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Background: In recent years, data derived from international large-scale assessments have significantly influenced the discourse surrounding educational equity. However, the use of such data has often neglected the full spectrum of dimensions that equity encompasses, while being limited to exploring the relationship between achievement variations and student background. This approach, however, constrains our understanding of the rich notion. Methods: This paper aims to contribute to the advancement of current research by advocating for an alternative approach that encompasses all relevant dimensions of equity and examines their impact on both achievement and motivational outcomes. A cluster analysis manifests itself as the designated method to employ, as the concept of equity remains theoretically challenged and the detection of data patterns can serve as a strong step in its multifaceted inquiry. Moreover, this method enables us to incorporate the multidimensional concept in a country-level context. Results: Employing data from the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study at grade four, this paper presents five distinct clusters of educational systems that illustrate diverse equity configurations. Notably, none of the identified clusters consistently scores high or low on all equity dimensions. This suggests that all of the clusters perform inconsistently to different degrees across the dimensions of equity. Furthermore, no single cluster emerges as superior to the others across both outcome measures. Conclusions: These findings shed light on the intricate interplay between equity, achievement, and motivation within the examined educational systems. The unique configuration of the equity dimensions within each cluster underscores the importance of adopting a nuanced evaluation of equity, which can enhance our understanding of equity patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents empirical evidence on kindergarten admission preparation services in Hong Kong. Parents increasingly turn to tutoring companies for a range of services, such as social skills training, portfolio editing, mock interviews, and parental consultation. We used qualitative methods to capture the views of parents, teachers, tutors, and early childhood educators (n = 78), to contribute to the lack of literature on this topic. Our findings indicate a market-driven ecosystem of education that favours commercial interests, widens educational inequalities, and is perpetuated by factors such as privatisation of the early childhood sector and misalignment between kindergarten and primary school curricula. Parents consider choice of school, future aspirations, and perceived hierarchies among kindergartens as major considerations for seeking admission preparation services. Heightened admission competition is also present in pre-nurseries and playgroups, calling for increased attention to be paid to the level of competition imposed among children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the relationship between publishing practices, precarious labor conditions, and sexual violence in academia. Topics discussed include the structural power dynamics that enable harassment, the impact of commercial academic publishers on labor relations, and the vulnerabilities faced by marginalized scholars in navigating these environments.

A distinct education has become a heretical right for urban elites despite educational equality is an official agenda. This has not only widened the gaps between urban and rural counterparts but also developed discriminations amongst different classes of student within the urban schools. To validate this tenet, the facilities offered by various schools were compared. Yet, whether a particular secondary education program has become an exclusive right essentially for urban elites to deprive others; is not widely explored—an investigation of this study. Educational background and some selective socioeconomic status (SES) of 925,617 students; completed their secondary school certificate from 3,315 schools were collected to make comparison through descriptive analysis of secondary data. Findings note that secondary science education has become a popular program amongst the urban elites. Subsequently, they also perform well in the public examination. Furthermore, discussions suggest that science being an international education demands both formal and informal higher budgets. Hence, a greater success of urban elites in secondary science provision helps them to succeed successively in procuring higher education and thereby in job-market. Thus, a policy intervention is required to ensure an effective implementation of educational equity concept. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent efforts prohibiting race-related diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives have informed localized public pushback narrating anti-equity campaigns. Emerging research and media accounts have largely focused on adults engaged with or against these efforts, with less attention on youth and their perceptions of these campaigns. To center youth voice, we analyzed 224 student newspaper articles published in Carmel, Indiana and Loudoun County, Virginia—two sites replete with localized contestations of equity reform. Using narrative policy analysis and approaches to counter-narratives, findings demonstrate youths' roles as engaged policy actors as student journalists highlighted forms of political engagement and action in their local contexts. We include recommendations for school leaders and policymakers to promote youth voice and engagement in education governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Covid-19 pandemic caused widespread closures of early care and education (ECE) facilities that negatively impacted children's socioemotional, behavioral, and academic development. Policies permitting child care centers to remain open by obtaining waivers from closure directives involved varying levels of administrative burden. This study examined administrative burden within waiver policies and its association with ECE stability, as measured by children's enrollment in waiver-obtaining child care centers. I found Black children were significantly less likely than White children to be enrolled in a waiver-obtaining center, and also far less likely to have a center that obtained a waiver very early on in the pandemic. Analyses showed rates of enrollment in waiver-obtaining centers were far lower among children whose centers experienced more administrative burden, and suggested racial disparities in ECE stability were driven by Black children's concentrated residence in communities where the waiver application process was more burdensome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Education policy has long been analyzed as a cycle where various actors influence different stages. However, few such studies have focused on identifying and interrogating the specific moments that shape an education policy's overall equity trajectory. This article uses Bowe, Ball, and Gold's policy cycle as an exploratory theoretical framework, focusing on the historic Review of Funding for Schooling (2011) in Australia, which evaluated the nation's school funding policy. The authors concentrate on the Context of Text Production phase of its policymaking process, and consider the implications for equity. From this work, the authors highlight two "critical moments" that they argue significantly influenced how the appointed panel approached equity. Their theorizing of a "critical moment" offers valuable insights for researchers and stakeholders seeking to understand or influence education policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taking the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG4 - quality and equity in education and lifelong learning opportunities for all by 2030) as a global education policy, this article investigates the accompanying consensus politics. It shows how political consensus among 193 UNESCO member states over the national implementation of SDG4 indicators was convened into a measurable commitment to the production, utilisation, and sharing of education data, a technical one. It argues that, the Technical Cooperation Group (TCG), a political Initiative from the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS), made instrumental use of indicators (thus data) to formulate and put into practice a global set of policy values dubbed collectively here as experimentality. Experimentality being inherently topological (working in spatiotemporal configurations), these values helped TCG think and act in topologically reflexive ways. That is, they enabled the formulation and putting into practice of spatiotemporal frames critical to bringing the global and the national together into collaborations for SDG4. Advancing the cross-disciplinary notion of experimentality and a topological semiotic approach to policy culture, this paper adds a value-focused perspective to the mobilities research on global education policy. A large corpus of web materials made official by TCG constitutes the empirical basis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rise of evaluation and data in education and education policy is a trend manifesting across a wide variety of policy contexts, holding in its grip national and global policies, with impacts that reach the level of individual children, teachers, and their subjectivities. Earlier research has mainly focused on the phenomenon in neoliberal contexts. This article presents a case study of Finnish early childhood education and care (ECEC) policy discourse built on a tradition of social democratic political rationality and egalitarian values. By utilizing Evert Vedung's metaphor of evaluation waves, we examine how the evaluation trend has influenced the Finnish ECEC policy, which has traditionally been skeptical toward the assessment of individual children's learning and skills and the production and use of data for accountability purposes. In the genealogical reading of ECEC curricula and policy documents from 2002–2021 as data, we identify three discursive practices – partnership, pedagogization, and evidence wave – that have socio-historically contributed to the formation of the present conception of evaluation in the Finnish ECEC policy discourse. Our genealogical reading also reveals a movement toward international trends – evaluating the individual child's skills – especially through the evidence wave. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the transition to online learning, with synchronous e-learning becoming a critical modality in higher education institutions (HEIs) worldwide. This shift, while ensuring educational continuity, has unveiled numerous challenges, especially in developing nations where resources and infrastructure may not adequately support such a rapid transition. Purpose: This study aims to provide a systematic literature review of the challenges encountered by students in developing nations during the implementation of synchronous e-learning amid the COVID-19 pandemic. It focuses on identifying and analysing technological, pedagogical, infrastructural, socioeconomic, and health-related challenges that have impacted the efficacy of online learning. Methods: Through a systematic literature review of 43 peer-reviewed studies conducted in developing nations, dated between 2020 and 2022 sourced from the SCOPUS database, this article synthesises findings on the multifaceted challenges faced by HEIs students during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study employs a thematic analysis approach to categorise these challenges and discuss their implications for educational equity, student well-being, and the resilience of higher education systems in developing countries. Conclusions: The study underscores the need for comprehensive strategies to address the identified challenges, emphasising the importance of infrastructural improvements, pedagogical support, socioeconomic interventions, and health-focused measures. It calls for a collaborative effort among educational institutions, governments, and international organisations to enhance the resilience and inclusivity of e-learning environments, ensuring equitable access to quality education in developing nations during and beyond the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The present study aims to analyze adolescents' perception of cyberspace. Methods and Materials: This research is a qualitative study of the descriptive phenomenological type. The statistical population consists of adolescent girls aged 12 to 18 who are dependent on cyberspace and reside in the city of Talesh, Gilan Province, during the summer quarter. They were identified using purposive sampling with Young's questionnaire, and semi-structured interviews were conducted with 11 individuals, continuing until saturation and repetition of responses were reached. After recording each interview, the extracted content was transcribed verbatim. Data coding continued simultaneously with data collection. The data analysis was conducted using Colaizzi's seven-step method. Findings: A total of 2 main themes and 10 sub-themes were obtained from 11 interviews. The main themes include "perceived challenges of presence in cyberspace" with sub-themes such as "family challenges; psychological challenges; challenges arising from intergenerational gaps; challenges of changing cultural patterns and instability of accepted values; transformation of leisure and recreational styles; informational challenges beyond the age of transnational groups" and "perceived opportunities of cyberspace" with sub-themes such as "space for dialogue and exchange of views on social issues; opportunity to present models compatible with local culture; creation of social networks compatible with adolescent characteristics; access to equal educational opportunities." The results indicated that adolescents dependent on cyberspace perceive their presence in cyberspace with various challenges as well as beneficial opportunities. Conclusion: Therefore, it is necessary for officials and stakeholders to consider the needs of the adolescent period and use the opportunities provided by communication technology and virtual networks to design appropriate digital content to meet the needs of adolescents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined how educational inequity and political violence exposed young single mothers in the Ethiopia town of Awaday to a distinct disadvantage. Adopting a case study design, a total of 50 single mothers were selected based on convenience sampling. Questionnaire, structured depth interview, and focus group discussion were used to collect data which were analyzed in descriptive statistics and qualitative content analysis. Most of the participants were young, below 30, having 1–5 children, and school dropouts. The finding indicated political violence, which is directly or indirectly related to educational inequity and the social norm, is the fundamental factor for becoming single mothers. Almost all experience abject poverty, substance abuse, sexual violence, social stigma, adverse maternity health, and disorientation as to their future life. Their children are equally victims of the unjust system. The insignificant number of participants who managed to complete junior and secondary school education is in much better condition, which shows the huge negative impacts of educational inequity. While a complete overhaul of the violent and unjust socio-educational system of Ethiopia is decisive for durable change, vital short-term and middle-term policy and research implications of being single mothers in education and empowering them were suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Childhood obesity has risen and is one of the most important global problems of our time, and school physical education programs are the key to ameliorating it. In American schools, physical fitness scores have declined; yet, global, national, state, and local concerns for the overall health, physical fitness, and wellbeing of children are at an all-time high. The lack of safe and affordable options for physical activity coupled with the significant decrease in physical activity rates among most American children underscores the need for programs, data, and research on physical fitness in schools, where children spend a significant amount of their time. The purpose of this brief research report is to call the federal government and states to mandate physical fitness programs and to increase data collection capacity on physical fitness in schools. Subsequently, this study asks researchers to study physical fitness in schools in the U.S. to increase its importance to policy makers and educational stakeholders and advance our understanding of educational inequities in school physical fitness. As an example, using descriptive analyses, we have provided policymakers, educational stakeholders, and researchers with a first look at California's physical fitness data which shows how our findings complement prior literature as well as extend them. Implications for the research and practice are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inequality is a challenge for societies around the globe. In addition to its socio‐economic and political dimensions, inequality also has a territorial dimension. Focusing on educational inequality across regions, this article explores factors that shape regional differences in student enrolment and educational attainment in 14 OECD countries. The findings of the article suggest that a strong level of regional authority over education increases regional inequality in education. Further factors are regional differences in education expenditures and variation in the population size of regions. Low regional inequality in education seems to be explained by a low degree of regional authority or low differences in education spending. By examining regional inequality in education, the article enhances our understanding of the way multilevel governance influences the quality of life within regions. In particular, it highlights the impact of decentralization on territorial inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the post-pandemic world, open educational resources (OER) have the potential to ensure educational equity by providing all students with access to learning materials and by supporting teachers' instructional practices through readily available, adaptable resources. However, the quality of OER continues to be a concern. Therefore, this study explored the use of (1) GeoGebra and scaffolding strategies to develop OER for secondary school mathematics teaching and (2) formative evaluation techniques to enhance the quality of the OER. A GeoGebra expert and a total of 40 frontline teachers participated in three review cycles of the OER development in the project. The feedback from each cycle informed the application of scaffolding strategies in the development of OER for the subsequent cycles. In Cycles 2 and 3, teachers rated the OER and provided feedback through surveys for further improvement. The results indicated that teacher ratings were significantly higher in Cycle 3 (n = 40, Mdn = 5) than in the previous cycle (n = 21, Mdn = 4) regarding the appropriateness of the OER for students with different learning preferences, z = − 2.87, p < 0.05. The results of the project-end satisfaction survey further revealed that all of the teacher participants were satisfied with the OER, which also enhanced their teaching practices. The results of the study offer a theoretical foundation that OER developers can ground upon to enhance their OER design. They also provide practical insights into the application of formative evaluation in the OER development that OER developers can adopt to create resources that are finely attuned to the needs of frontline teachers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article documents the San Diego National Origin Desegregation Assistance Center (NODAC), one of the nine national centers established by the U.S. Office of Education to provide technical assistance to school districts cited under Section 601 of Title VI, from the Office for Civil Rights, to meet the Lau compliance requirement based on the Lau v. Nichols Supreme Court decision (Title VI. 42 U. S. C). Additionally, it provides insights into the ideological and political challenges and triumphs of implementing federal mandates for educational equity. The focus of this article is on the San Diego NODAC which provided technical assistance to the Southern California area consisting of 10 counties with the highest concentration of national origin students in the nation. This evaluation case study documents the work, process, and impact, of the San Diego NODAC and reflects on the enforcement of the Lau Task Force Remedies under the Region IX U.S. Office of Civil Rights, the process used by the NODAC, and the organizational receptivity and perceptions of school districts personnel responsible for coordinating compliance at or beyond minimal compliance. This article concludes with an evaluation process using lessons learned by the NODAC based on more than a decade of work and advocacy for students’ equal access to opportunity, quality bilingual education, and democratic schooling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study provides empirical insights into the perceptions and agency of navigators who provide school selection assistance and this NGO’s unique insider–outsider status. As semi-private actors, navigators offer an important bridge between two kinds of social capital: the informal types of trust and legitimacy that families rely on, and the skills, knowledge, and networks necessary to access higher-quality schools in choice policy contexts. Data for this study are derived from an exploratory case study, including 13 in-depth interviews, documentary and social media analysis, and informal conversations. The findings illustrate the benefits and shortcomings of NGO information support in choice policy contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Schools serving diverse and low‐income communities tend to have disproportionately high numbers of low‐quality or inexperienced teachers, thereby creating an inequality of access to high‐quality teaching. Across two pre‐registered experiments and one exploratory survey (Ntotal = 956), we investigated the factors associated with trainee teachers’ bias in school choices, and the role of teacher education in mitigating this issue. In Studies 1 and 3, trainee teachers demonstrated a preference for working in a school with average (vs. diverse/low‐income) demographics, even though all other aspects of the school were equal. These disparities were most pronounced when trainees more strongly believed that (a) educational inequality can be attributed to external factors; (b) intelligence is fixed, and (c) schooling is truly meritocratic. Study 2 revealed that levels of equity‐related input during initial teacher education vary hugely, but that, where implemented, it may better prepare trainees for the challenges associated with teaching in diverse and low‐income communities. Finally, Study 3 revealed tentative evidence to suggest that a brief intervention that challenges teachers to think beyond the internal causes of inequality could reduce some of these troubling disparities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Faculty perspectives on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in higher education are crucial for AI's meaningful integration into teaching and learning, yet research is scarce. This paper presents a study designed to gain insight into faculty members' (N = 122) AI self-efficacy and distinct latent profiles, perceived benefits, challenges, use, and professional development needs related to AI. The respondents saw greater equity in education as AI's greatest benefit, while students and faculty members' lack of AI literacy was among the greatest challenges, with the majority interested in professional development. Latent class analysis revealed four distinct faculty member profiles: optimistic, critical, critically reflected, and neutral. The optimistic profile moderates the relationship between self-efficacy and usage. The development of adequate support services is suggested for successful and sustainable digital transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Artificial Intelligence (AI) strives to create intelligent machines with human-like abilities. However, like humans, AI can be prone to implicit biases due to flaws in data or algorithms. These biases may cause discriminatory outcomes and decrease trust in AI. Bias in higher education admission may limit access to opportunities and further social inequalities, often due to implicit biases in data processing and decision-making. Addressing and recognizing implicit biases in AI is essential to create equal access to higher education admission and opportunities for students. To combat AI implicit biases, it is necessary to monitor and assess their performance and train them using unbiased data and algorithms. This ensures that all students have equal access to higher education and the opportunities it provides them. While the recent studies reviewed the algorithmic approaches to reducing bias, this article focuses instead on exploring the current understanding of the impacts of AI implicit bias in higher education and its implications for admissions. Furthermore, it evaluates the interactions between AI technology and education, specifically in mitigating AI implicit bias algorithms that can be leveraged to achieve inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Do some students learn more than others because they attend School A instead of School B? Or is educational inequality generated elsewhere, from common processes within schools, or outside of formal schooling? Within these paradigmatic questions, this study investigates the social determinants of school-to-school differences in STEM course-taking experiences, a key component of Opportunity to Learn (OTL), in a cross-national setting. Drawing on an internal-development model and social stratification theories, we examine whether observed school-to-school differences in OTL can more clearly be attributed to functional or dysfunctional sources, using a large cross-national sample from TIMSS with 278 observations across 67 countries/regions, dating from 1995 to 2019. Results from Generalized Multilevel Linear Models indicate that variation in school-level OTL comes primarily from variation in school readiness in a given country. Yet, we also observe evidence that supports conflict forces of differentiation. This paper contributes to existing cross-national studies of educational inequality by tracing the fundamental origins of inequality in OTL, locating potentially dysfunctional sources of OTL between schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Not all students have equal opportunities to learn from effective teachers, and students from historically disadvantaged backgrounds are disproportionately more likely to be taught by ineffective teachers year after year. However, the cumulative experience of being taught by (in)effective teachers has received less attention. Utilizing data from Tennessee's Student/Teacher Achievement Ratio and value-added modeling, we found that cumulative exposure to highly (in)effective teachers significantly impacts students' achievement. Students consistently taught by highly effective teachers for three years demonstrated approximately seven months more learning growth compared to those taught by ineffective teachers for the same period. The findings emphasize that the cumulative effects of prolonged exposure to highly effective and ineffective teachers can widen existing disparities in academic achievement. We conclude that teacher effectiveness, as well as access to and distribution of effective teachers, should be viewed from a cumulative perspective to better understand, effectively address, and reduce educational inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1972, the United States Office of Education (USOE) released a lengthy and unprecedented report about gifted education in response to a Congressional mandate. Both Congress and the USOE lamented the inadequate state of gifted programmes in American schools and urged that gifted education should become a greater national priority. In this essay, we argue that the federal government revived human capital and national security concerns in claiming that the unfulfilled potential of gifted and talented Americans had made the United States vulnerable. Better accommodating students with high abilities therefore became a paramount political agenda item. At the same time, amid efforts to eliminate poverty and facilitate greater equality of educational opportunity, both the legislative and executive branches of the federal government strategically portrayed the gifted and talented as a neglected and historically disadvantaged group in need of assistance. In establishing a broader and multi-faceted definition of giftedness, moreover, the USOE paid particular attention to racial minorities who were also gifted as a way of making its case. Such arguments fit within the political climate of the Great Society in directing public resources to historically marginalized groups. Deviating from longstanding characterizations of the gifted as inherently white and privileged, the U.S. government in the late 1960s and early 1970s portrayed them as racially diverse, "deprived," "disadvantaged," and warranting special educational opportunities. This example of federal advocacy thus marked a notable shift in the image of the gifted student in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the history of Finnish academic women and examines the discussions about women's academic education and women scholars that took place in two Finnish magazines of the women's movement between 1890 and 1939. The article examines how the two magazines addressed the topics and represented academic women and women scholars. The results indicate that at first, access to higher education and the complex status of female students at the university were the centre of attention in the discussions. The discussions were supplemented by new tones, strengthening the support for educational equality in relation to human rights with utilitarian perspectives. The emphasis of the topics shifted during the first decade of the twentieth century, when the magazines raised public awareness of the career paths for women scholars. The representations of academic women and women scholars also highlighted the efforts of the women's movement to promote the scholarly work of women pioneering in academic circles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The spread of Coronavirus (COVID-19) across the globe has had a significant impact on teachers and teaching with countries around the world closing schools in an effort to slow the spread of the virus. Such a mass cessation of traditional face-to-face teaching has required schools and teachers to move rapidly to remote and, primarily, online learning and teaching. In this paper, we draw on a study conducted in Australia during the period of June–July 2020 to examine the impact of this shift to remote teaching on teachers' work lives and well-being. Using an ecological framework to guide the study, we collected data from 137 Australian teachers via an online questionnaire. The findings reveal the multiple challenges teachers faced as they sought to implement quality teaching and learning for their students. The challenges facing teachers included an intensification of work; managing caregiving responsibilities while teaching remotely; being the subject of media debate; and learning new technologies and ways of working. We argue that given both the dynamic nature of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the skills developed by teachers, there exist opportunities to enact change at both an individual and systemic level to support more equitable practices and foster teacher well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research shows that the lockdown of schools due to the Covid-19 pandemic increased the already existing inequalities in education but little is known about the processes underlying these outcomes. In this study we used Bourdieu's theories to explore how interactions between teachers' expectations of parents and parents' availability of cultural, social and economic capital could potentially influence educational inequalities in the context of distance education. The analysis is based on 24 qualitative interviews with parents from different social backgrounds, teachers and school coordinators, sampled from an inner-city primary school in Flanders (Belgium). The results indicate that teachers continue to have standardised expectations of the proper role that parents should perform in distance education, which were difficult for some families to meet due their availability of cultural and economic capital. However, this study suggests that teachers' exposure to familial issues can result in teachers adapting their expectations and responses so that they are more likely to respond to the needs of parents and students in the field of distance education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the initial period of 'lockdown' in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, schools in England were closed to the majority of pupils for 15 weeks. We examine how during this time schools provided emergency remote teaching in mathematics to lower secondary pupils with different levels of prior attainment and advantage. Drawing on a mixed-methods study including a survey (N = 49) and interviews (N = 17) with Heads of Mathematics, we analyse schools' remote learning practices and how school closures have impacted on pupils' opportunity to learn mathematics (OTL). We find that inequitable distribution of engaged time, mathematical content and quality teaching has disproportionately negatively affected lower-attaining and disadvantaged pupils and is likely to have contributed to a widened attainment gap. We identify opportunities for HOMs to improve remote learning for subsequent school closures and enact equitable policies of distribution that improve OTL for lower-attaining and disadvantaged pupils. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the education emergency, teachers' leadership was indicative of their capacity to stay resilient and innovative in a changed educational environment. This study analyses their capacity to act as leaders and to promote equity in relation to the specific aspects of the French and Italian school systems. A pool of 16 interviews constitutes a unique case study of teacher leadership for equity under similar contextual conditions. Teacher leadership encountered very similar limitations in both countries. The education emergency per se represented an opportunity for some teachers to explore innovative equitable approaches, different from their actual practices and pedagogical cultures, as well as more professional dialogue. The margins for empowerment proved to be both of an instructional and of a transformative type. In particular, in systems with weak senior leadership and flat organisational structures, the margins for empowerment are at the classroom level. In such cases, a certain amount of collaboration and, quite often, hidden pedagogical innovation occurs in schools where school leadership and the wider organisational culture may offer some support. In fact, informal leadership is most often facilitated by certain conditions in terms of resources, school leadership and professional cultures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

School closures due to COVID-19 have been predicted to have a large impact on pupils' learning and wellbeing. Systematic evidence about teachers' perceptions of what challenges their pupils have faced, and how they have been addressing these challenges, will be important for post-pandemic planning. We interviewed 24 teachers from English state mainstream primary and secondary schools in June 2020 and asked them to describe the impact of partial school closures on their pupils' learning and wellbeing, and how they had been addressing challenges as individual teachers and at the whole school level. Data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Six themes were identified: (a) pedagogy and process, (b) communication with pupils and families, (c) life at home, (d) the role of parents, (e) a COVID-19 curriculum, and (f) moving forwards and making plans. Teachers reported difficulties in navigating the new form of education and finding the most effective way to teach and engage with the pupils. Pupils' lack of routine and their home environment were seen as influencing their learning and wellbeing. Parents' differing levels of involvement raised concerns about inequality. We discuss the practical implications of how to support pupils' learning and wellbeing both during and after COVID-19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Critical reflective practice is a foundation of socially just pedagogy. This paper focuses on the informal STEM (science, technology, engineering, and maths) learning sector, where there is an acute shortage of support for critical reflective practice despite long-standing, entrenched issues of inequity. We analyse how practitioners used a new reflective tool, the Equity Compass, co-developed by researchers and practitioners through a five-year partnership. We report on multimodal qualitative data (interviews, ethnographic observations, group discussions, partner site visits, and workshops) from 12 practitioners in four settings in the UK: a community zoo, regional science centre, digital arts centre and an initiative supporting girls and non-binary young people into STEM. We discuss how using the Equity Compass: (i) increased and deepened practitioners' knowledge and understanding of equity issues; (ii) supported personal and institutional critical reflection, helping practitioners move beyond 'gut instinct' to interrogate their own positionality, ask new questions, and critically evaluate the effectiveness of attempts at inclusive practice; and (iii) fostered more intentional equitable planning and practice, such as participatory approaches that shared authority with learners and introduced more inclusive forms of representation. We conclude by discussing the challenges, limitations, and implications for supporting critical reflective practice among educators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues for an expansion of the egalitarian toolbox for critiquing systems of education. It begins by examining familiar egalitarian approaches to equality of opportunity and social justice before examining more recent approaches to expanding the egalitarian toolbox defended by Elizabeth Anderson and Debra Satz. It argues that while both the familiar and new approaches form an important part of the egalitarian toolbox, they both have limitations which call for an approach to educational justice more directly concerned with social equality. The article then develops such an approach informed by sociological work on social class and social status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the beginning of higher education, universities have remained largely closed off spaces for disabled students. This paper examines how, and why, it has largely been in the last fifty years that these students have slowly been able to enter universities as the sector has made incremental improvements to enable the entry of students from different disability backgrounds. The paper aims to assess the positive steps universities have taken towards more inclusive practices for disabled students, while also using data sourced from a survey of disabled students studying in the Global North to consider what actions might increase equitable practices in university classrooms. Disabled students highlight that for all of the advances and support they receive, so often it is the fundamental elements of classroom inclusion that are still being overlooked, and subsequently, are creating barriers in even the earliest steps into their university careers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emerging adults in the U.S. face significant economic uncertainty during the early life course. Economic uncertainties grew in the 2000s, especially for the Millennial cohort. Access to credit can be a resource to manage the instability that characterizes emerging adulthood. However, debt can also become a burden, making credit like a "double-edged sword." We study inequality in debt holding for five debt types that provide distinct resources and burdens, including mortgages, car loans, student loans, credit cards, and other debts to businesses. We analyze the extent to which the Millennial cohort accumulated unequal debts by the end of emerging adulthood using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1997 Cohort. We find strikingly unequal debt holding by education, race/ethnicity, and education-by-race/ethnicity for Millennial emerging adults. We conclude that policies and programs that support emerging adult financial wellbeing will be crucial for healthy development and reduced inequalities during this life course stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The article focuses on the need to embrace culturally sustaining literacy practices (CSLP) that integrate arts and critical thinking into literacy instruction, aiming to address educational inequities and improve engagement and achievement among multilingual learners, particularly youth of color.

United States policymakers and education leaders continue to assess young children as if their learning contexts are neutral and harmless. This article draws upon examples from the multi-sited Civic Action and Young Children study to show why contexts that actively refuse deficit, racist thinking and support agency have the best chance of showing children's diverse ranges of skills and knowledge and so should be the focus of assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past two decades, the Government of Pakistan has significantly invested in higher education (HE) to bring structural reforms in funding, governance, and quality assurance mechanisms. Their overarching mission has been to fuel national socioeconomic development by ensuring equal access to HE. Given this, the present study aimed to address the following research question: To what extent have current HE reforms in Pakistan enabled equitable access to HE? To address this question, this study drew from a social justice-centered framework to track trends in HE access that is, broadly and based on socio-economic status, gender, urbanicity/rurality, and region/province. Using secondary data from diverse sources including the HEC, Academy of Education Planning and Management, and the Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund, we conducted descriptive longitudinal analyses. Findings underscore that the system has failed to provide equal access to HE in several ways and discuss some possibilities for policymakers in equalizing the opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, improvement researchers have sought to foreground equity in continuous improvement (CI) in efforts to better advance the position of Black, Brown, and other marginalized students in educational settings using CI. While we view these efforts as noble and necessary, we argue in this paper that CI has largely centered equity and pushed justice to the periphery. In particular, we argue that the field of CI in education has focused squarely on equity--what we define as reducing racial and other gaps in dominant outcomes. In so doing, CI has deprioritized justice, which we define as improving outcomes that center on the comfort, agency, and dignity of all students, but minoritized students (i.e., Black, Brown, LGBTQ+, disabled, multilingual youth, and working-class) in particular. In so doing, CI efforts risk upholding dominant schooling outcomes and accompanying practices that sort students into unequal categories, limiting the capability of minoritized students to reach their full potential, erasing and demeaning students' cultural wealth, knowledge, and identities, and restricting their access to rich learning opportunities. We argue for a continuous improvement for justice that: (a) confronts dominant outcomes rather than uncritically prioritizing them; and (b) aims to use its tools to create systems that prioritize outcomes that grant comfort, agency, and dignity to minoritized students and communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of REICE. Ibero-American Journal on Quality, Effectiveness & Change in Education / REICE. Revista Iberoamericana Sobre Calidad, Eficacia y Cambio en Educación is the property of Red Iberoamericana de Investigacion sobre Cambio y Eficacia en Educacion and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of REICE. Ibero-American Journal on Quality, Effectiveness & Change in Education / REICE. Revista Iberoamericana Sobre Calidad, Eficacia y Cambio en Educación is the property of Red Iberoamericana de Investigacion sobre Cambio y Eficacia en Educacion and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

ABSTRACT The outbreak of the COVID‐19 pandemic in early 2020 caused serious concern about the potential negative effects on children and young people. In Denmark, policymakers and interest organizations worried that insecurity about the future and the multiple lockdowns of society would harm the well‐being of children and young people and their school‐to‐school transitions. The COVID‐19 pandemic and the ensuing lockdowns of society can be regarded as a naturally occurring experiment. We utilise this abrupt exogenous shock to investigate whether the COVID‐19 pandemic affected the share of Danish 9th‐grade pupils who start an education after the 9th grade. Cohorts graduating from the 9th grade before 2020 were unaffected by the pandemic in their school‐to‐school transitions and constitute a suitable control group to explore the causal effects of the pandemic. To this end, we use registered data with information about the total population of 9th‐grade cohorts from 2018 to 2022. To adjust for the minor observable differences between cohorts, we employ augmented inverse probability weighting (AIPW), taking into account a multitude of covariates relevant for school‐to‐school transitions. We find that the COVID‐19 pandemic reduced the transition rate to education overall, but the largest reduction is in relation to starting upper secondary education. Our results indicate that the pandemic led young people to opt for types of education that entail a more social or recreational aspect before moving on to secondary education. Furthermore, effect sizes vary according to socio‐economic status, and our results suggest increased educational inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study introduces a novel recommender system that integrates academic performance and socio-demographic variables to provide personalised and contextually relevant recommendations for university degree selection. The system aims to optimise the alignment between students' profiles and potential academic programmes by utilising advanced machine learning models, including XGBoost, Random Forest, GLMNET, and KNN. The research addresses a critical gap identified in the literature, where most existing systems rely solely on academic data, neglecting the significant impact of socioeconomic factors on educational decision-making. The proposed system demonstrates superior predictive accuracy through rigorous cross-validation and hyperparameter tuning compared to simpler models, such as linear regression. The results show that integrating socio-demographic data enhances the relevance of the recommendations, supporting students in making more informed choices. This approach contributes to educational equity by ensuring that guidance is tailored to each student's unique circumstances, aligning with the sustainable development goal of quality education. The findings highlight the value of incorporating a comprehensive data-driven approach to improve educational outcomes and support more equitable decision-making processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: This study examines storytelling's role in supporting organizational resilience for equitable STEM instruction by schools and districts. Within K-12 organizations, some practices may be perceived as mundane, but storytelling supports transformation toward achieving equitable STEM learning opportunities in a school. Therefore, storytelling is a means for achieving organizational resilience. Methods: Through a comparative case study design, this paper explores challenges identified by educational leaders through focus groups who worked with teams to activate interdisciplinary learning to support thriving STEM programming to enhance equitable science instruction. Results: We characterize STEM systems' social and organizational phenomena from three educational contexts. We start by sharing these systems' backgrounds and educational goals, with specific attentiveness to their STEM programming. We then share the stories told by their leaders to promote organizational resilience (these characteristics, as previously described, are italicized throughout this section) within each of the given contexts. Discussion: The STEM stories in this study shared the state of STEM within a school and district, the instructional mission of STEM, and a community STEM story. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many scholars have drawn on youth voice as a way of learning about educational inequity from the perspective of those closest to it. Yet, methodological engagements with youth voice tend to elide considerations of how coloniality and raciality operate in the very interpretive strategies leveraged to represent youth voice in academic knowledge produced about inequity. Following anticolonial black feminist critique and method-making, the inquirer turns to a radical reading practice for engaging youth feedback at a summer achievement program dedicated to promoting racial and educational justice and reversing summer learning loss. Key to this radical reading practice are methodological and analytical moves that: (a) pivot from earlier interpretations of youth feedback; (b) trace raciality in educational text to demonstrate how the text relies on modern signifying strategies that hide Man, his descriptive statements for existence, and the attendant power structures that facilitate global capital; and (c) consider how youth feedback illustrates coloniality and raciality at work within the out-of-school program. In all, the paper demonstrates how a black inquiry approach complicates educational equity's federally mandated, state-monitored, and locally enacted pursuit at an out-of-school program to collectively consider alternatives to our current ethical-political education demands, and how we might engage the task of posing those alternatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of International & Comparative Education is the property of International & Comparative Education Editorial, Beijing Normal University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In this manuscript I provide a historical analysis of antiBlackness in the Mexican American struggle for educational equity in Texas that is grounded in the dysconscious racism framework. I focus on the “other White” legal strategy and how Mexican American leaders in Houston in the late 1950s viewed collaborating with the African American Civil Rights movement. To highlight the opposing perspectives, I present a portrait of two rival Houstonian Mexican American leaders through correspondences, speeches, business documents, newspaper articles, oral histories, and secondary sources. The thrust of this manuscript analyzes how differing reactions to 1957 Texas House Bill 231, a bill that stymied school integration efforts, reflect both antiBlackness in the Mexican American civil rights movement and challenges to this way of thinking. I conclude with a call to challenge “racial innocence” in the Latine community and to prepare critically conscious educators who understand historical and current antiBlackness in the Latine community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]