Equity Agenda Research Articles

A global map of travel time to cities to assess inequalities in accessibility in 2015.

The economic and man-made resources that sustain human wellbeing are not distributed evenly across the world, but are instead heavily concentrated in cities. Poor access to opportunities and services offered by urban centres (a function of distance, transport infrastructure, and the spatial distribution of cities) is a major barrier to improved livelihoods and overall development. Advancing accessibility worldwide underpins the equity agenda of 'leaving no one behind' established by the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations. This has renewed international efforts to accurately measure accessibility and generate a metric that can inform the design and implementation of development policies. The only previous attempt to reliably map accessibility worldwide, which was published nearly a decade ago, predated the baseline for the Sustainable Development Goals and excluded the recent expansion in infrastructure networks, particularly in lower-resource settings. In parallel, new data sources provided by Open Street Map and Google now capture transportation networks with unprecedented detail and precision. Here we develop and validate a map that quantifies travel time to cities for 2015 at a spatial resolution of approximately one by one kilometre by integrating ten global-scale surfaces that characterize factors affecting human movement rates and 13,840 high-density urban centres within an established geospatial-modelling framework. Our results highlight disparities in accessibility relative to wealth as 50.9% of individuals living in low-income settings (concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa) reside within an hour of a city compared to 90.7% of individuals in high-income settings. By further triangulating this map against socioeconomic datasets, we demonstrate how access to urban centres stratifies the economic, educational, and health status of humanity.

“Some Women Are Born Fighters”: Discursive Constructions of a Fighter’s Identity by Female Finnish Judo Athletes

Martial arts and combat sports have been traditionally associated with masculinity, and a range of contradictory meanings have been attached to women’s engagement and experiences. The present study draws on cultural praxis and feminist poststructuralist frameworks to explore how female martial artists are subjectified to dominant cultural discourses surrounding fighting and competition. Interviews with nine female judoka (judo athletes) were gathered in Finland and analyzed using Foucauldian Discourse Analysis (FDA). The FDA revealed that in female judoka talk, judo was constructed as a sport for all, but also as a male domain and a manly sport with fighting and competition as innate masculine qualities that are not learned. Two sets of wider, competing discourses provided the dominant structure for participants’ constructions of judo: (a) a mass sport discourse versus an elite sport discourse and (b) a gender equality discourse versus a female biological inferiority discourse. Drawing on this discursive context and in seeking to make sense of their experiences, participants constructed a “naturally born fighter” identity. Although this might be an empowering identity for female judoka, it does not advance the agenda of gender equity in martial arts because it constructs “ordinary” women as biologically incapable of competitive judo. Our findings reveal that even in the relatively egalitarian culture of Finland, gender hierarchies persist in judo and that it is only by disrupting prevalent constructions of fighting and competitiveness as masculine that progress toward gender equity can be made.

Health in All Policies in South Australia-Did It Promote and Enact an Equity Perspective?

Mobilising cross-sectoral action is helpful in addressing the range of social determinants that contribute to health inequities. The South Australian Health in All Policies (SA HiAP) approach was implemented from 2007 to stimulate cross-sector policy activity to address the social determinants of health to improve population wellbeing and reduce health inequities. This paper presents selected findings from a five year multi-methods research study of the SA HiAP approach and draws on data collected during interviews, observation, case studies, and document analysis. The analysis shows that SA HiAP had dual goals of facilitating joined-up government for co-benefits (process focus); and addressing social determinants of health and inequities through cross-sectoral policy activity (outcomes focus). Government agencies readily understood HiAP as providing tools for improving the process of intersectoral policy development, while the more distal outcome-focused intent of improving equity was not well understood and gained less traction. While some early rhetorical support existed for progressing an equity agenda through SA HiAP, subsequent economic pressures resulted in the government narrowing its priorities to economic goals. The paper concludes that SA HiAP’s initial intentions to address equity were only partially enacted and little was done to reduce inequities. Emerging opportunities in SA, and internationally, including the UN Sustainable Development Goals, may revive interest in addressing equity.

The ‘Universal Access to early childhood education’ agenda in Australia: rationales and instruments

This paper explores the Australian Government’s ‘Universal Access’ policy in the early childhood education sector. Using data from selected policy texts, and drawing on interpretive policy analysis, the paper specifically examines rationales underlying the Universal Access agenda and instruments put in place to operationalize it and problematizes the framing of the equity agenda. The findings show that economic, educational and social goals inform the policy initiative; and targeted funding, teacher professionalization and performance monitoring serve as instruments in the enactment of the initiatives. A closer analysis of the texts also reveals that the Universal Access agenda is characterized by discursive shifts in the framing of equity goals, issue-omissions, contradictions of agendas, and inconsistencies of categories of disadvantage.

Putting thePublicBack in Public Education: Community Advocacy and Education Leadership under the Every Student Succeeds Act

In this article, we argue that ESSA provides a unique policy window for district-level leaders to advance an equity agenda by working closely with local community advocates. Drawing from a larger qualitative, multiple case study on the role of school boards in three U.S. Mountain West school districts, we focus on community advocacy committed to expanding educational equity and opportunity for underserved Black, Latinx, and English learner students Guided by community equity literacy as an organizing framework grounded in the literature on school–community relations, partnerships, and collaboration, we find that community advocates, who in some cases became school board members, identified educational inequities through various forms of knowledge, and then took deliberate actions to dismantle inequities in their respective school districts. We conclude with recommendations for how district-level leaders might leverage community advocacy and education leadership at the local level under ESSA.

Who Guards the Guardians? National Implications of Accreditation at City College of San Francisco

Purpose: This article addresses the broad context of community college accreditation which surrounds a controversy involving one of the largest community colleges in the United States, City College of San Francisco (CCSF), and its regional accrediting agency, the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC). Its purposes are to illuminate the issue of how accrediting agencies are held accountable and to highlight the importance of addressing student equity issues as part of accreditation. Argument/Proposed Model: Rather than focusing on the details of the specific case, we reflect on the situation as a microcosm of the issues facing community college students and accreditors. Themes that emerge include the rise of compliance-oriented accreditation practices, the degree to which accreditation is increasingly subject to political and economic forces, and the dilemmas involved in assuring that educational quality is available to all students. Conclusions/Contributions: Accrediting agencies must address the barriers that interfere with the success of first generation students, low-income students, and students of color, who are rapidly coming to represent the predominant student demographic in the United States and who constitute the majority of students at CCSF. We conclude that the basis exists in higher education research and practice for the development of accreditation standards that address the student equity agenda.

Advancing the Learning Equity Agenda through a Social Constructivist Epistemology to Teaching and Learning in the Curriculum

ABSTRACTThe purpose of this conceptual paper is to examine how adopting a social constructivist epistemology enhances equity pedagogy in the classroom. The paper thus adopts a Vygotskian conceptual framework in so far as it serves as an ideal model for improving learning equity among students from diverse socio-cultural backgrounds. As a conceptual as opposed to empirical study, the key concepts explored in this discussion are in relation to how the social constructivist approach to teaching and learning enhances equitable learning, how mediated learning experiences (MLE), situated learning activities in the learners’ zones of proximal development (ZPD) help scaffold students skills from lower to higher psychological functions through the use of learning tools (material, psychological and semiotic tools) as well as through the use of learning conversations (LC) and some forms of indigenous knowledge systems (IKS) in the constructivist classrooms. Among the key findings of this study was the view that adop...

Shifts in Education Policy, Administration and Governance in Guyana 1831–2017. Seeking ‘A Political’ Agenda for Equity and Renewal

Shifts in Education Policy, Administration and Governance in Guyana 1831–2017. Seeking ‘A Political’ Agenda for Equity and Renewal

Rural education practice and policy in marginalised communities:Teaching and learning on the edge

In this paper I focus on the problems that face (teacher) education policy and practice in meeting the challenge of ‘persistent and entrenched locational disadvantage’ in marginal communities. In Dropping off the Edge 2015, Tony Vinson and colleagues (2015) clearly demonstrate that complex and entrenched disadvantage has continued to characterise a number of Australian communities, with few signs of improvement in the past 15 years. A very high proportion of these disadvantaged localities are in rural areas, and they pose an enormous challenge to policy makers and service providers, as well as to the people who live in the communities themselves. In such contexts, education is both crucially important and inexorably difficult. Agreeing with Vinson, Rawshtorne, Beavis and Ericson, that we need to understand locational disadvantage as a wicked problem for a social equity agenda (2015), I argue that the concept of Rural Social Space (Reid et al., 2010) provides a useful and coherent theoretical resource for understanding and addressing this problem, and rethinking the idea of community in ways that are necessary for change to occur. Using an exemplary case of one locality identified by Vinson as threatened with ‘dropping off the edge’, I examine what a wicked problem looks like for social equity in this particular rural social space, and how it calls into question some of our most cherished assumptions about rural communities and rural schooling. The example allows consideration of the kind of policy and practice responses that may be necessary if the problem of educational disadvantage in rural locations is to be adequately addressed.

Troubling Whiteness: Music education and the “messiness” of equity work

At the elementary level, White, female music teachers largely populate music education. In the diverse schools of Toronto in Canada, teachers navigate their White subjectivities in a range of ways. My research examines the discourses, philosophies, and practices of four White, female elementary music educators who have striven to challenge dominant paradigms of music education. Their practices include critically engaging issues of social justice, studying a broad range of musics, and emphasizing contextualization. In many ways, these teachers interrupt the Eurocentric paradigm of music education to explore other possibilities with students. However, equity work is messy, and there were also moments that unsettled these teachers’ active equity agendas. This article describes both the subversions and the reinscriptions in a way that might be instructive to music education.

Advancing the Learning Equity Agenda through a Social Constructivist Epistemology to Teaching and Learning in the Curriculum

Advancing the Learning Equity Agenda through a Social Constructivist Epistemology to Teaching and Learning in the Curriculum

Climate Change: Imagining, Negotiating, and Co-Creating Future(S) with Children and Youth

With an understanding that children and young people will be severely affected by climate change consequences, this paper asks, what role should they have in their education or in civil decisions that will impact their quality of life in a climate-altered world? The paper argues that too often educational responses to uncertainty result in instrumental approaches where children and youth are not given agency to be active participants in their educational choices. Educational responses that emphasize participatory, place-based and transformative or emancipatory approaches to learning are likely to be more generative and responsive to young people’s needs.Using Kagwa and Selby’s (2010) framing that climate change offers a “learning moment [that] can be seized to think about what really and profoundly matters, to collectively envision better futures, and then to become practical visionaries in realizing the future” (p.5), the paper suggests two educational shifts that will help formal education systems become responsive to the needs of the twenty-first century. The first shift, adopting community as curriculum, focuses on knowledge production becoming a participatory process that is practiced with and amongst community members trying to solve local problems. The second shift, adopting a connected learning approach, focuses on harnessing the advances of innovations of the digital age with an equity agenda to address local issues. The paper outlines case examples which highlight how these shifts create pathways for what environmental sustainability education calls for in order to foster creative engagement in emergent change, facilitated by new approaches to learning and ways of organizing.

Keeping communication on the health equity agenda

Keeping communication on the health equity agenda

Law and Equity, and “Law and History” as a Resource of Critique

Abstract This article’s support for the critical equity agenda can be found in proposing that scholarship on equity could benefit from embracing a distinctive “Law and History” approach. In doing so, it acknowledges that amongst “mainstream” areas of law, equity has been the subject of very extensive historical scrutiny, and suggests that further but differently focused historicization can complement what is already exigent within conventional legal history alongside critical legal history. In illuminating how “Law and History” might differ from traditional and critical legal histories, the analysis explains how “Law and History” embodies established approaches within both, but emphasises the work of historians to a much greater degree than either. In identifying its current hallmarks, it explains that the parameters of “Law and History” are still being worked through. It also suggests that this notwithstanding, setting out for lawyers how historians perceive themselves and their work, and approach their craft – drawing this from current and highly profiled debate within history itself – identifies the potential of history as a resource of critique across legal scholarship. In identifying historians’ own perceptions of the importance of “mutual reinforcement” in social science scholarship, the analysis also explains how law can become a much more extensive resource of critique for history than is currently the case.

The Finnish “Recipe” Towards Inclusion: Concocting Educational Equity, Policy Rigour, and Proactive Support Structures

ABSTRACTBorrowing the lens of Finnish education policymakers, this article aims at dissecting the Finnish conception of inclusion and its approach in constructing an inclusive “special” education system as set against the wider debates and practices that shed different lights on the meaning and viability of inclusion. The discussion explores the foundation of inclusion in Finland as a range of complementary and cohesive strategies aimed at the prevention of exclusion at a systemic level as driven by the equity agenda. Inclusive education is set in the tone of a common school culture, which celebrates diversity by seeing varied needs as the norm through the provision of individualised education and proactive support. Going against the grain of neo-liberal reforms, Finland has diverted from the accountability practices of standardised testing and rigorous school inspection, instead adopted a community-wide consensus on the educability of every child.

Swimming against the tide: A Canadian qualitative study examining the implementation of a province-wide public health initiative to address health equity.

BackgroundEffectively addressing the social determinants of health and health equity are critical yet still-emerging areas of public health practice. This is significant for contemporary practice as the egregious impacts of health inequities on health outcomes continue to be revealed. More public health organizations seek to augment internal organizational capacity to address health equity while the evidence base to inform such leadership is in its infancy. The purpose of this paper is to report on findings of a study examining key factors influencing the development and implementation of the social determinants of health public health nurse (SDH-PHN) role in Ontario, Canada.MethodsA descriptive qualitative case study approach examined the first Canadian province-wide initiative to add SDH-PHNs to each public health unit. Data sources were documents and staff from public health units (i.e., SDH-PHNs, Managers, Directors, Chief Nursing Officers, Medical Officers of Health) as well as external stakeholders. Data were collected through 42 individual interviews and 226 documents. Interview data were analyzed using framework analysis methods; Prior’s approach guided document analysis.ResultsThree themes related to the SDH-PHN role implementation were identified: (1) ‘Swimming against the tide’ to lead change as staff navigated ideological tensions, competency development, and novel collaborations; (2) Shifting organizational practice environments impacted by initial role placement and action to structurally embed health equity priorities; and (3) Bridging policy implementation gaps related to local-provincial implementation and reporting expectations.ConclusionsThis study extends our understanding of the dynamic interplay among leadership, change management, ideological tensions, and local-provincial public health policy impacting health equity agendas. Given that the social determinants of health lie outside public health, collaboration with communities, health partners and non-health partners is essential to public health practice for health equity. The study findings have implications for increasing our knowledge and capacity for effective system-wide intervention towards health equity as a critical strategic priority for public health and for broader public policy and community engagement. Appropriate and effective public health leadership at multiple levels and by multiple actors is tantamount to adequately making inroads for health equity.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12939-016-0419-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Revealing Synergies, Tensions, and Silences Between Preservation and Planning

Problem, research strategy, and findings: Historic preservation and planning often operate together in the United States within local planning departments, sharing some common roots and a "fragile, uneasy alliance" (Birch & Roby, 1984). Over time, developments in both preservation and planning brought these disciplines and professions closer together, including shared concern for sustainability and common ground in community economic development, revitalization, land use planning, and urban design. Simultaneously, areas of tension and potential conflict emerged. Some preservation-oriented scholars and practitioners call for the expansion of preservation's sphere of influence and concern, while others caution of negative effects. In this literature review, I identify areas of confluence and friction, as well as silences and gaps, focusing especially on planning and preservation literature since the 1980s.Takeaway for practice: Few scholars have identified what planners and preservationists (and those who do both) can learn from one another, with some important exceptions. Planning scholarship can benefit from understanding how preservation has changed in tandem and in relation to planning. Preservationists can gain much from incorporating contemporary planning theory, especially with regard to participation and building an equity agenda for preservation that builds from preservation's strengths and recent advances toward recognizing a wider, more representative set of historic resources. Both planners and preservationists can benefit from stronger alliances in which scholars and practitioners engage in deeper dialogues and exchange. This interdisciplinary collaboration can unite leadership and vision with regard to equity and social justice, with deeper place-based knowledge to improve the social, environmental, and economic health of communities.

Re-examining power and privilege in collective impact

The dual purpose of this article is to deconstruct the collective impact approach’s treatment of power and privilege while reconstructing the model’s potential to encourage equity agendas in community change. Drawing on discourse analysis of three articles describing collective impact and case studies of two equity-oriented partnerships, analyses explore entry points for framing collective impact in ways that encourage equity as a foundation to partnership practices. Analyses suggest that the original descriptions of the approach referenced by community partners promote the marketization of change and a universal view of success, which mask opportunities to draw on the strengths of individuals and address the distribution of resources. However, partners in two communities in the US were able to use shared measurement practices to layer equity agendas onto the approach. Partners in these cases went beyond the guidance provided through the collective impact approach’s tenets at the advice of funders and community partners.

Health Equity, Population Health, and Climate Change Adaptation in Ontario, Canada

Climate change holds the potential to exacerbate existing health inequalities, yet understanding how practitioners conceive health equity and health equality has received little attention in the scholarly literature. This contribution utilizes in-depth interviews with public health practitioners from health units across Ontario, Canada to characterize understandings of equity in relation to on-going climate change adaptation work. Perceptions of health equity and associated public health practices are described before discussing the resulting implications for how and why practitioners take up the equity agenda in relation to climate change. In doing so, this work problematizes existing public health tools and competencies and signals the emergence of new practices capable of simultaneously promoting adaptive capacity to climate change and reducing health inequity in Ontario.

Global research challenges and opportunities for mental health and substance-use disorders.

The research agenda for global mental health and substance-use disorders has been largely driven by the exigencies of high health burdens and associated unmet needs in low- and middle-income countries. Implementation research focused on context-driven adaptation and innovation in service delivery has begun to yield promising results that are improving the quality of, and access to, care in low-resource settings. Importantly, these efforts have also resulted in the development and augmentation of local, in-country research capacities. Given the complex interplay between mental health and substance-use disorders, medical conditions, and biological and social vulnerabilities, a revitalized research agenda must encompass both local variation and global commonalities in the impact of adversities, multi-morbidities and their consequences across the life course. We recommend priorities for research – as well as guiding principles for context-driven, intersectoral, integrative approaches – that will advance knowledge and answer the most pressing local and global mental health questions and needs, while also promoting a health equity agenda and extending the quality, reach and impact of scientific enquiry.