Exploring the Potential of Data Collected Under the Federal Contractors Programme to Construct a National Picture of Visible Minority and Aboriginal Faculty in Canadian Universities

Abstract

Based on data collected for the Federal Contractors Compliance Program contained on university websites, this paper attempts to make some informed and accurate assessments of the representation of racialized and Aboriginal faculty. Its preliminary findings reveal that there are significant variations among universities in the percentage of visible minorities and Aboriginal faculty; that there is a relationship between Employment Equity policies and higher percentages of visible minorities and Aboriginal faculty; that the expectation that “visible minorities” and Aboriginal faculty would be over-represented among contract faculty does not hold for “visible minorities” and that racialized and Aboriginal faculty tend to be clustered in certain faculties. Further research and more disaggregated data is, however, required to confirm these initial findings. À partir des données collectées pour le Programme de conformité des contrats fédéraux offert sur les sites Internet universitaires, nous tentons dans cet article d’établir de manière éclairée et exacte la présence d’un corps professoral racialisé et autochtone. Nos premiers résultats révèlent des variations importantes parmi les diverses universités en ce qui concerne le pourcentage des minorités visibles et des Premières nations dans leur faculté, la relation entre les politiques d’équité de l’emploi et une proportion plus élevée des unes et des autres, une conjecture que toutes deux seraient surreprésentées au sein des professeurs sous contrat qui ne tient pas pour les dites «minorités visibles», mais qui est confirmée quant à un corps professoral racialisé et autochtone tendant à être regroupé dans certaines facultés. Il faudrait cependant une recherche plus avancée et plus de données désagrégées avant de pouvoir confirmer ces résultats préliminaires.

Racialized leaders leading Canadian universities

“…Our study endorses the criticism by providing new evidence that half of the country’s public universities have a leadership team composed of all white administrators. An awareness of the situation within higher education has prompted great interest in the development of legislative frameworks to protect these groups from overt and more subtle forms of discrimination (Dowdeswell et al, 2010; Dua and Bhanji, 2012). Universities are not subject uniformly to legislation requiring that they report representation of equity-seeking groups, and there has been little effort to monitor or incentivize more proactive institutional efforts to boost diversity (James, 2011).…”

“…According to (Cukier et al, 2019), this is not a result of labour market availability, it is a result of “the priority and effort that organizations put into recruiting and retaining them.” Despite these ongoing debates, Canadian scholars note that “analyses of racism, racialization, and Indigeneity in the academy are notable by their absence” (Henry et al, 2017; Henry et al, 2012). Although studies have repeatedly assessed the representation of marginalized social groups among Canadian university students (Childs et al, 2016; Finnie et al, 2015) and faculty (Dua and Banji, 2012; Henry et al, 2017; Ramos, 2012), little peer-reviewed research exists on senior university academic and executive leaders, such as presidents and provosts—individuals charged with leading contemporary universities (Nakhaie, 2004).…”

Human Capital or Cultural Taxation: What Accounts for Differences in Tenure and Promotion of Racialized and Female Faculty?

“…In addition to these measures we controlled for academic discipline. Previous research suggests that racialized faculty tend to be concentrated in particular disciplines, such as engineering, computer science, medicine, and science (Dua & Bhanji, 2012;Henry, Choi, & Kobayashi, 2012;Henry & Tator, 2012;Stewart, 2009). Literature also suggests that female faculty are also concentrated in traditionally feminized fields such as nursing, education, and English (Harper et al, 2001;Nettles et al, 2000) and are less likely to work in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (CAUT, 2008;Etzkowitz, Kemelgor, & Uzzi, 2000;Perna, 2005).…”

Navigating the Politics of the Academe

“…Seatter (2016) found that among Canada's 15 researchintensive universities, 8 consist of White male leadership teams, four have some racialized male leadership participation, three are dominated by White women, and racialized and Indigenous women have no representation. Despite an increasingly diverse population in Ontario and Canada, with 22.3% of all Canadians identifying as "visible minorities" and another 4.3% as Indigenous, Canadian universities are endemically White and male (Dua & Bhanji, 2012;Statistics Canada, 2016;Whalen, 2017). While racialized women hold some 18.7% of Doctoral degrees, they only comprise 3.4% of the tenure-track professoriate (Kobayashi, 2009).…”