Equity in education is often viewed as equivalence or sameness. A more useful way to view equity is through the lens of ‘fairness’

Masters, Geoff N, AO

Adams, Ray J

English

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 Recommended Citation Masters, Geoff N. and R. Adams (2018). What is ‘equity’ in education?. Teacher, 30 April 2018. Retrieved from https://www.teachermagazine.com.au/columnists/geoff-masters/what-is-equity-in-education        What is ‘equity’ in education? Geoff Masters AO and Ray Adams Australian Council for Educational Research  Equity in education is often viewed as equivalence or sameness. A more useful way to view equity is through the lens of ‘fairness’. The Cambridge Dictionary defines equity as ‘the situation in which everyone is treated fairly and equally’. The implication is that equity depends on equality of treatment. But an interesting 2017 article by Yale researchers (Stamans, Sheskin & Bloom, 2017) points to evidence that, in general, people value fairness over equivalence. There are situations in which people view equal treatment as fair, but other situations in which they view unequal treatment as fair. This suggests that, when it comes to ‘equity’, fairness trumps equality. When is equal treatment ‘fair’? The authors describe psychological experiments in which even very young children show a strong preference for the equal distribution of resources to members of a group. In one study, six year olds showed such a strong commitment to equal sharing that they insisted on throwing away extra resources rather than allowing them to be unequally distributed. Research findings of this kind have been interpreted as indicating a natural human ‘aversion to inequality’. But the authors point out that equal distribution is considered fair when there is no obvious basis for differentially distributing resources. Under these conditions, everybody is considered equally deserving and unequal distribution is considered unfair.   When is unequal treatment ‘fair’? On the other hand, the authors cite research evidence that people consider unequal distribution fair when it is based on differences in merit or need. For example, people generally believe that unequal remuneration for work is fair if it rewards differing levels of expertise, effort or contribution to society. People are generally happy to have more resources allocated to individuals with special needs. Or, if a pre-existing situation has resulted in unfair inequality, people generally prefer to allocate future resources unequally to correct or minimise this inequality. Under these conditions, some individuals are considered more deserving than others and unequal distribution is considered fair. In school education, an ‘equitable’ system could be defined as one in which all students are treated equally – for example, a system in which all students are given the same opportunities, exposed to the same school curriculum, taught by teachers with equivalent expertise, held to the same learning expectations and provided with equivalent levels of resourcing and support. Educational policies and discussions of equity sometimes reflect this view of equity as equality. However, as in other areas of life, equity in school education is likely to be associated with equal treatment in some situations (where there is no obvious basis for differential treatment), and unequal treatment in others. Two examples follow. What is ‘equity’ in education? Geoff Masters and Ray Adams   © 2018 Australian Council for Educational Research 2   Example 1: Addressing unequal learning needs  Students in the same year of school are broadly the same age and have been at school for the same length of time. On these grounds alone it might be considered appropriate to treat all students identically – to teach them the same curriculum, expose them to the same learning opportunities, hold them to the same expectations and assess and grade them against the same performance standards. Indeed, it could be argued that to have different performance expectations of students in the same year of school would be unfair and inequitable. However, students in the same year of school differ widely in their stages of learning and development. The most advanced students typically begin (and end) the school year five to six years ahead of the least advanced students. In this sense, students are not equal; they have very different levels of attainment and so benefit from different learning opportunities and challenges. Most teachers recognise this and differentiate their teaching to cater for these individual differences. They choose unequal treatments in response to observable differences in student needs. Indeed, it could be argued that to fail to recognise these differences and to hold all students to the same performance expectations would be unfair and inequitable. From this perspective, students are treated ‘equitably’ when their unequal starting points are acknowledged and when attempts are made to differentially meet individual needs. Rather than expecting all students to reach the same point in their learning at the same time, every student is expected to make excellent progress in their learning, regardless of their starting point. Example 2: Addressing unequal student backgrounds An ‘equitable’ school system might be considered to be one in which all students are treated equally – for example, by ensuring that they are taught by teachers with equivalent levels of expertise, have access to equivalent school facilities and have identical levels of government funding allocated to their education. Under this ‘all students are created equal’ rationale, all students might be considered to have a fundamental entitlement to the same quality of schooling. If some students had access to better teaching, better schools or more government funding, then that might be considered unfair and inequitable. However, students do not have equal needs. Some students have special needs that require additional adult support, special school facilities and additional funding to meet those needs. As a society, we consider it fair that resources are distributed unequally to meet those special needs and to ameliorate the disadvantages that some students face. Fairness trumps equality in determining what is ‘equitable’. Similarly, it is well understood that students come from unequal backgrounds. Some students are disadvantaged by the circumstances into which they are born. These differences often influence the quality of the schooling students receive, the quality of home support and students’ performances throughout their schooling. Figure 1 shows distributions of Year 9 students’ reading abilities for different parental occupation groups. The proportion of students at or below the national minimum standard (darker shading) is considerably greater for lower parental occupation groups than for higher groups. The effects of students’ backgrounds are still strongly evident in Year 9 reading levels.  Geoff Masters and Ray Adams What is ‘equity’ in education?  © 2018 Australian Council for Educational Research 3   Figure 1.  Achievement of Year 9 students in Reading, by parental occupation  In an ‘equitable’ school system, students’ special needs and unequal socioeconomic backgrounds are recognised and resources (for example, teaching expertise) are distributed unequally in an attempt to redress disadvantage due to personal and social circumstances. Here again, ‘equity’ is achieved by prioritising fairness over equality. References Stamans, C, Sheskin, M & Bloom, P (2017). Why people prefer unequal societies. Nature Human Behaviour. Vol 1, Article No. 82. This article was published in Teacher on 30 April 2018 (https://www.teachermagazine.com.au/columnists/geoff-masters/what-is-equity-in-education)  

What is \u27equity\u27 in education

El presente trabajo de investigación, tiene por objetivo determinar de qué maneraSistema tributario se relaciona con el impuestos a las externalidades en lasempresas de venta de petroleo en la provincia constitucional del callo, año 2018. Elestudio presentado se basa en la importancia que el sistema tributario adopte ensus tributos, el impuesto a las externalidades. Si bien es cierto las empresas depetroleo al realizar sus ventas, y llevarlos a las distintas provincias, provocanreacciones dañinas para salud, ya que las personas inhalan dicho petroleoproductos de los gases que botan.La investigación se trabajó con la teoria de pigou que nos menciona quetoda empresa que realiza o vende algun producto dañino para la salud, debe serresponsable en pagar un impuesto respectivo para poder ayudar a las personaperjudicadas que sufren las consecuencias sobre lo que ellos venden a lapoblacion.El tipo de investigación es correlacional, el diseño de la investigación es noexperimental transversal correlacional, con una población de 19 empresas quetrabajan en el sector de ventas de petroleo. La técnica que se usó es la encuestay el instrumento de recolección de datos, el cuestionario fue aplicado al personalde las empresas de petroleo (1 personas por empresa que esta mas al pendientedel petroleo). Para la validez de los instrumentos se utilizó el criterio de juicios deexpertos y además está respaldado por el uso del Alfa de Cronbach; lacomprobación de las hipótesis realizó con la prueba del Chi cuadrado y laincidencia por medio de la prueba estadística Eta.En la presente investigacion tomamos como conclusion que el sistematributario se relaciona en 83.7% con el impuesto a las externalidad de lasempresas de venta de petroleo en la provincia constitucional del callao, año 2018

Aguayo Infante, Yarlin Tifani

Repositorio Institucional Universidad César Vallejo: Página de inicio

Spanish

Sistema tributario y el impuesto a las externalidades en las empresas de venta de petróleo en la provincia constitucional del Callao, año 2018

https://repositorio.ucv.edu.pe/bitstream/20.500.12692/32147/4/Aguayo_IYT.pdf

What is \u27equity\u27 in education

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Repositorio Institucional Universidad César Vallejo: Página de inicio