Equity and Inclu­sion:
ETFO Mak­ing a Difference

Gene Lewis — ETFO Gen­eral Secretary

As a teacher fed­er­a­tion, ETFO has a lot in com­mon with other unions and teacher fed­er­a­tions. Like them, we take pride in pro­tect­ing mem­bers: bar­gain­ing col­lec­tive agree­ments, pro­mot­ing health and safety, pro­mot­ing and pro­tect­ing their pro­fes­sional integrity, and pro­vid­ing assis­tance when they find them­selves in dif­fi­cult cir­cum­stances pro­fes­sion­ally. We are a known leader in pro­vid­ing pro­fes­sional learn­ing, with a wide range of pro­grams and resources that pro­mote teacher lead­er­ship and teach­ing excel­lence. The resources ETFO has devel­oped for edu­ca­tors in early learn­ing class­rooms are unique.

But what sets our fed­er­a­tion apart from all oth­ers is our com­mit­ment to social jus­tice and equity.

This year the ETFO exec­u­tive approved the fol­low­ing state­ment and def­i­n­i­tion of equity:

It is the goal of the Ele­men­tary Teach­ers’ Fed­er­a­tion of Ontario to work with oth­ers to cre­ate schools, com­mu­ni­ties, and a soci­ety free from all forms of indi­vid­ual and sys­temic dis­crim­i­na­tion. To fur­ther this goal, ETFO defines equity as fair­ness achieved through proac­tive mea­sures which result in equal­ity, pro­mote diver­sity, and fos­ter respect and dig­nity for all.

ETFO has adopted poli­cies on dis­crim­i­na­tion (1998); antiracism and eth­no­cul­tural equity, employ­ment equity, harass­ment, and reli­gious rights (2000); abo­rig­i­nal edu­ca­tion and native lan­guages (2001); equity and social jus­tice (2003); ETFO rep­re­sen­ta­tion (2004); and dis­abil­ity issues (2006). (You can find the details of these pol­icy state­ments in our Ref­er­ence Book pub­lished online at www.etfo.ca/aboutetfo.referencebook.)

ETFO pro­vides a wide range of pro­grams and resources to put its beliefs into effect.

LGBTQ, anti-racist edu­ca­tion, human rights, dis­abil­ity issues, and abo­rig­i­nal edu­ca­tion stand­ing com­mit­tees give mem­bers a voice. We make avail­able fund­ing to locals for LGBTQ, equity, and dis­abil­i­ties issues work­shops. We fund bur­saries and schol­ar­ships for mem­bers of des­ig­nated groups and our awards pro­gram rec­og­nizes the social jus­tice and equity work of mem­bers and those in the broader community.

As well, ETFO gives sup­port to a wide range of com­mu­nity, national, and inter­na­tional orga­ni­za­tions. Del­e­gates to the 2011 annual meet­ing voted to pro­vide $10,000 for relief work in Soma­lia. They also agreed to pro­vide ongo­ing finan­cial sup­port for the ETFO Human­ity Fund. Our con­tri­bu­tion to Project Over­seas sends ETFO mem­bers to devel­op­ing nations to assist with teacher edu­ca­tion. These are just some exam­ples of the assis­tance we provide.

We under­take this work because our mem­bers believe in the impor­tance of mak­ing a dif­fer­ence in the lives of their stu­dents, their com­mu­ni­ties, and the world. The class­room edu­ca­tor who focuses on bring­ing out the best in every child, the school that wel­comes diver­sity, the ETFO local that sup­ports local orga­ni­za­tions fight­ing poverty, the fed­er­a­tion that sup­ports you and your col­leagues around the world: it takes all of us work­ing together to make sure that every­one is included and every child achieves success.

Inclu­sive poli­cies and pro­grams ben­e­fit those who might oth­er­wise be mar­gin­al­ized. More­over, when we are inclu­sive the unique skills and tal­ents of every per­son are allowed to flour­ish. That ben­e­fits us all.