Sankofa Square, formerly known as Yonge-Dundas, is finally ready to celebrate its new identity. 

Thousands of people are expected to flood downtown Toronto for the inaugural event at the rebranded public space Saturday. The celebration commemorates Sankofa Day, a date recognized internationally by the United Nations in remembrance of the slave trade and its abolition.

Carl James, �첥��Ƶ professor and the Jean Augustine Chair in Education, Community and Diaspora, said the renaming of the square acknowledges Canada’s “colonial baggage” — a positive development that he hopes contributes to a shift in thinking among broader Canadian society.

“It’s a good first step,” he said. “Now, what do we do further?”

He noted that the conversations in 2020 that spurred the name change are a signal of what can happen “when we start paying attention.”

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In a new article published in the Canadian Journal of Science, Mathematics and Technology Education, Faculty of Education Professor Dr. Molade Osibodu explores how mathematics classrooms continue to marginalize Black students in Ontario.

Titled “What’s Black Got to Do with It?”, the study investigates the experiences of eight Black secondary students in the Greater Toronto Area, uncovering how math spaces remain shaped by antiblackness, despite recent policy changes like the 2020–2021 move to destream Grade 9 math. Students described having to constantly prove their intelligence, encountering racialized assumptions about ability, rarely seeing Black math teachers, and facing silence around social issues in class.

Dr. Osibodu’s work offers critical insight into the structural barriers Black learners face and points toward more inclusive, responsive teaching practices in mathematics education.

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University students who are studying to become teachers could correctly answer only 60 per cent of the questions on phonics, according to a new survey that highlights how equipped future educators are to teach children how to read. The results, shared with The Globe and Mail, showed that the student teachers could answer 64 per cent of questions on phonological awareness, which is the ability to identify and manipulate the speech sounds in language.

Robert Savage, the dean of the faculty of education at �첥��Ƶ, weighed in on the survey. Savage says the results show a structural issue across institutions. “If teachers know only 60 per cent of the correct responses, then they can only teach with 60 per cent accuracy to their students at best. So, it clearly does have impacts,” he said.

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With more Toronto families living in towering condos, the Toronto District School Board is planning to build schools to serve them. The board is taking the province up on its call for "podium" schools, which are integrated into a development project and situated at the base, or podium, of a residential building, for example. 

According to the Ford government, other "innovative" ways to build schools would include having schools co-located with child-care centres, municipal buildings and commercial developments. For the Toronto District School Board (TDSB), a "podium" school is on its list of submissions for the latest round of capital priorities, according to Ryan Glenn, CEO of the Toronto Lands Corporation (TLC), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the board. 

Sue Winton, a professor with �첥��Ƶ's education faculty, said she thinks there are things school boards and the province should pay attention to when locating schools within buildings that aren't publicly owned. This includes who makes the decisions about how and when the building is used, and under what terms.

"So how is that space made available to the community after school?" Winton said, adding that she would encourage schools to be accessible to community groups at affordable rates.

Winton said another question is who is responsible for maintenance if a school is located within a private residential building, for example.

"Who's in charge? Who's making the decisions, on whose timeline? Are those contractors that are coming into the space — have they met the sort of safety requirements that anybody working in a school would have to follow?" she said.

"So it's not to say it could never work, but just (to) suggest that these are very practical differences," Winton said. "If it's a business, they have a profit goal ... but a public organization has different priorities. Their priorities need to be accessibility, inclusion."

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Edwards, an associate professor in California Polytechnic State University’s physics department, is on a Zoom call with CBC while sitting in a friend’s brightly lit shed near her home in Berkeley, Calif. 

Mulling the question, she turns her head to the right, facing white wood-panelled walls. She’s thinking hard.

“Ummm,” she says, looking off into the distance. “There are definitely a few new grad students that I know of.”

She pauses and smiles. “I know some physicists. And some education astronomy folks.”

It’s clear she’s struggling. 

“Yeah, there’s very few,” Edwards finally says. “I don’t know if there’s any other folks who are currently working not as students [but] as astronomers who are Canadian. I don’t know. I would imagine I would know them.”

Canada has some of the world’s most talented astronomers, astrophysicists and physicists. There’s , whose work on pulsars and neutron stars earned her the Gerhard Herzberg Canada gold medal for science and engineering; , a world-renowned astronomer and planetary scientist at MIT who earned a MacArthur “genius” grant in 2013 and is a leader in exoplanet research; and .

One thing they have in common? They’re all white.

Black astronomers are few and far between in North America, but especially in Canada. Inside the community, members share stories of discrimination, micro-aggressions and feelings of isolation, which can ultimately dissuade others from pursuing careers in the sciences.

High school challenges

Hewitt is active in bringing STEM to Black youth. He co-founded , a STEM outreach program in Nova Scotia for Black students. His programs include the , a summer camp at Dalhousie. 

Why are there so few Black Canadian scientists in general, but in particular, those who seek out a career in astronomical science? 

One of the problems may be found in the education system.

Take the province of Ontario, for example. Until recently, high schools there had a “streaming” program, which directed students into different post-secondary routes. “Academic” courses were more challenging and required for university; “applied” courses prepared students for college and trades; and “essentials” provided support for students in meeting the requirements to graduate.

In 2017, , a professor in the faculty of education at �첥��Ƶ in Toronto, found that only 53 per cent of Black students in the Toronto District School Board were put in academic programs, compared to 81 per cent of white students and 80 per cent of other racialized students. 

Conversely, 39 per cent of Black students were enrolled in applied programs, compared to 16 per cent of white students and 18 per cent of other racialized students.

“What we found in that study was many of the [Black] parents were talking about how their children were streamed into vocational or essential or low-level courses,” James said. Some parents would try to “intervene,” he said, but their concerns fell on deaf ears.

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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 �첥��Ƶ) 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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Age-appropriate training will help seniors do daily tasks and avoid misinformation

Canadian seniors haven't been the focus of many digital media literacy initiatives, despite being a rising population demographic — more than 7.5 million Canadians are aged 65 and over — and an increasing presence online.

According to Statistics Canada,  are regularly on social media,  are on the web generally. 

But with more everyday tasks requiring digital fluency and misinformation swirling online — and given the influence this cohort wields — experts say older adults want and need more digital literacy education and support.

'Benevolent ageism' widens digital divide

Common generalizations that adults 65 and older are hopeless with new technology or particularly gullible against online misinformation serve only to increase the digital divide between seniors and other demographics, according to .

Too many people have a mentality of benevolent ageism — a notion that seniors aren't knowledgeable, require hand-holding or need things done for them, explained Balyasnikova, an assistant professor at Toronto's �첥��Ƶ. 

Older adults are, in fact, eager to embrace digital tools when they're provided with the right training and support, she said, adding that seniors are often ignored in adult education programming.

Immigrant seniors, a group that Balyasnikova and Ahn have worked with, in particular, are completely invisible,  she said.

Some educational programming for this segment can be quite infantilizing as well, Balyasnikova noted.

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Ron Owston, Professor Emeritus at �첥��Ƶ’s Faculty of Education, discusses the integration of individual AI tutors for social learning in Bryan’s Substack article, citing his insights from EDUCAUSE Review. Owston emphasizes the importance of creating collaborative learning environments by leveraging AI tutors among students, with AITutorPro highlighted as a practical example. He challenges the traditional role of AI tutors solely as personal learning tools, advocating instead for the incorporation of features that promote social learning dynamics.

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Paul Axelrod, a professor emeritus at �첥��Ƶ’s Faculty of Education, recently lent his expertise on the origins of the public education system during an interview on CBC News' IDEAS podcast. The discussion, which took place on the second episode of the series, provided an in-depth look at the historical development of schooling and higher education.

For those intrigued by educational history and its impact on society, Professor Axelrod's insights offer a compelling exploration of the forces that have shaped our educational institutions.

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New Ontario rules to deny private colleges international students will wipe out their partnerships, killing jobs and ending a lucrative source of income for public colleges, experts and advocates say.

Faculty of Education Associate Professor Roopa Trilokekar who specializes in the internationalization of education at �첥��Ƶ, weighs in on the new Ontario student-visa rules which will deny private colleges international students, wipe out their partnerships, and kill jobs. Trilokekar said the federal cap and provincial allocation of the study permits don't address the crux of the problem — the sector's addiction to foreign students. "The biggest issue we have in Canada is the funding of post-secondary education," said Trilokekar. 

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