Search results

In this chapter, we explore gender equity issues in relation to the governance of sport in Wales. Our focus is primarily on Sport Wales (SW), the national agency responsible for developing and promoting sport and physical activity in Wales and for distributing National Lottery and Welsh Government funding. As a public authority, SW has a statutory responsibility to promote equality and eliminate direct and indirect discrimination. Their recent policy commitments express a desire to advance equality and promote inclusion and diversity within sports organisations in Wales. They also set the agenda for National Governing Bodies (NGBs) in Wales, in terms of providing a policy framework for understanding and pursuing gender equity in sport and sport governance. In this chapter, we present a snapshot of the governance and leadership policy landscape for Welsh sport, with a specific focus on gender equity. We present data collected from publicly available online policy documents relating to SW, and their NGB partners, relevant to gender equity provision. Based on the data, we suggest that there is evidence of progress in terms of the numbers of women on boards in Wales as well as the creation of gender equity policies within NGBs in Wales. We argue, however, that progress is inconsistent across the different NGBs in Wales, and it is less clear whether sport governing bodies can implement policies to effectively challenge organisational culture and ethos. We concluded by suggesting future Wales specific research priorities on this topic.

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.

Canada is a country with ten provinces and three territories, each of which boasts its own set of unique characteristics. Education is constitutionally defined as a provincial responsibility. Although several federal government departments have some responsibilities in the area of education, there is no federal department of education. Thus, it is difficult to examine educational policy at a national level.

History in Argentina shows that, from 1945, rotation between democratic and de facto governments was accompanied with changes in policies of free or restricted university access, respectively. In this way after more than 20 years of democracy, 60 percent of the university matriculation of the public system stays under the modality of free access. Nevertheless, the socioeconomic composition of the students of public universities shows overrepresentation of the higher income quintiles. This means that the policies of free access to the public universities have been better taken advantage of by the population with major resources. However, the ideology of free access remains in the social imaginary as the representative of progress policies. In this chapter, we set out, first of all, to describe the admission system to the universities in Argentina. Second, we analyze the relationship between unrestricted access and equity. Finally, we will raise the necessity to design policies of affirmative action, for the case of Argentina and more likely in other countries of Latin America, that consider the asymmetries in the distribution of the wealth on the questions of race and gender.

“It should also be noted that the objective of convergence and equal distribution, including across under-performing areas, can hinder efforts to generate growth. Contrariwise, the objective of competitiveness can exacerbate regional and social inequalities, by targeting efforts on zones of excellence where projects achieve greater returns (dynamic major cities, higher levels of general education, the most advanced projects, infrastructures with the heaviest traffic, and so on). If cohesion policy and the Lisbon Strategy come into conflict, it must be borne in mind that the former, for the moment, is founded on a rather more solid legal foundation than the latter” European Commission (2005, p. 9)Adaptation of Cohesion Policy to the Enlarged Europe and the Lisbon and Gothenburg Objectives.

Within this chapter I explore how national policy that influences gender equity in English sport governance has developed over time. This includes a discussion on the impact of domestic equal treatment legislation and women and sport activism on the development of gender-related governance policy within the sector. I draw upon Pierre Bourdieu's theory of practice to aid analysis of the effectiveness of top-down policy in creating transformational organisational change in the sector. I conclude that the extent to which sport governance policy has created transformational change within national governing bodies (NGBs) is uncertain. Some short-term success has been seen with increased average female representation across the boards of NGBs, but internalisation of the value of equitable, diverse and inclusive governance appears to be lacking.

The theoretical context is necessary to understand the process that frames the gender perspective. It must be studied from the pillars of human rights, those that are inherent to the human being and that do not discriminate against age, sex, social status, etc. Being considered Universal, human rights do not contemplate political ideologies, economic systems, or cultural differences; furthermore, as it is irrevocable, it is not possible to delegate or renounce them; human rights are indivisible, that is, they are related and interconnected with each other, but they are formed as a whole. In addition, due to their nature, they are legally enforceable and recognized by the states, therefore, they require respect and compliance.

This chapter is based on data from an international research project entitled ‘Gender Equity in Commonwealth Higher Education’ (GECHE). Funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID) and the Carnegie Corporation of New York from 2003 to 2005, this project examined interventions for gender equity in relation to access, staff development and curriculum transformation in Nigeria, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tanzania and Uganda. Data were collected via literature and policy review and interview data from a sample size of 200 including students, academic staff, managers and policymakers in the five countries. The key findings suggested that gender equality was promoted by widening participation and affirmative action policy interventions, national and international policy initiatives, and community links and coalitions. Gender equality was being impeded by gender violence, gendered organisational and social cultures and micropolitics, male domination, lack of understanding of diversity, low numbers of women in senior academic and management positions and beliefs in gender neutrality rather than gender awareness.