Leading for Equality

Making Schools Fairer

Jacky Lumby, Marianne Coleman, Author

• Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9781473916296, 9781473916289
• eBook ISBN: 9781473987968
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education Administration

Disentangling the concept of equality in schools can be a tricky task for those in senior, middle or classroom leadership. This book will unpack ideas of equality, equity, diversity and social justice, providing practitioners and those training to teach with an understanding of equality in order to address educational values and practice. Drawing on a wide range of case studies from schools in England, Wales and Scotland, the authors illustrate the importance of leading for equality with a clear and proactive vision for change.

The authors explore these key areas:

• Socio-economic class
• Gender
• Sexuality
• Ethnicity
• Religion
• Migrant children
• Special learning needs and disabilities

This book will serve as a handy guide for postgraduate and undergraduate students on Education Leadership and Inclusive Education courses. 

Part I The context and in/equality

1 Ideas of equality: The contested concept

In this opening chapter, we set out what the book as a whole is intended to achieve. We also provide initial ideas to help you reach a clearer understanding of what is implied by equality in education, and stimulate you to consider the relationship between equality and school practice in more detail.

In this chapter we ask you to think about:

• the aims and structure of the book
• what equality means in schools
• the range of language and concepts used in this area
• what various ideas about equality imply about aims.

Throughout the book we use case examples that help to illustrate the points being made. They are a convenience sample drawn from interviews with current head teachers and other leaders in state and private schools in England, Wales and Scotland. The structure of the education system is complex and varied in the four countries of the United Kingdom (UK), with types of school reflecting differing governance arrangements and degrees of autonomy. Our case examples are illustrative of the range, including academies, community, foundation and faith schools. A reference providing more detail about types of schools is given at the end of the chapter. The names of the schools are pseudonyms, but we provide information about the age range, whether co-educational or single-sex, and the geographic location of each, as appropriate. The schools selected are generally those that were suggested to us as having responded to often challenging circumstances in interesting ways. The case examples are boxed so you can see clearly on the page where there are illustrations of practice. These are intended to encourage debate and enable you to reach your own conclusions about appropriate practice.

In this chapter, illustrative case examples are drawn from two co-educational schools in the south of England: Winburg Academy (11–18), and Elands Community School (11–16).

Aims of the book

For many, one particular story has come to summarize how education does not live up to ideals of equality. This is the parable in the Gospel of Matthew in the Bible that tells the story of a master who for safe-keeping gives ten bags of gold to one servant and only one bag to another. In his master's absence, the servant with ten bags uses enterprise to double the gold. He is praised by the master. The servant with one bag is so afraid of losing it that he buries it and then returns the single bag to his master, explaining that he has kept it safe. For this, the master punishes him and his gold is given to the servant who was initially given the most:

The man who has will always be given more, till he has enough and to spare; and the man who has not will forfeit even what he has. (Matthew 25: 28–30, New Testament)

This parable has generated the phrase the ‘Matthew effect’, capturing the idea that those who have most can generally use it to get more. The ‘Matthew effect’ summarizes much of the impact of education worldwide. Those who come from an advantaged background often cluster together in schools, in ability groups, in universities and, ultimately, in jobs with prospects, and in influential social and political roles. Despite the widely held belief that education is a mechanism for achieving greater equality, evidence suggests the contrary is often the case (OECD, 2014a). We hope that through this book we can contribute to countering the ‘Matthew effect’ and help you to do the same.

An overview of the nature and scale of the problem is a good way to begin. It is salutary to recognize just how much inequality remains in education in the twenty-first century. For example, the 2015 Millennium Goal for all children to have a primary education has now been deferred until 2030 (Oxfam, 2010). Some might assume that attendance at school is primarily an issue for developing countries. This is not so. It is true that the scale of inequality may be much greater in developing economies, but even in the UK in autumn 2014 nearly 5 per cent of children were persistently absent (DfE, 2015a). Across the globe, for those who are in school, education generally reproduces socioeconomic divisions (Reay, 2010). Socioeconomic class is a relevant factor, but children's own accounts and statistical evidence attest to many other factors such as ethnicity or sexuality that should be irrelevant, but nevertheless relate to their being unhappy or unsuccessful at school (Hull et al., 2009; Reardon, 2011).

We would guess that you have started reading this book because you are interested in equality, but perhaps that does not quite cover it. Perhaps you are passionately committed to equality. Commitment is common, yet education systems remain unfair (Fair Education Alliance, 2014). This is the conundrum at the heart of this book: on the one hand, practitioners aiming at equality, and on the other, profoundly unequal education chances in many parts of the world. Despite the potential for education to transform children's lives, it is much more likely to do so for some groups of children than others.

Despite their commitment to equality, school leaders and teachers do not necessarily think through coherently what they aim to achieve and how. This book will help practitioners and especially leaders to clarify goals and alternative approaches, and to develop practice by considering values, attitudes, structures and pedagogy. The book does not offer definitive answers. These do not exist. It does however offer a challenge and ideas to find ways forward in your own classroom, department, school or cluster of schools so that, even if education cannot eradicate the ‘Matthew effect’, each person reading this book can, in his or her own way, weaken it.

The leaders who are the target audience are not just those with formally designated authority roles, such as head teachers/principals or deputies; rather, we understand leadership to be action based on values that is intended to influence the direction and outcomes in a school, or part of a school. Defined in this way, leadership is open to many, including teachers, learners and community members. Though leadership may be open to all, there is not equal access, as some groups are less likely to achieve a leadership role. For example, in many countries women teachers are less likely than men to progress to a leadership role. Teachers who are from minority ethnicity groups or from a minority religion or who have a disability are also less likely to become leaders. This is part of the inequality picture and we discuss it in Chapter 4.

The primary focus is on practice in schools in the countries of the UK, but we believe that much of the discussion will have relevance to those leading in Europe, in other parts of the world and in other education contexts. The first part of the book in Chapters 1 to 5 sets out some of the ideas and policies that form the context for those working towards greater equality in education. The chapters that follow focus on equality in relation to a number of areas: socioeconomic class, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, religion, migrant status and special leaning needs. Whilst the focus in each chapter is on a single characteristic, we include consideration of how other characteristics may interact with that characteristic to shape learning and outcomes. In Chapter 3 we consider this in more detail by exploring the idea of intersectionality.

We are dealing with complex ideas, each in a challenging and wide area of practice. Of necessity, this demands some selection, so we focus on the issues that schools may find most relevant or most challenging, or both. Each chapter will start with a brief summary of content and indicate the areas we would like you to think about. At the end of each chapter we summarize key action points, and include ideas about what it might be helpful to reflect on and discuss with colleagues, learners and the wider community. We also suggest further reading so that you can follow up areas that are particularly important to you. We hope that these elements at the end of each chapter will provide a useful basis for ongoing professional development focused on increasing equality.

Ideas of equality: so where do we start?

Most practitioners and policy makers in education would emphasize a commitment to equality as a fundamental value. The language may vary, referring not only to equality but also to related terms such as equity, social justice, inclusion and fairness. Each person, of course, will have a particular notion of what is implied by fairness, by equality and so on. However, often such understanding is quite hazy. It is uncommon for leader and teacher preparation programmes or for practitioners to engage explicitly with what is meant by equality and related terms.

Instead, we tend to use our experience as a means of understanding the context, to make assumptions and to decide how to respond. However, there are problems with this (Applebaum, 2008). First, our experience is shaped by our individual history and culture. Consequently, it may be a poor guide to understanding the experience of those who are very different from ourselves. Also, we tend to see ourselves as the hero of our own lives, so the way each of us may be part of an unjust system is obscured. We may discern unfairness in the way others act in other schools, but are less likely to recognize it in ourselves and in our own school, department or classroom. For this reason, it is important that we each interrogate our commitment to equality and try to unpack what we mean by it, what the problem is and what we, together with others, can do to address it.

The justification for this book, therefore, and for the time you may give to reading it, is summed up in an aphorism from over two thousand years ago by the Roman historian, Livy: ‘Experience is the teacher of fools’. This goes against a central belief in education: to progress in teaching or leading a school, it is assumed that experience counts for a great deal. Though there is initial teacher education and preparation for leadership roles, the major part of becoming a professional is through an apprenticeship model. We learn on the job from colleagues and from practising the art of teaching and leading. But what has been done before has led to the situation where schools offer a very unequal service to different groups. Chapter 4 outlines in more detail the evidence of how some groups of learners and staff are supported much more successfully than others. So learning by experience is likely merely to perpetuate a practice that has resulted in inequalities. In this sense, experience is an inadequate guide to challenging inequality.

A hard lesson for practitioners to accept is that they play some part in the production of inequality, and that what they have learned to date in their professional practice is unlikely to be adequate to change this. Better understanding of oneself and one's part in the current system is a foundation for setting out to challenge and change things, but it is a tough call. So the answer to the question, ‘where do we start?’ is in building our understanding of what goes on in education, how we are part of it, and how we might be clearer about our values and what needs to be done. This is the aim of the book.

Words and concepts

The way into exploring any area of practice is through language. The language in education is particularly tricky, being a minefield of related but different terms. ‘Equity, equality, inequality, equal opportunity, affirmative action, social justice and, most recently, diversity’ (Blackmore, 2009: 3) are in common use, each of which may be understood differently depending on organizational and national context. In the press of the everyday, we may assume that we know what we mean by a term and that others think the same, but this is unlikely. We need to consider how the language is used and link this to understanding the principles or criteria that each term generates, in order to make choices about policy and action; in effect, we need theory to underpin practice.

We make a start here by exploring four key concepts used widely – equality, equity, inclusion and social justice – to provoke thought about the practical implications of how they are understood and how inequality can be attacked in schools.

Equality

‘Equality’ is the term that is perhaps most widely used in education. In many contexts, equality is connected with sameness. For example, boys and girls are equal so they should be treated the same. The same tax should be levied on those with the same income. This kind of thinking is embedded in a much-quoted formula that is relevant to education:

Assuming that there is a distribution of natural assets, those who are at the same level of talent and ability, and have the same willingness to use them should have the same prospects of success, regardless of their initial place in the social system. (Rawls, 1968: 73)

This seems a logical goal, but it falls apart quite quickly when related to education. The term used repeatedly, ‘the same’, is in the sense that two objects might be of the same weight or the same value. But children are not objects, and the ‘talent and ability’ and ‘willingness’ of each cannot be weighed against that of another to see if they are the same, because these very qualities in themselves may be shaped by unequal circumstance. Talent and motivation may not be absolute and innate, but forged by the conditions of upbringing and the experience of schooling.

In meritocratic societies such as that of the UK, people tend to see those who have more ability or make a greater effort...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Publisher Note
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• About the Authors
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Part I The context and in/equality
• 1 Ideas of equality: The contested concept
• 2 The policy landscape
• 3 Responding to single or multiple characteristics: Intersectionality challenges
• 4 The inequality landscape: Some differences matter more than others
• 5 Approaches to attacking inequality
• Part II Addressing in/equality
• 6 Socioeconomic class and equality
• 7 Gender and equality
• 8 Sexuality and equality
• 9 Ethnicity and equality
• 10 Religion and equality
• 11 Migrant children and equality
• 12 Special learning needs, disability and equality
• Part III Drawing together threads for action
• 13 Bringing it all together: Values, ethos, actions
• References
• Index