How can Schools be more Equitable?

 

There’s always a lot of discussion on how equality is very important to reinforce in our schools but we also need to take into account how reinforcing equity is another step we have to take as educators to help our students succeed. First, let’s talk about how equity and equality are different from each other:

• Equality is the state of being equal in terms of status, rights, and opportunities. 

• Equity is the fairness or justice in terms of how people are treated.

There are multiple ways schools ensure equality but when it comes to equity it seems to be shoved to the side since by giving everyone equal opportunities may seem like enough of an effort for certain individuals, however just because items or opportunities are available to everyone that doesn’t mean there’s the same amount of fairness for everyone. Schools can address this by allowing more aid to those who truly need it so they can also succeed in these equal opportunities. 

Another way schools can become more equitable is by addressing one of the biggest topics surrounding this conversation, funding. By understanding the difference in the funding within the United States and even other countries, the funding in the United States even heavily varies from state to state and it’s even worse as we look into districts and zoning. How are children supposed to have equal opportunities when other schools receive more funding? There has to be more attention drawn into it in order to ensure all students are given what they need in order to succeed along with their more fortunate peers.

How can Educational Philosophies Influence Schooling?

  

  Standardize testing promotes the idea that all children should be tested in the same way over material that was introduced the same way to students in the current school system, however, it leaves out the most important detail in education. All students don't learn the same way. This is where educational philosophies come into play as the give educators freedom to teach how they want as they will know what their students need in order to be successful. These educational philosophies greatly influence schooling due to the many questions educators may consider when developing their own, such as: 

• How do you believe students learn best?
• Do you believe all students can learn?
• What are goals for your students?
• What do teachers owe their students?

    After educators consider similar questions as those stated above, we have to look into these answers and decide which one of them we seem to agree more with and which one(s) we tend to disagree with. These philosophies are Essentialism, Perennialism, Progressivism, Existentialism and Social Reconstructionism. Essentialism tends to follow schools that have students following a pre-determined curriculum that focuses on teaching students to become valuable members in our society, Perennialism has student focusing education on ideas that have lasted a long time, Progressivism focuses on the student rather than the curriculum or the instructor, Existentialism allows for the students to choose and learn what they seem passionate about, and finally Social Reconstructionism focuses on having students be able to identify social injustices by having their curriculum focus on current events.

    These philosophies allow for educators to use a combination of them or to focus on one when it comes to teaching their classroom. In the future, I do think I will end up using a combination of these philosophies instead of focusing on a specific one. I want to create an environment where my main focus is on knowing that all students have different ways of learning and I want to find a way for those who cannot seem to follow along with the others to also find their stride and learn along with the rest of the class, it's my job as an educators to educate and even if it means going out of my way in order to ensure all students understand the curriculum.