Place Card - Girl in Blue Coat and Bonnet

A place card with an illustration of a girl in a blue coat and bonnet.

Metal Stamp - Woodruff Coat of Arms

Square metal stamp, 2 1/2 cm x 6 1/2 cm, with the words "P.C. Band, Toronto, Ontario" engraved on it. The bar is 1 cm thick.

Woodruff Coat of Arms

Woodruff coat of arms (rough sketch - labeled), including a letter to Margaret from “Uncle Tom” regarding the coat of arms. Also included are 4 small cards and one Easter card bearing the coat of arms. [The Woodruff/Woodroffe crest originated in England. Sit Dux Sapientia (Wisdom be our guide). The arm holding a plant is supposed to be a dexter [right] arm, bent, holding a branch of honeysuckle vertically. Some members of the family believe that the plant is actually woodruff], Jan. 18, 1926.

Drawing and Explanation of the Cleveland Family Coat of Arms

Drawing and explanation of the Cleveland Family coat of arms. Pro Deo et Patria means For God and Country. The name is Saxon in origin and in 1403 the “de” was dropped from the name. The drawing and text are said to be from Cleveland Genealogy by J.B. Cleveland, 1881. It can also be found in An Account of the Lineage of General Moses Cleaveland (founder of the city of Cleveland, Ohio) of Canterbury, compiled by H.G. Cleveland, n.d.

Receipt from McLaren and Co. of St. Catharines for a suit and repairs to a coat

Receipt from McLaren and Co. of St. Catharines for a suit and repairs to a coat, Aug. 21, 1886.

Diversity Discourse and the Ontario Educator: The Understandings of Race and Whiteness Among New White Ontario Teachers

As a recent teacher education graduate, I have been left with more questions than answers about how to create and maintain an equitable and antioppressive classroom. These complicated questions of equity laid the groundwork for this study, which explored how new teachers understood diversity, specifically whiteness, and how they connected these perceptions to their course-related experiences in their teacher education program. Using a qualitative approach, this study problematized the lack of critical discussions around diversity taking place in Ontario teacher education courses. Through purposive, homogenous sampling, 7 new Ontario educators participated in a semistructured interview that focused on their experiences as teacher candidates and new teachers and their understandings and ideas regarding diversity, race, and more specifically, whiteness. The findings suggest that the greater Canadian discourse surrounding multiculturalism impacts the everyday diversity talk of the participants, and that problematic ideas of acceptance and tolerance are common. The findings also show a strong discomfort and unfamiliarity among the participants with the terms whiteness and white privilege. Finally, the results also revealed that new teachers have limited experience in their teacher education to discuss and learn about diversity, particularly critical discussions about race and privilege. Through this investigation, I aimed to bring attention to the necessity of having these critical, albeit difficult, discussions around diversity and whiteness in order to support new, predominately white, teachers.

Watercolour painting of the Woodruff coat of arms on paper

Watercolour painting of the Woodruff coat of arms on paper. This measures 43 cm. x 31 cm., n.d.