Christopher M. Spence is a retired former

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

educator, author, and former

Canadian football Canadian football () is a team sport, sport played in Canada in which two teams of 12 players each compete for territorial control of a field of play long and wide attempting to advance a pointed oval-shaped ball into the opposing team's sco ...

player. He is the former Director of Education of the

Toronto District School Board The Toronto District School Board (TDSB), formerly known as English-language Public District School Board No. 12 prior to 1999, is the English-language public-secular school board for Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The minority public-secular franco ...

and former Director of Education of the

Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board The Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board (HWDSB) is the public school board for the city of Hamilton. Established on January 1, 1998, via the amalgamation of the Hamilton and Wentworth County school boards, the board currently operates 93 e ...

Biography

Born in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

n parents, Spence has lived in Canada since he was three years old and received his early education in

Windsor, Ontario Windsor is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada, on the south bank of the Detroit River directly across from Detroit, Michigan, United States. Geographically located within but administratively independent of Essex County, it is the souther ...

. He received a

B.A. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

degree in

criminology Criminology (from Latin , "accusation", and Ancient Greek , ''-logia'', from λόγος ''logos'' meaning: "word, reason") is the study of crime and deviant behaviour. Criminology is an interdisciplinary field in both the behavioural and so ...

from

Simon Fraser University Simon Fraser University (SFU) is a public research university in British Columbia, Canada, with three campuses, all in Greater Vancouver: Burnaby (main campus), Surrey, and Vancouver. The main Burnaby campus on Burnaby Mountain, located from ...

in 1985. A

running back A running back (RB) is a member of the offensive backfield in gridiron football. The primary roles of a running back are to receive American football plays#Offensive terminology, handoffs from the quarterback to Rush (American football)#Offen ...

, he was drafted by the

BC Lions The BC Lions are a professional Canadian football team based in Vancouver, British Columbia. The Lions compete in the West Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL), and play their home games at BC Place. The Lions played their first season ...

in the third round of the 1985 CFL Draft, but his CFL career was ended in 1988 by an

Achilles tendon The Achilles tendon or heel cord, also known as the calcaneal tendon, is a tendon at the back of the lower leg, and is the thickest in the human body. It serves to attach the plantaris, gastrocnemius (calf) and soleus muscles to the calcaneus (h ...

injury. Spence received a

B.Ed. A Bachelor of Education (B.Ed.) is an undergraduate professional degree which prepares students for work as a teacher in schools. In some countries such as Tanzania and Kenya, additional tasks like field work and research are required in order for ...

degree from

York University York University (french: Université York), also known as YorkU or simply YU, is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's fourth-largest university, and it has approximately 55,700 students, 7,0 ...

, an

M.Ed. The Master of Education (MEd or M.Ed. or Ed.M.; Latin ''Magister Educationis'' or ''Educationis Magister'') is a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. This degree in education often includes the following majors: curriculum a ...

degree from the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...

in 1993, and an

Ed.D. The Doctor of Education (Ed.D. or D.Ed.; Latin ''Educationis Doctor'' or ''Doctor Educationis'') is (depending on region and university) a research or professional doctoral degree that focuses on the field of education. It prepares the holder for a ...

degree from the University of Toronto's

Ontario Institute for Studies in Education The Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto (OISE/UT) is Canada's only all-graduate institute of teaching, learning and research, located in Toronto, Ontario. It is located directly above the St. George subway sta ...

in 1996, which was later revoked due to plagiarism. He became Director of Education for the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board on September 1, 2004, and served until July 2009, when he became the Director of Education for the Toronto District School Board.

Plagiarism, resignation and revoking of teaching license

On January 9, 2013, Spence apologized for plagiarizing several passages in an op-ed piece he wrote for the ''Toronto Star'' on extracurricular activities. The plagiarism was verified by the ''Stars

public editor A public editor is a position existing at some news publications; the person holding this position is responsible for supervising the implementation of proper journalism ethics at that publication. These responsibilities include identifying and ex ...

. Among the plagiarized material was this paragraph lifted from a 1989 opinion piece in ''The New York Times'': "We are challenged through sport to use our minds in guiding our bodies through the dimensions of time and space on the field of play. Learning the skills of sport provides opportunity to experience success." On January 10, 2013, Spence tendered his resignation as director effective immediately after additional incidents of plagiarism in earlier articles and blog entries were uncovered. Passages from his 1996 Ed.D. dissertation were also revealed to have been copied from other sources without attribution: sentences, paragraphs, whole pages were meticulously edited so as to obscure his plagiarism. On June 20, 2017, the

investigated the allegations, found him guilty of academic dishonesty, and rescinded his degree. On December 20, 2016, the

Ontario College of Teachers The Ontario College of Teachers (OCT; french: Ordre des enseignantes et des enseignants de l'Ontario EEOlinks=no) is the regulatory college for the teaching profession in Ontario and is the largest self-regulatory body in Canada. It was establi ...

announced that Spence's teaching license had been revoked as a result of the findings of the investigation. In 2018, Spence lost his fight to keep his Ed.D. The appeals tribunal stated that the "nature and extent f plagiarismfound in Spence's thesis is a very serious offence." The matter, however, is not yet settled. His lawyer, Darryl Singer, wrote in an email that Spence intends to seek judicial review of the decision in Ontario divisional court. Spence successfully appealed the revocation of his teaching licence in 2018 on the grounds that his "'precarious' mental state was not adequately accounted for." A psychiatric report stated that Spence's ability to function had been affected by "depression and suicidal ideation related to the evaporation of his marriage and career."

Works

* ''Skin I'm in: Racism, Sports and Education'' (Fernwood Publishing Company, 2000, ) * ''On Time! On Task! On a Mission!'' (Fernwood Publishing Company, 2002, ).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spence, Chris 1962 births BC Lions players Black Canadian players of Canadian football Black Canadian writers Canadian educators Canadian football running backs Canadian people of Jamaican descent English people of Jamaican descent English emigrants to Canada English players of Canadian football Living people Simon Fraser Red Leafs football players Simon Fraser University alumni Sportspeople from Toronto Canadian football people from Windsor, Ontario University of Toronto alumni York University alumni Academic scandals Writers from Toronto Writers from Windsor, Ontario 21st-century Canadian educators 21st-century Canadian non-fiction writers