Ontario school board trained principals to “speak back” to anti-woke resistance
The school board positions disagreement with “equity work” from parents, staff, and community as “negative resistance” tied to the “anti-woke movement.”
An internal leadership training session obtained by Juno News through a Freedom of Information request shows an Ontario school board instructing principals and administrators on how to “speak back to resistance” to equity initiatives, including from parents, teachers and the broader community.
The Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board session delivered in the 2023-24 school year, titled “School Leaders Speaking Back to Resistance to Equity Work & Taking Action,” begins with an “ancestral land acknowledgement” recognizing “the labour of our African ancestors” and their “struggle for justice and liberation.”
The training then sets out its central premise. “Resistance,” one slide states, is “most often experienced as negative.” In “current contexts,” it adds, “the dominant form of negative resistance is the emerging and growing anti-woke movement.”
