What Does Race Have to Do With It? Challenging the Preservice Admissions Process

While Canada boasts a federal policy on employment equity, these initiatives extend past the workforce into the domain of university admissions where applicants are often faced with the option of identifying themselves as a “visible minority.” There exists, however, a lot of ambiguity surrounding how this collected data is used and the reasons why diversity is sought after. In the field of education, dominant discourses assert that teachers should reflect the increasingly diverse student population, but how does this affect the way that racialized individuals approach the admissions process? How do racialized educators understand the role of race and equity in the preservice admissions process? Using an anti-racist theoretical framework, in-depth individual interviews with 21 racialized teachers reveal the complexity of equity initiatives. Without knowing how applicants’ demographical information is used, numerous participants express feelings of frustration, insecurity, and confusion. A lack of transparency and information in policies designed to achieve equity lead to widespread misunderstandings about the importance of these initiatives in promoting access to diverse individuals. The inside perspectives of racialized teachers contribute to a deeper understanding of how equity policies are interpreted and what adverse effects they can have on the individuals they intended to support.