A closer look into Shava McLean’s Master of Leadership and Community Engagement (MLCE) professional degree program Capstone Project

The Faculty of Education is proud to showcase the work of Master of Leadership and Community Engagement (MLCE) professional degree program student Shava McLean, who is making a significant impact in the field of education through her capstone project, "Mobilizing to Shift Power."

“The project sets out to better understand how non-profits and grassroots leaders might reimagine mobilization approaches as a vehicle that enables Black and Brown voices to direct and to be in control of policies that affect them in pushing for police reform and broader access to justice,” Shava says. “And to further share recommendations for inclusive policy-making practices that lawmakers and community organizers should be aware of.”

Through this project, McLean had the chance to ally with grassroots leaders and community organizations in Toronto's Regent Park neighborhood to complete her research.

One such leader was Joseph K. from Regent Park, a dedicated community activist who has been making positive change in the community through using media documentation and community storytelling as a tool to challenge dominant narratives that are harmful to racialized communities. McLean also collaborated with Community leader Sureya Ibrahim from Toronto Centre for Learning and Development (TCCLD), who played an integral role in ensuring that her research authentically centered BIPOC voices. To complete her research, McLean also worked closely with Mothers of Peace – Regent Park, a grassroots group, comprised of racialized female-identified resident leaders who have been impacted or provide leadership support to victims of gun violence in Toronto Downtown East. The group engages in numerous community mobilization efforts, served as a community crisis response collective, while advocating for neighborhood safety, racial justice and economic opportunities for low-income residents.

“The capstone work contextualizes Black and Brown communities’ socio-historical experience of excessive use of police force and broader systemic injustices as symptomatic to a much larger problem of lack of equitable access to public participatory processes and decision-making power over the policies that impact them,” Shava says. “A number of processes, techniques, program materials, oversight bodies were drawn on to bring this project to life.”

McLean notes that her research drew on a number of theoretical frameworks, which included: Critical Race Theory, Design Thinking, community centered leadership, and anti-oppressive research practices. "Part of that included recognizing that, in the search to understand and challenge the way power is constructed, research in itself is laden with power,” she says. “Traditionally, researchers hold significant decision-making over the research process and framing.

“In my capstone research work, I took a decentralized approach by creating pathways for research participants to have input and control over the research". The significance of McLean's work is not only felt in the University's Faculty of Education, but also in the broader Ontario education community. Her research shines a light on the importance of inclusive policy-making and the need to empower marginalized voices in the fight for justice.

"It's important for the education community to understand the impact of systemic injustices on marginalized communities and to work towards creating inclusive and equitable policies," says McLean.

Article by Dennis Bayazitov special contributing writer.

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A closer look into �첥��Ƶ’s Master of Leadership and Community Engagement Program

The Master of Leadership and Community Engagement (MLCE) is a part-time interdisciplinary cohort-based Master’s program that brings together professionals from varied education contexts to learn together how to best serve their immediate communities. The program creates a unique learning community where students learn from each other — both in theories that work across workplaces, and in practical applications of these theories.

Natalia Balyasnikova is just one of many experienced professors who has taught in the program. “What I was taken by was the students’ passion,” she says. “Because these are working professionals, many with years of experience, MLCE students truly care about the issues we discuss in the classroom, and are dedicated to ensuring the best possible outcomes of their learning.”

MLCE addresses broad issues in leadership and community engagement without limiting itself to one area. As such, students are empowered to envision new career pathways for themselves. They gain interdisciplinary knowledge and develop transferable skills that significantly elevate their chances of employment.

One such student is Kaitlin Biddie, who was looking for opportunities to continue her education — specifically in the field of community engagement. “I was drawn to the MLCE program and its experiential model because I felt I would not only gain academic and theoretical knowledge, but practical experience as well,” she says. “I found that the program really helped round out my education. I have a background in environmental science and conservation, so the MLCE program has been the perfect bridge to help me gain more perspective about the ‘human side’ of the work I do.”

Biddie notes one thing she especially appreciated about the MLCE program was the cohort-based model. “In the MLCE, we are learning about community building, so it makes so much sense to participate in this program alongside a tight-knit community of peers,” she says.

Tharmila Apputhurai is another student, who after completing her Bachelor of Education degree, sought a graduate degree from York. Having discovered the MLCE program, she felt it had been designed to “truly reimagine graduate work and look beyond what we might consider the ‘traditional’ norms of graduate studies.”

“The program prepares students to reflect deeply about what leadership means to them, what is community engagement, and how they can be leaders within various public and private sector organizations,” Apputhurai says. “It provides students various opportunities to make connections with a wide network of people and really prepares them with innovative and practical tools that they can implement in their current and future jobs.”

A chief tenet of the program is experiential education. There are two placements that students need to complete as part of the program. They have to be taken in two different community-based spaces, which makes the experience a truly diverse one in learning.

Biddie participated in two different community placements as part of her program. “Both placements were in sectors that I wanted to try out, and it was helpful to gain experience in roles that were quite different than my own,” she says. “In the MLCE placements, I was able to share my visions and thoughts with my placement organizations and felt like a valuable contributor to their teams. “This left me feeling more empowered and confident in my abilities.”

Apputhurai, too, recounts her own experiential education, which extended an opportunity for her to partner with two different public and non-profit agencies. “It helped me complete a literature review, connect with leading researchers in the area that I was interested in, and create networks outside of my current employment sector,” she says. “It allowed me to collaborate with others on projects in a meaningful way through which I gained valuable insights about myself and about employment sectors that were unfamiliar to me prior to the experiential education aspect of this program.”

To any prospective students considering pursuing the MLCE, professor Balyasnikva says this: “This is a special program, where one can broaden their horizons both academically and professionally.” She notes that one unique aspect of this program is that it is cohort-based, which means that all students move through the courses together and deepen their relationships with each other and within the community.

Bidde emphasizes that no matter who you are, or what field of work you are pursuing, the learning outcomes of the MLCE program will prove to be valuable. “This program has changed the way I think about the world around me and the power dynamics that have built it,” she says. “I will forever be grateful that I had the learning experience, and I had fun along the way too!”

Appuruthurai echoes this sentiment. “Go for it!” she says. “This will be one of the best educational journeys you’ll embark on in your life and it truly will transform your perceptions of what it means to be a leader, and to work in and with the community to improve the world that we live in.”

The application deadline for the next cohort who will be admitted to start the program in May 2023 is December 15, 2022. Visit yorku.ca/edu/mlce to learn more.

Article by Dennis Bayazitov special contributing writer

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"The Materiality of Play: Early Childhood Education Research in Diffractive Dialogue with Dance as an Artistic Practice" will run from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. on Zoom, and will feature guest speaker Tatiana Zakharova, an emerging scholar pursuing her doctorate at Western University (London, Canada).

Interest in play is experiencing a renaissance, with much been written in academic journals and discussed in professional and social media. Zakharova is among those interested in play, and with a background in design, she looks at materiality of play through the feminist practice of “misreading to produce a reading” (Jagodzinski, 1992, p. 172).

That is, instead of holding up play as an entity and an idea so solid that it even has a public “profile” that needs raising, Zakharova's proposition is to tease play apart into moments that may be entirely insignificant or subject-forming, that may be joyous or violent, that may open possibilities or may be propping up chaos and indeterminacy.

This talk will be in dialogue with Justine Chambers who will engage with Zakharova's propositions in diffractive ways from her perspective as a dancer, choreographer and mother. Zakharova will introduce her research on play and Chambers will introduce her artistic practice. Together they will present a dialogue as an invitation to reimagine our relations to play.

About Tatiana Zakharova
Zakharova is a playground designer, and is currently pursuing her PhD at the Faculty of Education at Western University (London, ON). In her multidisciplinary work, Zakharova thinks with feminist posthuman scholars to trouble the notion of play as a means of progress, imagining instead relationship-attuned play as worlding. With gratitude, Zakharova lives, walks, plays, and writes on the traditional territories of the Anishnabek, Haudenosaunee (Iroquois), and Ojibway/Chippewa peoples.

About Justine Chambers
Chambers is a dance artist living and working on the unceded Coast Salish territories of the Skwxwú7mesh, Musqueam and Tsleil-Waututh Nations. Her movement-based practice considers how choreography can be an empathic practice rooted in collaborative creation, close observation, and the body as a site of a cumulative embodied archive. Privileging what is felt over what is seen, she works with dances that are already there – the social choreographies present in the everyday. Chambers is Max Tyler-Hite’s mother.

Register in advance for this meeting at this link:
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After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Article is from the April 6, 2021 edition of

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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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Sixty percent of employees are now considering a real career change. COVID-19 has inadvertently sparked an era of soul searching – pushing employees to really think about their lives, their goals, and their future plans.

Human Resources Director (HRD) magazine spoke to Dr Vidya Shah, assistant professor in the Faculty of Education at York University and staunch follower of issues of equity and justice. Dr Shah revealed how to know if it’s time to put your career soul searching into action.

“It all starts with the five C's,” Dr Shah told HRD. “The first theme is contribution - asking yourself real questions around how you are contributing to the wellbeing of others. Are you doing the most you can to build a humane world?

Shah revealed a new program on offer at �첥��Ƶ - Master of Leadership and Community Engagement degree program (MLCE) – which focuses on leading and fostering social change.

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