Educational Equity and Justice

Research has begun to articulate actions of social justice leaders, but as a field we still know little about how a broad range of leaders view and enact equitable practice. In this study, we use a set of “leadership for equity" rubrics to examine how 114 school and district leaders rated and provided evidence of
equitable or inequitable practices related to visionary leadership and instructional improvement (two core responsibilities of leadership as identified by the Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium’s standards). The rubrics define
equitable leadership along a continuum from unsatisfactory to exemplary, with a rating of proficient requiring evidence of action and change in policies and practices designed to produce equitable outcomes. Although leaders tended to rate
themselves as proficient or above on the rubrics, their ratings were more favorable than what their supporting evidence warranted. We use this misalignment between participants’ espoused and enacted behaviors to (a) discuss the need
to better define key concepts in social justice leadership theory and practice and (b) highlight how leadership development and professional growth tools can counter rather than maintain status quo leadership practice.

The Annual Review of Interdisciplinary Justice Research, Volume 11, 2022 Edited by Steven Kohm, Kevin Walby, Kelly Gorkoff, Katharina Maier and Alex Tepperman, The University of Winnipeg, Centre for Interdisciplinary Justice Studies (CIJS), ISSN 1925-2420 (Print), ISSN 2816-4253 (Online)

Literacy without love is just words on a page, but educators can create real, actionable, and sustainable classroom practices rooted in love, in a time when we need it the most. O ur purpose in this commentary is to describe how school communities work together to build relationships and develop inquiry teams through loveful practices. Through this examination, possibilities for shaping literacy culture through love-ful pedagogies within and across schools are elevated. This commentary is a dialogue between the two of us to explain how loveful pedagogy is deeply connected to learners' motivation in school and, especially, learners' love of literacy. Our ideational partner, Cornelius Minor, is included in the dialogue, particularly when we describe our work with adolescents in school spaces. In the first section, Kass explains the emotive work that underscores becoming literate, beginning with developmental learning stages. She delineates how the relational trust that adolescents both crave and need begins during early childhood and is often compromised as they experience more schooling. Marcus identifies that the work of building relational trust starts with self-assessment of both youth and their educators, capitalizing on an adapted form of Chapman's (2010) love languages. Marcus interrogates the idea of imperfect love, calling on educators to present a more vulnerable version of themselves to their learners. Kass then connects the inner work to the outer, posing a framework for intraschool collegial discourse that she and her partner, Cornelius, model in schools, while also providing a critical "shapes of love" relational continuum for educators to more critically examine interactions that take place between teachers and students within a school. Kass: Developmental Consideration Becoming literate is emotional work. From the time human beings are born, they engage in multiple literacies, constructing new knowledge and powerful ideas that, together, bridge new understandings. With those new understandings, humans are constantly being challenged and provoked with new information. Imagine a baby. The sound of the door opening, she had learned, means that her grown-up has arrived home! Whoops, it's the grocery delivery person. Disappointment ensues. Anger and sadness build, the baby's fists clench, tears well up, and crying commences. There's no need to worry, though, because another grown-up, different from the one expected than the delivery person, comforts the baby, reassuring her with "Shhhh" sounds and telling her that the caregiver she expected will be home before too long. Then, the baby begins to relax, because even though she doesn't understand the caregiver's words, this person is soothing, smiling, and the baby can feel a vibe, something that she will later know to be called love. The International Literacy Association (n.d.) defines literacies as the distinct written and oral language practices evident across varying social circumstances, domains, and classes. As such, literacies are plural, with multiple manifestations, that cover various aspects of human life and social organization (e.g., school literacy, workplace literacy, science literacy).

Scripted curricula appealed to teachers' belief in fairness but obscured diversity. Equity was perceived as the same standards and content for all learners. Equity as sameness dismisses structural barriers of poverty, disability and race. Concerned about loss of teacher autonomy, knowledge and expertise. New York State offered schools scripted curricular modules to assist in meeting the Common Core State Standards. Reports of teacher concerns about rushed and rigid implementation led to qualitative in-depth interviews with general and special educators utilizing the EngageNY modules. While participants expressed appreciation for aspects of the modules, they articulated an alarming ideology that inequities (including disability and poverty) could be remedied by holding students to high standards. As scripted curricula gain popularity within and outside of the U.S. our findings suggest an urgency to interrogate simplified notions of equity and the resulting loss of teacher knowledge and expertise.

This editorial provides an introduction to the first issue of the National Youth-At-Risk Journal. Information highlighted regarding the journal includes its mission, historical background and inspiration, and holistic aims and scope. Biased and realistic uses of the phrase “at risk” are also addressed. The editorial also introduces the journal editors and presents a preview of issue content.

This study explores the association between school-level poverty rates and young peoples' perceptions of student empowerment, drawing on survey and administrative data from a large urban district. Participants included 29,318 diverse youth in grades 6-12 from 211 schools. We used multilevel linear regression models to estimate the relationships between school poverty rates and students' reports of positive relationships, equitable roles, and a sense of community. Results indicated that youth attending schools with higher poverty rates were less likely to report empowering school climates than their peers from schools serving more affluent students. We also found a strong correlation between school-level poverty rates and student racial composition. Findings suggest that young people who attend racially segregated schools with concentrated poverty would likely benefit from greater opportunities for relationship building, power-sharing, and community building. Such efforts may also strengthen other domains of youth development, including academic achievement and positive identity.

"Across Europe there are growing concerns about Islamophobia and far-right and anti-democratic movements. Until Anders Behring Breivik’s July 2011 attacks in which 77
died, Norway’s vulnerability was not perceived as great as that of other jurisdictions. Breivik declared his abhorrence of multiculturalism but also drew the world’s attention to intolerance and xenophobia in Europe, increasingly directed towards Muslims. In response, Prime Minister Stoltenberg spoke widely of ‘the new Norwegian we’, cautioning against exclusionary discourses and underlining that minorities are an equal part of Norwegian society. This paper examines education policy in the context both of extreme right political activity and national and international debates about nationalism and cosmopolitanism, considering ways in which policy supports an inclusive notion of nationhood, and ways in which it promotes an exclusive model of national identity. Drawing on framing questions from the International Association for the Educational Achievement’s 1995 civic education study, relating to national identity and social cohesion, it examines how programmes address social cohesion, human rights, cultural diversity, and conceptualise minorities. It assesses the effectiveness of cross-curricular approaches to contribute to justice and equality and challenge racism in a multicultural society, proposing an inclusive model of education for cosmopolitan citizenship, which incorporates diversity. 

Keywords: Islam, national identity, social cohesion, extremism, education for democratic citizenship
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