Social and Cultural Foundations of American Education/Barriers/Equity

Equity has been a battle for all of mankind since the beginning of time because it involves the moral value of fairness. Even the youngest of children understand fairness and it is often the center of their universe and what they thrive upon. Therefore, there is no contest that equity is a barrier in education. The equity barrier affects three main groups in education: race, gender, and special needs.

The Difference Between Equity and Equality
It is important not to confuse equity and equality. A good definition of both is “Equity refers to fairness which may require different treatment or special measures, for some persons or groups. Equality refers to the same treatment in dealings, quantities or values” (Gray). With a clear definition of each, the equity barrier, which faces race, gender, and special needs, should be coming clear.

Race
When race and education are mentioned together, the first thing to come to mind is school integration. Integration of schools would fall under equality because it gives all races same treatment with same buildings, books, and teachers. While over the past forty or so years there has been a movement for equality in schools, there is still an equity barrier. There have been studies done correlating home computer ownership and racial equity. Humans now live in a digital world. With the movement, there has been more required to be done on computers. Education has moved to integration of technology into classrooms and today’s students have to rely heavily upon technology and computers. With this, it makes sense to evaluate racial equity in education by evaluating home computer ownership and Internet access. With teachers asking students to rely on computers in home settings, it makes for an unfair education. A study finds this, “…Asian and Pacific Islanders lead other U.S. populations in home computer ownership (55%). White, non-Hispanic house-holds rank second (46.6%), while other race and origin groups (American Indian/Eskimos/Aleuts, blacks, and Hispanics) lag between 12.3 and 23.4 percentage points behind their white counterparts” (Indicator: Racial Equity).

With a computer comes the need for the Internet. Internet access is also lower in black and Hispanic households. This is not to say that the only way to learn is from a computer or the Internet but it does provide an edge over a traditional classroom setting. Based upon the percentages from research, there is not equity among races in education. Just as equality has been an on-going effort to provide same treatment among races, strides will need to be made to bring equity to education.

Gender
With all three (race, gender, and special needs) it is important to remember that treating all the same is not always fair. This is especially true in dealing with gender. Learning approaches among genders is not the same because girls often approach learning differently from boys. Because of different learning approaches, genders analyze and solve problems differently. Girls are often auditory learners whereas boys tend to be more visual learners. Females also have to deal with sexual harassment more than males. This affects self-esteem, which contributes to equity problems among genders. When a female is faced with sexual harassment, it makes for an uncomfortable education setting. Comfort, such as room temperature or hunger, affect how one concentrates and one’s ability to learn. Sexual harassment also leads to an uncomfortable learning atmosphere. Most teachers believe that they are unbiased towards genders. Studies show however that teachers tend to give boys more attention in the classrooms in the form of acceptance, praise, criticism, and remediation. Teachers also tend to ask boys higher orders of questions. Also, societal messages about women and girls lower their self-esteems, which negatively affect them in performing to their full potential in school. Females often feel limited in what they can do (Things to Remember About Gender Equity in Schools). How we treat genders today is probably the result of the perceptions of genders from years ago. Equality among genders actually came after the equality among races. There were many misconceptions about women such as they were incapable to learn like men, vote like men, or make important decisions. While society today does not view women in this light, some of the negative undertones involving women and education still remain in societal messages and unintentional biases.

Special Needs
Special needs children are probably the hardest to accommodate with equality and equity. This is probably because even though they are grouped into one category each individual has different needs. There have been plans implemented by the government to accommodate those who do have special needs, such as Section 504. However, there are still glitches in the system that makes it difficult to accommodate each student individually. Not only is there a fiscal cost to accommodating special needs student but there is also the cost of time. There was a time where all special needs children were placed in a classroom among themselves. While these made it easier for educators it was not the best solution for equity. Education is to teach children to be prepared for the outside world and function productively in society. Therefore, keeping children contained in a classroom, which hinders their abilities, is not fair to the child. In order for inclusion and equity to be obtainable for special needs students technology needs to be acquired, input and output features need to be in place to ensure equal access, educators need to be aware and training, and students need to be ready for the real world. This is not to say that every piece of technology in schools needs to be equipped for special needs students but they need to be accessible. Educators need to be aware of what can be offered to students with special needs and be trained in how to apply accommodations to those students. Schools as a whole as well as districts need to be active in curriculum development, resource allocations, and instruction. If special needs students are constricted to “their” classrooms throughout their entire education, they will not be ready for the real world after school. These children just like every other child need to be introduced to the real world. If they are unable to leave their classrooms, then the real world needs to be able to come to them in the classroom (Indicator: Special Needs Equity).

Conclusion
There is no easy way to ensure equity in schools. Just as bridges are built to cross divides educators must make strides in removing the equity barrier in schools and education. While we continue in our struggle to bring equality to all we must keep in mind that we also need equity and treating all the same is not always fair. Until we find solutions the equity barrier will continue to effect race, gender, and special needs.

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