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Over the past two decades, scholars have noted an increasing global convergence in the policy and practice of education that predominantly contains Western ideals of mass schooling serving as a model for national school systems (Bieber & Martens, 2011; Goldthorpe, 1997; Spring, 2008). A number of transnational organizations contribute disproportionately to global educational discourse, particularly the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) through its international comparative performance measure, the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). This study conducted a critical discourse analysis of the OECD document PISA 2012 Results: Excellence through Equity (OECD, 2013) to examine the ways that PISA and the OECD conceive of educational equity in a global context. Given the growing convergence of global educational policy, the way that transnational educational organizations address equity has crucial implications for the ways that the world intervenes in schooling to promote or diminish equitable outcomes. Analysis revealed that the OECD and the PISA foreground economistic notions of educational equity, which diminishes the role of other factors (i.e., race/ethnicity, gender, immigration status, language) that mediate equity in schools. Findings and implications are discussed.

Equity in education has been on the education research forefront for many decades, but there is now much more of a political consensus that investing in equity in education needs to be at the heart of education agendas. As the link between education, equity, and growth is becoming even more evident, so is the search for policies that can contribute to improve educational outcomes of the more disadvantaged groups in our societies as a way to strengthen social cohesion, development, and growth. While there has been in-depth analysis of system-level policies that can contribute to improve equity, at the school level, there is sparse comparative analysis of the particular role school leaders can play in the equity-quality agenda. This chapter focuses on the types of policies that can support school leadership in education for disadvantaged students and schools across OECD countries. It builds on qualitative and quantitative comparative studies that focus on equity (OECD, 2012), on reforms implemented across OECD countries (OECD, 2015a) as well as on data from international surveys such as the Project for International Student Assessment (PISA) and the Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS). More concretely, the chapter (1) reviews why investing in equity is not only a social imperative but also an economic investment; (2) discusses how different OECD countries reform in terms of equity and quality in education; and (3) explores evidence and country practices to conclude on how school leadership can positively influence equity in education.

This chapter undertakes a comparative analysis of discourses on equity found in OECD and Norwegian policy documents. This is an interesting area to study as the OECD is found to be an important agenda setter for many countries' educational policies. A comparative analysis of OECD and Norwegian educational policies is especially interesting because the OECD is often found to be pressing for a neo-liberal agenda, while Norway has a socialist-alliance government. Combining Basil Bernstein's theoretical framework with key principles from Critical Discourse Analysis, the author investigates power relations within OECD and Norwegian educational policy documents. Two equity models serve as analytical tools: equity through equality and equity through diversity, which can be described along the three dimensions: de-/centralization, de-/standardization and de-/specialization. Using the analysis of two key documents on equity in education from the OECD and Norway, the author points out the similarities and differences in two documents. Both the OECD and Norwegian approaches to equity in education can be related to a centralized decentralization or a conservative modernization of education. However, there are also important differences between the two documents. For example, the Norwegian ministry has more emphasis on equity through equality and is less influenced by neo-liberalism and authoritarian populism than the OECD. In conclusion, the author argues that neither of the two described approaches appears to improve the inequities in education. A different way of targeting these inequities could be based on critical theory and research.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss potential challenges learners from different generations may have with current instructional methods using educational technologies in the classroom. The authors hope to create awareness to help improve equity in learning opportunities and assist educators in understanding the needs of multigenerational classrooms.

In a narrative review of the literature, the authors present the current findings of the literature on generations in higher education and concerns for equity in learning opportunities.

It is commonplace in undergraduate programs for learners of multiple generations to attend classes together and research has shown that historical context and generational experiences affect the values, attitudes and learning preferences of each generation. Therefore, higher education institutions should be aware of the demographic profile of their students, as well as the external populations from which they may recruit students, to ensure they are cognizant of the needs of these populations and can provide equality in learning opportunities.

To assist with the needs of this changing student population, university leaders must consider generational characteristics to ensure equity in learning opportunity. Specifically, university leaders and educators in the classrooms will need to adapt and adjust for a changing student population providing instruction that meets the needs of multiple generations of learners, often within one classroom.

Often when we think of diversity in the classroom we think of age, gender, race or even culture. Today we must add diversity in generations. Unlike other equity issues in education such as access (McLaughlin, 2010), educators may not be considering the equity in the design of their instruction to provide equitable learning experiences based on a learners’ knowledge and skills established by their experiences with technology. The lack of knowledge and skills a learner has with technology based on their experiences may create barriers to their ability to understand and complete instructional content involving technology (Wager, 2005). To ensure all learners can be successful, educators should strive to provide equality in learning opportunities when designing instruction including technology.

Purpose and methodology – Focusing on the policy contexts of gender education in Taiwan, this chapter uses data from interviews with elite policymakers and policy documents to examine how feminist activists sought to legitimatize gender equity in education in the wake of the comprehensive social and educational reforms of the 1990s and early years of this decade.

Findings – The embedding of gender in education did not follow a smooth path in terms of policy formulation. Feminist activists drove the process of reform by retaining control over the naming of the legislation, and its wording, thus preserving the language and imperatives of gender equity.

Social implications – In this chapter, I examine the formation of the Gender Equity Education Law, detailing the struggles, contentions, and negotiations that underlay the eventual approval of gender reform in education.

Originality/value of chapter – The chapter contributes significantly by identifying the necessity to recognize the nature of the state and its relations with society in order to research gender in education in Taiwan.

The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, it examines the extent of equity in the academic achievement distribution by analyzing Israeli students’ high school matriculation scores, controlling for background characteristics (e.g. parental education) and for previous achievement. Second, it analyzes the trends in equity during the examined period from 2001 to 2011.

Nationwide extensive data sets, at the student level, of 11 cohorts are analyzed using logistic regression models.

Major findings reveal that the odds ratios (ORs) are in favor of students from families with a high level of parental education (an increment of one year of parental education increases the odds of student’s success by 3 percent). In addition, the ORs are less favorable for Arab students (30 percent lower). Furthermore, a high previous achievement level increases the odds of success (an increment of 1 percent in achievement increases the odds by 6 percent). In addition, the extent of inequity remains stable throughout the examined period.

Israel serves as an interesting case study, as its student achievement distribution in international examinations is characterized by the highest gap compared with other OECD countries, although its policy aspires to achieve equity. This puzzle, is the motivation for this study. Moreover, insights from this research might assist policy makers to promote equitable education.

The purpose of this paper is threefold: to describe the equity-oriented design of a publicly accessible and openly networked computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) initiative that has supported educator discussion about equity topics; to identify design principles for equity-oriented design in open education; and to propose a model for the design of open learning initiatives that are mutually committed to educational equity and educational openness.

This paper draws from design-based research methodology, specifically design narrative and the worked example. The paper is one response to the need for more “designerly work” in the learning sciences, generally, and more specifically in domains such as CSCL.

Four design principles are identified that informed the equity-oriented creation and iteration of the Marginal Syllabus, an open CSCL initiative: leveraging the open web, fostering multi-stakeholder partnerships, working with open content and engaging professional learning as an open practice. This paper also advances the open palimpsests model for equity-oriented design in open education. The model integrates design principles to assist CSCL and open education designers and researchers in creating or iterating projects to be more equity-oriented learning opportunities.

This paper’s design narrative identifies Marginal Syllabus design principles and advances the open palimpsests model for equity-oriented design in open education. The design narrative demonstrates how critical perspectives on the relationship between equity and digital technology can encourage collaboration among diverse project stakeholders, attune to the dynamics of power and agency and respond to the worldly needs of partners and participants.

During the Covid-19 crisis, schools around the world at all levels had to respond to the situation most often without any preparation or time to reorganize their teaching. This chapter investigates how the Covid-19 pandemic amplified the need for equity and how teacher agency evolved through this time period. The study was qualitative and data were collected from 29 individuals from the same number of countries through narratives, and virtual interviews written responses to semi-structured questions. This chapter focuses on two main concepts: equity and agency. The authors met 18 times to work with the data, clarifying understanding of concepts, analyzing meanings, and writing up findings. Findings indicate that equity of access to online teaching and learning was a major challenge during the early stages of the pandemic lockdowns. However, many universities initiated some innovative strategies to minimize the inequities created by the migration to online learning platforms. Both educators' and students' agency evolved during the online and digital tuition provisions and made some agentic decisions that impacted their teaching and learning, respectively. During the Covid-19 pandemic, educators had much to say about their teaching online. Their experience and thinking can be leveraged in discussions about the best way forward after the pandemic experience. The mutual learning that we experienced collaborating internationally in this study points to the significance of using online facility to create and enhance solidarity among educators globally.

For well over three decades, the concepts of equity and efficiency have been used by policy analysts and elected officials to frame the debate about the formulation and evaluation of public policies and programs. In this paper we use these ideas to organize an historical analysis of policies and research strategies in K‐12 education finance from the 1960s through the 1990s. In each decade we stress the dominant themes, major events, and research strategies regarding equity and efficiency, knowing that themes and research strategies span many decades but are sometimes in the foreground and other times in the background. We conclude with an assessment of how these two concepts can be compatible and how current policies are increasingly “win‐win” ones that are proposed to make progress on both goals.