CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.0 Introduction

This study only focus on equity and equality of education and through review of the literature suggests it may provide partial solutions to these concerns. In this chapter, the literature review from the past researcher was collected and summarized to show the evidence and supporting this research. This chapter also will discuss the review based on the previous research, which are related and connected to this research.

2.1 Concept of Equity & Equality

            Equity has been defined in various ways by researchers. According to Secada (2003), the definition of equity brings different meanings for different people and different groups. There are five categories of equity, which are caring, socially enlightened self-interest, representations, equality and social justice. First, equity in the categories of caring focus on safe and nurturing learning environments that create by teachers for students, and fulfil their social and emotional needs. Teachers whose perspective on equity is caring will respond to students’ real situations with empathy and the feelings of nurturance (Secada, 2003).

            Furthermore, equity in socially enlightened self-interest which focusing on democratic and increasing the technological society will be contributed by the students when they are well prepared. The researchers believe that this aspect of education is an investment for the development of intellectual competence or beliefs of adults in future for the socialization of people into the common language and society (Secada, 2003). In addition, equity in education will equip the students with the knowledge and critical thinking skills that allow full democratic participation including the ability to contribute to the political, economic, and society (Secada, 2003).

            Equity in aspects of representations defined the conception of equity in the continuation of stereotypes through the absence or through the building image, behaviours and traits that connect the members from different social groups to pro-social settings (Secada, 2003). The concept of equity as representation lead to the participation of members of under represented groups and want to ensure that materials and classroom settings do not create a negative impact.

            Moreover, equity as equality, which involves social demographic characteristics that addressing in differences social, groups (Secada, 2003). It focus on equality of inputs which are the equal distribution of resources and treatment or equality of outputs which are focus on determine the strategies or practices that will result in equal outcomes across groups of students. For instance, equal opportunity, equal education treatment and equal educational outcomes (Fennema, 1990).

In the context of education, equity as equality, the researchers describes equity as emphasizing educational access such as equal resources, quality teachers and opportunity to learn but less attention given to students’ outcomes (Gutierrez, 2002).  The researcher proposes a conception of equity that are equitable which neither equal treatment nor outcomes but use a better approaches and outcomes that are equitable. Gutierrez (2002) defined equity is a goal of achieving equal outcomes but also a process which involve the erasure of the ability to predict students’ academic achievement and participation based on ethnicity, races, class, sex and beliefs in the dominant language. In addition, the removal of the ability to predict among students the practice in education to analyze, reasoning and critically knowledge based on characteristics and the removal of inequities between people. This is a process of providing an equal treatment towards creating a society (Gutierrez, 2002).

Finally, equity as social justice which involves a compensate for the larger social injustices visited on oppressed groups, compensate for the more narrowly defined denial of education opportunity and take apart in the social structures that continuously impact the lives of the students. This lead equity to compensate for the past injustice as well as action that prevents future injustice (Secada, 2003). Therefore, Secada (2003) has provided an overview of conceptualization of equity in multiple ways. It showed that equity suggest different meanings for different people and give impacts on the teachers’ pedagogy that will implement in efforts toward equity.

The researchers said there are challenges in creating equitable schools for students (Jenlink, 2009). There are three standards of equity in education, which serve as a foundation for equity based accountability system that will create an equitable school for students. The three aspect of equity are equity of access standard, equity of participation standard and equity of outcomes standards. First, equity of access standard guarantee an access to educational facilities, resources and programs and services by all individuals and removes barriers to educational access (Jenlink, 2009). Meanwhile, equity of participation standard guarantee an equal participation for all the programs and pedagogy that has been promoted. By using curriculum, instruction and assessment as a reference the process and participation can be considered difference a defining factor of what is equity. 

Besides that, the equity of outcomes standard guarantee that education will not be correlated with gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation or socioeconomic status and will eliminates barriers that produce the achievement gaps. The access of equity will focus on individuals’ equal access to education whether from the perspectives of social and economic. The concept of equity should focus on the participation of all individuals that will be accepted by various programs and pedagogy that recognize difference during the process of education (Jenlink, 2009).

Educational equality is linked to social justice and social mobility which every individual has equal right of education in a sign of democracy and human rights. Educational equality defined as an access to educational resources and facilities, equal instruction, an educational environment without bias with positive interaction and proper language which an aspect of social justice that effects more positive social changes (Open Congress, 2009). However, there are issues related to educational equity and equality, which there are interpretations from researchers that can be very different. For example, issue regarding to the distribution of educational resources, which there were spending a big amount of money for unexpected resources on those who chances, are already better than others were. It should be concentrates more on equalizing the education resources to those needed more. The argument was based on educational adequacy is that spending the resources on the higher achieving, children is nothing unjust as long as they will be educated to be responsible members of the elites they join (Brighouse & Swift, 2009).

However, educational equity focuses on the quantity focuses on the quantity neither on the lower level students for equal outcomes nor on the advanced level students for high achievement but on the quality of appropriateness to every student. If we look at the perspectives of the educational access in the distribution of educational resources, it falls into the concept of educational equality. In contrast, if we look at the issue from the perspective of educational appropriateness, it falls into the concept of educational equity (Lincoln, 2014).

According to the history, Confucius is a great educator during ancient China and he presented the concepts of educational equality and educational equity years ago. During the Zhou Dynasty, the government ran two types of school, which are central schools and local schools. It is different from the public schools that run by government nowadays. Confucius is the person who started the private education in China that was much cheaper than the public schools. The private school was open to civilians including those who were poor. Confucius used two educational concepts, which are the most famous, and meaningful, “You Jiao Wu Lei” and “Yin Cai Shi Jiao” (Yu, 2013). “You Jiao Wu Lei” means to provide education to everybody regardless of his social and economic status, which it is the basic content of educational equality. On the other hand, “Yin Cai Shi Jiao” means to provide appropriate education to students based on their needs and learning abilities, which this shows a concept of educational equity. Confucius uses these two educational concepts: whom to teach and how to teach. In conclusion, Confucius was the first educator that raised the ideal of educational equality and educational equity and practised it.

According to Lincoln (2014), the concept of educational equality and educational equity are multiple: inclusive, overlap, contradictory and confused. She identified educational equality with the 3As, which are acceptance, access and assurance from social, economic and informational perspectives. Meanwhile, there are three aspects in educational equality, which are social justice of equal educational opportunity, equal share of educational resources and equal access to educational information. The educational resources must be distributed equally in a broad range for all students to be educated is the objective of the educational equality. There are three categories of educational equality, social or political, economic and informational equality of education, which can be classified as 3As: acceptance, access and assurance (Lincoln, 2014).

As for acceptance in quality education indicates the social perspective of educational equality. Social justices of education ensure an equal social and political environment for every learner to be educated. In contrast, equal acceptance is a relative concept with specific suggestion and sense in terms of the extent of equality, the scope of school and the objects of the acceptance (Lincoln, 2014). For example, in United States, the equal acceptance is starting to take many steps and efforts of bringing this to helpless groups by American educational systems and schools (Jenlink, 2009). Meanwhile, in China, women were kept out of public and private schools until the Republic of China was established in 20^th century. Republic of China found that every citizen in China deserved an equal acceptance to a local school even though the gap in educational resources is huge in different regions (Lincoln, 2014).

Many countries open public schools to every school age to ensure an equal acceptance to everyone regardless of the social-economic status of the family. Nevertheless, the acceptance to excellent public schools is only for the family whose can afford an expensive lifestyle. There are also key classes, which for strong students that were taught by experienced and quality teachers that only open to certain number of students. In fact, to send the children to the key class, parents must pay extra for the school or find a connection to ensure their children acceptance to the class as they wish (Lincoln, 2014).

However, for college enrolment, some country has their standards for an equal acceptance. For instance, in United States, the college enrolment based on SAT scores that recommended from high school teachers and community works. In China, the college enrolment based on the entry examinations. However, these standards of equal acceptance somehow ignoring the unequal acceptance at high schools students which including the opportunity of community works, words of recommendations or activities (Lincoln, 2014). This shows that it is only equal before the grades or information that is biased which does not consider the factor of unequal acceptance that affect the college admission. To ensure an equal access and equal acceptance to educational resources for all students, it needs more detailed works in practice.

Besides that, as for access, equal educational resources ensure sufficient materials and equipment to students, teachers and schools including students’ access to suitable teachers and schools (Lincoln, 2014). Based on overall economic strength and government’s policies on education, equal distribution of educational resources will be divided according to the urban-rural structure, quantity and quality of educational resources. It also involves complicated management and integrated strategies of educational institutions (Lincoln, 2014). There are also uneven distributions of educational resource occurs in many countries and the ways to deal with are differences (Lincoln, 2014).

Access to high quality educational resources directly affects students’ achievement, chance for college enrolment and social mobility. A balance economic and social development in different areas and qualified teachers who can provide appropriate instructions in suitable methods will give an equal access to a suitable school for students. It will be easier to ensure an equal access to educational resources through educational policies, balanced budget and schools’ management (Lincoln, 2014). However, it will be difficult to remove those stereotypes, biases and prejudices in social media and public opinions of the main streams (Lincoln, 2014).

           

            Furthermore, definition of assurance means an equal position to be noticed to the best possible educational opportunities (Lincoln, 2014).  In the aspect of assurance, students and parents need to be aware of the development and possibilities of the educational information to make their educational decisions. According to the theory, with an equal acceptance to a public schools and an equal access to basic educational resources and information, anyone can have an equal assurance for opportunities that lead to success (Lincoln, 2014). In ensuring equal acceptance and access, parents need to have enough better educational information and awareness. Parents with better education were better able to understand the public sources of information including the information offered by the schools themselves (Brighouse, Tooley & Howe, 2010).

            Assurance of educational information to every student involves economic development, educational advancement, unbiased social media as well as the measures of delivering educational information including the language and technology used and the guiding public opinion and ideology (Lincoln, 2014). In conclusion, educational equality at social or political-economical layer provides learners an equal acceptance and access to a quality education and educational equality at informational layer provides students an assurance to educational information they need to make a plan, to be pared, and to promote to their individual potentials (Lincoln, 2014). Therefore, students must be in an appropriate program in a healthy school culture with good teaching methods to achieve their dreams (Lincoln, 2014).

            Meanwhile, educational equity focuses on the 3As: appropriateness, adequacy and attainment in the aspect of educational, cultural and psychological perspectives as the primary principle in teaching methodology, measures and mentality (Lincoln, 2014). Educational equity ensures that the spiritual equity of education of the students’ in the aspect of educational, cultural and psychological. It focuses on appropriate, adequate and attainable teaching methods of the subjects, contents and methodologies that suitable for students. Educational equity also can interpreted in teaching aspects, for example, learning content which equal to students in terms of students being interested, teaching methods which equal to students in terms of students receiving an equal amount of knowledge input, teaching measures which are equipment, technology and language that are equal to students in terms of students’ competence and proficiency and educational programs that are equal to students in terms of students being included according to their individuality (Lincoln, 2014). The objective of educational equity is to teach students in a way so that they can reach their potentials. There are three aspects of educational equity within an equal education that are educational, cultural and psychological equity of education, which can be categorized in 3As: appropriateness, adequacy and attainment (Lincoln, 2014).

            Based on students’ learning style, educational equity has a suitable educational content in both quality and quantity. Students are diverse which bring challenges to every aspect of education including curriculum, class allocation and teaching methods (Lincoln, 2014). For the students who needs special education: language proficiency, disability, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and autism, American schools usually provide special education which are the most advantaged and the least advantaged. There are two groups of students whose needs are hidden or overlooked whether minority or majority of students in the middle range (Lincoln, 2014). Usually, minority students are at disadvantages in the language used in classroom as a teaching measure delivered that affects their knowledge (Lincoln, 2014).  In special education, their weakness in receiving the educational information cannot focus only through the language programs as for the minority students whose language competence in the middle range. It is important to link the knowledge students learn and the way they learn including cultural background, potentials and learning styles: visual, auditory or kinaesthetic, to ensure the educational appropriateness (Lincoln, 2014).

            Educational equity in the aspect of cultural ensures students to receive adequate knowledge to reach their potentials based on their language and cultural backgrounds (Lincoln, 2014). Students’ identities are multidimensional including race, ethnicity, gender, class, attitudes, opinions, cultural tastes and philosophical differences (Carter, 2012). Schools have different socio-cultural climates that produce certain policies, practices, codes, enveloping ideas and ways in approaching to educational equality and educational equity (Lincoln, 2014). Most of the minority students were born and grown up in different cultural environments and since they are foreigners with speaking different language. Therefore, language is their weakness that must be taken care through programs in special education, which affects their assurance to educational information in access and understanding (Lincoln, 2014). Besides that, their cultural alienation also one of the causes that kept them away from the main stream which give disadvantages in information and opportunity (Lincoln, 2014). The cultural adequacy of education is from the students’ racial and ethnic groups which are not from the curriculum or classroom activities. For students, the result of sharing histories and cultural narratives and social economic locations are similarity to one’s own racial or ethnic group, which as a natural social condition (Carter, 2012). Even tastes and participation in school activities tend to be associated with racial identity (Carter, 2012). Therefore, schools need to include as many cultural elements as possible into the curriculum and classroom activities so that they are equal as well as adequate to students from ethnic groups to ensure students both minority and majority will enjoy the adequacy of education (Lincoln, 2014).

            Furthermore, the equal access to educational information promises students the educational messages according to their ways of receiving messages while educational individuality ensures students to learn something they are interested (Lincoln, 2014). However, the visual and auditory students’ delivery of knowledge will not have the same educational input compare to pure auditory students. It does not provide an equal access to these two types of learners, therefore, different learning result are partially because of an unequal access to educational information based on their learning styles not students’ effort (Lincoln, 2014). Educational equity in psychological aspect ensures that students have an equal access to educational information based on their learning styles to reach their potentials (Lincoln, 2014).

            On the other hand, Landu & Dubyak (2014) discussed the importance of understanding students’ learning behaviour and teachers’ teaching styles. According to the research, they found out those teachers’ qualities of classroom behaviour and teaching methods can increase students’ satisfaction (Svinicki & Mckeahie, 2014). There are three learning styles, which can affect how we perceive, organize and process information: visual, auditory or kinaesthetic (Lincoln, 2011). According to Felder & Silverman (1988), there are different ways on five factors due to diverse in individual learning styles: perceive information by sensory or intuitive means; perceive information most effectively visually or auditory; perceive information most effectively visually or auditory; organize information inductively or deductively; process information actively or reflectively; and progress towards understanding concepts sequentially or holistically.

If teachers apply one of the teaching method that matches students with one type of learning style then students with different learning styles will be in disadvantaged (Lincoln, 2014). Due to the inappropriate teaching methods, these students do not have an equal access to the information passed by the teacher in classroom as other students since their ways of perceiving, organizing, and processing information do not match the teaching style applied, therefore, they have less chances to reach an equal attainment of the knowledge that they are supposed to master (Lincoln, 2014).

2.2 Problems between Educational Equality and Educational Equity

            Moreover, educational equality emphasizes on students getting a right an equal education based on the material side of an equal education to balance the social inequality that students understand before this (Lincoln, 2014. While, educational equity emphasizes on giving students equal education based on what they produce not on the same subjects they learn but on how they learn by giving students different but appropriate education (Lincoln, 2014). 

The meaning of equity is fairness and categorized in metaphysical equality or equity while, the meaning of equality is the quality being the same which categorized in physical fairness (Lincoln, 2014). Based on the meaning of equity and equality, educational equality signifies the opportunity to get the same education whereas educational equity involves the opportunity to get an appropriate education (Lincoln, 2014). According to the theory, the material quantity of being equal and focuses on the spiritual quality of being equal are different concepts of physical fairness and metaphysical equality, which emphasizes by previous researchers. However, educational equality and educational equity are different in the concepts of education. The previous researchers focuses on equal acceptance to schools, equal access to educational resources and equal assurance of information and opportunities for being successful and emphasizing on appropriate subjects, contents and attainment for being educated fairly in terms of suitable learning quality and quantity to reach the potentials (Lincoln, 2014).

Equal education concept’s can be divided into two perspectives, which are citizen’s equal rights and social justice and same subjects of instruction and academic standards to every citizen. The definition of equality focus on individuals’ equal rights to receive education, to study the same basic subjects that required as a citizen and to be evaluated by the same academic standards (Lincoln, 2014). Nevertheless, according to the previous research there are two arguments regarding the concept of equal education. First, it is impossible to provide and equal instruction within a context (Lincoln, 2014). Second, if we provide an equal instruction to individuals with different social and cultural backgrounds and academic orientations, equality in practice implies inequality in theory (Lincoln, 2014). Therefore, they concluded that equal education is more of a slogan and idea that can never be achieved (Lincoln, 2014).

            However, there are researchers think that everyone should get an equal education but equal education can be achieved when teachers with equal quality give instructions, the quality and quantity of the content of the instruction or the suitability of content to students in terms of their interests, needs and achievement (Lincoln, 2014). We will never achieved the standard of equality based on these three aspects but if we changes the angles from absolute to relative and from concrete quantity to abstract quality, we can reach an equal education in its theoretical meaning (Lincoln, 2014).

Mostly favouring members of a disadvantaged group of people who are suffer from discrimination within a culture according to the affirmative action policy, which based on the principle of educational equality. For the purpose of educational equality, many countries take affirmative actions in varying degree (Lincoln, 2014). However, teachers that practiced an educational equity believes that individuals who are able to advance because of their talent and effort (Brighouse, Tooley & Howe, 2010). Besides that, parents focus on their children’s benefits and their understanding of educational equality and educational equity is more or less based on their children’s situation (Lincoln, 2014). Parents are busy moving their children to better schools that have good facilities, experienced teachers or having more highly motivated and talented students (Lincoln, 2014). Therefore, by that action it created a phenomenon of social inequality that better schools enrol advanced students.

            In addition, governments also do not have enough money to provide schools district the same amount resources to meet the needs of various programs in school (Lincoln, 2014). Even though the government can ensure an equal distribution of educational budget, there are factors that affect the inequality of education: the main source of local funding in the vast majority of district, the spending amount of the district, social-economic residential segregation brings schools different populations (Brighouse, Tooley & Howe, 2010).

            However, it still cannot guarantee the equality of education even the government has enough educational resources for district schools. First, equal educational resource does not always have a positive relation with achievement, or does not necessarily lead to a reduction in achievement gap (Lincoln, 2014). Second, in order to produce more achievement, some district’s schools concentrate more resources on those with low levels of talent and motivation. This practice also violates both educational equality and educational equity for it distributes the educational resources neither equally nor according to students’ needs to reach their potentials (Lincoln, 2014). Third, it is easy and visible to reach the equality in formality or on the material level, but difficult to realize the essential and potential equity. We cannot exchange a material equality with an essential inequity (Lincoln, 2014). Fourth, in order to implement the principles of educational equality and educational equity, we should separate education with politics to avoid the political correctness interfering with the implementation of educational equality and educational equity, and distinguish the concept of political democracy from educational sociology (Lincoln, 2014).

Besides that, the other dilemmas such as those between talent and capability, meritocracy and achievement gap, equality of educational opportunity and quality of education, adequacy of teaching methodology and learning content, teachers’ professionalism and students’ effort (Lincoln, 2014).. However, within the conceptual framework of educational equality and educational equity with interpretations in material, moral, and meritorious terms supported by educational practices, educators can have a deep understanding on the meanings and perspectives of educational equality and educational equity, and find their conjunctions towards an equal education (Lincoln, 2014).

2.3 Conclusion

In this chapter, the researcher had reviewed many previous studies on the challenges in achieving equity and equality in education. In addition, multiple evidences also have collected to support this research on the students’ achievement with using equity and equality in class. Based on the previous research, equity and equality can promote a better learning in class, identify challenges in achieving equity and equality in education.