My Evolving Definition of Equity
Professor Howard Fuller (2010) reminds us that “the real purpose of education is to give young people the skills and capacity to engage in the practice of freedom, which really means to engage in the transformation of their world” (1). Based on Professor Fuller’s statement, it would seem then that equity in education is providing all students access the tools for freedom, to use their skills to change the world. This is idea in mirrored by Ladson Billings (1995) who encourages teachers to “help students to recognize, understand, and critique current social inequities” (476) and McLaren (2009) who describe the goal of empowerment as students learning “to critically appropriate knowledge existing outside their immediate experience in order to broaden their understanding of themselves, the world and the possibilities for transforming the taken-for-granted assumptions” (77). Equity in this context would be closest to the idea allowing all students to reach their full potential. This understanding of equity is an interesting combination of two of the equity stances developed by the National School Reform Faculty: Equity as Personalized Opportunity and Equity as Equal Results. Equity as personalized opportunity means that education is designed to meet students’ unique needs. Equity as equalized results is simply that students perform in a way that meets a predetermined standard. If we take as Professor Fuller’s idea of “engaging in the practice of freedom” as the standard we want all students to meet, then the only way to reach that equal outcome is through personalization. Though engaging in the practice of freedom is a common goal for all students, an equal result, it is different for each student who may practice freedom differently.
Professor Howard Fuller (2010) reminds us that “the real purpose of education is to give young people the skills and capacity to engage in the practice of freedom, which really means to engage in the transformation of their world” (1). Based on Professor Fuller’s statement, it would seem then that equity in education is providing all students access the tools for freedom, to use their skills to change the world. This is idea in mirrored by Ladson Billings (1995) who encourages teachers to “help students to recognize, understand, and critique current social inequities” (476) and McLaren (2009) who describe the goal of empowerment as students learning “to critically appropriate knowledge existing outside their immediate experience in order to broaden their understanding of themselves, the world and the possibilities for transforming the taken-for-granted assumptions” (77). Equity in this context would be closest to the idea allowing all students to reach their full potential. This understanding of equity is an interesting combination of two of the equity stances developed by the National School Reform Faculty: Equity as Personalized Opportunity and Equity as Equal Results. Equity as personalized opportunity means that education is designed to meet students’ unique needs. Equity as equalized results is simply that students perform in a way that meets a predetermined standard. If we take as Professor Fuller’s idea of “engaging in the practice of freedom” as the standard we want all students to meet, then the only way to reach that equal outcome is through personalization. Though engaging in the practice of freedom is a common goal for all students, an equal result, it is different for each student who may practice freedom differently.