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…

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…

This article reviews and responds to recent (re)turns to and reconceptualizations of contract grading in the teaching of writing. I reflect on my own experience using contract grading in a variety of pedagogical contexts, and how this experience complicates scholarship on contract grading (now rebranded as labor-based grading and engagement-based…

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…

In this essay, music education is conceptualized as a game or performance within The Game, the "pervasive atmosphere" (Fisher 2009) of neoliberal capitalism, which inevitably shapes scholarship, practice, and policy. Even people who strive to see music education for what it really might be (e.g., those researching and promoting social…

The national demand for social justice, racial equality, and criminal justice reform rightfully and painfully continues to sweep the consciousness of this nation. Community colleges were founded on educational excellence, opportunity, and access and should reflect principles of equity, justice, and community. This mission calls upon us, the most…

Purpose: Teachers unions in the United States are increasingly taking up issues of equity and justice. While there is a growing and robust body of scholarship on leading for equity, unions are rarely included as sources of education leadership. This creates an opportunity to not only consider unions in these equity efforts, but also re-shape our…

In analyzing the disseminated call, the commentary suggests the need for a consciousness consistent with a quote from Maya Angelou concerning identity. It is applied--in this case--to the situation of social science and specifically developmental science vis-à-vis published scholarship pertaining to communities of color. Questioned is the field's…

This opinion paper focuses on foregrounding the issue of the hidden curriculum in L2 writing and how addressing its negative sides can greatly move forward our understanding of students' writing learning experiences and further promote more effective and equal writing teaching. Specifically, this paper argues that the negative sides of the hidden…

Writing workshop, as conceived by Donald Graves and other US researchers in the 1980s, positively transformed the writing instruction of many teachers. However, others experienced considerable challenges as they tried to create workshop classrooms. This article examines the three historical conditions that defined workshop: (1) choice, (2) time…

Most anti-bullying curricula in schools are based on the social-ecological perspective on bullying. The resulting whole-school approaches to anti-bullying policy hold the potential to empower school communities to deal with aggression by including parents, teachers, administrators, and community members in their efforts. In this paper, we consider…

COVID-19 shed light on persistent disparities among K-12 school districts, particularly regarding technology access, its use, and educational outcomes. Although resources exist to inform the design and delivery of distance education at the course level, there is a lack of resources to inform program-level decisions about equitable distance…

In this conceptual paper, the author argues that equity research in mathematics education is a genre that operates according to certain implicit ideological and rhetorical rules and assumptions--or discursive formations--that form how one can think about equity and inequity. One such rule that forms the basis of this paper is the axiom of…

Drawing on a set of studies conducted over 3 decades, this article provides a reflection on what has been learned by centering equity questions in research on educational reform. These studies reveal the need to explore educators' belief systems, emotions, and agency in relation to reform. They also underscore the co-constructed nature of reform…