Equity Agenda Research Articles

Review of Gebhard & Accurso (2023): In pursuit of a multilingual equity agenda: SFL teacher action research

Review of Gebhard & Accurso (2023): In pursuit of a multilingual equity agenda: SFL teacher action research

Calling for Equity-focused Quantitative Methodology in Discipline-based Education Research: An Introduction to Latent Class Analysis.

Mixture modeling is a latent variable (i.e., a variable that cannot be measured directly) approach to quantitatively represent unobserved subpopulations within an overall population. It includes a range of cross-sectional (such as latent class [LCA] or latent profile analysis) and longitudinal (such as latent transition analysis) analyses and is often referred to as a "person-centered" approach to quantitative data. This research methods paper describes one type of mixture modeling, LCA, and provides examples of how this method can be applied to discipline-based education research in biology and other science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) disciplines. This paper briefly introduces LCA, explores the affordances LCA provides for equity-focused STEM education research, highlights some of its limitations, and provides suggestions for researchers interested in exploring LCA as a method of analysis. We encourage discipline-based education researchers to consider how statistical analyses may conflict with their equity-minded research agendas while also introducing LCA as a method of leveraging the affordances of quantitative data to pursue research goals aligned with equity, inclusion, access, and justice agendas.

Social, cultural and political conditions for advancing health equity: examples from eight country case studies (2011–2021)

Progress in addressing systematic health inequities, both between and within countries, has been slow. However, there are examples of actions taken on social determinants of health and policy changes aimed...

Realigning the physical activity research agenda for population health, equity, and wellbeing

Realigning the physical activity research agenda for population health, equity, and wellbeing

Deconstructing the Richness of Understanding the Nature of Language, Learning, and Social Change: A Journey Through SFL Action Research for Teachers in Pursuit of a Multilingual Equity Agenda

This essential volume, edited by Meg Gebhard, illustrates how K-12 teachers use Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) and action research to support the development of disciplinary literacy among diverse learners in high-stakes school reform contexts. With contributions from teachers, teacher educators, and researchers, this book empowers teachers to be agents of change in their schools by designing and implementing of curricula, instruction, and assessment that build on students' cultural and linguistic knowledge. This book provides a framework, tools and resources for teaching and supporting multilingual students and ELLs through case studies and contexts. This book aims to improve teachers' professional practice through critical SFL pedagogy and to support teachers in combating racist and xenophobic (anti-immigrant) rhetoric by contributing to their schools' equality agenda.

An Equity Agenda for the Field of Health Care Quality Improvement.

On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the publication of To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health System (IOM, 2000) and Crossing the Quality Chasm: A New Health System for the 21st Century (IOM, 2001), the National Academy of Medicine convened the leaders of seven prominent U.S. health care quality organizations to […]

2022 Wallace Foundation Distinguished Lecture Education Reform, Past and Present: Asking Equity Questions and Looking for Hope

Drawing on a set of studies conducted over 3 decades, this article provides a reflection on what has been learned by centering equity questions in research on educational reform. These studies reveal the need to explore educators’ belief systems, emotions, and agency in relation to reform. They also underscore the co-constructed nature of reform and the importance of attending to context and scale. Although prior research reveals the complex challenges educators, policymakers, and communities face in promoting educational change with social justice aims, it also provides lessons for a hopeful path forward. Pursuing an equity agenda in this pivotal moment requires deep thinking about how we conduct research on educational reform, prepare the next generation of scholars, and work across disciplinary and national boundaries.

Quantitative criticalism for social justice and equity-oriented communication research

Abstract An increasing number of communication researchers have noted the potential of quantitative criticalism (QuantCrit) or the use of quantitative approaches to pursue social justice and equity agenda. Nonetheless, how to achieve the goals and ideals of QuantCrit in communication studies still largely remains uncharted terrain. This article offers five concrete suggestions for how researchers can bring critical consciousness to quantitative communication research: (a) broadening and diversifying the scope of communication research, (b) (re)framing research questions with a social justice orientation, (c) critiquing dominant narratives and centering the counternarratives, (d) incorporating intersectionality to address marginalization, and (e) employing statistical methods that illuminate interdependence, systems, and power dynamics. This article seeks to enrich the discussion on ways to embrace QuantCrit in communication research to revitalize perspectives and means for identifying and addressing inequalities, and eventually to advance transformative scholarship.

Improving health equity through health care systems research.

To describe health equity research priorities for health care delivery systems and delineate a research and action agenda that generates evidence-based solutions to persistent racial and ethnic inequities in health outcomes. This project was conducted as a component of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's (AHRQ) stakeholder engaged process to develop an Equity Agenda and Action Plan to guide priority setting to advance health equity. Recommendations were developed and refined based on expert input, evidence review, and stakeholder engagement. Participating stakeholders included experts from academia, health care organizations, industry, and government. Expert group consensus, informed by stakeholder engagement and targeted evidence review. Priority themes were derived iteratively through (1) brainstorming and idea reduction, (2) targeted evidence review of candidate themes, (3) determination of preliminary themes; (4) input on preliminary themes from stakeholders attending AHRQ's 2022 Health Equity Summit; and (5) and refinement of themes based on that input. The final set of research and action recommendations was determined by authors' consensus. Health care delivery systems have contributed to racial and ethnic disparities in health care. High quality research is needed to inform health care delivery systems approaches to undo systemic barriers and inequities. We identified six priority themes for research; (1) institutional leadership, culture, and workforce; (2) data-driven, culturally tailored care; (3) health equity targeted performance incentives; (4) health equity-informed approaches to health system consolidation and access; (5) whole person care; (6) and whole community investment. We also suggest cross-cutting themes regarding research workforce and research timelines. As the nation's primary health services research agency, AHRQ can advance equitable delivery of health care by funding research and disseminating evidence to help transform the organization and delivery of health care.

Organs or bodies? Toward an equitable, embodied, and animal-inclusive diversity, equity, and inclusion agenda

ABSTRACT This paper celebrates the turn toward embodiment. Drawing connections between embodiment and the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) agenda, this article notes that the axis of speciesism, or discrimination based on species membership, has not featured prominently thus far. The turn toward embodiment should not turn away from the billions of animal bodies, but nor should it include animals in less than equitable ways. The construct of speciesism is developed using the Žižekean concept of Organs without Bodies (OwBs) and its predecessor, Deleuze and Guattari’s Bodies without Organs (BwOs). It is argued that the exclusion of animals (unembodiment) is undesirable, but so too is the inclusion of animals as OwBs or BwOs, both of which are more inclusive but inequitable. This article advocates for fuller theorisations of animal embodiment, at similar levels of complexity and care to those given to human embodiments, theories of embodiment recognising animals as (dis)organised bodies.

Addressing barriers to health care among Black Alaskans: contributions by social work research to an agenda of health equity

ABSTRACT Black Alaskans face serious barriers to health care. This paper reports on qualitative results of a health needs assessment to understand the health challenges facing Black Alaskans. Utilizing exploratory thematic analysis, the findings indicate that Black Alaskans experience barriers such as high cost of care, underinsurance, lack of information and education, a shortage of BIPOC health providers, stigma, negative perceptions by health-care providers, and racism both in the community and in the health-care system. The paper concludes by discussing emerging health equity initiatives to advance responsive care for Black Alaskans.

Performance Arts in Zimbabwe: Setting the Agenda for Peace and Development

Using purposively selected works of Zimbabwean artists posted on YouTube, and the public comments on this content, this article demonstrates the agenda-setting capabilities of performance artists, particularly those anchored on theatre, music and poetry. It does this by analysing how the artists set the agenda for peace, economic equity, political justice, social harmony and development in Zimbabwe. The paper notes that performance arts have been vital cogs in supporting and strengthening interventions aimed at achieving peace and development in the country. On the other hand, the comments section on social media sites was viewed as a ‘public space’ where people ‘converge’ to share their thoughts on various issues affecting them as raised by artists. Using document analysis and social media for observational data, this article argues that artists are critical in contributing to the peacebuilding discourse in Zimbabwe through putting important governance issues on the public agenda. The onus is on the authorities and other development partners to use this information to address the needs and the plight of the masses as a prerequisite for conflict transformation.

Equity, diversity and inclusivity: Once more, with feeling

This article examines how gratitude influences the practice of British television production workers. It does so through a case study which asked television production workers to consider their work through the prism of gratitude: were they grateful for their work? Using semi-structured interviews, the data revealed that yes, workers were grateful but still identified many punitive working practices. These practices have simultaneously been identified by the industry itself, and there is an improvement discourse through the equity, diversity and inclusivity agendas. I argue here that equity, diversity and inclusivity measures are ineffective – as they have been proven to be elsewhere – because they do not consider the feeling(s), such as gratitude, of working in television. In failing to make this a consideration, equity, diversity and inclusivity work cannot address the inequalities it is there to resolve. This is because understanding the felt experience illuminates the fuller encounter of working in a particular environment. This includes the potential inhibition that gratitude can catalyse through indebtedness. In understanding what these feelings catalyse when cooperating in what they know to be an unfair system, equity, diversity and inclusivity work can be progressed beyond a model predicated on assimilation, to something that achieves substantive change.

The Equity Agenda in Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research.

This commentary on Kover and Abbeduto (2023) underscores the critical importance of naming and framing toward an equity agenda in intellectual and developmental disabilities research. More specifically, I briefly outline (1) why racialization is an important anchor in IDD discourse; (2) whiteness as a necessary point of discussion; and (3) the adoption of critical inquiry and critical praxis.

Embedding anti-racism in Schools of Public Health: a pathway to accountability for progress towards equity.

The importance of seeing race as a socially constructed idea continues to produce unfair differences between humans and establishes power relations that lead to injustice and exposure to death. Since the racial justice movement in early 2020, therehas been a heightened awarenessof,and increased interest in,addressinghistoric racial disparities across Schools of Public Health (SPH) in Canada. Steps have been taken to recognize systemic racism and increase diversity through structural reforms to advance equity and inclusion; however, addressing racism demands collectively uprooting racist institutional designs still inherent in learning, teaching, research, service, and community engagement. This commentary highlights the need for sustained commitment to establishing longitudinal benchmarks for greater racial equity among students, staff, and faculty; revising curricula to include historic and contemporary narratives of colonialism and slavery; and providing community-engaged learning opportunities as instrumental to dismantle systemic drivers of racial health inequities locally and globally. We also advocate for intersectoral collaboration, mutual learning, and sharing of resources across SPH and partner agencies to accomplish a continual collective agenda for racial health equity and inclusion that is intersectional in Canada, while being held accountable to Indigenous and racialized communities.

Racial equity and decolonisation within the DClinPsy: How far have we come and where are we going? Trainee clinical psychologists’ perspectives of the curriculum and research practices

IntroductionClinical Psychology has long been criticised as a profession that is rooted in coloniality, that preserves whiteness as the norm through its practices. Arguably, this has led to many racial disparities in the mental health outcomes for racially minoritised groups living in the UK. In more recent years, clinical psychology training courses (DClinPsy) have focused their efforts to develop Equality, Diversity and Inclusion initiatives, leading to changes in the curriculum.AimsThe aim of the current study is to explore how trainee clinical psychologists (TCP) understand racial equity and decolonisation in relation to the DClinPsy curriculum and research practices. Also, to explore whether trainees have experienced any changes in relation to racial equity and decolonisation agendas and what changes would they like to see in the future.MethodThree focus groups were conducted with TCPs across various DClinPsy courses, which were analysed using a thematic analysis.ResultsThe data presented four themes: ‘defining and enacting racial equity’, ‘the DClinPsy course content’, ‘structural and societal barriers’ and ‘the future’.ConclusionsThe findings highlight the various complexities and dilemmas that surround DClinPsy courses. The results also show key areas of progression, development, and recommendations to enhance the racial equitability of the DClinPsy curriculum and research practices, in the hope of improving the mental health service provision and outcomes for racially-minoritised groups.

Perspectives of private payers on multicancer early-detection tests: informing research, implementation, and policy.

Emerging blood-based multicancer early-detection (MCED) tests may redefine cancer screening, reduce mortality, and address health disparities if their benefit is demonstrated. U.S. payers' coverage policies will impact MCED test adoption and access; thus, their perspectives must be understood. We examined views, coverage barriers, and evidentiary needs for MCED from 19 private payers collectively covering 150 000 000 enrollees. Most saw an MCED test's potential merit for cancers without current screening (84%), but fewer saw its merit for cancers with existing screening (37%). The largest coverage barriers were inclusion of cancers without demonstrated benefits of early diagnosis (73%), a high false-negative rate (53%), and lack of care protocols for MCED-detected but unconfirmed cancers (53%). The majority (58%) would not require mortality evidence and would accept surrogate endpoints. Most payers (64%) would accept rigorous real-world evidence in the absence of a large randomized controlled trial. The majority (74%) did not expect MCED to reduce disparities due to potential harm from overtreatment resulting from an MCED and barriers to downstream care. Payers' perspectives and evidentiary needs may inform MCED test developers, researchers producing evidence, and health systems framing MCED screening programs. Private payers should be stakeholders of a national MCED policy and equity agenda.

Diversity, equity and inclusion: Strategies for success

The diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) agenda has been growing in importance in recent years and is now seen by many firms as essential to a productive and effective workforce and a healthy culture. In addition, with increasing regulatory scrutiny in this area, firms are investing more in strategies to promote DEI in their workplace. However, many firms still struggle to identify which programmes bring the greatest benefits. This paper explores the fundamental case for DEI in the workplace, looking at the benefits for firms and wider trends in DEI. It also examines the regulatory perspective and analyses the findings of the FCA multi-firm review published in December 2022 on approaches to D&I (diversity and inclusion) in financial services. Finally, this paper turns to look at the essential elements of an effective DEI approach, including a clear strategy driven by firm-specific data, buy-in from the top, a positive firm-wide culture, measurable targets and interventions across the employee life cycle. Practical examples are provided of workplace initiatives and how firms can build success.

Achieving the IA2030 Coverage and Equity Goals through a Renewed Focus on Urban Immunization.

The 2021 WHO and UNICEF Estimates of National Immunization Coverage (WUENIC) reported approximately 25 million under-vaccinated children in 2021, out of which 18 million were zero-dose children who did not receive even the first dose of a diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis-(DPT) containing vaccine. The number of zero-dose children increased by six million between 2019, the pre-pandemic year, and 2021. A total of 20 countries with the highest number of zero-dose children and home to over 75% of these children in 2021 were prioritized for this review. Several of these countries have substantial urbanization with accompanying challenges. This review paper summarizes routine immunization backsliding following the COVID-19 pandemic and predictors of coverage and identifies pro-equity strategies in urban and peri-urban settings through a systematic search of the published literature. Two databases, PubMed and Web of Science, were exhaustively searched using search terms and synonyms, resulting in 608 identified peer-reviewed papers. Based on the inclusion criteria, 15 papers were included in the final review. The inclusion criteria included papers published between March 2020 and January 2023 and references to urban settings and COVID-19 in the papers. Several studies clearly documented a backsliding of coverage in urban and peri-urban settings, with some predictors or challenges to optimum coverage as well as some pro-equity strategies deployed or recommended in these studies. This emphasizes the need to focus on context-specific routine immunization catch-up and recovery strategies to suit the peculiarities of urban areas to get countries back on track toward achieving the targets of the IA2030. While more evidence is needed around the impact of the pandemic in urban areas, utilizing tools and platforms created to support advancing the equity agenda is pivotal. We posit that a renewed focus on urban immunization is critical if we are to achieve the IA2030 targets.

The House Is on Fire: A Reckoning of Leadership and DEI Initiatives in Predominantly White Schools

Sam Patrick, a White female superintendent is in her fourth year leading the Douglasville School District, a high-performing, predominantly White suburban district that has a long history of unacknowledged and unchecked racism and racial disparities. Sam is driven to embrace a diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) agenda and move the district in a new direction. The central conflict in the case is the district response to a racist ZOOM bombing incident involving a Black Assistant Principal and the n-word. This is a useful case for district leadership/ superintendency courses and professional development. Authors suggest exploring the issues through one or more of these frameworks: equity-focused leadership, culturally responsive leadership, social justice leadership, and anti-racist solidarity.