jeewan chanicka's Blueprint for Inclusive Academic Excellence and Community Empowerment

[00:00:00] Ellington Brown: Welcome to SpeakUP! International with Rita Burke and Elton Brown! 

[00:00:08] Rita Burke: In keeping with the title of this podcast, SpeakUP! International, we have the pleasure, the opportunity of speaking to people from all over the world. We have spoken with people from South Africa, from England, from Ghana, from Nigeria, from Brazil, but today we are back home in Canada.

We will be chatting with the Director of Education from the Waterloo Region District School Board. His name is Mr. jeewan chanicka, and he is a global education leader. He is recognized provincially, nationally, and internationally for his work in organizational transformation, systems change, innovation curriculum, using an equity and anti racist and human rights approach.

jeewan has held a variety of roles as a support worker, teacher, administrator, principal, and education officer. He is a TED, Ed, an innovative educator who continues to push the potential trajectory as possibilities for what public education can look like and can be. Now as director of education at the Waterloo Region District Board, supporting over 65, 000 students and 10, 000 staff members across approximately 130 schools and sites.

jeewan is focused on challenging historically entrenched outcomes of the most marginalized learners, supporting deep and meaningful community engagement, strengthening student voices and developing education systems and structures that supports all students to be ready for life towards the 22nd century.

To our listeners, I present to you our guest today on SpeakUP! International, jeewan chanicka! 

[00:02:25] jeewan chanicka: Thank you very much for the warm welcome. Happy to be here.

[00:02:31] Ellington Brown: Needless to say, jeewan, you have a remarkable career. And your contributions to education and community service have left an indelible mark. Can you tell me about your career in education and the various roles that you've held? 

[00:02:48] jeewan chanicka: For sure. Thank you. I like to say or start with the fact that I now in the role and the roles that I've held through my career that I'm standing on the shoulder, shoulders of many giants in particular, black and brown folks who have supported me all throughout indigenous people and especially women who in many ways saw more in me that I saw in myself and they often Like I, I would say they either loved me into it or sometimes gave me a good kick and said keep going when I didn't want to go anymore.

I've been fortunate in that education is my second career. I started off first in the community and social services sector. And then moved into a support role in schools working with some of the most disadvantaged and disenfranchised students in several schools around the Toronto area.

And from there, I went into my teaching career, and have been a teacher, I've been a literacy lead, I've then gone on to be an administrator, a principal a centrally assigned principal, an education officer at the Ministry of Education superintendent, I went off had a couple stints with international education where I was the CEO of a new system out in Dubai, as well as a teacher at one two different times, and then came back to join Waterloo Region District School Board as the Director of Education.

And so it's been quite a blessing, I would say. The other day, somebody was doing some rough calculations because I've been blessed, I would say, to work in three different school districts here in Ontario. I've worked internationally and I've worked at the Ministry of Education to support multiple districts as well and so they were doing a rough calculation and they were, they said, your work has impacted well over half a million children and , it caught me by surprise.

But for me leadership is always, and I think this is grounded in so much of who we are, grounded in service. 

[00:05:04] Rita Burke: There's no question. question that your bio and based on what you're telling us that you've worked across the boards. I am particularly curious about positions you've held with the TDSB. Please explain that to our listeners. 

[00:05:21] jeewan chanicka: So at the Toronto District School Board, I was a centrally assigned principal with responsibilities for equity and student achievement. And then from there, I went on to be a superintendent. I was a centrally assigned superintendent with the responsibility for anti oppression, anti racism, and equity.

And I also was a superintendent of schools. And so I held those roles. You would know that the Toronto District School Board is the largest school district in the country. And it is, I think, maybe the 3rd the 3rd or 4th largest in all of North America.

[00:06:03] Ellington Brown: You were in Dubai. You were a CEO. Can you tell us a little bit about that, please? 

[00:06:11] jeewan chanicka: Absolutely! I worked in both in Abu Dhabi and in Dubai. In Abu Dhabi, I was a teacher at an international school and I helped to develop a curriculum there that was really and taught from the middle years into high school and with an embedded social justice narrative.

And then when I went later, many years later, when I went to Dubai hired as the CEO at to help they built a blueprint model for a school. With the goal of growing it across the Middle East and other areas, other parts of the world. And so I went to help with that project to be able to look at how to grow that and what a model, how to build a model that would be able to be sustainable.

And also relevant context and context specific things because you don't want to do cookie cutter schools where they're not connected to the culture, to the area, to all those pieces. Those are some of the pieces.

[00:07:10] Rita Burke: I'm hearing you say then that you need to be connected to the culture in order to help move people along.

[00:07:17] jeewan chanicka: I, I don't know that, what I would say, Each of us as educators, whatever role we play, we come with so many gifts, so many assets, our own cultures. But if we truly want to meet children, if we truly want to be able to change outcomes for children, we have to be able to make sure, and there's lots of research on this, that the education that they're fitting, it fits into a model that reflects who they are, the values that they hold, that that we're connected to the communities that they belong to, the families that they are connected to, those are really key things and that was and that is true whether we're here in, in Toronto or for me as the director in Waterloo why we stress culturally relevant and responsive teaching and learning.

That we have to know who the children are in front of us and be able to help them realize and recognize the potential that gives them and the gifts it brings for them. 

[00:08:17] Rita Burke: You have said so many things wrapped up in just that response, and I want to ask you a question about all of them. Let me ask this particular question.

What does culturally relevant education look and feel and talk and speak like? Talk to us about that, please. 

[00:08:34] jeewan chanicka: If I walk into a school, whether I was as a principal when I was a principal of my school or You know the school that I served and or as a superintendent where I was overseeing multiple schools or now as a director what it looks and feels like to me is I go in and what I see On the walls and in the books and in the examples and in the trips and in the speakers Is a wide array of diversity that reflects who the children are first and foremost in the building and then, two who children are in the world because we are preparing children for life in a changing world.

It's not like when we graduated, from school where many people would have stayed in the same area and done the same job that their families did. My own son, when he was graduating some years ago, he said to me, dad, I think I'm going to be working in another part of the world, and and maybe I'll let you visit me.

And I said, as long as you're paying your own rent, you can do whatever you want. But, the possibilities. exists in so many ways for children now in ways that it has never existed before. And so the, one of the goals of education has to be preparing children for life in this world.

And it has to start with children seeing themselves reflected in multiple ways. And so I would look at, in a kindergarten class, The kind of dolls that they have, not just the dolls, but the color of the skin, not just the color of the skin, but the hair texture, not just the clothes, but the types of fabric that is on the those children all those pieces the colors of the crayons for skin colors that they have.

That the languages that I see up on the wall that are reflective, that I could hear children speaking their first language without them being scared that something's going to happen, that the elders are in the building or that they feel like this is their place too, right? Because where we want to get to is the school as the hub of the community and recognizing that we share and we are a part of the community.

We are not better than we are not the only soul experts, but we're here in relationship with the families and with the students. So the other thing that I would say that I would see is, is a lot of student voice, a lot of students leading things, feeling like this, they own the school, it's a funny thing, the school one of where I was at as principal, and it was a school with many challenges for many years and and when I had been placed there.

As the principal many people in the community were trying to leave the neighborhood because they didn't want their children to come to that school. That was the reputation, right? And we worked really hard at engaging families and engaging students. And soon we started having the opposite problem.

People were trying to move into the neighborhood to get into the school. But one of the things that happened was that at the end of the day, The kids wouldn't leave after the bell would ring and I would have to go out into the hallways and be, and I would the thing that you'd hear, I love you, but you need to leave.

I have work to do. Get out. And they would tell me straight. They would tell me straight. They'd be like, Mr. C, this is our school. We're not going anywhere! This is, and I'd be like, You're right. It is your school, but I have work to do to help your school. So now you need to leave because I have to get work done.

And so that was that sort of that type of feeling. And you walk through the hallways and you're seeing art that reflects all different parts of who we are, the fabric of who we are, not from any one space. And then I would say the other thing is that there's a distinct And clear representation of First Nations and the, Métis, Inuit people because because they were and they are the First Peoples here on Turtle Island.

And so making sure that it is clear, it is explicit. What does that look like when you walk into the school that you're seeing that we are on? The land that was stewarded by First Nations people. You walk in and you understand where the directions are. What does it mean? Who are the nations that this particular place is connected to?

Those are all things for me. that reflects all those things. You're reading stories and you're learning about different cultures. You're seeing different family types, whether it's just a single parent, you're seeing two moms, two dads, you're seeing a mama or dad, you're seeing grandparents or grandchildren because there isn't a mom or dad in this, in the story.

And so children are growing their understanding of who all of these people are and that they're their friends and that they deserve respect and that they have the potential to see possibilities for themselves of where they can land up that is not just about getting by or just about surviving. It is about thriving.

It is about joy. Those are the things for me when I talk about culturally relevant and responsive pedagogy. Those are the things that I'm I would say. 

[00:13:53] Rita Burke: It's Elton's turn now to ask a question, but I want to cheat a little bit. I don't know if cheating is allowed here, but I must ask you, I must ask you this question.

How do you. Translate. How do you get that information down or to the educators, not the administrators, so that they can create that kind of inclusive environment? How is that done?

[00:14:18] jeewan chanicka: So I, that is the million dollar question because if we could figure that out, we would be able to change what has always existed in public education, which is that we can still predict outcomes by the identity of children, and that indigenous, black, racialized to us, LGBT children with special needs or identified learning needs, kids coming out of poverty are always over represented in, in terms of not being successful in terms of their well being a challenge the way that I've.

worked with the team of people that I work with in Waterloo has really been to start by modeling what that looks like. And so one of the things that I would say as the director is that while I'm the director and while I have 20 years of work at grassroots and organizational levels of dealing with racism and human rights, regardless of that, the fact that I'm in the role as director, it means that I'm complicit with racism and oppression.

And if I can't start by owning that and being able to recognize that while I'm committed to changing that, I have to acknowledge that in these colonial structures, It was, they were created for these outcomes to happen, right? And so if I can't say that I'm owning that, then I'm going to say to you, we're going to have no hope because then it's this conversation about how I look good.

in the face of everything, right? And this can't be it. I've had too many black and brown women around me growing up who made me remember that and I've stayed, tried to stay true to that, in that we have to own our part in it, right? The second thing is we have to look at how do we do the work, right?

Where we help people to understand the way structural. Some people enjoy more structural advantages. We typically would talk about that as privilege, right? Structural advantages. And some don't have it. But how do we have those conversations and ways? That's not about blame, shame, or guilt, but it is about recognizing you didn't choose this, you didn't make this, I'm not blaming you, but every single one of us have a certain, we have a certain amount of privilege, a certain amount of structural advantage, and we need to be able to do better to change things. 

 So I always go back to what is the purpose for you coming to education? Why do you become an educator? Why do you want to work for children? I always, when I meet students, I'll share the story with you. One of my school visits a couple of years back, it was in winter and I it was during COVID.

And during COVID, I was classified as non essential staff. So I want you to just imagine as the director, to go into a school I was not allowed because I was considered non essential staff because we're trying to contain and keep kids safe. So I would visit and staff would come outdoors, kids would come outdoors so we could have sufficient spacing.

And so I'm out walking with one of the principals and there's some children are outside playing because it was recess. And it's a little black boy rolling around in the snow in his jacket and stuff like that. And I'm walking with the principal and he stops and he sees me. And there's this moment where he's looking at me and I know what's happening in his head because I could see the wheels turning, right?

And he literally does this. He pulls his hand out of his jacket. And he's looking at his skin, and he's looking at me, and he's looking at his skin, and he's looking at me, and then he says to me, You're the same color as me. And I said to him, Yeah, you're right. And I said, Do you know who I am? And he said, he's are you a teacher?

I said I am a teacher, but that's not the work that I do now. Now I have a different job. And so he's you could see he's thinking, right? And the principal standing there, she's watching and she's smiling. And I said, do you know that your principal has a boss? And he was like, yeah. So I said I'm your boss's boss.

So now he's like sitting there and he's what? 

And he said, he goes, wait a minute. Are you like the king of all the principals? And we started laughing, right? And I said, act. And so the principal actually jumps in and she's yes, he is like the king of all the principles. 

[00:18:57] Rita Burke: That's funny! 

[00:18:58] jeewan chanicka: At this. At this point.

I look at him, I said, but do you know who my boss is? And now he's completely confused because now we've established that i'm the king of all the principles Like the king can't have a boss, right? And I said to him you are my boss I work for you. At this point, his eyes just opened up, and he just you could see steam starting to come out of his head at this point.

And at that point, I left him. And I don't ever if I meet people in social spaces, often people ask me, what do you do? I always say I'm a teacher. I never say my role. But with kids, and especially black and brown kids, and queer kids, and kids coming out of poverty, I always tell them who I am and what I do.

And it is exactly because we need to show them that this is possible when I see young black girls and young black boys with their hair, and it's open or it's beautiful. I always make a point. I love your hair. It's so beautiful because that's not what they've been used to or what they've been told.

My first meeting in the board when I did my first address. My hair was in full braids and I wore a long jacket with a shawl. I did not wear a suit. And the response that I got was from so many black and brown folks was, we didn't know a director could look like that. And I said, I want you to know a director could look like that.

And coming back to this question about how do we do it? We have to show possibilities. Faculties of Ed have a role to play in changing how they are teaching and the materials that they're using. And it was always a dream of mine. If I didn't go this route that I would love to be at a faculty because it's not hard.

And this is the thing and we're we're experiencing it now as we're expecting it of staff. So systems have to expect of staff that this is what we're doing. We expect that you're using culturally relevant and responsive pieces, but then we have to also set up the structures so that Teachers aren't trying to fight against the system.

They're doing it because the system's helping them to do it. And so one of the things that I keep saying to people, we need to stop celebrating kids succeeding in spite of us. We need to start celebrating kids succeeding because of us, especially the kids who have been marginalized the most. And so what are the specific resources now that as a system, We're going to put in for Indigenous children, for Black children, for Muslim kids and Jewish kids, for kids who are coming out of poverty, for 2SLGBTQ kids, for kids who are have identified learning needs.

How are we going to make sure that those kids who traditionally have never Have the right supports in place. They have it in place. But there's a principle and I always say because one of the responses I always get is okay, but what about the rest of the kids? When you start doing this, the response is, but what about the rest?

Rising tides lifts all boats. When you start with the most marginalized kids and you design with them in mind from the beginning, then what you will do is lift all children together. Because you're going to make sure that the ones who are never served well are being served. And then you're going to make sure that the ones who are already successful will continue.

And in fact, When other kids are being successful around them, it's going to stretch them too, right? And so there's a lot of pieces that we, this could be a full hour conversation just on this question. But I think there's so much, and one of the things that, that I, I'm very proud of. Is that over the last 3 years in our system, we are starting to see with this type of human rights approach with this approach on culturally relevant and responsive pedagogy with this human rights embedded approach.

We're starting to see our graduation rates go up. We're starting to see our scores go up. We're starting to see our suspensions and expulsions go down because we're having the conversations with our staff. We talk openly about the school to prison pipeline. We talk about carceral logic. We talk about where it might exist, and then we give people space to be able to go and figure out, here's where it's happening in my school.

And okay, and then we look at it, As a leadership competency to be able to identify where we're going wrong as opposed to we're going to punish you when you figure out that you've not been doing it the right way. So one of the things that we've developed as a system for all staff in our system are equity sovereignty affirming and equity competencies.

So those competencies are for all staff and we're building that into the expectations for all 11, 000 staff. that this is where we need to go if we are going to change the trajectory of public education and the commitment that I've made as the director to the staff and the families and most importantly the kids is we will rewrite public education from right here in Waterloo Region District School Board.

[00:24:22] Ellington Brown: You must have many tools available to you because you started off by talking about walking into the school and observing the cultures, languages, colors of skin, marginalized versus maybe not so much. And you have to grab all of that by the reins and come up with a plan where you're able to work with all of these children, equally, so that all of them are fulfilled by the end of the day, by the end of the year, which is absolutely remarkable.

You were at the United Nations University of Peace, and you were developing a curriculum on peace education. Can you describe that for us, please. 

[00:25:20] jeewan chanicka: Yeah. So I didn't work for them, but I was consulting with them and creating that curriculum and it was one of the most fascinating experiences for me when I did this work with them.

We were in Indonesia and brought in groups of people and organizations from all across that region. Who did not all hold the same point of view. Let me tell you when we sat around that table and this curriculum had to meet all of their needs, in and including all the places. The cultural nuances, the political differences, the lived experiences, the things that goes across cultures like class, for example, that you have to consider the structures of formal education versus informal education, because culturally some groups weren't accessing by choice formal education.

Typical, formal roots. How do you begin to even imagine what that could look like? And you have all these folks in a room. And then, but what it taught me was, how do you sit and listen for the, listen to the wisdom in the room? Around what we share, even when people might be arguing with one another because they disagree.

And my, my first degree that I did is in culturally relevant and responses responsive mediation and bargaining. This is way before alternative dispute resolution, right? I did that at York university and they actually created the degree for me Through the individualized studies department because what I wanted to do didn't exist anywhere.

So through that program and I was allowed to be able to go across multiple faculties to be able to do my learning and that really enhanced the ways that I think about things in a really integrated way. And I think that, one of the things like, and we've, and I will say, in the last three years, As we've been trying to, what I would say is to course correct a lot of the systemic and structural harm that has happened to, the most marginalized students and to be able to try to work in a way that allows public education to actually work for all children, that has led to a huge amount of backlash, with racism and hate it has been extremely difficult at many moments.

And one of the things, and I won't necessarily address the harm right now, but what I will say Is that one of the conversations that I keep having with my team and I have to say I, I don't do this job in isolation. I do it with a team. I do it with community. I do it with kids. So I see myself as a facilitator.

As opposed to being the one who's doing it. And I also do it with the support of ancestors and of course creators. So in those ways, I try to think about how I show up and try to do this. As we've been doing this work though, one of the things that I keep talking to my team about is, How do we call people in?

Even the people who are completely holding a view opposite to us, right? And then at the same time, what is the line that we draw? There has to be boundaries also, right? Because for me, I always think about how do we lead from a place of love? What does that look like, right? What does love in this moment look like to people who are absolutely scared and terrified that the black folks are coming and the brown folks are coming and the queer folks are coming, the poor ones are coming, like they're going to take everything that we have and and it's trying to meet fear with love and what does that look like?

And at the same time, be able to say human rights is not, there's no other side to human rights. There's no, I don't have space for this. Human rights is the boundary that I will draw and say, we're not having a conversation about not liking fill in the blank, any group or these people or any of those things, but where you want to have a conversation about how we can do this together to make sure, right?

For example, that more girls are going into STEAM and STEM, right? Because we still have this problem, even though we've been talking about it more than 20 years now, right? How do we begin to change some of these things? There are a lot of people who are, who they're scared to ask questions.

They're worried about saying the wrong thing. And I get that. And I want to be able to hold space for those things. And at the same time, there are those who very much have an agenda of hate and racism. And they would be much happier if we weren't here. I would say people People have said to me, are you shocked by what you're dealing with?

And I'm like, no, right? I said the and, five years ago, it was an idea that black and brown folks could be in leadership. People were like, yeah, of course. So the idea was fine. But here we are, 2024, we have about a half a dozen of us, seven of us who are black and brown in these roles, right? And now it's real, right?

Now it's real. And so now you're hitting up a, wait a minute, we were okay when it was an idea. Now, wait a minute, it's real, right? That it's a little too real. And so there is a real backlash that is hateful and racist. And my job is to make sure that I do my best work to make sure that we insulate kids as best as possible so they have the best environment and that we make sure that staff have the best environment and that all of our families know that they're kids.

Cared for and that the schools are here in service to them. 

[00:31:29] Rita Burke: Sounds like some lofty but not impossible goals. I know that. And when you told that story about some race haters are still out there and that there are seven of you in those kinds of positions, it reminded me of something that happened in the early 90s when I worked in Peterborough at a college.

We got a new president. And I was in his office chatting with him, and he had come from Windsor, some one of those colleges, to Peterborough. And he said to me that another Black man was going to apply for the job. But people told him that Peterborough wasn't ready for a Black president at a college.

Could you imagine that? That was in the early 90s. Do you think anybody would have the gall to make such a statement today? 

They may think it.

[00:32:30] jeewan chanicka: Just so you know, I've heard that. I've been told that Waterloo isn't ready for a director that looks like me. And what's interesting is both myself and the director of the Catholic board, right? He's a black man. 

The two leaders of the school districts are, but it's, it has been interesting, right?

Like it, it's been, the level of harassment that I've had to face and sometimes threats the, where, my safety has become a bit of an issue. So there's things in place to be able to address my safety, as we continue to try to do the work. And so there's a piece here around how, one of the things that I would say is that it's not enough to have us in the roles.

Fine, we're in the role, but the roles were created and structures that weren't ever designed for us to begin with. And so you're going to get this pushback all the time. And this is where we need community to do two things. One thing is, To still hold us accountable, right? To make sure that just because we've now reached, we reach, right?

That we don't forget where we came from and the work that we're meant to do. I always, will always say we need communities to hold us accountable. And this is the part that I would say that is often missing. To also hold us up and let, people know that as community, they will hold us accountable, but they also have our backs.

[00:34:09] Rita Burke: And that need to have your backs didn't need to have your backs. 

[00:34:12] jeewan chanicka: And I would say that part has been has not necessarily been as present. And for somebody like me where my background is so diverse and coming from the Caribbean, that's not a strange thing, but black, brown, indigenous, queer, Muslim, like you, you have all these things, and you're like, okay where are my people to at least ask, how are we making sure this guy is safe? What are you doing to make sure that he's okay so he can keep doing this work? What is it, what does support look like? And and that's not just for me, I'm just speaking in general.

If we want folks in these roles, We need to hold the accountability piece and the support piece, and that goes back to what I was saying when I was younger, especially the black and brown woman, there was the support piece, but there was also the accountability piece you get your butt moving and you make sure you do this, and I remember very clearly when I was a teacher in the classroom, and it was my favorite thing to do in my career, And I remember going to one of my mentors who was a black woman and saying to her, I think I'm going to take my name off the principal list now because I think I want to stay in the classroom.

And here's what accountability looks like. So she was working at her desk and she just did this. She looked up over her glasses and she just looked at me and she was like, shut up and just do it. That's And I that was literally, that it was, like, you're and so I said to her, I go, where's the empathy?

Where is the, I understand you like being in the classroom and blah, blah, blah. She was like, I have time for that. You need to do this now, shut up and do it. Goodbye. That was the end of the conversation. 

[00:35:59] Rita Burke: Wonderful wonderful. She felt responsible for your career to some degree. And isn't that what we do in our community?

I say 90 percent of the time. 

[00:36:08] jeewan chanicka: All the time, right? And that's how we, we lift as we climb, right? We lift as we climb, right? 

[00:36:15] Ellington Brown: Adversity is, as far as I'm concerned, is the window to opportunity. And a lot of people don't see it that way. They just see it as yet again another roadblock and allow that wall to remain standing.

And in your case, using love, the power of love, and a lot of other tools to get past all of these so called barriers in order to provide The necessary support to these marginalized individuals that are in these classrooms. You, in 2015, went to Anne Frank's house. And I want to know, how did it feel to be there?

I've read the book, but how did it actually feel to be where Anne Frank lived? And how were you able to share that with other educators? 

[00:37:18] jeewan chanicka: Yeah, that was such a profound experience being at Anne Frank. I'd gone there to do to present and share some work that I was helping to lead at the time.

But being able to be there and going up to where Anne hid was really such a profound moment. And it's one that, for me is symbolic to so many experiences that so many of us have in our histories. The moment where people look at you and make you become the other and where through that the creation of being the other then justify violence and all types and shapes of, and so it was a strong Reminder and, reinforce my commitment to address anti Semitism and to share what that experience was like and all the other isms, right?

Because that's exactly what happens. You take any group, right? And that has been, the reality for Black folks and Indigenous folks forever. We've been made the other for so long. We've been dehumanized for so long that it becomes easy, and it's why the expectations for young Black boys are often different than they would be for, boys who are the same age.

You know why we see the discrepancy and outcomes. And so to me, it reinforced that commitment that we need to do better. We have to be better. First, by transforming who we are as individuals, by looking for those things that are inside of us, because every single one of us were raised in this colonial system.

There's all, every single one of us has anti blackness in us. Every single one of us has forms of racism or hate that exists inside of us because it's part of the way society has been built. And we have to constantly look for ways to weed that out of us while we continue that struggle of being able to change things, there's another thing though, another reflection that I've had over the years, and it's one that I've been saying a lot, especially in the Black community. Because there's so much of our stories in the Black community that are framed through struggle and resistance. And a couple of years ago, I was sitting with in particular, it was in particular, it was moms from the African continent, talking about challenges that their children were having and somebody referenced, the need for joy because our joy is resistance and that is something that I hear all the time.

And I've sat with that for a long time, and one of the things that I say in, especially in black spaces is stop telling our kids that our joy is resistance. There was a time that our joy needed to be resistance. Our joy is our joy because we deserve joy. We were created for joy. That is our default, is joy.

So whether or not it's resistance or not, is regardless, we need to stop positioning ourselves in relation to colonial systems. If they see it as strong, as resistance, That's their problem. I want black kids to be happy. I want them to feel joy. I want them to see, and I want that for all kids, not just black kids, right?

I want us to do more than, Dr. Bettina Love talks about not just surviving, but thriving. 

[00:40:49] Rita Burke: Thriving. Yes. Yes. 

[00:40:51] jeewan chanicka: Thriving. We want our kids to thrive. And that's the thing that I want for especially the most marginalized kids and all children that they are able to show up as who they are and be loved as who they are and be held as who they are and know that they have the ability to be able to go out in the world and do something wonderful and make it better.

[00:41:15] Rita Burke: So our joy is our joy, right? Is our joy. And we deserve it. And our ancestors worked for that joy on our behalf and we need to embrace it. There's no question about that. And so I go to 2019, you spoke at the TED Summit. What did you talk about? 

[00:41:35] jeewan chanicka: So that was a fascinating experience. I did my TED talk my TED Ed talk in Scotland and Edinburgh.

And I spoke about the need for education systems to actually change the structures so that the most marginalized children will have the opportunity to succeed. I just looked the other day and I think it's had about 25, 000 hits! And I've heard from lots of places that it's, they've used it as a way to be able to do PD with groups of staff.

So I'm grateful for that. And I think, in some ways, it connected me with educators from all over the world to be able to learn from people who are doing amazing things. And also to be able to start saying, one of the things that I say is I'm not interested in initiatives.

So you're going to do this in two schools or five schools. Unless you can scale it. Because we've had initiatives for 50 years. And it hasn't changed anything for the outcomes for children. I want systemic change. I'm interested in how are you shifting your policy and procedures. I'm interested in how are you changing the systems and structures.

I'm interested in how are you changing the culture. I'm interested in what is your accountability and reporting mechanisms and how are you sharing it backward community because we are here because we are in service to community. And so those things for me create a bit of a a recipe for what systemic change looks like and that those are the conversations that I have with the folks in my system around.

How do we keep doing this? So we get to systemic change. 

[00:43:21] Ellington Brown: So what do you do in your spare time? 

[00:43:27] jeewan chanicka: In my spare time, I've been learning how to make sure that I make spare time for myself. It was definitely not something that was easy, especially during COVID. But I, so I love to travel if I get the chance to, I love to paint.

Actually that piece in the back, there's one of mine. It's not done yet, but I'm working on it. So I love to paint. I write, so I write poetry. I write academically and fiction. I don't do anything with it. They're all sitting there ready for something to be done with it. I love the landscape.

I love being out on the land and connecting with nature. Friends and family always brings joy. Extrovert really well, but I'm really more of an introvert in many ways. And so I find out when I extrovert a lot, I need lots of time to be able to catch myself again.

I love if you get me into a yard and get me gardening. You won't get me back. I will be gone. My grandparents are farmers or were farmers and I always tell people I'm a farmer, masking as the director of education. So that's those are some of the things and I'm always.

I'm always challenging myself to push myself out of my comfort zone. I don't like running. So I ran a marathon in the Swiss Alps. I don't really like heights. So I went skydiving. I'm an open water advanced deep sea diver. I've gone zip lining. I've climbed volcanoes. All those things that for me, it just, makes me realize that when I think I can't do something, I actually can.

And it helps me to push myself out of my comfort zone. 

[00:45:20] Rita Burke: Now on SpeakUP! International today, we're speaking with Mr. jeewan chanicka. This gentleman is the Director of Education in the Waterloo Region District School Board. What if you were to be speaking with a group of graduate teachers. Tell us three things that, three gems that you would want to offer them.

[00:45:52] jeewan chanicka: I'd start by asking them why they came to education to begin with, because I always believe if we're connected to our purpose, it makes the harder things easier, right? Because the thing the work that we need to do to change things, You have to be committed from a place of purpose. I think the second thing is how can you care about the children that you are in service to and still hold a high standard for them, a high bar?

Because one of the things that we have seen has been the reality of People who say they care, but what they do is they drop the standards. I don't want you to do that for kids. I want you to build the ladder for them, and help them figure out how to climb a step at a time to get to where they should go.

So that would be the second thing. And the third thing that I might ask them is, who are your critical friends? When you think you figured it out, who are the people that you're going to go to who will tell you the truth? And I always tell people, my friends, the people who are my friends, will tell me what I need to hear, they will not always tell me what I want to hear.

And when it comes to serving children, if we don't have a large dose of humility, and we don't come from the place of, wait a minute, what I could be doing could be harmful, the way I responded may not be the right way. And then how do you take that humility back to the class and apologize to the children that you might have hurt?

Thank you. To me, this is where you're going to actually change things. And so there's this piece about how do you develop the internal resiliency that you need for the moments where in spite of your best effort, you have messed up. I've, for a long time, I've had a real issue with and I've been on record for years talking about this, when there's a big wave in education that we need to teach kids grit and resiliency.

And I used to say, you don't need to teach Indigenous and Black children and queer kids and poor kids and kids with special with disabilities about grit They've been doing it the fact that they're showing up you could learn from them about grit and resiliency So who do you actually need to teach it to and what for right?

So so how do we help those teachers? What I want to know is what are they going to do to develop those internal resources? So when they figure out that in spite of their best effort, they're messing up. I could give you an example from my own career, but it's been a thing for me where I keep looking for those moments of where I think I could have done better or where I, and when I learned, Maya Angelou, when we know better, we do better I'm not trying to tell you, you need to know everything all at once, none of us.

I've been doing equity and human rights work for over 20 years. And I'm still learning. I still find ways that I mess up. I still figure out, oh wait, that's default thinking that you've been socialized to accept. Wait a minute, let's course correct, right? Or when I'm not sure, pick up the phone and call that critical friend.

Who's going to lay it out for me, right? And say, wait a minute, hold it right there. What do you think you're doing right now? And then but if we, and that's for me, where it connects back to purpose. If we're there for the kids, that doesn't feel hard. If we're coming there because we're, we love those children and we are in relation with those children, then That is not hard.

Then we could put our egos to the side because we love the children that we are working for. 

[00:49:46] Ellington Brown: That just goes back to something that you were talking about earlier, which was issuing or promoting through the power of love. And if it's coming from that place, all things are possible. And to just to remember that regardless of I think that how many times you may mess up or you put the horse, behind the cart, if it's using love, it's always going to work out.

And I really do believe that for our children and our children's children, that they're all going to be okay. As soon as They have to stand yet again on the shoulders of giants so that they can reach these goals that our current educators, such as yourself, are trying to put together so that they can have better lives.

Policies is another thing that I noticed that you brought up, and that seems to come up in various conversations that Rita and I've had to, in order to deal with systemic racism. It's, the system itself is perfect. It just doesn't include us. And so we need to figure a way through policy to be able to turn that around so that we are included.

And so that we all can move up together as opposed to separately. You have given a discussion during the key voices to unspoken issues in Peel. It was a forum. Can you tell us a little bit about that event? 

[00:51:38] jeewan chanicka: Wow, you know my back my background way better than I do. Maybe what I want to say is that the conversation about policy is so important.

And maybe, and that's something that I would have discussed at Peel, but maybe if I could lift it forward to where we are right now in this moment. The thing for me, so we just conducted a pretty huge process to build a new strategic plan. And through that strategic plan, we engaged over 10, 000 voices.

More than 5, 000 were children. We created new tools to be able to get kids from kindergarten through grade 12 to tell us what schooling should look like for them. And we went to adults and families and staff as well and community members. Out of that, some really clear, there were clear trends all the way across.

And so we built a new strategic plan out of that. And from that strategic plan, a couple things emerged. One was, We had a new explicit vision and mission for the entire organization. We developed a new learner profile for children that here's what we want our schools to be working towards in their K to 12 experience.

This is the type of human being that we want to emerge from our schools. We also created what we call an ethical compass for the organization, our ethical core. And this ethical core reflects at the heart and it literally is a heart in the center with students written in it and around the circle, the first circle families and staff with no lines because we believe we're working on this together and around that community and global communities again with no line.

The other thing that we did was we change the organizational structure. So the organizational structure used to be the typical pyramid, the director and, schools at the bottom. We flipped it, but we didn't just flip it. We moved away from the pyramid. And now it's a series of interconnecting circles where the director, along with leadership council, is at the bottom, and schools are at the top, with students at the very top.

And the interconnected circles allows us to move up and down as we need to, right? With up being who we serve, as opposed to up being the guy who's in charge, right? From that so then you could still argue those are symbolic. Fine. What does that mean? So what does it mean in terms of how do we now look at and create structures that this becomes the way the organization functions?

So we created policy review process. that engages every single policy that has to go through our human rights branch before it gets to be renewed again, so that we're constantly looking for ways that we adjust the policies. And then what we did was we created a couple working documents to guide the work that's going to happen over the next few years.

One is a charter of engagement, which the, and in the charter of engagement, there is a student voice. There is a business plan, there is a family engagement plan, and there is a community engagement plan. And when we created the Charter of Engagement, we shared it with the community to be as transparent as possible, right?

Remember now, we're creating these pieces, right? Remember when I told you about the recipe? So you have policy, procedure. systems and structures. The other thing that we did was created a leadership capacity plan for the organization. Again, that's going to go out to all staff. So again, there's accountability in saying that, for example, those sovereignty affirming and equity competencies needs to be upheld throughout the entire organization. 

The next thing that we're doing is a staff well being plan. And one of the things that I've asked my team to do is to shift away from the very western colonial understandings of well being as being this individual thing to understanding it in more traditional ways that many of us have within our our histories.

Where you look at the physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, but you also look at that as the individual, the family, the community, the world. So it's two things, it's not one. And it's not well being when you're talking about ergonomics or disability management. That's not well being, right? Now what you have now is a series of plans that are now transparently being shared.

Then you get to the next thing. Which is what is the monitoring and reporting back mechanisms to the community to the family. So they understand here's what we're doing. And here's where we're at with this. So we have a every year we release a board improvement and equity plan. Here's the results that we have.

We have an annual report that we put out. We created a brand new community report card against the strategic plan that we put out. We've now created an annual human rights report that we're putting out. And we're putting it out there, whether it makes us look good or not. Because the only way to drive change is to be honest and also to recognize that we don't have all the expertise.

 Sometimes there'll be folks in the community who'll be like, hey, I noticed this thing. I have this expertise. We could help you with that, right? That's where we, this needs to be us together, right? And through that process, how are we constantly evolving the culture, right? Because culture can eat policy and strategy for breakfast.

So how are we constantly evolving the culture with this in mind that we need to keep expecting this is how we're going to do it? I will tell you it's uncomfortable sometimes. Sometimes you're going to face that straight up resistance to, I don't want to do this. Here's the expectation of the organization and here's the support that I'm going to give you because I know you really want to do this and maybe this feels uncomfortable right now, right?

Or, you don't want to do it and it's still the expectation of the organization to say you need to do it if you want to be here. And That, that policy on its own is not enough, but policy in that space then becomes much more holistic, and one of the things that I've tried to do as the director has been to share everything as publicly as possible, so that the community has access to it, because I'm not going to be here forever.

And the reality is for many of us who get to these places there's a lot of people who don't want us here. And so the reality is knowing that this is how colonial structures function. My job is to make sure that the community has access to that so that the community can continue taking the mantle forward.

It's not about me. This needs to happen whether I'm here or not. And if it's only happening because I'm here, then that's a failure of leadership. But what I believe is that the team That we have built the way that they have been engaged not only in learning but critical reflection and then the ways that they keep coming back that this team cares about this, and they might know everything, and they mightn't get it all, but they sure as heck they want to do better for the kids that they're serving and so I have a deep sense of pride.

And I always ask myself, if you had to step away, do you think the work will continue the way that it's happening? It may not be the exact same, but work needs space to grow, and people need, will take things in different directions. But do I believe that they care, and they want to do it? I do absolutely believe that, and I do think that with the community having access to things, and being as transparent as possible, They also have the ability to move it forward and that now we've put in the director's office, somebody responsible for student voice and I send messages to the students all the time, every year, a few times, and I hold my accountability to them.

Here's what we've done this year. Here's what you told us is what we've done. So when you bring those voices together, it's going to be hard to just take it back to where it was, right? And my goal was always that we can't keep having the conversations that we've been having for the last 50 years for the next 50.

And so if there's anything that's meaningful for me about my time being here, it's not about whether or not it was me or not. It's that we've the conversation so that our kids. We'll have a different possibility and then they need to carry forward because dismantling this is not a one life project. It's an intergenerational project, right? 

[01:00:43] Rita Burke: It's ongoing. It keeps on going. It keeps on going. It keeps on going. We're speaking to jeewan chanicka and he certainly is sharing stories that will enlighten, will inspire. will educate. There's no question about that. And so my next question to you then is there anything that we have not asked you that you'd like to share with our listeners?

[01:01:08] jeewan chanicka: That's a good question. I think the thing that I would say is this, is that the way colonial structures are built., I'm the director and I tell people all the time, I'm still somebody's son. I'm still somebody's brother. I'm still that human being that's there. There have been times that this job I've not been sure that I could keep doing it because the pressure is at times, so much.

And so it's the moments when community reaches out. It's when they hold you up that then provides the, it gives you additional strength to keep trying, right? Because a human being can only take so much beating and then they can't do it anymore. And I think that's true for all of us, wherever we're situated.

When you see good people, whether they're black, brown, indigenous any marginalized folks or white folks who are trying. We need to remember ultimately this idea of all my relations, that we are in relationship. And if all we're doing is holding the person to the role, whatever that role is, principal, teacher, director, whatever it is.

And we don't acknowledge that the roles are created in a way I can't come in and just change everything the way I would like. I have a lot of ideas that I would like to put in place that is pretty common sense to me, right? That I believe will change public education and will increase achievement and being rates for students, but there's all this other stuff that you have to keep going through and going through.

And sometimes we don't always remember that and we hold onto it. People to impossible standards that they could never meet. And And I worry sometimes when I say this because I'm not saying it in a self serving way. I'm saying it because you know what? At some point I'm going to be done.

I'm good. I have my people around me who have my back. But if we want more people who will do this and we don't hold that relationship piece, we don't like the best act of decolonizing is to see the humanity in one another, because when we can recognize each other's humanity, all the rest will go away.

All of a sudden it becomes how do we do the right thing now? To remember that piece. And I think the last thing that I would say is that one of the things that I'm most proud of in the last couple of years as director is that we have really innovated in our approach in the ways that we have changed how boards typically would do work.

And the ability to be able to Look at doing things differently and really engage differently has been one of the things that has given me such a deep sense of pride, but it's Or, and that has only happened because it is the staff, the families and community and the students together. And when we keep working through those processes, we will only keep doing better.

And that is a really great And I think that's a really great source of pride for me in terms of what we've done. And I think, and my hope is that for the next tiers of educators who are coming through on the next groups of leaders that we have to keep remembering why we're here and why we did it.

And we have to remember to prioritize our joy and our well being as we do it. I think that would be it. 

[01:04:57] Rita Burke: We need to normalize joy. 

[01:05:01] jeewan chanicka: Absolutely normalized joy. Yeah. You swing by my office sometimes and you hear some good soca playing, you'll know why. And I'm dancing in my office while I'm working, you know why.

[01:05:13] Ellington Brown: You are the vision of universal health care on an educational level. You come with all of these different tools. You have tons of ideas. You have a staff of individuals that enjoy working with you and support you. And that is definitely the core, including. your education and gaining expertise, whether it's here in North America or in Dubai, you have definitely taken those steps in order to be ready for the position that you're in today.

 I'm sure that Anne Frank would be very happy. You, have shown us a different way of looking at a lot of things in terms of, for an example, opportunity versus adversity. That is such a interesting concept because it allows us not to be afraid of adversity because we don't see it as a road roadblock and using love as the power to get us through.

I want to thank you so much for spending time with us today. And I would love to have you return to us later on, not too long, because you may forget us. So I would hope that you'd come back and tell us what you're doing because I'm sure. You will have several new chapters in your life that you'll want to convey and maybe you even have take a few of those books that you've already written that are screaming for you to publish that you will go ahead and take care of that.

And then you can tell us the impact of your knowledge through the written word. Thank you so much. 

[01:07:16] Rita Burke: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. This was certainly a joy. I could keep on listening to you. I have never seen being an educator as serving others because that's turning the paradigm on its head, but I understand fully that it's necessary to help move her, our students, her children and her families along.

So thank you so very much. Thank you so very much. I appreciate. 

[01:07:42] jeewan chanicka: Thank you so much for having me. It's a pleasure to be here with both of you. I'm grateful to you for what you're doing in terms of trying to, help bring voices from all over the world and give space for it. We need more things like this and more opportunities like this so that we can do better. Every time I travel around the world, there's so much that I learn and it's always humbling. It's always humbling. Just when you think you've figured it out, you meet somebody and they're like have you thought about this?

And you're like, oh, wow. Okay. So thank you for what you're doing as well.

[01:08:18] Ellington Brown: Thank you for listening to SpeakUP! International. If you wish to contact Mr. jeewan chanicka, please be prepared to submit your name, your email address, and the reason why you wish to contact Mr. chanicka via LinkedIn. 

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