Windsor-Essex English public schools introducing new Black history curriculum

The English public school board in Windsor-Essex is launching a new curriculum on Black history and culture that reflects current events and new research.

Shantelle Browning-Morgan, a teacher atHon. W. C.Kennedy CollegiateInstitute, is one of the authors of the curriculum. She's also the secretary of theEssex County Black Historical Research Society.

She joined CBC Radio's Windsor Morning on Friday to explain what's new.

Browning-Morgan said she hears from students sayingthey don't only want to learn about Black historyin February, which is Black history month, and they also don't want to learn aboutit solely in history class.

The new material addresses thoseconcerns, she said.

"That's what we've really done this time, is to make connections to every possible subject so that teachers can teach it not as an event, but as an ongoing process from September until June," she said.

Students have also expressed desire for a curriculum that goesbeyondthe topic of slavery and the Underground Railroad, Browning-Morgan said.

They want to know moreabout pre-colonial Africa as well as the contributions and accomplishmentsof Black Canadians topicsthis new curriculum addresses as well, she said.

The curriculum, African-Canadian Roads to Freedom, was first developed about 15 years ago and previously had been updated in 2016.

There is also new information about the Black Lives Matter movement, slavery in Canada, and the fight against segregated education in Ontario and locally.

James L. Dunn,the city's first Black alderman for whom a new public school is being namedfought for school desegregation and unsuccessfully sued the Windsor Board of Education.

The curriculum also has updated language recommendations, steering educators away from using terms like "runaway slave" and instead using termssuch as "freedom seeker," whichemphasizetheir resistance to enslavement, she said.

"We wanted to make sure that educators are using accurate and the most respectful language when discussing people of African descent or the Transatlantic slave trade or the Underground Railroad," Browning-Morgan said.

The Greater Essex County District School Boardannounced earlier this week that an updated curriculumwould be released.Teacherswill get their first look at the new materialduring professional development meetings on Friday.

"These locally developed resources are intended to provide background information on Black Canadian heritage and culture connected directly to specific learning expectations in the Ontario social studies, history and geography curriculums," the boardsaid in a statement.

"The updates are necessary because our understanding of history is constantly deepening and growing."

For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of. You can read more stories here.