Paving the path forward for Black history curriculum in BC

A group of stakeholders with BC’s Black community will be meeting with the Ministry of Education for the second time this week to continue discussions around the next steps in developing a Black history curriculum in schools and anti-racism training for educators.

Markiel Simpson, local anti-racism advocate and former nomination race contestant for the Burnaby North-Seymour NDP seat, is a member of the stakeholder group, which is made up of parents, educators, and advocates.

The group has been meeting with the ministry for the past two years, but Monday was the first time they met with BC Minister of Education Jennifer Whiteside.

Simpson told the Beacon that the purpose of Monday’s meeting with Whiteside was to “define the path forward” and present a memorandum of understanding to the ministry that outlines “how we felt things ought to be moving forward between the working group of community stakeholders and the Ministry of Education so that we could start to then build out a roadmap and a timeline to including more Canadian Black history and teacher training.”

Simpson said that the group wanted to see “firm commitments on paper” so they could go back to their community groups and members to continue consultations as to what the curriculum should look like.

Asked if the group’s goals were achieved during Monday’s meeting, Simpson’s response was positive.

“I think what was achieved [on Monday] is that the ministry knows exactly on our part where we would like to see things to go. We learned about some of their limitations on what that looks like but we also just really emphasized the systemic racism …. of the Black community of always being further and further marginalized in education.”

The purpose of today’s meeting will be to further review the memorandum of understanding.

Simpson said that in order to reach a solid timeline on developing the curriculum, the group needs to get a firm documented commitment from the ministry.

“Because we need to be able to go back to our community with a mandate from the ministry that says ‘please bring the stakeholders to the table. Please work with us on that,’” he said, adding that he’s hopeful they will be able to “continue those dialogues and get to that point.”

“And once that’s done, I think there’s definitely a path to having learning resources and updates to the curriculum in the next couple of years. I think that’s possible,” he said.

Simpon told the Beacon that Burnaby has been a “big part” of the push to establish a Black history curriculum in BC schools.

In 2020, the BC Community Alliance, a non-profit organization created to combat anti-Black racism within BC schools, launched a petition and email campaign regarding a Black history curriculum and anti-racism education in BC. That petition was initially presented to the Burnaby School District and Burnaby school trustees, where it gained support, and an official motion to support the petition was established.

From there, the petition was presented to the BC School Trustee Association, where it gained unanimous support from all 60 school districts in the province.

Aside from being the first district in the province to support the petition, the Burnaby School District told the Beacon it is actively working to support learning about Black history in classrooms. In January, the district led outreach to school communities across BC and co-planned the inaugural event for Black Excellence Day, in partnership with the Ninandotoo Society.

The event was attended by over 12,000 students and staff from 17 districts across BC. This month, Burnaby schools are participating in Black history month, engaging in “a variety of ways with learning opportunities that celebrate Black achievements, stories, art, people, joy, [and] history, and exploring the diversity of Black communities,” noted the district in an email to the Beacon.

Editor’s note: This article has been updated to clarify that Simpson was the nomination race contestant for the Burnaby North-Seymour NDP seat.