Conceptions of educational equity

Philosophy of Education Research Seminar Series 2023-24

(co-sponsored by the Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain).

With speaker Harry Brighouse, from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Nearly everybody says they are in favour of equity in education. But what are they in favour of when they are in favour of equity? A famous meme using crates, people of different sizes, and a baseball game, contrasts equity, in which everyone gets as many boxes as they need to see the game, with equality, in which everyone gets the same number of boxes regardless of size. But in the cartoon, equity is really equality of outcome, whereas equality is equality of crates.

In this seminar, we will explore various plausible ways of understanding equity, and demonstrate that different organisations have different and incompatible understandings of equity, and show why understanding the different ways we conceive of equity matters for decision-making.

All welcome!