Acknowledgment

There is a need to acknowledge the inherent biases that exist in the educational system. A commitment to education is complex and challenging work. Working together is essential, in order to address the inherent oppression in education and build new equitable systems that facilitate creative, robust, and relevant experiences for our diverse children.

An Equity Framework; Going Beyond Access

Framing Equity

Image and descriptors below are developed from Framing Equity: Helping Students “Play the Game” and “Change the Game,” by Rochelle Gutierrez.

At a deeper level, equity is about the distribution of power - power in the classroom, power in future schooling, power in one’s everyday life, and power in a global society involving both dominant and critical perspectives. The diagram presented by Rochelle Gutierrez describes the relationship between four dimensions of equity: Access, Achievement, Identity, and Power. It also describes the balance and tension that exists in the space created by the dominant axis and the critical axis. The diagram is a visual framework for equity and serves to provide a mapping space for ideas and actions as one reflects on practices and policies needed to take an equity stance.

The Dominant Axis: Access and Achievement

Access is a precursor to achievement. Access and Achievement are dimensions of equity that measure how well students can and will be able to maneuver in the dominant culture. This axis speaks to a teaching and learning experience that reflects the status quo in society. The value of this experience is perpetuated through high-stakes testing, mainstream curriculum and instruction, and systemic polices and practices around behaviors. This teaching and learning experience values static preciseness. It involves making sense of a world that favors the views and perspectives of a relatively elite group.

The Critical Axis: Identity and Power

The critical axis builds upon the idea that learning is a human endeavor that reflects the agendas, priorities, and framings that students bring to the teaching and learning experience. It builds around students cultural identities in ways that address social and political issues in society, especially highlighting the perspectives of marginalized groups. The axis acknowledges the students’ frame of reference and resources in ways that help build critical citizens. This experience challenges the static preciseness embedded in traditions of dominant Western European cultures.

Access

Access is a dimension of equity that recognizes that students are affected by their “opportunity to learn.” It correlates to the resources students have available to them in order to be able to participate actively in their education. It includes such things as quality of teachers, adequate technology, racially-just, relevant and cognitive demanding curriculum, classroom supplies, culturally responsive classroom environments that nurture the whole student, flexible policies and routines for learning, and infrastructure for learning outside the classroom.

Achievement

Identity

Identity is a dimension of equity concerning the recognition of the contributions of a student’s ancestors and the reciprocity between the student and others in the learning community and outside the classroom community. It includes their ability to draw upon their cultural and linguistic resources and acknowledges how they are racialized, which influences their opportunities to develop a positive identity.

Power

Glossary

Deepening Awareness

Books:

Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire
We Want to Do More Than Survive. Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom by Bettina L. Love
Troublemakers: Lessons in Freedom from Young Children at School by Carla Shalaby
So you want to talk about race by Ijeoma Oluo
Annual Perspectives in Mathematics Education , 2018. Rehumanizing Mathematics for Black, Indigenous and Latinx Students edited by Imani Goffney and Rochelle Gutierrez
Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain by Zoretta Hammond

How to be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi

Research Papers:

“Culture of exclusion in mathematics education and its persistence in equity-oriented classrooms” by Nicole Louie
“The Value of Art and Culture in Everyday Life. Towards an expressive cultural democracy.” by Beth Juncker & Gitte Balling The Value of Art and Culture

Articles:

“A TODOS:Mathematics for All Position Paper.” The Mo(ve)ment to Prioritize Antiracist Mathematics: Planning for This and Every School Year (2020).
An essay for Teachers who believe Racism is real.
Framing Equity: Helping Students “Play the Game” and “Change the Game.”
It's Time to Talk About Dr. Seuss

Blogs:

Videos:

Lessons:

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An Equity Framework; Going Beyond Access

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