Inspiring educator receives alumni award for anti-racism leadership in the classroom and beyond

Amid the upheavals and tragedies of 2020, high school teacher Atif Hirjee, ‘14 BEd, experienced a professional turning point — one that steered him onto his current path as an influential anti-racism educator. 

“The world was in a lot of turmoil — the pandemic had just hit, students were learning from home and the world had just seen the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery,” he says. “Our students were reeling. They were angry and they wanted to take action, but they didn’t necessarily know how.”

At the time, Hirjee, who began his career in 2015 at W.P. Wagner High School in Edmonton and is now one of the school’s assistant principals, was the department head of student leadership. He decided to participate in Blackout Tuesday, a global campaign in early June to protest racism and police brutality, by posting a black square on Wagner’s social media accounts.

“As we expected, it started a series of comments and conversations happening under the post, but one in particular stood out for me,” he recalls. “It was a Grade 10 student who said ‘so what are we going to do about it?’ That really galvanized me.”

Anti-Racism 101

Hirjee went into the summer break that year motivated to learn as much about anti-racism initiatives and training as possible so that he could return to school in September with some concrete answers to his student’s question. 

The result was Anti-Racism 101, a professional learning session Hirjee and his colleague Thomas Reikie developed for educators. After piloting it for the staff at Wagner, they went on to present it 15 times, to more than 1,000 educators, in the first year.  

The initiative has continued to grow and now reaches staff and students across the entire catchment area. Lead teachers at each of the 10 schools now run professional learning sessions for staff and build lessons for each division, ensuring that students in all grades are receiving anti-racism education.

There is also a strong focus on instilling leadership in junior high and high school students. After attending symposiums and events such as a human library that took place last year to allow community members to share their personal experiences of racism, the students themselves then teach the concepts they have learned to elementary classes. 

“The students are always leading the charge,” Hirjee explains. “At the end of the day, all of this work is for them and they’re just doing remarkable things.”

Hirjee is hopeful that by nurturing a generation of leaders who embrace equality and diversity, students of colour will begin to see themselves represented more at the front of the classroom. The proudest moments of his career so far have been when students say he has inspired them to pursue a career in education. 

“That means a lot to me because I’m sure we’ve all heard this, but I didn’t have a lot of teachers who looked like me growing up,” he says. “I’m lucky enough to work in a school where I do have shared experiences with some of the students in our building, and I hope that they are able to continue that forward. It’s a small thing, but I actually think it’s a pretty significant one.” 

‘I had found my calling’

Education wasn’t the obvious choice for Hirjee when he entered university. After a couple of the paths he pursued at the University of Calgary didn’t click, he had the “quintessential lightbulb moment” while volunteering with youth when someone asked if he’d considered becoming a teacher. 

“I knew from the first week in education at the U of A that I had found my calling,” he says, noting that he appreciated how instructors like Dr. Farha Shariff encouraged him to think beyond the page to help students build the skills they need to succeed after school. 

Today, helping young people succeed is important to Hirjee both inside and outside the classroom. Along with being an active member of the school community, he also volunteers in his free time — a value he says was deeply instilled in him growing up in the Ismaili Muslim community. 

“Giving back is important to me in whatever kind of facet I can,” he says.

Hirjee has served both locally and nationally on the Aga Khan Youth and Sports Board, worked with the John Humphrey Centre for Human Rights and REACH Edmonton on anti-racism and inclusion projects, and sponsors a Jack.org mental health chapter for high school and university-aged youth. 

Now, after having a remarkable impact as a leader early in his career, Hirjee returns to campus this month to receive an Alumni Horizon Award. 

“It’s an incredibly humbling experience that I never expected,” he says. “I love where I am and I love what I do. I’ve been lucky to have very strong mentors in the education sphere, and a lot of the credit for this goes to them.”

The 2024 U of A Alumni Awards ceremony takes place Thursday, Oct. 24 at 7 p.m. in the Myer Horowitz Theatre, Students’ Union Building, North Campus. Admission is free! Register here.