Equity, Diversity, Inclusion & Accessibility

My understanding of equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility has developed through practice, research, and sustained engagement with scholarship that refuses to treat inequity as incidental to early childhood education. Dr. Maria Yellow Horse Brave Heart developed the concept of historical trauma to understand the intergenerational impact of colonial violence on Indigenous peoples. Applied to the Canadian context, including the legacy of the residential school system, this framework shaped the resource I co-authored and continues to inform how I understand the families I work with. Peggy McIntosh's analysis of privilege shifted my attention from individual behaviour to the structures that advantage some and burden others, often invisibly. These frameworks converge in a conviction I carry into my practice: that racism is structural, its effects are traumatic, and anti-racism is an active practice - defined by Race Forward as "actively opposing racism by advocating for changes in political, economic, and social life." Universal Design for Learning extends this thinking into accessibility: rather than treating accommodation as a response to individual need, UDL asks educators to design for the full range of learners from the outset.

In my work with children and families, I try to translate these commitments into concrete habits. Much of this has happened through practicum supervision at the Jean Tweed Child Development Centre. I return regularly to the self-reflective check-in the workbook I co-authored describes: examining whose voices are centred in a space, what images are on the walls, what books are on the shelves, and whether these reflect or erase the families present. I am deliberate about examining my own assumptions, particularly around behaviour, which is too often read through a lens of deficiency rather than context. Looking ahead to formal teaching, this shapes how I would approach curriculum design: centring Indigenous, Black, and racialized scholars throughout a course rather than only in units framed explicitly as being "about" diversity, and building assessments that offer students multiple ways to demonstrate their learning.

My EDIA commitments are most concretely evidenced in my work at the Jean Tweed Centre, supporting women and children navigating the intersecting impacts of substance use, mental health challenges, domestic violence, and housing instability. The families I have worked with exist at the convergence of systems that the Ontario Human Rights Commission has documented disproportionately harm Black and Indigenous communities - and that reality shapes everything about how I approach this work. It also directly shaped the Trauma-Informed Practice Workbook I co-authored, published in 2021. Chapter 2 addresses anti-racism and anti-oppression explicitly: the racial dimensions of trauma, intergenerational impacts on Indigenous and Black families in Canada, and what active anti-oppressive practice looks like in ECE settings. The workbook was designed to be accessible across experience and literacy levels - an equity commitment built into the resource itself. My professional development reflects the same sustained focus: Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging training through Jean Tweed (2025); Indigenous Cultural Awareness Training with the City of Toronto (2024); and specialized training in supporting children with exceptionalities at George Brown College (2019).

I am wary of statements that describe commitment without accountability. My capstone research surfaced how consistently the ECE profession fails to prepare educators for the realities of working with marginalized children and families, a finding I hold as an ongoing responsibility, not a conclusion. I am still developing my fluency in disability justice frameworks and in how accessibility operates at the level of curriculum design. My understanding of Indigenous histories and cultural safety is similarly ongoing, not something a single training resolves. What I can commit to is the disposition the workbook articulates: checking my biases regularly, treating families and students as folks with expertise in their own experience, and approaching EDIA as a continuing practice of accountability rather than a destination.