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By Amanda Keddie, Griffith
Institute for Educational
Research at Griffith
University.
quity doesn't mean treating all the kids
the same ... it's an expectation that their
ackground and everything about their
past life doesn't equal being a ba
ier,
you know, everybody's job is to remove
all those ba
iers.,. there's a full range
of abilities and so on but what we would
e against is haying any of those ba
iers
prevent them being alJ they can be
(Anna).
Anna has been the principal of
'Peppermint Grove' High School for
around 25 years. She is committed [Q
just and equitable schooling. The view
of equity that she expresses - to remove
the ba
iers in students' lives that
prevent them being all they can be -
has been a central focus of my research
fellowship at Griffith University.
My research has involved examining
issues of culture, equity and diversity
at three schools: Peppermint Grove (a
secondary school catering to immigrant
and refugee students), 'Gamarada'
High School (a secondary school
catering predominantly [Q indigenous
girls) and 'Blackbe
y' Primary School
(a multicultural school where 30 per
cent of students are from refugee or
immigrant backgrounds),
All of these schools (located in u
ani
subu
an Queensland) are recognised
as exemplary in supporting equity for
marginalised students. The research
has taken an ethnographic approach
[Q the investigation of school-based
practice that seeks to remove the
a
iers to which Anna refers. At --7
•
~ Peppermint Grove, for example,
there was particular concern with the
a
iers impeding the educational
experiences and success of refugee
students especially those students
from countries of war or political
unrest with limited or no schooling
expenence.
Consistent with much Australian
and international research in this
area, removing these ba
iers at all of
these schools was a necessary holistic
task in responding to the economic,
cultural and political injustices
confronting these students. The key
focus here was providing an inclusive
and culturally respectful space that
enabled students' autonomy and self-
determination and positioned them
the globe, multiculturalist policies
and ideas have been criticised as
producing racial and ethnic division.
Amid such contention, schools have
een a primary focus. In particular,
their inclusive agendas have been
under attack as uncritical and
overly accommodating of cultural
difference.
Against the charge that these
agendas are failing, there has been
increased scrutiny of schools'
citizenship programs and heightened
surveillance around what is taught
in schools and how it is taught.
In Australia, and other Western
contexts, these circumstances have
een framed by
oader public
and policy debate around issues of
Despite unprecedented diversity in
schools, classroom practice continues
to reinforce and perpetuate highly
inequitable and exclusionary
understandings about difference and
diversity.
with capacity to achieve.
Creating this space is an imperative
given the unprecedented levels of
multicultural diversity and rapid
social change characterising the
present era. While such diversity and
change have enabled the production
of cosmopolitan identities where
a generative blend of cultures
enhances community relations,
more commonly these trends have
seen rises in social disharmony,
discrimination and inequity
particularly in u
an communities.
In western liberal democracies,
the racial, religious and cultural
dimensions of this polarisation
have become increasingly palpable.
Particularly in public discourse such
polarisation has reflected reductionist
understandings of culture where
a privileging of western ways of
knowing and being has inferiorised
minority cultures as the less
enlightened 'other'.
Against this backdrop, especially
following the events of9/11 and the
subsequent te
orist attacks across
nationalism and identity - raising
contention around what educating
for equity and justice might mean
for liberal democracies in an era of
unprecedented social change and
diversity.
Such issues have generated
significant challenges for schools and
teachers in relation to their important
ole in nurturing an appreciation
of and respect for social, cultural
and religious diversity. However, it
emains that while policy discourse
positions schools as central to
uilding socially cohesive societies
through environments that reflect
and explicitly teach about the values
of democracy, equity and justice,
schools continue to reify the global
flows that perpetuate inequitable
social relations.
As is well eStablished, schooling
practices generally do nOt value
and work with student difference
in productive ways. Despite
unprecedented diversity in schools,
classroom practice continues
to reinforce and perpetuate
highly inequitable and exclusionary
understandings about difference and
diversity.
Westernised, classed and gendered
versions of autonomy and success
continue to be privileged in schools
and continue to circumscribe the ways
in which students are constructed and
supported by teachers. Teachers remain
ill-equipped for addressing issues of
diversity and justice. Indeed, cu
ent
practice homogenises and inferiorises
group difference and distorts genuine
equity concerns. As important research
continues to indicate, many teachers
tend [0 either stereotype group difference
uncritically or they avoid addressing
issues of difference altogether out of fear
of getting it wrong'(Hayes et al. 2006;
Doherty & Singh, 2007).
Amid this negative picture of schools
and schooling, the research sought
to present a positive thesis. As such
it foregrounded the personal stories
of educators productively and justly
working with student difference and
diversity. Undergirded by the central
premise that schools and teachers can
make a difference towards realising the
goals of social equity and cohesion, the
esearch provided comprehensive insight
into important frames of reference and
understanding for supporting cultural
diversity and social justice through
schooling.
The research highlighted the micro-
political in relation to how the dynamics
within each school shaped equity
priorities and approaches differently (for
example, in relation to a focus on issues
such as gender, race, religion and socio-
economic status). However, its main
emphasis was to draw out the key frames
of reference and understanding about
equity and justice that were consistent
across each school and generalisable to
oader education contexts. These frames
of reference and understanding were
theorised in relation to their capacity to
transform the social a
angements that
impede marginalised students' 'parity of
participation'.
Along similar lines to Anna's remarks
above, Fraser (2007, p. 17) explains this
view of justice as follows:
.. .jllstice requires social a
angements
that permit all to participate as peers
in social life. On the view of justice as
participatory parity, overcoming injustice
means dismantling institutionalized
obstacles that prevent some people from
participating on a par with others, as full
partners in social interaction.
This view of equity was reflected in
each of the study's three schools. There
were particular student groups who were
identified as equity priorities on the basis
of being subject to obstacles preventing
their participation 'on par' with others. At
Peppermint Grove, as it was at Blackbe
y
Primary School, it was refugee students,
while at Gamarada High School it was
indigenous girls. The identification of
these groups arose in each school from
a centring of students' experiences of
marginality and disadvantage. Such
centring highlighted the different
injustices confronting students.
For the educators at Gamarada, it
drew attention [0 multiple injustices in
elation to students' social location as
Indigenous and female; for example,
the girls experienced racist and gender
discrimination as well as suffering
significant levels of material deprivation
(Fraser, XXXXXXXXXXAlong these lines, the
equity priorities within each of the
schools reflected cognisance that injustice
can arise from different dimensions. In
making sense of this, I found the work
of American philosopher Nancy Fraser
(1997; 2007) helpful. She theorises
injustice as arising from three dimensions:
political, cultural and socio-economic.
I
social actors.
Consistent with Anna's opening
comments, the identification of the equity
priority groups in each of the schools
was based on these group's experiences
of injustice on one or more of these
dimensions. At each of the schools there
were concerns with the political injustices
impeding students' educational success.
At Gamarada and Peppermint Grove,
for instance, these concerns related
to the ways in which traditional or
mainstream education contexts can
compromise or misrepresent the political
voice of marginalised students. This was
a particular concern for the principal at
Gamarada who challenged the absence of
Indigenous input in programs designed to
support Indigenous students. In each of
the schools there were also concerns abom
cultural injustices - associated with the
patterns of non-recognition and disrespect
within dominant paradigms (generally
western-informed) that position minority
culture as deficit and lack.
At Peppermint Grove, for example,
such patterns were associated with an
essentialising and inferiorising of student
culture and the disempowerment of
particular groups of refugee students.
Injustices relating to economic
maldistribution were particularly salient
at Gamarada. In this comext,
oader
patterns of class inequality for Indigenous
There were particular student groups
who were identified as equity priOrities
on the basis of being subject to obstacles
preventing their participation 'on par'
with others.
For Fraser (2007), political injustices
occur when some individuals or
groups are not accorded equal voice in
decision making about justice claims;
cultural injustices are generated when
institutionalized or hierarchical patterns
of cultural valLIe generate misrecognition
or status inequality for particular social
groups; and socio-economic injustices
are produced when the structures of
society generate maldistribution or class
inequality for particular categories of
Australians - made manifest in students'
high levels of financial hardship -
constrained students' capacities to fully
participate in their education.
Such were some of the ba
iers
associated with political representation,
cultural recognition and economic
distribution seen as impeding equity for
marginalised srudents at these schools
(Fraser, 1997; XXXXXXXXXXIn all