Striving to ensure diversity is seen, heard and learned
Brampton English department head Tia Duke became a teacher to see her heritage reflected
As a young African-Canadian student, Tia Duke didn’t have any Black teachers.
She had role models who inspired her to become a teacher herself, from the supportive religion instructor Mr. Giudice, to the strict Mr. Harper who helped her land the White Rabbit role in an Alice in Wonderland production.
But without Black teachers in her schools, she felt she was missing out on something: the chance to see herself and her heritage reflected in the education system.
“That’s one of the reasons I became a teacher. I said, ‘I’m going to do this, I’m going to be that teacher for students,’ ” says Duke, one of this year’s honourable mentions in the Toronto Star Teacher Awards.
As head of the English department at Brampton’s St. Marguerite d’Youville Secondary School, Duke strives to ensure that diversity is seen and learned. The importance of her position as one of only three Black English department heads in a group of more than 20 in the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board is not lost on Duke.
“It’s important for kids to see themselves reflected in the institutions that they have no choice but to access. Having people in the building that look like you or may share a similar background as you — it’s important,” she says.
“It’s important for kids to see themselves reflected in the institutions that they have no choice but to access.” TIA DUKE TORONTO STAR 2017 TEACHER OF THE YEAR HONOURABLE MENTION
Duke has made it her mandate to ensure diversity is top of mind in the English curriculum.
Through her leadership, St. Marguerite is the first school in the Dufferin-Peel CDSB to offer an African literature course at the Gr. 11 and Gr. 12 university level. Next semester will be the first time the course, titled “English: Black Voices in Literature,” is offered to Gr. 12 students at the compulsory, university level, right across the school board.
Students study texts not common on high school syllabi such as Nigerian novel Things Fall Apart, Canadian novel The Book of Negroes, and Pulitzer Prize winners The Color Purple and Beloved.
Duke and her colleague Heidi Kosuta teach the 12U and 11U Black Voices classes, respectively. Duke’s push for diversity at the school also reaches to her contin- ued support of the Indigenous literature course called “Contemporary First Nations, Métis, and Inuit Voices,” developed by Jennifer Costa-Pellico.
“If you can say your stories are good enough to be included in our core text, that says something to the students. That says, ‘This isn’t just important to celebrate when it’s multicultural night or (Black History Month) in February. This is something we can learn all year or throughout the semester,’ ” Duke says.
Though the Black Voices course predates Duke’s time at St. Marguerite d’Youville, she has advocated for its continuation and expansion. Less common courses like it often face funding issues and low demand, but the response has been powerful, she says.
“I’m proud of the fact that we’ve had a lot of discussion around diversifying the lens through which we teach,” she says.
For fellow English teacher Peter Yan, who nominated Duke for the Teacher Awards, the diversification of the curriculum and teaching staff has been inspiring. Duke encouraged him to step into the role of interim department head while she was away on maternity leave last year.
“One person almost started crying when she went on mat leave because we finally had a great department head,” said Yan, who is of Canadian-Chinese descent. His and Duke’s status as people of colour, he says, has provided them with outsiders’ perspectives.
“In 2017, we shouldn’t have to be talking about race when dealing about accomplishments, but society still needs help in that regard. I think it’s important to know that she is Black and that’s part of what makes her do her job well, teach well and reach all kids.”
One of those kids during Duke’s time at St. Marguerite d’Youville was a Black student preparing for a big speech before the student body. He had begun to lose his focus and had not made progress on his speech, threatening his involvement. She’d taught the student before and thought she might be able to help.
With a combination of encouragement and tough love, Duke told the student, “This is about so much more than you. It’s about the other Black students in the school who you represent, it’s about your parents, it’s about St. Marguerite d’Youville.”
The resulting speech, she says, was beautiful. “He did a really fantastic job.”