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Beverly-Jean Daniel

Director, Associate Professor
OfficeSHE-624, Sally Horsfall Eaton Centre for Studies in Community Health
Phone416-979-5000, ext. 553643

I am an assoociate professor in the School of Child and Youth Care at Toronto Metropolitan University. I hold a PhD in Sociology and Equity Studies in Education (OISE/University of Toronto), a Masters in Counselling Psychology (University of Toronto), and a Bachelor of Arts - Honours (York University). In addition to these, I have also obtained a Graduate Certificate in Women and Gender Studies from the University of Toronto.

I have over 25 years of experience in a range of sectors including education, justice, community based and not-for profit organizations. I have worked as a front line therapist with youth and families who have experienced a range of personal challenges, and experienced varying forms of violence. I have also provided individual and group-based supports for survivors of sexual and domestic abuse and continue to provide integration and settlement supports for immigrant and refugee mothers in Etobicoke. My direct service work has also included being a youth counsellor with youth identified as being at risk in Toronto area schools and a counsellor on the adolescent ward of a mental health hospital in Maryland, U.S.A.

In addition to my academic and field based experiences, I have conducted worked in the areas of diversity training and developing cultural competence programming for over 15 years. I have provided supports to school boards, organizational leaders, front-line staff and for-profit organizations, to strategically enhance the organizational environment and enhance knowledge and application of diversity related policies. Additionally, I have developed the anti-Black racism curriculum and training material for the City of Toronto’s Confronting Anti-Black Racism (CABR) Unit, and continue to provide training and consultation for the City.   

In 2010, I developed a strengths-based student support program called The Bridge which is the first of its kind in any Canadian college or university. The program develops and implements a range or personal, academic and career related programming aimed at fostering and enhancing academic success in post-secondary institutions amongst students who self-identify as African, Black and Caribbean. The program, which has a significant research component, has supported students in transitioning from college to university, increase program completion rates and enhanced their preparation for graduate studies. 

My program of research and scholarship focuses on the factors that foster healthy racial identity development amongst Black children and youth; the role of anti-oppressive praxis for child and youth care practitioners working with marginalized children and their families; and exploring resilience amongst Black girls in care and those who have aged out of care. I also conduct research on Black student engagement and retention in the post-secondary and the experiences of high achieving Black students (HABS). 

I have published widely in the areas of race, racism and equity in the education and justice systems in the Canadian context and have completed an edited collection titled: Diversity, Justice and Community: The Canadian Context.

Areas of expertise

Anti-Black racism; post-secondary student engagement and retention; social justice and equity in education; race-based identity development of children and youth; strength-based strategies for supporting racialized youth; anti-oppression and critical anti-racism practices in education

Teaching – courses taught

Full member of the Yeates School of Graduate Studies

CYC 819 - Practice with families 

CYC 405 - Therapeutic Foundations

CYC 900 - Diversity Issues in Child and Youth Care 

CYC 347 - Professional issues 

CYC 402 - Group work with children and youth

CYC 605 - Advanced Therapeutic Issues

Research interests

  • Black females experiences of child welfare and foster care systems
  • Black student academic success and retention
  • Race, identity and education
  • Race in post-secondary contexts
  • Black male success and identity development
  • High achieving Black students (HABS)

Research projects

  • 2019 Equity & Inclusion Fund (Faculty of Community Services) - The Bridge – Toronto Met Project - $5,000
  • 2018 SEED Grant (Faculty of Community Services) – “What’s happening to our girls? Examining the experiences of Black girls who have aged out of care. $5,000
  • 2018 Ontario Black Youth Action Plan – Post secondary Connector Program $69,000
  • 2015 – present  SSHRC Insight Grant – Co-Investigator with Toronto Metropolitan University – Can we talk about race? Exploring the experience of race and racism in Early Childhood Education settings - $35,000

Selected Publications

  • Daniel, B.M. & Jean-Pierre, J. (2020). Re-imagining child and youth care practice with African Canadian youth. International Journal of Child, Youth and Family Studies. 4(2), 25-39.
  • Daniel, B.M. & Escayg, K. (2019) "But, I don’t believe it’s about race’: Challenging fallacies of race and racism amongst early childhood educators in Ontario," Journal of Curriculum, Teaching, Learning and Leadership in Education: Vol. 4(2) 14-28.
  • Escayg, K. & Daniel, B.M. (2019) "Introduction: Children, Race, and Racism: Global Perspectives," Journal of Curriculum, Teaching, Learning and Leadership in Education, 4(2). I also co-edited this special edition.
  • Daniel, B.M. (2018). Racism is a Thing! Re-examination of the Concepts of Care and Relational
  • Practice in the Preparation of Child and Youth Care Practitioners. Relational Child and Youth Care Practice, 31(3), 31-42.
  • Daniel, B.M. Today I tried to go to school! Relational Child and Youth Care Practice, 31(3), 31-34.
  • Berman, R., Daniel, B., Butler, A., MacNevin, M. & Royer, N. (2017). Nothing, or almost nothing, to report: Early childhood educators and discursive constructions of colorblindness. International Critical Childhood Policy Studies Journal 6(1), 52-65. https://journals.sfu.ca/iccps/index.php/childhoods/article/view/45
  • Daniel, B.M. (2019) Teaching while Black: racial dynamics, evaluations, and the role of White females in the Canadian academy in carrying the racism torch, Race Ethnicity and Education, 22(1), 21-37, DOI: 10.1080/13613324.2018.1468745.  https://doi.org/10.1080/13613324.2018.1468745
  • Daniel, B.M. (2018) The Bridge Program: Recasting Blackness, fostering resilience and transformative resistance through narratives of success. Journal of Global Citizenship & Equity Education, 6(1).
  • Daniel, B.M., Desai, S. & Hill, L. (2018). Strengths-based social service work perspectives for working with immigrant youth. In S. Wilson-Forsberg & A. Robinson (Eds.). Immigrant Youth in Canada: Theoretical Approaches, Practical Issues, and Professional Perspectives. 
  • Daniel, B.M. (2018). Knowing the Self and the Reason for Being: Navigating
    Racism in the Academy. Canadian Women’s Studies Journal, 32(1-2), 59-66.
    Daniel, B.M. (2018). Dialogues of Success and Resilience: Understanding the factors that enhance post-secondary academic excellence among African-Canadian Youth. Final Report on the Ontario Black Youth Action Plan – Post-secondary Education Connector Project. Toronto
  • Daniel, B.M. (2016).  Diversity, Justice and Community: The Canadian Context. Toronto, Canadian Scholars Press/Women’s Press.