Teachers tackling in/equities: understanding, recognition, and action

Abstract

Teachers’ equity work is often discussed in research literature, however, little empirical evidence exists about the nature of this work. This article explores teachers’ understandings, recognitions of, and actions regarding in/equities in their schools. Data was derived from interviews with fifteen urban elementary school teachers who engage in equity work. While researchers acknowledge that understanding equity and diversity plays a key role in preparing teachers to tackle inequities in their schools, relatively little is known about this process. Findings illustrate that although all participants share a common commitment to teaching for equity, they held differing ideas about the meaning of equity, what equity looked like, and what their role should be for redressing inequity. Participants understanding of in/equity where found to exist on a spectrum from less to more developed, as were their actions. Findings also illustrated inconsistencies with regards to where participants existed on the continuum of understanding in relation to their actions. The nature of participants’ level of understanding, how they described their recognitions of in/equity, and the actions they took to address inequities are described thematically to illustrate their general nature as there is little information available in particular regarding teachers’ understandings and recognitions of inequity