U of T Scarborough researcher looks at how racial stereotypes follow Black girls into the classroom

When Olivia Bernard arrived in Canada from Jamaica at age 19, she encountered racism that left a lasting impression. 

On one occasion, a white man spat toward her from a passing car while hurling racial insults. On another, while riding the bus, a young man used similar slurs before moving away. 

“Everyone saw, but no one said anything,” Bernard recalls. “That taught me exactly how a dark-skinned Black woman can be treated in this country.”

Years later, at the University of Toronto Scarborough, she would begin to trace how those judgments placed upon Black girls in public – angry, loud, aggressive – make their way to the classroom, and in the process, alter the paths of their education. 

When Bernard first began her studies at U of T Scarborough she imagined a future in geography, mapping rivers, memorizing rock formations and interpreting the earth in its neutrality, independent of beliefs, politics or needs. That changed in the fall of 2016, when she enrolled in Foundations of City Studies(CITA01).

“It showed me it’s not just the physical space, but how people move through it, and how systems and policies shape that movement,” she says.

Her focus shifted from landforms to power: how race, gender and class determine where bodies can move, where they are stopped and where they remain unseen. As a graduate student and now a researcher in the Department of Human Geography, Bernard turned her attention to Toronto’s classrooms, specifically, the experiences of Black girls in the Toronto District School Board (TDSB).

Her research revealed troubling patterns. Discipline fell on Black girls harder and faster. A laugh was read as “loud,” a question as “aggressive.” Teachers and administrators filtered their presence through anti-Black stereotypes, which solidified into official records of detentions and suspensions.

“I realized that these stereotypes don’t just exist outside of school,” says Bernard, who received a Black Graduate Scholar Award in 2024 from the Black Research Network and Department of Geography & Planning. “They become part of how Black girls are treated as students, which classes they’re placed in, how they’re spoken to, and what opportunities they’re steered toward.”

The consequences extend well beyond disciplinary measures. Streaming Black girls into non-university courses and the scarcity of Black teachers in leadership positions shape how Black girls imagine their futures. Many students in Bernard’s study remembered seeing Black adults most often as assistants, hall monitors or social workers, rarely as teachers, and almost never as principals. “If you don’t see yourself reflected in those roles,” Bernard says, “it narrows what you believe is possible.”

Her fieldwork also uncovered overt examples of bias. 

In one school, Bernard was mistaken for a student; when she explained her research, a teacher remarked, “What is it with these girls? They’re so aggressive.” Another recalled a teacher telling Black girls in a hallway, “If it were a bucket of fried chicken, you’d already be running.” For Bernard, these were not isolated slips, but evidence of an institutional language that defined how Black girls moved through school.

“I realized that these stereotypes don’t just exist outside of school.” – Olivia Bernard

Most Canadian research has traditionally focused on Black boys, often framing them as the ones most at risk of falling behind. Bernard wanted to ask a quieter but equally urgent question: what about the girls? She found that many arrived at school already carrying heavy responsibilities at home – caring for siblings, preparing meals, walking their siblings to school – often leaving them drained before the school day began. At school, they faced another form of surveillance, where safety monitors and administrators tracked their movements closely.

“Those two pressures, from home responsibilities to constant scrutiny at school, come together to limit their academic progress,” she says.

Bernard hopes her research will help inform systemic change, including hiring and training practices for staff and teachers and the program choices students in working-class communities have access to. “These stories need to be part of the conversation for equity in education.”

Her commitment has also shaped her return to U of T Scarborough, where this past summer she taught the very course that shifted her own perspective. 

“It was surreal,” she says. “I wanted my students to see how the course could change their thinking the same way it changed mine.”

The impact has already come full circle. One student emailed her simply to say, “I’m proud of you.” Another, recognizing her name on the syllabus, beamed with excitement. 

“It made me realize I have to be the change I wanted to see,” she says. 

This story originally appeared in UTSC News.