The Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO) has presented Rabia Khokhar, a teacher with the Toronto Occasional Teachers Local, with its 2022 Professional Learning and Curriculum Development Award for creating “Critical Resource Selection Toolkit: Assessing Resources with an Anti-Racist Lens.”

This award recognizes an ETFO member or group of members for their development of a curriculum unit, resource, etc.

Khokhar has always been interested in teaching and supporting professional development from an anti-racist and equity lens. As a new teacher, she found it difficult to bring theory to practice in different teaching assignments and classrooms, and found this experience was shared by other teachers. As such, Khokhar developed several resources to support the professional development of educators.

She is one of the members of the Anti-Racism and Gender Curriculum Writing Project, and was the writer, presenter and lesson planner of a back-to-school webcast that supported occasional teachers. Khokhar developed the resource selection toolkit to be used as a framework through which educators could check to see the quality of their resources in relation to equity and anti-racism. This framework is one of the ways educators can start this work in their learning spaces.

“Rabia’s work embodies ETFO’s equity and social justice priorities to ensure that all public elementary students have inclusive classrooms and equitable learning opportunities. Her toolkit is just one of the resources she has created to support this critical learning,” says ETFO President Karen Brown. “Her toolkit has provided a necessary framework for educators, administrators, community organizations, university professors, students and families. We know it’s making a difference in schools inside and outside of Ontario.”

ETFO represents approximately 83,000 members, including public elementary teachers, occasional teachers, designated early childhood educators, education support personnel, and professional support personnel. Visit BuildingBetterSchools.ca.