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Dr. Tanitiã Munroe is giving herself grace.                                                                                                    

For years, she has balanced her doctoral research — which she recently and successfully defended — her work as a research coordinator with the Toronto District School Board (TDSB), and her earlier role supporting Black students and their families as a child and youth care practitioner. The upcoming convocation at the U of T’s ���޾��ֲ� Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) represents both a resounding milestone and a profound relief.

“I was a bit hard on myself, trying to meet the institution’s timelines instead of my own,” says Munroe, who completed her PhD in the Department of Leadership, Higher and Adult Education (LHAE). “The whole idea of doing this was not only to immerse myself but to learn and grow. To truly understand my own scholarship, my own learning, and to honour the families I’ve worked with over the past 14 years — both in schools and in the community — I had to slow down and remind myself, I am giving more voice to them.”

For her, these Black students were never voiceless. Rather, she sought to amplify their voices, work alongside them differently and add value to their lived experiences. “My work doesn’t stop at 4 p.m. or 5 p.m.,” she says. “Even in my current role, I continue—because people rely on me.”

“I had to slow down and offer myself grace and say, ‘It doesn't have to be in four years, you know? Take your time.’”

It took a thoughtful, enriching six years to complete her studies, a time Munroe describes as a process of understanding. “I have been going through the process of writing, reframing, understanding, theorizing, even going over the transcripts, seeing where I was then to where I am now – even after the defense,” she says.

Her Doctoral supervisor, Professor Lance McCready, has seen Munroe grow as an educator, community builder, and person. “Tanitiãis a fierce advocate for Black families, children and youth who truly believes in their inherent goodness,” says McCready, an associate professor at LHAE. “This ethic of care facilitates building trusting relationships with Black students and families, relationships that nurture transformative education.”

An experience, in reverse

Munroe was very active as a doctoral candidate.

She was  and earning bylines through . Beyond her doctoral research, Munroe’s portfolio at the Toronto District School Board includes the Centre of Excellence for Black Student Achievement — the first of its kind in public education in ���޾��ֲ� — where she supports applied research and student-centered programming that advance equity and amplify Black student voices.

“When I say in the reverse, not necessarily that I have stopped, but because I was doing all these things simultaneously,” she says. “Usually the steps are you defend, then you start publishing, looking for jobs in academia, networking, attending conferences, and so on. But I was already doing those things. I was already publishing, teaching part-time at the university, and mobilizing my knowledge in different spaces."

Her dissertation, titled “From Harm to Healing: Mobilizing Black Cultural Capital and Family Advocacy to Advance Black Student Wellbeing in Canadian K–12 Education,” draws on Black feminist methodologies, critical race theory, and community cultural wealth frameworks to explore how families and youth mobilize care, advocacy, and cultural knowledge.

The dissertation centres Black families’ advocacy, knowledge, and cultural wealth as transformative forces in education by reimagining those education systems through justice-oriented policy and practice.

For McCready, he knows Munroe’s scholarship is already making an impact. “Tanitiãhas always been a dedicated student committed to social justice and equity in research,” he says. “I was so proud to see how Tanitiã improved her thesis over time and was served as a vessel for the brilliance of Black parents.

“She rejects the notion that research about parent involvement should be objective,and instead shows how ‘unapologetic Black inquiry’ into the perspectives of Black parents can lead to new ways of understanding the importance of Black cultural capital in school.”

That dissertation and pedagogy is a reflection of Munroe’s ongoing projects. She helps guide the , a paid, seven-week internship for Black high school students in Toronto from Grades 10 to 12. Rooted in community-based approaches, the program combines Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) from Munroe and others, experiential learning placements, and mentorship to support students as researchers, leaders, and changemakers.

“The fact that , to witness students and families speak its language, embody its principles, and carry on its impact into their schools and community, is  sacred work for me,” says Munroe. “You are seeing the manifestation of care turn into policy, of research turning into revolution, of dreams turned into structure.”

“It wasn't just only about program delivery, it's kind of like legacy work,” she added. “It's also about a recognition that the stuff that once lived in my head – how I repurpose youth participatory action research using an Afrocentric approach – is now living in an ecosystem, one that breathes and grows and teaches you back.”

This commitment has led Munroe to create an annual student led,  each fall over the past four years for Black students who have participated in the summer program. Grounded in her mantra of being youth-led, the conference has evolved into a vital meeting ground for academics, families, students, and K–12 staff to engage with research findings and hear recommendations from Black youth that inform policy and practice.

Quietly navigating the next phase

The programs are thriving, the community is growing, and now is the time for Munroe to enter a new phase of her career. McCready has advice for her.

“My advice to Tanitiã, and she already knows this,” says McCready, “is to stay grounded in community, love, love Black people, children, youth and adults, listen for the barriers to access and engagement, and stay focused on the possibilities, ‘what could be’ rather than limitations dictated by racist, colonial structures and systems of education.”

For her part, Munroe is lasered in on continuing community engagement, amplifying the stories and voices of Black youth and their families.

She will be more intentional with how she writes and leads, she says, and will take tremendous strides to provide space for others to express themselves and grow as students and leaders. “It doesn't always make fireworks, but it comes with me feeling more quiet, with that deep exhale, and how I'm going to make these steps,” she says.

Reflecting on her dissertation and her overall academic growth, it trained her in how to hold complexity in her methodology and refined how she considers care for others in her approach.

This is especially the case when she talks with families and the wealth of ancestral knowledge they bring to improving education. “This time is going to be quieter, more intentional, and I think it goes back to what I was saying earlier too. It's happiness,” she says. “Peace for me is knowing I can pause and be more intentional with the writing, and the joy of seeing voice in the pages I will write.

“It’s the product of knowing that I’m writing truth about Black life in ���޾��ֲ�, in K to 12 education, and that's kind of a quiet satisfaction at the end of something. Sometimes I don't have words to describe it, but it's a happiness of recognition.”