It is now seventeen years since the Nubian Book Club (NBC) has been influencing: young learners, early readers and veteran learners through the power of literature. The launch of its Summer 2024 series was under the theme “Solidarity and the Diaspora: Towards Liberation.” Since it started, the NBC has been a vital platform and valuable space where students, parents, educators and community members come together to “Inspire and be inspired” through the power of literature. It is described as an “Intergenerational community initiative that encourages minority youths, their families and community leaders to engage in rich dialogue about literature to support the advancement of the participating youth.”

Session 1 of the Nubian Book Club 2024 that was held on Thursday, July 4th, 2024 featured a discussion on the theme "Solidarity for Collective Liberation" by keynote speakers Dr. Vidya Shah (an Associate Professor at Faculty of Education at 91��ɫ) and Dr. Camille Logan (an Associate Director, School, Curriculum and Instruction, Student and Community Engagement at Peel District School Board). The poem discussed during the session was “Wanna be an ally?”

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Vidya Shah and Carl E. James

Carl E. James, the Jean Augustine Chair in Education, Community and Diaspora in the Faculty of Education at 91��ɫ, and Vidya Shah, a professor in the Faculty of Education at 91��ɫ, are referenced in a discussion on the misunderstanding and fear of critical race theory and the need for voters to pay close attention to local trustee races as they affect systems of education. “The theory explores race and racialization and is one of several theoretical frameworks that explain how racism is built into our structures and systems,” said James and Shah.

Read the full article in the

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PoBC was founded in 2019 after a casual gathering of Black parents. “We were all professionals with jobs, multiple degrees,” says co-founder Kearie Daniel. “And so many of us have had that experience of saying, ‘Oh, yeah, the school thought I should be in a special class or they thought there was something wrong with me.”

The group has seen significant gains, including accountability for teachers and a support structure for parents. But as the group members have sought respect for their perspectives, they have sometimes found their fight being called disrespectful and divisive. 

“Ideals and values like respect are not neutral,” says Vidya Shah, an assistant professor in the Faculty of Education at 91��ɫ in Toronto. “For families whose children are experiencing harm and violence in schools, the most respectful thing to do is to stand up,” she says. “To somebody else who doesn’t want to admit that families are experiencing racism, respect might be to stay quiet.

Read the full article on the .

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Assistant Professor Vidya Shah spoke with Stuart McGinn (680 News) about the Faculty’s Master of Leadership and Community Engagement (MLCE) degree program in relation to a new study which found that more than half of Canadians have been thinking about switching careers since the start of the pandemic.

Shah says that if a switch to a more meaningful career is on your mind, to start by asking yourself some important questions such as “Do you feel that you’re making a contribution to the well-being of others?”

The deadline to apply to the Master of Leadership and Community Engagement Program is on March 15, 2021. Click here to apply and to learn more.

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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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