Taking the bull by the horns: the critical perspectives and pedagogy of two Black teachers in Anglophone Montreal schools

Abstract

In the midst of the complicated racial-linguistic landscape that is Montreal, Quebec, the educational experiences of the relatively small population of Anglophone Blacks are often invisibilized within the education literature, and relatively little attention is paid to the nature of Black students’ and educators’ struggles with racism and Eurocentricity within Anglophone schools in Montreal. This article makes a contribution to the empirical literature concerning these groups. It shares the experiences of, and racism witnessed by, two Black teachers in Montreal. Their narratives paint a compelling picture of the consequences and effects of educating Black students within a colour-blind context in Montreal schools, as well as the pedagogies and personal philosophies they work through to resist and challenge the context of denial within Canadian education. The article ends with a discussion of the ways in which the teachers’ pedagogies align with critical anti-racist praxis, and nascent forms of African-centred pedagogy.