Streaming and Marginalization in the Ontario Education System: A Problem of Practice

Abstract

The public education system in Ontario, Canada is designed to stream students into either academic or applied categories, a problematic practice which can begin as early as kindergarten and continue through secondary school. Streaming can include specialty programs such as the gifted programs, vocational-led schooling models, and specialty high-skills majors. This study seeks to reveal the inequities occurring within Ontario’s current streaming process. The authors investigate the history of streaming in schools, record site observations from schools in the Greater Toronto Area, and analyze material from current academic research through the lens of culturally relevant pedagogy. Based on their findings, the authors offer a list of suggestions and potential solutions for implementing de-streaming in Ontario schools, with a view to eradicating deficit-based models that disenfranchise and marginalize large populations of youth in Ontario.