Faculty across disciplines want to provide equitable and inclusive classrooms to support all students, but they are overwhelmed by the content they must cover and have no time to address equity and inclusion in their teaching. Equity and inclusion need not be seen as extra work but as important objectives that guide curriculum development. This book provides strategies to create a more purposeful, intentional curriculum that addresses equity and inclusion across disciplines without compromising content. We bring together practical lesson plans and instructional options that faculty can use and adapt to deliver content in a way that is mindful of inclusion and equity.
As educators, we must be as specific as possible when using certain terms, especially when those terms and our knowledge of them hold the keys to so many students' success. Considered by many to be one of the most important concepts in education to understand and apply, educational equity is a term that we are all familiar with, but may also have a plethora of meanings, depending upon the context in which it is used. Educational equity can be a lot of things, but it is certainly not the popular and overutilized image that depicts kids watching a baseball game while standing on boxes. To frame it in this manner oversimplifies the complexities associated with educational equity. Educational equity must be more intentional than that and thus, should be defined as creating and/or eliminating policies, systems, and practices in schools that impact the experiences, outcomes, and access to resources for students from previously excluded groups. On April 9th, How to Achieve Educational Equity will provide educational experiences and actionable steps to help all those who have decided to embark on the educational equity journey. The author, Dr. Howard E. Fields III, possesses the reputability, knowledge, credentials, and writing prowess to adequately convey such an important topic that will certainly challenge our thinking and enhance learning outcomes for all students. As an Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources, Adjunct Professor, Co-founder of both Black Males in Education St. Louis (BMESTL) and EduOpenings.com, his perspective and focus on remaining student-centered, yet equity-focused, has made him an emerging sought out speaker. Dr. Fields' unapologetic leadership and authenticity played a role in being recognized as the 2020 National Elementary Distinguished Principal from Missouri and the 2017 International Networked Digital Library of Thesis and Dissertation innovative research award recipient. Given all of this, How to Achieve Educational Equity will certainly be a successful resource in the education and educational policy area for years to come. Early feedback from educational practitioners includes the following review: "How to Achieve Educational Equity is truly a thought provoking and practical call to action that will benefit many educators for years to come, regardless of where they are in their understanding of equity. Dr. Fields has created a concrete framework equipped with multiple entry points into taking action towards achieving equity in schools. This book makes inequities - arguably the most insurmountable issue in education to date - feel possible to tackle through courage, collaboration, and accountability. Thank you, Dr. Fields, for your contribution to the field of education!" - Dr. Shenita Mayes, Middle School Principal
This book provides a global and social examination of how disabilities are played out and experienced around the world. It presents auto-ethnographic perspectives on disability across cultures, societies, and countries by documenting individuals’ personal narratives, thought processes and reflections. Chapter authors share cross-cultural perspectives within and across various countries, such as India, Australia, United States, Sri Lanka, United Kingdom, Croatia, Brazil, South Africa, and Qatar. Adopting a self-reflective stance following qualitative research methodology, the chapter authors discuss the current challenges in the field. Next, they deconstruct disability identities, explore the complexities of communication with differently abled persons, examine inclusive policies, practices and interventions and present insights from caregivers. The book concludes with critical reflections and a look to the future of global diversity and inclusion.
Colleges and universities cannot ignore the increasingly diverse student population in their classrooms, and how a focus on equity, diversity, and inclusion across disciplines trains students in the intercultural awareness they will need in competitive job markets. Yet while faculty may be aware of a need to understand EDI goals in relationship to their disciplines, and institutions may support EDI in theory, the onus of pedagogical training in EDI often falls on individual faculty. This book was written by faculty and administrators for educators who value the goals of EDI, and seek an intellectual community to help them develop their practice. Important to this book is an honest discussion of common challenges faculty may face when they engage in this difficult work, and effective strategies for addressing those challenges. The chapters are grouped according to six different themes: respect for divergent learning styles; inclusion and exclusion; technology and social action; affective considerations; reflection for critical consciousness; and safe spaces and resistance.
This volume focuses on professional ethics and the moral dimensions of inclusive education. Grounded in an examination of international conceptualizations of ethics and inclusion, this book will provide a comprehensive analysis of current understandings of professional ethics in the context of inclusive education.
"Equality in Education: Fairness and Inclusion is a scholarly call to action. As the book reminds us, governments come and go and in doing so they busy themselves with policy to mark their patch. Inequality and exclusion remain stubborn foes that are proving to be somewhat impervious to glossy policy pronouncements. The change that Hugo Claus calls for requires careful analysis and bold actions. The editors have assembled a collection of insightful essays that assist in that project. Professor Roger Slee, Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia This book attempts to consider the notion of fairness and inclusion in the context of education from different national perspectives, which is a laudable undertaking. The Editors have managed to put together a diverse, informative, and interesting account of equality and fairness that transcends international borders. The Editors are to be commended on their remarkable achievement in bringing together so many authors to discuss such an important subject, yet producing a cohesive collection of chapters that elucidate the diverse nature of equity in education. Professor Divya Jindal Snape, University of Dundee, UK"
In education, sorting students according to attainment is common. Such sorting clearly sets up the potential for exclusion, based on the attainment ideals and on the modes of selection. Ideals of inclusion suggest diversity, and those of equity, by reference to impartiality, suggest freedom from bias. Honors education, which celebrates excellence, and references “honor” and all that word and concept infers, heightens and promotes the principled recognition of attainment, giving rise to questions of diversity, equity and inclusion. The Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD), in its Ten Steps to Equity in Education, notes that inclusion is intertwined with fairness. How can honors education—and in the case of the discussions in this book, largely honors in US higher education—promote fairness, be diverse, and support equity? If it does not do so, how can it at all claim to be offering a principled version of what the National Collegiate Honors Council (USA) says are “opportunities for measurably broader, deeper, and more complex learning-centered and learner-directed experiences for its students”? In 2015, the National Society for Minorities in Honors (www.nsfmih.org) was launched in the USA to specifically explore, support and promote diversity, equity and inclusion in and across honors colleges and programs. The first annual NSFMIH conference was held at Oakland University, Michigan. This book began at that inaugural conference, and has been enhanced by enthusiastic contributions beyond that event as well.
"Since the highly acclaimed Courageous Conversations About Race offered educators a frame work and tools for promoting racial equity, many schools have implemented the Courageous Conversations Protocol. Now ... in a book that's rich with anecdote, Singleton celebrates the successes, outlines the difficulties, and provides specific strategies for moving Courageous Conversations from racial equity theory to practice at every level, from the classroom to the school superintendent's office"--Back cover.
