There are two ways, broadly speaking, that one might conceive of meritocratic education. On a standard, 'narrow' conception, a meritocratic approach to education is one which distributes certain educational goods and opportunities according to merit. On a second, 'broader' conception, however, meritocratic education is an educational system suited…

This paper reviews research on equity in mathematics education (excluding gender equity) for the period 2017-2022. From the publications identified, five themes were distilled: conceptualizations and framing of equity in mathematics education; research methodologies and researcher positionalities; equity-focused practices, pedagogies and teacher…

"Opportunity to learn" has evolved into an umbrella phrase for describing a large range of settings, resources, structures, and processes. The aim of this study is to develop a conceptual framework that can accommodate a wide range of opportunities to learn, not just those provided by teachers in classrooms. An inclusive framework can…

The Gini index is probably the most commonly used indicator to measure inequality. For continuous distributions, the Gini index can be computed using several equivalent formulations. However, this is not the case with discrete distributions, where controversy remains regarding the expression to be used to estimate the Gini index. We attempt to…

Disadvantaged students have struggled to find equal opportunities in STEM; thus, it is critical to challenge global society's structures so that all students have equal opportunities to learn and become proficient in STEM subjects. To even begin to address STEM equality issues, action plans and solutions must address all tiers of society. However,…

Access to education for undocumented migrant children in South Africa remains a significant challenge. While the difficulties related to their inability to access education within the country have been highlighted elsewhere, there remains a lack of clarity on an approach to how this basic human right can be achieved. In this conceptual paper, we…

The issues that social researchers study and policymakers address are partly determined by how they think about the world around them. Their view of the social world often depends on their position within it. What their research reveals and their policies propose are, in part, a reflection of where they choose to look and how they interpret the…

Equality discourse endeavors often aim to eliminate the various positionings of people in order for them to become equals. This paper aims to re-approach the notion of educational equality beyond neoliberal definitions and reconceptualize it in light of the Aristotelian "philia," with attention paid to its ethical dimensions and the…

Teachers' judgements and interactions may be influenced by the backgrounds of their students, yet research shows that they may be reluctant to accept evidence relating to such biases. We investigated teachers' perceptions of their own and others' biases and explored whether a brief self-affirmation manipulation--which tends to reduce defensive…

Purpose: Integrating sustainability into university curricula brings diverse challenges and conflicts as separate units vie for ownership of courses and topics. This case study presents a six dimensions sustainability framework developed at The Ohio State University to organize curricula under an inclusive strategy. Design/methodology/approach: An…

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore how US graduate students described their diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) education and engagement experiences outside their academic departments. Design/methodology/approach: This study used a critical constructivist qualitative approach and methods (i.e. interviews) to explore how 44 graduate…

Background: Makerspaces have increased in popularity recently and hold many promises for STEM education. However, they may also fall prey to hegemonic, marginalizing norms and ultimately narrow the definition of making and exclude who counts as makers. Explicitly focusing on diversity, equity, and inclusion when examining makerspaces is of utmost…

Equity is increasingly seen as a core value for higher education systems around the world. (In)equity is often measured through construction of achievement gaps, quantifying the relative outcomes of two populations of students. Institution-level gaps are embedded in the policy landscape of HE, becoming performance metrics in their own right. These…

Addressing the ongoing calls to reform teacher education to prepare future teachers to serve students from diverse backgrounds, this introduction reviews recent developments in teacher education to situate our thematic issue on critical teacher education for equitable learning in multilingual classrooms. The five empirical papers and two…

Educational disparities are one of the most essential issues surrounding education and equity. Previous research includes many empirical studies which have been conducted to eliminate educational disparities. However, the normative question "Why do educational disparities matter?" has not been carefully examined in empirical studies on…