Page 6 | Spring 2022
also affected Keilyn : “ Education looked different in a community school , just the impact you could have as a teacher . I felt that I could contribute something , just through the relationships formed with students . Teaching is so relationship based , especially in a community school . I felt that who I am and my experiences and lenses would fit well in a community school setting .”
With all this encouragement , Keilyn finally decided to become a teacher . She entered the Elementary Education program at the University of Regina and found the experience life changing . “ The first class was BAM , so eye opening ;” Keilyn says , “ Dr . Carol Schick ’ s class gave me the language to describe my experience . Growing up in Saskatchewan , we didn ’ t really talk about race and racism . Especially when I was growing up in the 90s , there wasn ’ t a lot of diversity ; it was a pretty lonely world . I learned the language for the world around me , to name , recognize , and address oppression and racism in different forms . I ’ ve been drawn to this work in this field ever since .”
Reflecting further on Dr . Schick ’ s class , Keilyn says , “ My identity was being validated in that class — to learn that this is how society is and that it needs to change . Before I had thought it was just me that needed to change . Even for the other students in the class to learn the language of anti-racism and anti-oppression ... it wasn ’ t only my introduction to this language , it was also new to my peers . I remember another person in the class making sense of intersectionality and binaries , saying , ‘ So if you ’ re a woman and you ’ re Black , it ’ s like a double negative ?’ It was so jarring for me to hear that , but at least he was trying to make sense of it , and he was realizing that somebody who looks like me has a lot more to overcome than somebody who looks like him . Even with moments like that , as hard as they are to hear , there is hope : people are still learning , and people are changing , and it gives me much hope for the future .”
In her third year of university , Keilyn experienced her first Black professor , Dr . Barbara McNeil , who had encouraged her while she worked at Footlocker : “ I think that shows how important representation is . I had lived my whole life with White teachers who never told me that I could be a teacher or that I would be a great teacher . I didn ’ t feel seen when I was growing up , didn ’ t see myself reflected in the classroom . I didn ’ t see Black kids in books or hear Black voices . It inhibited my identity growth for a long time .”
The pandemic “ really opened my eyes to some of the inequities that community