lassroom a nd into the streets and community. Naturally this would lead to my activist work fighting against all forms of oppression and discrimi- nation and championing issues like 15 and Fairness, affordable childcare, pay equity, mi- grant worker rights, and missing and mur- dered Indigenous women and girls.
VOICE: How did you get started as a union activist and leader?
KB: I actually started my involvement with the union prior to ETFO and at the onset of my teaching career. The Scarborough Women Teachers’ Association (a local of FWTAO) took all the new hires out for din- ner that year. I believe there were only nine of us. It was the year prior to the social con- tract and there was declining enrollment and the board was only hiring special educa- tion teachers and few other specialists. The veteran teacher and union steward thought it would be a good idea if I took on the role of “Key Teacher,” we were not called stew- ards when I started. She said it would be a good way to meet people. I took on the role, went to meetings and soon was asked to run for the local executive. I sat on the executive and led staff at my new school as the Picket Captain during the Bill 160 protest. I still have that orange hat as a reminder of how far Ontarians have come in the fight to preserve public services. At the formation of ETFO, I was tapped
and trained as part of Women in Action to hopefully be one of the many women who
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
