Why this, why now?
May 14th, 2024 was 20 years since I signed my permanent contract with a large publicly funded school board in the Greater Toronto Area of Ontario (GTA). As I look back, I recall what I had written in my doctoral thesis leading towards my 2021 Ph.D from the University of Toronto.
“Our arrival in Ontario on January 16th 2002 with two children, nine bags and no jobs began my connection with many complex interactions with institutional settings through necessary tasks such as applying for a Social Insurance Number, opening a bank account and enrolling my daughter in a Grade 2 class in the public school nearby. We also enrolled our son then 3 years old into daycare so that I could look for a job. I had not worked outside the home since resigning from my corporate Human Resources career in 1996 to raise my daughter and then my son” Karnad-Jani (2021)
My journey from being Rashmee Jani, dependent spouse to the primary Permanent Residence applicant to becoming Dr. Rashmee Karnad-Jani, public scholar, K-12 Special Education Consultant and all the other things I have become did not just happen overnight. My experiences with Ontario’s schooling were shaped by what I had heard in the immigration pipeline during our family’s consideration to leave our home of many decades and move to a place that promised what is known as “a better life”. We stayed with cousins for a few days, filled in applications for Social Insurance Number etc and then stayed with my friend from Bombay University who had emigrated in 1996. We then moved to our basement apartment in a suburb of Toronto. It was winter, January 2002.
Our first visits in the neighbourhood were to the bank as we needed to set that up first. Then, to the school to register our daughter who had come with a strong foundation in schooling from India and Singapore. We went dressed in formal clothing with all her educational documentation in a neat folder with both children beside us reminding them to be respectful of the space. This expectation, at the ages of 3 and 7, they managed rather well.
As we entered the sunny foyer of the school, I saw a banner dangling from the ceiling gently swaying and it read “Welcome” in many languages of which I could read Hindi and Gujrati. It was an easy process, this admission to school in Ontario. What was difficult was that which came after. Although I am extremely fluent in English both socially, academically and professionally, it is Ontario’s edu-speak that made me stop and think: I understood the words as said, what I did not understand due to my new-ness to this institutional language, was that were invisible implications for my children’s educational trajectories.
Who was a child and youth worker and what did she do? What was a social skill group for which a child has to miss learning in class to attend with peers? Why was I told that it was perhaps my working the night shift that was the cause of many “problems?” Why did all the “deficits” fall away when the Gifted Testing results were available in Grade 3? Why did I get a different reception when I entered the B.Ed programme as a teacher-candidate? What was this new language I was learning in the Faculty of Education that allowed me to ask sophisticated questions?
I wrote about it in my thesis in 2020-2021.about what happened in May 2002 at my daughter’s school
Who? Me? The South Asian Label
The turning point of my volunteer experience that led to my application to the B. Ed programmes in the GTA came through the arrival of a new vice-principal to the school. Mrs. Z’s appointment appeared in the newsletter. After a day of volunteering, I went to greet her, and she invited me into her office for a chat a few days later. The caretakers were putting up her framed academic degrees and we sat on the couch as they worked. Mrs. Z asked me about my qualifications and when she learned that I had an undergraduate degree in science, she connected me to teachers in the school who needed someone to read with their students or help with other academically aligned tasks. She also encouraged me to apply to the B. Ed programme and requested some newly hired teachers to guide me through that process. In May 2002, as I was waiting with other mothers and grandparents to pick up our children at the end of the day, something quite curious happened. Mrs. Z came over and invited me to present some workshops in South Asian art and also set up the display case in the front foyer to commemorate South Asian Heritage Month (Karnad-Jani, 2021).
After that, I went on to do my B.Ed, encouraged by a well paying full time job our family had with one parent, and the encouragement of Mrs. H, the vice-principal of my daughter’s school in 2003. With a Math, Science, Technology B.Ed and a B.Sc from Bombay University, I was soon able to get a job, 20 years ago and was now an Ontario Certified Teacher or OCT.
Some intentionally planned Additional Qualifications later, I went on to do my M.Ed and then in spite of a rapidly unravelling marriage, my Ph.D because my dreams were impatient and waiting to be realised. My children’s unwavering support got me through every twist and turn as also the love and care of dear friends.
I am acutely aware as I look back and look ahead, that although I do not have racial privilege in this place I now call home. My linguistic abilities are frequently erased by my age, race and perceived abilities in socially dominant mindsets as well as internalised racism among my own demographic. Sometimes people say “I follow you on Twitter”
So why this, and why now? Early on, I had realised that due my institutional privilege, I have access to information and due to the social organisation of knowledge have been able to make educational outcomes more accessible to my children and to friends’ children when they reach out.
My deep commitment to educational equity comes from an understanding that incomplete information shared with families is an inequitable practice that is rarely examined deeply and reflectively. My research and that of other scholars highlight that educators experience push back in dominant systems when they engage in anti-racist equity focussed education work along with limited funding due to a variety of reasons. My recent experience in working within a teacher education programme have also shown the gaps that exist in equity, diversity and inclusion including disability justice for pre-service teachers and embedding that work alongside curriculum delivery is not seen as an added value to professional practice.
While sitting under a tree at the 2023 Humanities and Social Sciences Congress, York University, a colleague suggested that I should take my vision of educational equity and social change and convert it into action by offering partnerships to families, education sector workers etc in accessible spaces where the institutional burdens of us and them do not hinder progress.
I wanted a straightforward name for the website and consultancy with a clear focus to support all the driving gears that will make this work: educators, settlement services sector, families of students, early career administrators, Employee Affinity Groups and so on. Karnad-Jani Consultancy Services is therefore the place where I shall prepare the ground to plant seeds of social change by supporting clients, strengthening educational advocacy, and everyday work geared towards equitable outcomes.
The tagline of this website is “Beyond Book Clubs and Hashtags” as this phrase always comes to mind for me when I hear discussions, many of which remain strings of big words and assertions without becoming actionable work with measurable outcomes for students, families and education sector workers.
At the start of the website you see a photograph of sunflower seeds in my hand. That is what I do – I plant seeds with care and nurture them through the stages. So also with professional learning and system navigation – it is the same idea of preparing the conditions in which the seeds take root and can thrive.
I invite you as parents, educators, pre-service and in-service teachers, school settlement sector workers and community developers or early career scholars and higher education students to dig deep with me.
