Funké Aladejebi

Funké Aladejebi is a scholar of the twentieth century with a specialization in Black Canadian history. Her research and teaching interests focus on oral history, the history of education in Canada, Black Canadian women’s history, and transnationalism. Her forthcoming book, Schooling the System: A History of Black Women Teachers, explores the importance of Black Canadian women in sustaining their communities and preserving a distinct Black identity within restrictive gender and racial barriers. Her writing frequently explores how legacies of race, gender, and migration influence the contemporary educational encounters of Black Canadian communities. Her articles on Black Canadian history and feminist pedagogies have appeared in Education Matters, Ontario History, and the Southern Journal of Canadian Studies. She is also currently co-editing with Dr. Michele Johnson, a collection of essays titled, Unsettling the Great White North: African Canadian History, which explores the histories of African Canadian, Canadian, and African Diasporic communities across chronological, regional and thematic subjects.

Her second research project charts international education recruitment and training programs in Canada, the Caribbean and Africa. Her work seeks to understand how Canada’s role in the development of Black Internationalism was shaped by broader social criticisms about the scope of Black freedom globally.

Publications

“Writing Black Canadian Women’s History: Where We Have Been and Where We Are Going,” co-authored with Karen Flynn in Reading Canadian Women's and Gender History, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2019.

“‘Send Little Outbursts Across the School’: Black Women Teachers and Micro-Resistive Strategies in Ontario Schools, 1960s – 1980s.” Education Matters Vol 4, No 1 (2016): 16-22

“‘We’ve Got Our Quota’: Black Female Educators and Resistive Pedagogies, 1960s-1980s.” Ontario History Vol. 107, No. 1 (Spring 2015): 113 – 131

“‘I didn’t want to be anything special. I just wanted to teach school’: A Case Study of Black Female Educators in Colchester, Ontario, 1960.” Southern Journal of Canadian Studies, Vol. 5, no.1-2 (December 2012), 146-159.