While there is a substantial conceptual literature on equality in education, there has been little clarificatory discussion on the term equity, despite its frequent use in policy and planning documents. The article draws out some different ways in which equity can be understood in education. It distinguishes three forms of equity, looking at the…

This paper interrogates the currently pervasive discourse of the "net generation" finding the concept of the "digital native" especially problematic, both empirically and conceptually. We draw on a research project of South African higher education students' access to and use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs)…

The transformations in Russian society that took place in the late twentieth century and early twenty-first century led to a rapid rise in social and economic differentiation. According to official data, the income gap between the 10 percent most-well-off and the 10 percent least-well-off families (the capital coefficient) rose to 14.8 times in…

Today, the US public educational landscape features both well-funded and richly resourced segregated white schools and underfunded, poorly resourced majority black, Latino, Native American, and poor schools. Efforts to remedy these problems are ongoing and varied. Some parents and educators have turned away from traditional public schools and have…

Educators must take a critical look at all factors that may affect student outcomes. The No Child Left Behind Legislation (NCLB) was proposed to help ensure that all students have fair and equal access to educational programming. It is important for secondary school educators to be aware of environmental factors that may inhibit student success.…

The call for American students to meet world-class standards in the federal Goals 2000: Education America Act (1994) and No Child Left Behind legislation, as well as state standards and accountability legislation, has been explicitly inclusive: All students must be held to these high standards. Litigation offers the potential to leverage…

This article describes an in-class activity that helps undergraduate students to understand the effects of their socio-economic position on the formulation, pursuit, and achievement of goals. Social stratification and inequality have an initial impact on the formulation of goals. Through this exercise students will perceive the effects of having a…

This article analyses the innovation agenda of the European Union (EU), places it in the context of globalisation and explores its foundation in the theoretical innovation systems perspective. It analyses a number of the central policy domains of this agenda: higher education, doctoral education, research and knowledge transfer. In the second part…

This article examines the access policies in Portuguese higher education, from the 1974 revolution to the present. Recently, under the simultaneous pressure of a declining birth rate and increasing financial stringency, higher education institutions, both public and private, have started to compete for students, while responding to increasing…

With whom does the American education system get high grades? For race and ethnicity, disparities are ever so prevalent. For socioeconomic status and family income, poor people never seem to get a fair share. For geographical location, inner city students are almost always underserved. Perhaps the one entity on which the system can boast is…

Demand for university education has increased due to the recent innovations of universal, free and compulsory education at the basic and senior secondary education level. Education has been expanding very rapidly at all levels in Nigeria. However, there are serious problems related to quality, equity, unavailable human and material resources and…

The purpose of this chapter is to continue and potentially expand the conversation about how a diversity-affirming ethical orientation and an understanding of critical epistemology might guide institutional decision making in community colleges in the direction of social justice. The chapter begins with a conceptual overview of the terms…

What is the school principal's role in ensuring ethical technology use while promoting the use of wireless and advanced technologies in instruction? The rapid advances in technology in only the past 5 years, including the increase in laptops and smart phones, have transformed both educational practices and the role of the school principal as…

Standards are the results of concerted efforts to improve the quality of education found in distance education. Legal and ethical standards are needed to ensure a positive educational environment. Participants from different cultural, physical, economical, and intellectual backgrounds should have equal access to all the positive aspects of…

Enthusiasts for new social software do not always acknowledge that belonging to e-learning communities depends upon complex and often unresolved identity issues for learners. Drawing on the author's previous research on belonging in social learning, the paper presents a theory of identity congruence in social learning and brings to the foreground…