Prospective teachers of the Grove Community School will be members in good standing of the Ontario College of Teachers, and employed by or on the eligible-to-hire list for the TDSB. Ideal candidates will have a strong interest in and demonstrated commitment to community engagement and activism; environmentalism/ecological literacy; equity, diversity, and social justice; peace making and cooperative learning; and the arts.

We are seeking teachers who possess an enthusiastic love of learning, who see themselves as active life-long learners, and who can effectively translate their enthusiasm for education and community activism to the context of our school. We hope to attract teachers who will both use child-centred methods and actively seek to engage their students in local community initiatives to foster a sense of learner responsibility to the communities inside and outside of the classroom.

The Grove Community School teachers need to be able to embrace a culture of learning and teaching that draws on a wide base of expertise, but is community-based and meaningfully integrates parents, guardians and other community members into the school community. We want to draw on the rich and powerful energy present in the numerous diverse communities in the west end of downtown Toronto.

Ideally, prospective teachers should have experience in working with learners from diverse racial, linguistic/ethno-cultural, and socio-economic backgrounds, and who have diverse preferred learning styles. We want a teaching staff that is willing to try new methods of teaching, teachers who will critically reflect on their practices, and provide learners and each other with the social, emotional, and academic supports that will help to maintain a vibrant school community. We want teachers who foster curiosity, wonder, imagination, and creativity.

We hope to draw from the pool of teachers with significant experience themselves working for social change and or on environmental issues. We want community activist teachers who are moved by a deep desire to make change in the world, have a strong passion for justice, and understand how to foster these same qualities in young learners in developmentally appropriate ways.

Because we are pioneering a new kind of school that weaves together child-centred, holistic learning with arts infused curriculum, social justice, equity and ecological justice, we recognize the need to build upon the professional learning of the teachers in our school. We hope to offer professional development and community support to the teachers, and other members of the school community, from educational researchers, community activists, and practitioners of experiential education.