Higher Education Equity Literature Database

The Gonski Institute for Education has awarded UNSW Social Policy Research Centre academics Dr Jennifer Skattebol, Dr Megan Blaxland and Dr Elizabeth Adamson, who have been awarded a research grant in the amount of $100,000 for a their project titled ‘Equitable Access to High Quality Childhood Education’. This research will investigate high quality Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) services for children in disadvantaged communities and translate these findings into practice and policy that encourages families in these communities to use ECER services.

The Council of Australian Government 2008 plan to ensure all children have access to 15 hours of preschool in the year before school has seen increasing numbers of children utilising Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) services. However, there remains a persistent minority of children who still do not access ECEC. These children are likely to live in disadvantaged contexts and have the most to gain from ECEC. The Australian Early Development Census shows that nearly 40 percent of Indigenous children and 35 percent of children living in low-income areas do not attend ECEC and do not accrue the advantages that a high quality ECEC experience offers. Furthermore, they are more likely to live in areas where there is little high quality ECEC provided in both regional and urban areas.

This project will coalesce the evidence on the barriers to ECEC take-up, identify communities where there are better than expected patterns of service use and generate evidence on effective ECEC initiatives in different contexts of local area disadvantage. At the conclusion of the study,  a policy brief outlining key findings will be released.

Context: English higher education in New Labour years. Opens up the notion of 'fair access' to include issues of gender and examines the notions of equality and diversity in the context of a shifting HE landscape with regards to 'who counts'. Notes earlier writings about WP were less defined (it became to be known as 'fair access' in 2008 HEFCE strategy). Notes how debates about HE (and increasing tuition fees) = at individual level of costs and benefits, but no mention of gender was made at the time.
Aim: To highlight how the gender (female) lens contributes to a reading of 'fairness' in higher education.
Theoretical frame: Uses a feminist framework
Methodology: Essay/ literature review
Findings: Women/females = proportionally better represented in HE (but more so as part-time and mature age students). Draws on findings from Shavit et al. (2007) which explored 15 countries' approaches to educational expansion and found 3-fold complex relationships between expansion, differentiation and diversification (resulting in stratification, privatisation and persistent inequality; see p.64) - Shavit et al. note the 'erosion of male advantage' in tertiary education (side issue; not a key focus of their work). Provides overview of TLRP-funded projects (see David, 2008) - all of these projects focused on equity as social class/ SES disadvantage rather than other forms of disadvantage
Core question: "Can the challenge of building upon the creative potential of critical and feminist pedagogies and inclusive practices for social diversity and social justice be met in this diversified higher education global context with such diverse new kinds of individual students?" (p.76)

- Contemporary HEIs concurrently focusing on: access and widening participation; improving the quality and standard of HE; enhancing reputation and competitiveness. Are these aims mutually exclusive? Discourse: increased enrolments of students of disadvantaged backgrounds must not compromise quality outcomes
- Those working in academia have suggested that students with lower entry scores/disadvantaged backgrounds are able to compete with students with higher entry scores/privileged backgrounds if there is attention to inclusive curriculum, greater academic support, quality teaching, and counselling
- Difficulty for social inclusion agenda is pre-occupation with rankings at an international scale. Diversity is not accounted for in these leagues, and represents a risk for institutional reputation
- Class and race have complex factors that shape 'success' in HE
- Preconception that disadvantaged students will be underperforming students; and time spent with them disadvantages higher performing students (thus leading to academic decline)
- Research shows that student achievement and experience benefits from having diverse student cohorts (so this would be a protective factor in the 'excellence' paradigm)
Hence this article argues that a social inclusion agenda related to increasing the equity of access and participation of disadvantaged students does not have a negative impact on academic standards and outcomes, despite preconceptions; but argues that there needs to be adequate support structures through policy, community, adequacy of preparation, and the institution to enable this 'excellence'

Context: Responds to editorial (Savage, Sellar, Gorur 2013). Writes about the shifting ideologies around equity - from social democratic to market, which has been joined by shifts in governance - from trust and collaboration to efficiency and accountability/ collaborative to managerial approaches
Starts by discussing the Participation and Equity Program (PEP) that ran in the mid 80s, which Rizvi claims is the last program of reform that trusted teachers/ gave teachers autonomy. Two years after being started, rules about funding started to appear (which Rizvi argues was due to the government losing faith in the program) and early emphasis on democracy and finding meaning and negotiating what participation and equity meant were replaced with "stipulative definitions" (p.275). The global/western ideological shift from welfare state to neoliberal state was initiated by Thatcher and Reagan who were influenced by economics of Milton Friedman. Neoliberalism = human capital - develop human resources to meet needs of economy [neo-social]. Language used (indexing new discourses) is crucial for seeing the evolution of neoliberalism: "Part of the success of neoliberalism lies in the fact that it continues to use such traditionally socially democratic notions as equity, but has been enormously successful in re-articulating their meaning into market terms" (p.276)

Core argument: Editorial for SI on equity and marketisation = points to how equity is evolving and being enacted in the context of an increasingly marketised higher education system. Comments on how educational equity is a difficult notion to pin down and outlines three main characterisations: distributive (based on notion of 'fair' distribution); inclusive and recognising (so as to "ameliorate the negative influences of social and cultural difference", p.162); equality of opportunity ('sameness of treatment'). Oppositional notion of inequity = "where historical, social, structural, and institutional factors come together in apparently deeply intractable ways" (p.162). Simultaneously, marketised ways of thinking "foster notions of meritocracy, competition and choice, which also claim links to ideals of fairness and opportunity" (p.162). Equity and competitiveness are presented as harmonious. SI justified because conjunction of equity and markets in education has "created new and different conditions of possibility for equity, both as a policy discourse and a related set of educational practices" (p.163). Targeting aspirations of low SES students is "a form of equity as the provision of support for self-capitalisation through education" (p.166)
Aim: "to analyse carefully the increasing rationalisation of equity agendas in economic terms" (abstract)

Context: Equity in context of open educational resources (OERs) in distance education/ context of glocalisation. OERs offer benefits and challenges in terms of opening access (focus on both first/third world countries). Discusses distance education at the levels of localisation, globalisation and glocalisation ("relates to the interplay between local-regional-global interactions", p.186) - made possible by rapid technological growth/ development and global change. Discusses distance education in context of social exclusion/ e-inclusion - reference to 'digital divide' ("involuntary exclusion from the technology society" attributed to Kaplan, 2005 on p.187) - but = multiple divides. Notes the concept of 'e-inclusion' (see p.188).
Aim: To examine "the potential of OER to overcome issues surrounding educational equity (encompassing access, participation, and outcomes) and social inclusion in the context of the glocalization of formal education" (p.185)
Methodology: Discussion/essay
Findings: OERs = developed out of limitations of learning portals and legitimised by issuing of licences. Points to many benefits of OERs to teachers and learners "they are accessible; provide learners with flexibility to study anywhere and anytime; at no or low costs; and have the potential to contribute to informal, non-formal, and formal education" (p.190).
Challenges (viewed through equity lens): not all OERs are developed/ designed with access and equity in mind or for a diverse student body. There may be issues with the language of instruction (limited recognition of linguistic diversity = particularly problematic for global access), issues related to context and local assumptions, and issues related to technology and rurality. There may also be challenges at the level of people not understanding the project or not wanting to share resources + intellectual property and copyright issues. 'Quality' = also problematic
Core argument: OERs hold great potential to address equity/ access issues but there are challenges that need to be considered.

This blog post is part of the Gonski Institute for Education’s open access annotated bibliography (OAAB) series, a project led by Dr Sally Baker. OAABs offer a snapshot of some of the available literature on a particular topic. The literature is curated by a collective of scholars who share an interest in equity in education. These resources are intended to be shared with the international community of researchers, students, educators and practitioners. The literature has been organised thematically according to patterns that have emerged from a deep and sustained engagement with the various fields.

This blog post is part of the Gonski Institute for Education’s open access annotated bibliography (OAAB) series, a project led by Dr Sally Baker. OAABs offer a snapshot of some of the available literature on a particular topic. The literature is curated by a collective of scholars who share an interest in equity in education. These resources are intended to be shared with the international community of researchers, students, educators and practitioners. The literature has been organised thematically according to patterns that have emerged from a deep and sustained engagement with the various fields.

This blog post is part of the Gonski Institute for Education’s open access annotated bibliography (OAAB) series, a project led by Dr Sally Baker. OAABs offer a snapshot of some of the available literature on a particular topic. The literature is curated by a collective of scholars who share an interest in equity in education. These resources are intended to be shared with the international community of researchers, students, educators and practitioners. The literature has been organised thematically according to patterns that have emerged from a deep and sustained engagement with the various fields.

This blog post is part of the Gonski Institute for Education’s open access annotated bibliography (OAAB) series, a project led by Dr Sally Baker. OAABs offer a snapshot of some of the available literature on a particular topic. The literature is curated by a collective of scholars who share an interest in equity in education. These resources are intended to be shared with the international community of researchers, students, educators and practitioners. The literature has been organised thematically according to patterns that have emerged from a deep and sustained engagement with the various fields.

This blog post is part of the Gonski Institute for Education’s open access annotated bibliography (OAAB) series, a project led by Dr Sally Baker. OAABs offer a snapshot of some of the available literature on a particular topic. The literature is curated by a collective of scholars who share an interest in equity in education. These resources are intended to be shared with the international community of researchers, students, educators and practitioners. The literature has been organised thematically according to patterns that have emerged from a deep and sustained engagement with the various fields.

This blog post is part of the Gonski Institute for Education’s open access annotated bibliography (OAAB) series, a project led by Dr Sally Baker. OAABs offer a snapshot of some of the available literature on a particular topic. The literature is curated by a collective of scholars who share an interest in equity in education. These resources are intended to be shared with the international community of researchers, students, educators and practitioners. The literature has been organised thematically according to patterns that have emerged from a deep and sustained engagement with the various fields.

This blog post is part of the Gonski Institute for Education’s open access annotated bibliography (OAAB) series, a project led by Dr Sally Baker. OAABs offer a snapshot of some of the available literature on a particular topic. The literature is curated by a collective of scholars who share an interest in equity in education. These resources are intended to be shared with the international community of researchers, students, educators and practitioners. The literature has been organised thematically according to patterns that have emerged from a deep and sustained engagement with the various fields.

This blog post is part of the Gonski Institute for Education’s open access annotated bibliography (OAAB) series, a project led by Dr Sally Baker. OAABs offer a snapshot of some of the available literature on a particular topic. The literature is curated by a collective of scholars who share an interest in equity in education. These resources are intended to be shared with the international community of researchers, students, educators and practitioners. The literature has been organised thematically according to patterns that have emerged from a deep and sustained engagement with the various fields.

Context: Focus on SES dimension of equity ("high degree of overlap" between low SES/ indigenous/ rurality). Main issue = how much is low participation shaped by families' financial resources (which could impact on capacity to get gov't benefits: Youth Allowance). Danger of dismissing the significance of family income could be a prioritisation of engineering parent value change
Hypothesis: overrepresentation of high SES students in higher education = due to families' financial circumstances (contrasting with dominant view that high SES children have other characteristics which favour them and their 'intellectual capital' and their parents are better able/willing to make sacrifices - but see ACER research that says family income is of limited significance: "In 1998 the Government-initiated West Review of higher education seized on the ACER work to justify its decision to ignore student complaints about the low level and inaccessibility of Austudy (now the Youth Allowance)" p.52)
Findings:
Cites ACER research which showed that more clerical/ blue collar children staying on to Year 12 (and would be more likely to consider university due to getting "some exposure to year 12 culture, mixed with students who intend to go on to university " (p.54), but still comparatively lower than students with professional/ managerial parents. A much lower proportion of clerical/working class students actually go to university = widening "a gulf".
Also considers impact of private schooling (as another way wealth can impact entry to university) = census data confirms that parental income positively influences private school participation and independently educated students = more likely to score 80+ in HSCs, which explains disproportionate enrolments of these students in more elite Victorian universities.

Context: Lower participation in higher education and lower labour market outcomes for M_ori and Pacific (M&P) peoples in NZ; authors argue that not enough is known about the labour market outcomes/ financial outcomes of M&P graduates. M_ori = 14.9% of NZ population; Pacifika = 7.4%. M&P have higher unemployment levels, lower incomes, fewer assets, poorer health (p.208). While participation/ enrolment levels doubled between 20052015, their participation rate is still significantly lower than European-decent NZ/ other ethnic groups. M&P tend to track against other NZ in terms of employment, but are lower in terms of pay and take longer to repay student loans
Aim:
Theoretical frame:
Methodology: Data collected through Graduate Longitudinal Study New Zealand (GLSNZ); comparison of M&P outcomes compared with other groups from final year of study (n=8719) and two years after graduation (n=6104).
Findings:
M&P students = more likely to be parents, first in family, be studying in Humanities
M&P = more likely to be studying undergraduate
Pacific students= more likely to be older
M&P = had similar levels of employment 2 years post-graduation to other graduates
Income levels varied significantly; M&P reported significantly worse financial circumstances across a range of measures (p.212); were twice as likely to take out a student loan; M_ori had 15%/ Pacific = 17% higher levels of student loan debt overall worse financial strain (see p.213)
M&P = significantly more likely to report helping family/ friends/community.
Analysis supports the idea that participating in higher education helps to bridge some of the equity gap in terms of employment rates; graduates = more likely to participate in civic behavior (voting, volunteering).
M&P = more likely to enter university with challenging financial situations, therefore explaining to some degree why they take on more debt, and longer-term reported financial strain
Core argument: NZ universities need to continue to think about how to encourage M&P participation in university that recognises the financial burden it adds

This blog post is part of the Gonski Institute for Education’s open access annotated bibliography (OAAB) series, a project led by Dr Sally Baker. OAABs offer a snapshot of some of the available literature on a particular topic. The literature is curated by a collective of scholars who share an interest in equity in education. These resources are intended to be shared with the international community of researchers, students, educators and practitioners. The literature has been organised thematically according to patterns that have emerged from a deep and sustained engagement with the various fields.

Context: Discusses policy agendas in context of post-Bradley Review Australian HE; explores aspirations for university study of low SES students: for years, the dreams of working classes have been considered disruptive to classed status quo; but beware of 'opportunity trap' = are the conditions for real equitable access/participation there?
Theoretical frame:
Methodology:
Discussion: 'Poverty of desire' thesis: emerged from English utopian socialist politics - similar to Gramscian politics calling for politicisation of working classes (stop being distracted by leisure activities) so as to build support for socialist movement. Has evolved from issue around political motivations to issue of social mobility. Cites Labour (UK) push to create 'aspirational citizens' = "neoliberal imaginary" (p. 248).
Raising aspirations in Australian HE: explores how politics of aspiration align in current equity agendas, underpinned by neoliberal assumptions about self-entrepreneurial behaviour in educational markets. Questions notion that participation in markets is innate (as implied by policy statements that call for an 'unleashing' of unfettered aspirations for social mobility; p.251).
False promise of aspirations: Aspirations are formed relationally against a set of promises about the future: "these promises operate affectively, as well as at the level of conscious intentionality, and are imbricated in the ongoing production of subjectivities" (p.251), which gives rise to 'cruel optimism' that arises when objects of desire that sustain people's life projects undermine them at the same time. For example, the promise of economic mobility might come at the loss of a sense of belonging to 'home' (family and friends and peers). See Brown et al.'s (2010) notion of 'opportunity trap' (relates to expansion of HE devaluing currency of HE qualifications and a 'global war for talent'), meaning that human capital/knowledge economy arguments are undermined. Discusses 'Cashed-Up Bogans' as an exception to this [albeit not so much with current mining downturn] and as example of cultural divide between middle classes and working classes (even though Cubs are able to purchase items considered middle-class, their cultural and educational capital is dismissed as lesser than middle class ideals require.
Core argument: Can the aspirations of others (outside of middle class) be supported without imposing the ideals that police desire?