One of ETFO's priorities is "...to promote social justice in the areas of peace, anti-poverty, non-violence, and equity.”
Part of ETFO's mission is the education, stimulation, and transformation of provincial and local organizations to be responsive to the diverse needs of the membership, and to be a positive influence for change at a societal level.
ETFO strives to reflect diversity in all aspects of its operations. The equity work of the organization flows from one of the priorities of the Federation and the definition of equity adopted by the Executive:
ETFO recognizes that we live in a society characterized by individual and systemic discrimination against particular groups. Within this context, ETFO defines equity as fairness achieved through proactive measures that result in equality for all.
ETFO applies an anti-oppressive framework to its work as it applies its equity statement.
An anti-oppressive framework is the method and process in which we understand how systems of oppression such as colonialism, racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, classism and ableism can result in individual discriminatory actions and structural/systemic inequalities for certain groups in society. Anti-oppressive practices and goals seek to recognize and dismantle such discriminatory actions and power imbalances. Anti-oppressive practices and this framework should seek to guide the Federation’s work with an aim to identify strategies and solutions to deconstruct power and privilege in order to mitigate and address the systemic inequalities that often operate simultaneously and unconsciously at the individual, group and institutional or union level.
Intersectionality is a framework for conceptualizing a person, group of people, or social problem as affected by a number of discriminations and disadvantages. It takes into account people’s multiple identities and experiences in order to understand the complexity of prejudices they face. This theory asserts that individuals are often simultaneously disadvantaged by multiple sources of oppression: their race, class, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, and other identity markers.
Learn more through this webcast: Intersectionality: An Equity Framework, which introduces the basic concepts of intersectionality. It will both deepen and support your critical and conceptual thinking about ways we can consider equity work within schools, communities, and ETFO.
Organizations across Ontario and Canada are working to obtain social justice. Below you will find links to organizations and resources on social justice issues.
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