Marxist decolonization research celebrated at one of Canada’s top teacher colleges
A leading Canadian institution that trains future teachers is promoting academic research centered on global revolution, Marxism, and “decolonization,” sparking concern over the political agenda.
A leading Canadian institution that trains future teachers is promoting academic research centered on global revolution, Marxism, and “decolonization,” sparking concern over the political agenda that may soon be taught to Ontario students.
Shozab Raza, an early-career researcher at the University of Toronto’s Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, has received multiple academic awards over the past year, including the 2025 Connaught New Researcher Award from the university’s Connaught Fund.
The Connaught award is reserved for “outstanding early-career scholars” and is widely regarded as one of the University of Toronto’s most important internal research grants. It is designed to identify faculty members the institution views as future research leaders and provide them with the funding, legitimacy and institutional backing needed to build long-term influence.
In Raza’s case, the award funds a multi-year research project titled “The Revolution in Decolonization: Universal Insurgency in the Global Sixties.” The project looks at revolutionary decolonial movements of the mid-twentieth century, treating them as part of a global political moment rather than isolated struggles.
OISE’s role in this is significant. As Ontario’s premier teacher-training institution, OISE prepares future educators, administrators and education researchers who go on to work throughout the province’s K–12 system. By awarding Connaught funding to a Social Justice Education faculty member, the university signals that this research agenda aligns with its institutional priorities, which often filter into graduate coursework, pedagogy and teacher training.
Raza’s research focuses on critical political economy, decolonization, and revolutionary thought and practice. He was also co-awarded a 2025 Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Connection Grant for “Marxism in Translation and the Demands of Decolonization.”
That SSHRC-funded project included workshops exploring how Marxist theory can be translated across different social, cultural, and linguistic contexts. According to the project, Marxism is a “living tradition” that changes form depending on local conditions and can offer context-specific “strategies for liberation.”
As a doctoral student at the University of Toronto, he argued for a fusion of Islam and communism, describing Sufi Islam as fundamentally compatible with Marxist thought. In that work, he coined the term “Mystical Marxism,” drawing inspiration from Maoist theory and revolutionary politics.
More recently, Raza has taken public political positions that leave no doubt about his revolutionary beliefs. He expressed support for the encampments that emerged on the University of Toronto campus following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel. In 2024, he signed an open letter endorsing the university’s Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions campaign and backing the encampments’ demands, including calls for divestment related to what the letter described as Israel’s “apartheid policies” and “ongoing genocide in Gaza.”
True North contacted Raza to ask about the substance of his Connaught-funded research and how it intersects with teacher training but did not receive a response by publication time.
The Connaught award, alongside federally funded Marxist scholarship at one of Canada’s most influential faculties of education, signals that academics like Raza continue to receive strong institutional support and influence. As concerns continue over the role of ideology in teacher education, his work offers a glimpse into how the lines between revolutionary politics and teacher training are increasingly blurred. This raises questions about the future of Ontario’s public education system.
The first duty of a sufi is to immerse himself in God, that is, in Pure, unadulterated, unselfish, honest and ethical Love. A real sufi can convert Jews to Islam, with pure wisdom, beautiful teachings, kindness and love. A true sufi sees everyone’s suffering as his suffering. He will work to remove their suffering before his own. They are extremely rare: perhaps one in a billion people. Fake sufis exist. They might die in the thoughts of snakes, scorpions and centipedes.
I get it now, it’s the Santa Claus Syndrome.