Katrina Cain-Griffin was not expecting to find deep connections to the work of James Baldwin, an African American writer and civil rights activist, during a graduate seminar led by Professor Emeritus Warren Crichlow.

The first-year master’s student at 91��ɫ, who grew up in an inner-city area, saw herself in the protagonist of Baldwin’s semi-autobiographical novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain.

“I think this really reflects my own story because I’m the first in my family to pursue post-secondary education and come from a low-income background, much like Baldwin. While Baldwin pursued education independently and I chose the academic route, we both used education as a way to persevere and strive for something greater,” Cain-Griffin says. “Am I meant to be the chosen one? How can anyone truly be the chosen one in their family to break a generational curse?

“He talks about why is there this generational curse which, of course, goes back to systemic racism. And I questioned, how does Baldwin emerge from being the saved one in his family?”  

Crichlow, a retired professor in 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Education, designed the seminar to explore the relationship between Baldwin’s life and writing. He returned from recent retirement to honour the centenary of the writer’s birth by teaching this favoured topic.  

“Baldwin’s centenary was coming up, so I proposed the course to the Faculty of Education, and they wholeheartedly supported it,” he says.  

“Resurgence of interest in Baldwin’s work is frequent and is somewhat generational,” Crichlow says. “But we mustn’t forget that the murder of George Floyd prompted a massive return to Baldwin. And the year of his 90th birthday, in 2014, initiated several conferences, symposiums, film series and the founding of The James Baldwin Review, a major academic journal. There’s an abundance of excellent extant scholarship on Baldwin, but the constant proliferation of readings from newly considered optics does amaze one.”  

The seminar’s description indicates its range: “James Baldwin’s writing, to include novels, poetry, essays, plays, children’s book, speeches and interviews, along with his personal experiences in national and international contexts, remains an exemplar of activism for civil rights, social and racial justice and principles of human equality.” 

Crichlow says it was fascinating to see a different generation react to Baldwin, noting this was a first encounter with the author and civil rights activist for some. The seminar offered the opportunity to read, in a concentrated way over the term, and take a deep dive into a number of works, particularly novels, ranging from his first, Go Tell It on The Mountain (1953), to his last, Just Above My Head (1979). Students read several of Baldwin’s autobiographical essays in between to explore how conceptions of self and other relations inform his novels.

“The seminar was structured to foster thinking about the way in which concerns Baldwin articulated in his first novel in 1953 return in the last novel decades later in 1979 but are recirculated in a markedly different manner.” 

The class includes students from across disciplines and many reacted to the material in different ways. Some, for instance, collaborated on a podcast. “They brought a bit of technology into the mix to produce a podcast-like dialogue between themselves and their reading of Baldwin and intercut that with samples of Baldwin’s own voice.” 

Other students were interested in Baldwin’s relationship to music because, as Crichlow explains, so much of Baldwin’s writing is rooted in music, particularly gospel music and the blues. One theatre student in the class concentrated on Baldwin’s work as a playwright to deepen their understanding around issues of performance in educational practice. Another student, steeped in the humanities, explored points of contact between Baldwin and the 19th century theologian and philosopher Søren Kirkegaard.  

“The range of interests was variously broad. I would never have thought of this particular intersection,” Crichlow says.  

Aida Mohammadi, a student in Crichlow’s class, was inspired to enrol after learning the course included reading several fictional pieces, as she had been looking for a chance to read more novels. She initially approached the class out of curiosity, but it profoundly changed her perspective on literature.  

“I consider Baldwin in everything now, everything I read, everything I see, any social conflict today, whether in a movie or real life, I wonder what Baldwin would think, what he would say,” Mohammadi says.  

The course also opened her eyes to the power of the essay as a literary genre, a form she believes is not as valued in literary studies as it should be.  

“Baldwin showed me the artistry of essays, and I now see them as just as impactful and complex as novels.”  

She praises Crichlow’s thoughtful arrangement of the readings, emphasizing the order in which he assigned them was essential to her understanding of Baldwin’s work. “I found it brilliant.”  

Crichlow has applied to organize panels for students to present their final papers in 91��ɫ’s upcoming Education Graduate Student Conference and may plan future conference opportunities. He intends to continue working with the 14 students enrolled in the course, regardless.  

“I will follow up on insights from their own reading and research that I hadn’t imagined or encountered,” he says. “Indeed, I have certainly learned a lot from these students that will enrich my continued study of James Baldwin.”

With files from Julie Carl

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Rachelle Campigotto, a course director in 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Education, is helping facilitate community placement experiences for aspiring educators that combine theoretical knowledge with hands-on experience and realities that will better prepare students for their future careers.

Abdel Esack can’t help but smile when he talks about the practical experience portion of 91��ɫ’s educational studies program, which he did with Generation One, an after-school program for at-risk youth near the 91��ɫ Keele Campus.

“It brought me back to my roots,” says the mature 91��ɫ student who was once a high-school teacher working with underprivileged youth in his native country of Trinidad.

Similarly, Generation Chosen found him working with boys, age 12 to 18, in a program that combined academics with basketball. A lot of roughhousing could break out sometimes among the teenagers, and how with hands-on experience versus those with just (to-date) theoretical knowledge stood out to Esack, who was familiar with roughhousing from his experiences in Trinidad.

“What was interesting was that when the adults, mainly us from 91��ɫ,  saw the roughhousing, a lot of them were more inclined to stop it or try to intervene, whereas the counsellors didn’t. They let it play out,” Esack says, recognizing that reaction – letting it play out and sort itself – comes from an experience-gained understanding of the value in “stepping back, observing, being non-judgmental.” It showed Esack and the other students when to apply theories they learned in the classroom and when to step back, a great example of the power of hands-on experience.

Andrew Hammond, a Bachelor of Education student, learned the same lesson, but in a different way, in his community placement with Big Brothers Big Sisters in 91��ɫ Region.

Hammond mentored three boys in the program: a Grade 8 child and two Grade 6 children. Every week, he met with each child individually to listen to their needs and determine how he would meet them. That included offering academic support and helping to build confidence.

“Going into it, I had a lot of the theory and a lot of the things I’d learned from my classes. The pedagogical frameworks we’ve learned guided and supported me into this community placement,” says Hammond, whose goal is to be a high school teacher. “It all helped me understand that what we’ve learned in class can apply in real-life situations, in real-life contexts.”

“There are students who are dealing with challenges and struggles that are not in a textbook or in a lesson. This is real life,” Hammond says. “It gave me the opportunity to experience firsthand, think of things on the spot, and be mindful of making decisions.”

Campigotto, contract faculty in 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Education, is looking to facilitate. A lot of effort by the community practicum office goes into finding appropriate community placements for her third-year educational studies students, she says.

For many of Campigotto’s students, that placement is their first experience working with children, often at-risk children.

“A lot of what my role is is facilitating their learning experience outside the classroom,” she says. “I do things like thinking about making a personal charter or goal setting chart and saying [to the student] ‘You can’t just go to your community, put in the hours and be like, ‘I’m done. I did it.’ We have to sit down even before you go and ask, ‘What is this community? What are the goals of this community placement?’

The importance of teachers “knowing” their students’ community – that third space, she says – can not be overstressed, notes Campigotto.

“We can’t know our students if we don’t know the community they’re from,” she says. “The more aware you are of the community where your students go after school, where they go to learn, what their family is connected to either through religion or culture, the more that influences the way we understand our students and informs our teaching.”

For many students, that knowledge – often only gained through experience – can be life and perspective changing. “I have had students say to me, ‘I worked with this community, and at first, I’m going to be honest, I wasn’t too sure about it. Until I was there and realized, ‘Oh, my goodness, these kids were hilarious. They were so fun. I had the best time, and I learned so much,’” Campigotto recounts.

She believes realizations like that are important for students to experience and for her to help them succeed in their future pedagogical careers – whatever that may look like. “A lot of them want to be teachers, but many of them will go into different educational-focused careers like curriculum development, community work, museums,” Campigotto says. “My role is for [students] to take that experience and think about how it makes sense for their future in education.”

With files by Julie Carl.

This article was originally published on October 17, 2024, on YFile.

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Welcome to the November 2020 issue of Innovatus, a special issue of YFile that is devoted to teaching and learning innovation at 91��ɫ.

This issue of Innovatus focuses on teaching, learning and the student experience in the Faculty of Education. I am so pleased by the rich variety of stories offered in this issue because they showcase the expansive depth of the Faculty's approach to the "act of education" to quote Interim Dean Sharon Murphy.

Education is universal and the Faculty's work with refugees in the Dadaab Refugee Complex in Kenya, homeless youth and in re-envisioning early childhood education are displayed among the fine stories offered in this issue. As well, Dean Murphy's letter is a testament to the Faculty's commitment to excellence, and the story highlighting the innovation shown in moving the Faculty of Education's Summer Institute online and transforming it to a year-long effort is amazing. Encore!

Thank you again for the many wonderful comments about our September and October issues. I value each of your responses. Please continue to contact me with your ideas, classroom innovations and thoughts about teaching, learning and the student experience.

As I close, the snow is starting to fly and with it, the holidays are approaching. I would like to take a moment to wish each of you good health and happiness at home, which is especially important this year.

Featured in the November 2020 issue of Innovatus

In her letter to the community, Interim Dean Sharon Murphy writes about how the Faculty of Education is constantly working to enliven new visions of education and society, visions of possibility, equity and social justice. "Our work focuses not only inward on curriculum and pedagogy, but very much looks outward towards the idea of education being situated within a complex and seemingly evermore fragile world."

One of 91��ɫ's hallowed traditions, the Faculty of Education Summer Institute (FESI), may have bowed to COVID-19 in terms of format, but it is unbowed in terms of mission and content. For 2020-2021, the institute has morphed into a series of five free webinars titled Up Close and Personal: Conversations on Anti-Oppression.

Stephen Gaetz, the 91��ɫ Research Chair in Homelessness and Research Impact and a professor in the Faculty of Education, is using his excellent research and communications skills and grant-writing ability to attack the challenges within youth homelessness, which need broad solutions and a meeting of many perspectives.

Rachel Silver, an assistant professor of education at 91��ɫ, with the help of a team of her colleagues in both Toronto and Dadaab, has created a virtual colloquium series, Reciprocal Learning in Times of Crisis, for the Faculty's Borderless Higher Education for Refugees (BHER) program. The series considers the issues arising from the confluence of education, the COVID-19 pandemic and new waves of resistance to anti-Black racism.

Lucy Angus and Cristina Delgado Vintimilla, assistant professors new to 91��ɫ and the Faculty of Education, have created a lecture series titled Disrupting Early Childhood: Inheritance, Pedagogy, Curriculum to explore new ideas about early childhood education (ECE) and create a space to bring together the innovative research conversations that are changing the field of ECE.

Innovatus is produced by the Office of the Associate Vice-President Teaching & Learning in partnership with Communications & Public Affairs.

I extend a personal invitation to you to share your experiences in teaching, learning, internationalization and the student experience through the Innovatus story form, which is available at .

Will Gage
Associate Vice-President, Teaching & Learning

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