Community

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Greenwood is committed to creating a diverse, equitable and inclusive community that fosters a sense of belonging.

Our approach to bringing greater Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging to Greenwood is focused on creating real, lasting change, and on ensuring that our entire community is moving towards this goal. We are examining our systems and structures for bias and identifying concrete action steps to address that bias - and, critically, we are benchmarking our work over time to ensure that we are making real progress.

On this page, you'll find information on the action we're taking to build a more diverse, equitable and inclusive community. You'll also find resources that can help us all to live these values in every aspect of our lives. Look for frequent updates!

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion: 2021-2022 Year In Review

Greenwood’s overall goal for our 2021-2022 diversity, equity and inclusion work was to create a strong foundation from which to build in the future. We need to know ourselves and our identities before entering into deep diversity and community work. With that in mind, our focus in 2021-2022 was equipping students and staff with the introspective tools and practices they needed to better understand themselves. “You can’t do anything until you understand what you bring to the table,” says Rachael Brownell-Swain, Director, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Outreach.

Professional Development Plan
Rachael developed a five-phase professional development plan for all staff for the 2021-2022 school year (see below for an overview and some sample presentations). Year 1 of the plan focused on building a solid understanding of anti-racism and anti-oppression education; in the years to come, all staff will build upon that foundation to create positive and inclusive communities at the school.

Phase 1	Self-Education (anti-racism, anti-oppression, social justice, current expectations, culturally responsive pedagogy, curriculum) Presentation: Disruption Through Discourse
Phase 2	Curriculum Gaps (developing units of study, making curriculum changes, examining course content) Presentation: Creating Equity in the Classroom
Phase 3	Avoiding Performativity (developing classroom and community cultures, developing allyship behaviours, avoiding performative allyship, authenticity in all spaces) Presentation: Allyship in Action
Phase 4	Disrupting and Dismantling (positive intervention, redirecting, creating programming and policies)
Phase 5	Critical Allyship and Planning for Change (What does critical allyship look like in your interactions? Your workspaces? Your classroom? How do we plan for change in the coming year?)

RIDES Assessment

Greenwood has adopted the Reimagining Integration: Diversity and Equity in Schools (RIDES) model from Harvard University, a research-backed framework that gives schools the tools to support and measure deep work in diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging. We piloted this framework over the 2020-2021 school year with success (read the 2020-2021 RIDES evaluation report).

In 2021-2022, our aim was to put the next steps identified in 2020-2021 into action while also looking closely at programs, practices and curriculum. Along the way, we are continuing to measure our progress in fostering diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging using the benchmarks we have created. Additionally, we wanted to explore additional lenses on school life and spheres of influence in order to identify additional opportunities for growth and change.

Read the 2021-2022 RIDES evaluation report now.

Community Themes
We created themes for each term of the 2021-2022 school year that tied together the DEI work for that term. For example, Term 1 was “Identities”, with the first three months of the year focusing on Indigenous identities, 2SLGBTQ+ identities and the legacy of identity, respectively. Each term began with community-building activities related to empathy, encouraging students to truly consider others’ perspectives and reflect on how they can be effective allies.

DEI Staff Advisory Committee
The new DEI Advisory Committee was created with the goal of encouraging staff members to explore their own areas of influence within the context of creating an equitable school grounded in anti-oppression and anti-racist thinking. Committee members examine existing systems and structures at Greenwood that may present barriers to equity and inclusion and present recommendations to school leadership based on their findings.

Panorama Survey
In the spring of 2022, we undertook a whole-school Equity and Inclusion Survey through Panorama, a company that delivers high-quality surveying tools for many communities and organizations. The results of the survey established valuable benchmark data that will inform policy, programming and systemic growth at Greenwood moving forward; we will track progress on these benchmarks through repeating the survey in the future.

What’s Next

We engaged deeply with issues concerning the development of equity, inclusion and diversity within our community in 2021-2022, and we are excited to continue and build upon this work for 2022-2023. Areas of focus for this year include:

Centring student voice
Social justice
Curriculum review (both content and instructional practice)

We look forward to sharing our progress on this important work with you.

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging Resources

List of 5 items.

Books
- Gender: Your Guide by Lee Airton, PhD
- Me and White Supremacy by Layla F. Saad
- White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo
- How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
- So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo
- Dare to Lead: Brave Work, Tough Conversations, Whole Hearts by Brené Brown
- Overcoming Bias by Tiffany Jana and Matthew Freeman
- Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay
- Why Young Men: Rage, Race and the Crisis of Identity by Jamil Jivani
- Blindspot by Mahzarin R. Banaji and Anthony G. Greenwald
- Waking Up White, and Finding Myself in the Story of Race by Debby Irving
- Belonging Through a Culture of Dignity: The Keys to Successful Equity Implementation by Floyd Cobb and John Krownapple
- Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
- Don't Label Me: An Incredible Conversation for Divided Times by Irshad Manji
- The Broken Ladder: How Inequality Affects the Way We Think, Live, and Die by Keith Payne
Articles
- 70 Inclusive Language Principles (Medium)
- How to be an ally in the workplace: 13 ways to do it (TED)
- Why it's hard for people of colour to be themselves at work (BBC)
- A time for radical empathy (Transforming Society)
- What is Restorative Justice? (Edutopia)
- Islamophobia in schools: How teachers and communities can recognize and challenge its harms (The Conversation)
- Why fixing First Nations education remains so far out of reach (Maclean's)
Rosetta Lee Resources
Rosetta Lee serves Seattle Girls’ School in dual roles. SGS is an innovative school for Junior High School girls, aiming to empower women leaders and change agents and dedicating its energies to a diverse community of students and faculty, an anti-bias mission, and an integrated curriculum. As a faculty member, Rosetta teaches subjects such as science, math, technology, art, ethics, social justice, and more. As a professional outreach specialist, she designs and delivers trainings for all constituencies of the school community, as well as the local and national educational and nonprofit sectors.
- Framing and Talking Points
- Identity, Inclusion and Allyship
Videos and Talks
Podcasts

This Place
Seeing White
About Race
The Diversity Gap
Dare to Lead (Episode Recommendation: Brené with Aiko Bethea on Inclusivity at Work: The Heart of Hard Conversations)
Choose Inclusion
Inclusion Works
Revisionist History
Telling Our Twisted Histories
Code Switch
Women at Work
The Secret Life of Canada

Diversity Statement

Greenwood is committed to helping students develop all aspects of their character. We want to prepare our students to make a positive difference in the world – and that means fostering a respectful, diverse and inclusive community. We aim to embrace individuals whose differences include, but are not limited to: age, ancestry, citizenship, colour, creed, disability, ethnic origin, family status, gender expression, gender identity, marital status, place of origin, race, or sexual orientation. We strive to develop students’ cultural awareness and competency by weaving diverse perspectives into every part of school life.

Community News

List of 5 news stories.

Pride Month at Greenwood
10/26/2022
Aubrey Campbell '24, Bayla Appleby '23 and Chloe White '24

Our DEI Committee executives – Aubrey Campbell ‘24, Bayla Appleby ‘23 and Chloe White ‘24 – each discuss the various Pride Month initiatives at Greenwood from their perspectives.

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Seeking Truth and Making “Reconcili-actions”
10/26/2022
Hope Thompson '23 and Carson Blackwell '24

Hope Thompson ‘23 and Carson Blackwell ‘24 write about the importance of Greenwood’s Truth and Reconciliation Week and Orange Shirt Day.
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Tour for Humanity Comes to Greenwood
5/18/2022
Tihmily Li, Communications Officer

On May 2 and 3, the interactive learning bus Tour for Humanity visited Greenwood.
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Meet Your Committees: DEI Committee
3/2/2022
Tihmily Li, Communications Officer

Students at Greenwood can get involved with many student committees. In today’s Life @ Greenwood, let’s learn more about the DEI Committee!
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Owning Our Story
2/2/2022
Tihmily Li, Communications Officer

Trained coaches Demore Barnes and Shauna Barnes led two in-depth sessions with the Greenwood community on how to break down barriers when approaching topics regarding race and diversity.
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