‘Not about what you’re teaching but the how’
Nova Scotia educator opening doors for Black students
Editor’s Note:
In honour of International Women’s Day on March 8, SaltWire Network is highlighting the achievements of women throughout Atlantic Canada. Read more at SaltWire.com.
Bittersweet emotions stir inside Kathy-Ann Browning Johnson when she flips through the cards, artwork and gifts her Grade 1 students placed on her desk at the end of her first year of teaching.
It’s common for teachers
appreciation to receive small tokens of from students at the end of the school year, but Browning Johnson has always felt there was more to it than that in this particular case.
“I also think that it was like an apology from the parents,” recalls the 55-year-old Kentville resident, who is originally from the nearby historic Black community of Gibson Woods.
Browning Johnson did not receive the warm welcome she was hoping for on her first day in the classroom.
Far from it.
The new teacher eagerly waited to greet her class
— the first class she’d ever teach — after dreaming of this moment since she was a child. She seized the opportunity to apply for the job after learning members of visible minority groups were encouraged to apply through an affirmative action program promoting diversity in the workplace.
“When I was in elementary school, I would come home and make up tests… and my brothers and sisters wouldn’t do them, so I would just do them myself but make some wrong and then correct them,” she recalls with a laugh.
Browning Johnson watched colleagues at Middleton’s Annapolis East Elementary School greet their students as she waited for the opportunity to do the same. But as the crowded halls cleared, Johnson Browning’s classroom remained empty.
“My first day, no one showed up other than one boy, and his parents came in with him,” she says.
The mother of the child who did show up for school that day told her they had no choice but to bring their child in, but other parents kept their children home to express opposition to Browning Johnson replacing a beloved substitute filling in for a teacher on leave.
‘I KNOW I’M WORTHY’
Two decades later, memories of that day still bring Browning Johnson to tears.
The protesting parents insisted racism had nothing to do with it, but it didn’t feel that way to Browning Johnson.
“They didn’t think about what it would feel like on the other side,” she recalls.
They didn’t know that her winding career path had twists and turns because others before them told her a woman of African descent could never be a probation officer.
They didn’t know that when she was a child she encountered other children who would not sit on a swing after she used it solely because of the colour of her skin.
They didn’t know that the little girl who played teacher in her spare time questioned if she could ever become one for many years because she didn’t see teachers who looked like her at the head of the class in many public schools.
They didn’t know that by the time they came around, the little girl and young woman who had previously quietly absorbed outside interpretations of what she could and could not do had found her voice.
“I’m not going to give in,” she told herself. “Why would I? I had a right to be there. I did nothing wrong.”
She had worked as a student support worker in schools before transitioning to teaching and reminded herself that she had the necessary education and qualifications to do the job well.
“I know my worth and that’s all it is,” she says. “I know I’m worthy. I’m not going to pretend not to be.
I’m not going to act like I’m below somebody else. I’m just going to be who I am.”
Browning Johnson taught at Annapolis East Elementary School for three years, and she continues to experience success as an educator in the Annapolis Valley. She has participated in some leadingedge programs supporting students of African descent, including the work she’s now doing as a literacy and numeracy teacher for African Nova Scotian students.
“Education is not about what you’re teaching but the how — how kids are learning,” she says.
OPENING DOORS FOR STUDENTS
Fellow Annapolis Valleybased educator Krista Duncan worked alongside Browning Johnson for 16 years. She describes her colleague-turnedfriend as “beautiful on the inside and out.”
“Kathy-Ann makes a difference in the lives of her students because she values the whole child. She genuinely cares about, and connects with, her students,” says Duncan.
“Students know that she loves them and that they can be their true selves because she will accept them for who they are. This, in turn, makes students strive to do their best.”
Duncan looks to Browning Johnson and sees a passionate role model helping students excel inside the classroom and beyond.
“Kathy-Ann is creative, imaginative and she helps students grow and work to their full potential, all with kindness and respect. Kathy-Ann is an educator who stands up for what is right. She is passionate about human rights and leads by example.”
There’s a reason Browning Johnson goes above and beyond the ABCs and 123s in her teaching career.
“Sometimes we think ‘make a difference’ is so big, and it’s so outside of us, and it really isn’t. It’s saying ‘Hi’ to somebody who may not have heard a ‘Hi’ today. It’s being there,” says Browning Johnson, referring to the importance of compassion and community.
“… Give them what they need. It’s simple. It’s little things.”
She fondly recalls advocating for a Grade 9 student wanting to become a lawyer to be placed in a math class that would support her career goals. Her voice beams with pride as she proudly reports that said student did, in fact, become a lawyer.
“We just have to make sure that we keep doors open for everybody,” she says.
Browning Johnson grew up watching her mother, Valley African Nova Scotian Development Association (VANSDA) founding member Geraldine Browning, open doors for others as a trailblazing human rights and social justice advocate in the Annapolis Valley.
“The phone was ringing all the time growing up and Mom was always there … doing work to help others,” she recalls.
Today, Browning Johnson points to her own daughters, aged 18 and 21, as her proudest accomplishments. She has a few sage words of advice for all women leading up to International Women’s Day.
“Lift one another up because there’s too many people that try to tear people down,” she says. “If we’re not trying to lift each other up, then who is?”