Section 2

Section 2: Anti-Sexism and Gender Equity

The Toronto District School Board mandates that all persons in schools, workplaces, and meeting places associated with the Board abide by its Commitments to Equity Policy Implementation. This applies to all persons on Board premises, persons working on Board business (either on or off Board premises), and persons involved with Board-sponsored programs at other premises. This includes students, trustees, parents, volunteers, visitors, permit-holders, contractors, and corporate partners.

2.1. Board Policies, Guidelines, and Practices
2.2. Leadership
2.3. School-Community Partnerships
2.4. Curriculum
2.5. Language
2.6. Student Evaluation, Assessment, and Placement
2.7. Guidance
2.8. Employment and Promotion Practices
2.9. Staff Development
2.10. Harassment

2.1. Board Policies, Guidelines, and Practices

The Toronto District School Board has approved an Equity Policy Statement which requires that anti-sexism and gender equity ideals be reflected in all aspects of organizational structures, policies, guidelines, procedures, classroom practices, day-to-day operations, and communication practices. The Toronto District School Board policies, guidelines, and practices shall ensure that the needs and safety of all students, employees, trustees, parents, volunteers, visitors, permit-holders, contractors, and partners are addressed. These shall reflect the diverse viewpoints, needs, and aspirations of community members, particularly women, whose voices traditionally and systemically have been marginalized and excluded. This includes Aboriginal, racial, ethnocultural, faith, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, disabled, working-class, low-income, poor, and other historically disadvantaged groups of women.

The Board shall provide an appropriate mechanism to ensure accountability for achieving these goals by:

• 2.1.1. articulating clearly the Board`s commitment to the principles of anti-sexism and gender equity in all Board policies, guidelines, day-to-day operations, protocol, and practices;
• 2.1.2. identifying and eliminating sexism, gender bias, and barriers in Board policies, guidelines, day-to-day operations, protocol, and practices;
• 2.1.3. identifying the many diverse sectors within women`s communities and other historically disadvantaged groups within the jurisdiction of the Board, and involving these communities in partnership activities;
• 2.1.4. assessing the effectiveness of community consultation and partnership involvement;
• 2.1.5. establishing accountability processes to document progress and ensure continuous implementation of the Anti-Sexism and Gender Equity Commitments to Equity Policy;
• 2.1.6. allocating resources to provide compensatory education and ensure policy implementation.

An informed leadership identifies individual discriminatory attitudes and behaviours, as well as systemic inequities and barriers, and demonstrates accountability for their removal, with the goal of achieving equity for all, irrespective of gender. Communication is an integral part of leadership, and includes the ability to listen to equity-seeking groups. All system leaders and decision-makers play a crucial role in identifying and addressing systemic inequities or barriers.

The Toronto District School Board shall provide informed and committed leadership at all levels by:

• 2.2.1. assisting trustees, administrators, staff, and student leaders to develop knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviours required to implement the Equity Policy in the area of Anti-Sexism and Gender Equity;
• 2.2.2. ensuring that policy directions, priorities, and day-to-day implementation of programs and services are consistent with the aims of Anti-Sexism and Gender Equity;
• 2.2.3. identifying expectations for those responsible for implementation, and incorporating these expectations into the performance-appraisal processes, including: the ongoing evaluation of teachers, support staff, and administrators; annual plans; and year-end reports;
• 2.2.4. ensuring that educational practices are inclusive and reflect the contributions of diverse groups of girls and women in our communities, and that all forms of stereotyping, prejudice, discrimination, sexism, and violence agae chal- lenged and eliminated.

Effective school-community partnerships enable representation and active participation from diverse communities, and ensure the inclusion of the perspectives, experiences, and needs of Aboriginal, racial, ethnocultural, and faith communities to enhance educational opportunities for all.

The Toronto District School Board is committed to ongoing, constructive, and open dialogue in partnership with Aboriginal, racial, ethnocultural, and faith communities to increase co-operation and collaboration among home, school, and the community-at-large.

The Board shall work to create partnerships that ensure effective participation in the education process by:

• 2.3.1. identifying and involving representative and inclusive organizations and communities of women within the jurisdiction of the Board;
• 2.3.2. requesting women`s organizations and communities to identify representatives for the purpose of establishing school-community partnerships;
• 2.3.3. assessing and evaluating the effectiveness of community consultation and partnership involvement, and developing guidelines for effective partnership that respect the rights of students in an environment free of commercial intrusion and economic exploitation in accordance with Policy E.06 on External Partnerships;
• 2.3.4. encouraging school councils, home and school organizations, and parent-teacher associations to reflect the range of diverse groups in the communities they represent;
• 2.3.5. ensuring effective and appropriate communication with community partners in their languages, as required;
• 2.3.6. ensuring students, parents, and staff access to supportive community resources, as appropriate for use in TDSB schools.

Curriculum is defined as the total learning environment, including physical environment, learning materials, pedagogical practices, assessment instruments, and co-curricular and extra-curricular activities.

A curriculum that strives for gender equity provides a balance of feminist perspectives. The Toronto District School Board acknowledges that inequities have existed in the curriculum; therefore, the Board is committed to enabling all girls and women to see themselves reflected in the curriculum. The Board is further committed to providing each student with the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviours needed to live in a complex and diverse world by:

• 2.4.1. ensuring that principles and practices of anti-sexism and gender equity permeate the curriculum in all subject areas;
• 2.4.2. examining and challenging curriculum that traditionally has been male- dominated or ignores the experiences of women of diverse backgrounds in order to ensure inclusivity;
• 2.4.3. developing a process to determine whether discriminatory gender biases and violence against women are present in learning materials, programs, or practices;
• 2.4.4. ensuring the review and/or modification of materials that promote stereotyping; the review and modification of programs that promote stereotyping, discrimi- nation or sexism; and the removal of materials or programs that promote hatred and/or violence against women;
• 2.4.5. providing adequate resources and training to assist all staff in becoming agents of change; to use materials effectively to promote critical-thinking skills; and to challenge sexism and gender bias;
• 2.4.6. ensuring that classrooms, resource centres, school libraries, audio-visual collections, computer software, and Internet sites contain materials and resources that accurately reflect a diversity of women and other historically disadvantaged groups;
• 2.4.7. developing guidelines to ensure that displays and visual representation in all schools and workplaces of the Toronto District School Board reflect gender diversity and include the contributions of women;
• 2.4.8. supporting student leadership programs in anti-sexism education and equity;
• 2.4.9. developing and providing programs to address and support the gender-related needs of female and male students in all curriculum areas, including early intervention programs to encourage female and male students into non-traditional gender roles and work;
• 2.4.9.1. ensuring that the contributions to Canadian and world history and historiography from diverse groups of women are included accurately in all aspects of the curriculum;
• 2.4.9.2. ensuring that curriculum materials and learning resources are allocated to challenge sexism, violence against women, and hate groups and hate propaganda based on gender and/or any other social identity;
• 2.4.9.3. developing programs to encourage, promote, and support the needs of female students in the fields of mathematics, science, technology, and athletics.

Language proficiency is the foundation of academic success. The Toronto District School Board recognizes and affirms the value of students` first/indigenous languages while ensuring proficiency in one or both of Canada`s official languages by:

• 2.5.1. ensuring that students achieve literacy in at least one official language;
• 2.5.2. providing appropriate classroom support for language learnin. affirming and valuing students` first/indigenous language;
• 2.5.4. supporting the learning of languages in addition to English and French;
• 2.5.5. ensuring that all students are valued and affirmed in such language learning;
• 2.5.6. committing to using clear, inclusive language, and design that promotes understanding;
• 2.5.7. ensuring that resources are available to facilitate appropriate communication with students/parents/guardians.

The Toronto District School Board is committed to evaluation, assessment, programming, and placement processes that are sensitive to all students` backgrounds, as well as personal/family experiences by:

• 2.6.1. identifying, reviewing, and changing practices that lead to the dispropor- tionate streaming of female and male students into academic programs that narrow their choices and life opportunities or limit participation in their local community;
• 2.6.2. ensuring that bias based on gender does not adversely impact on programming, placement, and academic decisions, and that students, with the support of their parents/guardians (as appropriate), are able to consider and make informed programming, placement, and academic decisions;
• 2.6.3. ensuring that evaluation, assessment, programming, and placement decisions meet individual student needs and offer them opportunities to reach their highest potential. The Board provides and implements strategies to ensure that the abilities of students are not underestimated on the basis of gender-related stereotypical assumptions. This process must consider gender and its interconnections to cultural and linguistic factors, faith, sexual orientation and gender identity, socio-economic factors, disabilities, personal/family experiences, previous education, students` future expectations, and students` rights to continuity, stability, and community belonging;
• 2.6.4. re-evaluating, annually, placement decisions that are jointly considered by the student/parent/guardian and the school, to ensure that placement decisions are consistent with Board policies, are flexible to meet needs, and do not limit education and life opportunities.

The Toronto District School Board recognizes that informed counsellors, teachers, and staff in counselling roles can help to remove discriminatory barriers for students in the school system and in work-related experiences. The Board shall respond effectively to the needs of students from diverse groups by:

• 2.7.1. providing counselling services that are culturally sensitive, supportive, and free of gender bias;
• 2.7.2. providing proactive strategies that ensure the abilities of all students are not underestimated on the basis of female gender-related stereotypical assumptions, to assure that all students experience personal growth and reach their full potential in academic and life paths;
• 2.7.3. eliminating discriminatory biases related to female students of diverse back- grounds in educational and life-planning programs;
• 2.7.4. encouraging and supporting female and male students and thefication of non-traditional career options;
  • 2.7.4.1. working with female students and their families to identify career options that historically have excluded women of marginalized groups, and help them to choose academic paths that will allow them to succeed in a traditionally male-dominated society;
• 2.7.5. ensuring that communication strategies are in place to keep all parents/guardians informed about their children`s current educational achievement, progress, and their plans for the future, in a language they understand, and including the provision of translations where necessary.

The Toronto District School Board recognizes that there are barriers to employment that historically have had a discriminatory impact on diverse groups of women. The Board is committed to equity for all in hiring and promotion practices.

The Board is committed to the development and maintenance of employment and promotion policies, practices, and procedures that are designed to employ a workforce that at all levels reflects, understands, and responds to a diverse population. The Board will respond to and support this workforce and its diverse population by:

• 2.8.1. ensuring that equitable employment and promotion practices exist;
• 2.8.2. identifying and eliminating systemic barriers in the employment and promotion system;
• 2.8.3. ensuring that employment and promotion strategies focus on under- represented communities;
• 2.8.4. establishing outreach activities and affirmative-action strategies (e.g., encouragement, mentoring, training, and staff development) that focus on marginalized groups of women and men in order to ensure that schools and other workplaces within the Board achieve equitable representation at all levels;
• 2.8.5. ensuring that the Board`s commitment to anti-sexism and gender equity is communicated throughout the Board, and that staff, students, and community are aware of this commitment;
• 2.8.6. eliminating barriers and encouraging diverse groups of women to apply for teaching and non-teaching positions.

The Toronto District School Board is committed to ongoing staff development in anti-sexism and gender equity for trustees and Board staff, and will assist them to acquire the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviours to identify and eliminate sexist and discriminatory practices by:

• 2.9.1. identifying staff development needs to improve employees` knowledge, skills, and sensitivity in anti-sexist education and gender equity;
• 2.9.2. establishing opportunities for employees to acquire the critical knowledge skills, sensitivity, and behaviours which will support the creation and maintenance of an education system that empowers all students, regardless of gender, to learn, to achieve success, and to participate responsibly in a diverse, global society;
• 2.9.3. improving staff`s knowledge, skills, and expertise in anti-sexism and gender equity in order to help them understand how to identify and challenge prejudice, stereotyping, discrimination, and sexism so that they are better able to meet the needs of all students, regardless of their gender;
• 2.9.4. training teaching and support staff in anti-sexism, gender equity, and other education methodologies to enable them to deliver an inclusive curriculum;
• 2.9.5. training and empowering employees to deal effectively and confidently with issues of sexism, violence against women, gender bias, and discrimination;
• 2.9.6. supporting initiatives that foster dialogue to create understanding and respect for gender diversity, which will result in a safe learning environment and community for all students;
• 2.9.7. promoting the expectation that all employee practices will reflect anti-sexism, and gender equity policies and practices, and by establishing criteria for accountability and evaluation;
• 2.9.8. involving, as appropriate, diverse groups of women and other historically disadvantaged groups who have advocated on behalf of their communities and implementation of staff-development programs.

Sexual and gender harassment, whether intended or not, is demeaning treatment and violent behaviour. Sexual and gender harassment are forms of discrimination that are prohibited under the Ontario Human Rights Code. (Please refer to the Board`s Human Rights Policy for the policy and procedures with regard to sexual and gender harassment.)