Introduction: The Global Quest for Educational Equity

The number of international migrants living in a country other than their country of birth reached approximately 272 million in 2019, an increase of 51 million since 2010.1 Children make up half of the more than 36.5 million people who are refugees.2 The growth in the number of migrants and refugees worldwide has made it especially challenging for nations to establish state elementary and secondary schools that provide educational equity for diverse groups of students.3 The quests by migrants and other marginalized groups for an education that will prepare them to participate in the nations in which they reside is up against pernicious nationalism that has emerged in many countries, including the United States, England, Hungary, and China. Nationalism has mobilized angry populist groups, stimulated the rise of authoritarianism, targeted migrants and ethnic groups of color, and was among the factors that led to the passage of the Brexit referendum in the United Kingdom that resulted in it leaving the European Union.This issue of Dædalus describes theory, research, policies, and practices that scholars in nations around the world are developing and using to increase educational equity for diverse racial, ethnic, cultural, linguistic, gender, and religious groups of students in elementary and secondary schools. Equity exists when diverse and marginalized students can achieve equally to mainstream pupils in their societies and nation-states. This means that some groups, such as Caribbean-heritage students in the United Kingdom, Aboriginal students in Australia, Indigenous students in Mexico, and refugee students in Germany, will often need distinctive educational interventions to attain the same achievement levels as mainstream students. The essays in this volume describe how interventions such as providing culturally responsive teaching, infusing diverse cultural content into the curriculum, and providing instruction in students' home languages can enable students from diverse groups to attain educational equity.Because there are few scholars who are experts on both education and diversity in two or more nations and who can therefore make cross-cultural comparisons, this issue of Dædalus uses a case-study approach, which allows for in-depth and multifaced analyses of the complex educational issues that the nations discussed in this volume are experiencing. The nations selected are facing significant challenges educating diverse groups and also have initiated noteworthy reforms. One noteworthy example is China, which Jason Cong Lin discusses in his essay “The Quest for Educational Equity in Schools in Mainland China & Hong Kong.”4 China has fifty-five official ethnic minority groups, and the term migrant group in mainland China primarily refers to Chinese people who migrate domestically. Migrants from rural regions are denied educational equity when they migrate to cities such as Beijing and Shanghai and cannot access the cities' high-quality schools, unless they can change their agricultural house registration. Many of these groups are cultural, linguistic, and religious minorities.The contributors to this volume have diverse disciplinary backgrounds, including in sociology, linguistics, anthropology, psychology, history, legal studies, and education. They are from myriad nations, have diverse ideological perspectives, represent various ethnic, racial, and gender groups, and are at different stages of their academic careers.The massive waves of migrants and refugees arriving in nations around the world are influencing educational equity and making it difficult to actualize. Schools and teachers in most nations do not have the knowledge, resources, inclinations, and structures to meet the academic needs of migrant and refugee students. As Carola Suárez-Orozco and Marcelo Suárez-Orozco point out in their essay “Globalization, Immigrant-Origin Students & the Quest for Educational Equity,” globalization is a major cause of the vast migrations that are taking place within and across nations.5 Environmental disasters, war and terror, and the quest for economic opportunities are among the interrelated and complex factors driving internal and international migrations.Immigrant and refugee children are significantly diversifying the nations in which they live. Immigrant-origin children are the fastest-growing student population in the United States. Although immigrant youth are enriching their new nations with their languages and cultural traditions, most experience problems in school because of difficulties learning the language of their new nations, negative attitudes toward their home languages and cultures, and stereotypes and misconceptions that are often perpetuated by politicians, the media, and society writ large. In her essay, Angela M. Banks calls these negative attitudes and perceptions immigrant “threat narratives.”6 To foster the academic achievement of immigrant youth, Carola Suárez-Orozco and Marcelo Suárez-Orozco recommend an “equitable whole child approach” within a transformative setting, in which immigrant youth will have positive relationships with teachers, with each other, and with other students.7 Further, they will also feel valued, and their resiliency, languages, and cultures will be recognized and reinforced.In his essay “Migrants & Minorities into Citizens: Education & Membership Regimes Since the Early Modern Period,” Leo Lucassen provides a historical overview of how different nations have provided or denied access to education for immigrant and minority groups over five centuries.8 Lucassen's historical analysis reveals that through the centuries, most nations have pursued a nationalist policy of assimilation that did not provide opportunities for students from immigrant and minority groups to learn both their home language and the national language, which Suzanne Romaine calls a “first language-based multilingual approach.”9 An extreme example is the experience of the Uyghurs, a Turkic-speaking, predominantly Muslim ethnic group in China who are forced to assimilate linguistically as well as politically, culturally, and religiously.Lucassen describes how assimilationist nationalism was manifested in various parts of the world after World War II, including in Europe, the Americas, and Oceania. Most of the examples of bilingual education that Lucassen describes were developed by immigrant groups themselves, such as Germans in the United States, who created their own public schools in the 1800s, and Japanese immigrants during the 1920s through the 1930s, who established Japanese schools in Brazil, Peru, and Mexico. These Japanese schools were founded with the support of the national government of Japan.Nationalist-assimilationist policies in Japan prevented Koreans from being taught their home language in elementary and high schools. France, because of its French-only policy and centralized Republican ideal, prohibited the use of foreign languages in elementary schools. In the 1950s, nations such as England and the Netherlands initiated bilingual education programs for immigrants from their former colonies. Policymakers assumed that these immigrants would eventually return to their homelands. Some of these programs continued through the 1970s and early 1980s.Students acquiring competency in the national language of their new nations is a major challenge for immigrant and refugee groups, and for schools; it is an important reason these students do not experience educational equity. In her essay “Language Equality & Schooling: Global Challenges & Unmet Promises,” Suzanne Romaine maintains that language is a key factor in student academic success and that most languages are excluded from schools and society writ large. Schools will perpetuate inequalities, Romaine claims, if they continue to rely primarily on international languages for instruction rather than use local vernaculars. Romaine argues strongly that first language-based multilingual education is essential to attain educational equity for students who speak nondominant-community languages.Learning academic subjects in a language they do not understand, asserts Romaine, poses a double burden on students who are being taught in a language they do not know: they must learn a new language as well as unfamiliar content knowledge. She cites research indicating that the more competent they are in their native language, the easier it is for students to learn a second language.10In addition to making a compelling case for teaching students in their first language, Romaine details why there is a need to educate girls in nations around the world. Romaine, as well as Erin Murphy-Graham in her essay, argues that the education of girls is one of the best ways to break the poverty cycles that persist across generations.11An important consequence of globalization and its effects, including climate change and environmental disasters, wars, and the widening gap between the rich and the poor, is the growing numbers of refugees settling in nations around the world. In her essay “Refugee Education: Aligning Access, Learning & Opportunity,” Sarah Dryden-Peterson describes the education challenges experienced by refugee students.12 Perhaps contrary to popular beliefs, most refugees live in low- and middle-income nations near their home countries, not in high-income countries such as the United States, Canada, Australia, or Germany. The residency of refugees in these nations tends to be long, from ten to twenty-five years. However, most refugees do not become citizens of those nations, and refugee youths are less likely than other children to go to school or to finish their primary education.Dryden-Peterson argues that it is essential for educators to address the problems and needs of refugee youth and to provide them access to education to actualize educational equity in a global context. She details ways in which their access, learning, and opportunities can be aligned. Dryden-Peterson argues that because high-income nations like the United States and Canada are often the genesis of problems such as environmental destruction and economic exploitation that force refugees to flee their native lands, these nations should assume a greater responsibility for assisting refugees-both in their native countries and in the nations in which they settle.The United States, Canada, Australia, and South Africa are European settler colonial nations.13 They consequently share significant characteristics, including enormous racial, cultural, ethnic, and religious diversity, and the self-image of being an immigrant nation. South Africa is host to more immigrants than any other nation in Africa, most of whom come from neighboring countries. The assimilationist ideology that has dominated in these four and in other Western nations has allowed most white ethnic groups to achieve a substantial degree of cultural and structural assimilation into their societies. However, even when they are highly culturally assimilated, marginalized ethnic and racial groups may still experience significant levels of structural exclusion. The structural exclusion of African Americans led to the Civil Rights Movement in the United States, which echoed throughout the world. It also gave rise to the multicultural education movement, which sought to reform schools, and that students from diverse groups will experience educational The of racial in education the of multicultural education in other Canada developed a multicultural education policy in in important of multicultural education in the United States is that teachers should change their instruction to be responsive to the cultural of students from diverse racial, ethnic, linguistic, and to this cultural of instruction as equity calls it culturally responsive and describes it as culturally has this and it culturally In her essay the in describes of culturally student learning, cultural and learning, should be and not to on Students and diverse cultures when they cultural or students in to problems in their Canada the first nation to a education in her essay that the Quest for Educational Equity in maintains that of the policy its to be an multicultural She details historical and challenges that Canada in making this a including a of migrant that has and to be to the and a national of and argues that the of the schools and the of Indigenous cultures by their challenge and to historical with of is the movement, which to and the in schools that students of her essay by Canada has made to increase educational equity in its schools and the that their essay “The Quest for Educational Equity in Schools in and provide a overview of the historical and of multicultural education in They describe the in and in which was to the of people from to has within the Most of the immigrants to come from and China, with significant numbers of refugees from Africa, the and The of multicultural education in because each state its own school as in other nations, diversity and multicultural education are complex and in However, and describe how its is often by and teaching and programs diversity in South Africa has one of the most education in the world. in his essay “The Quest for Educational Equity in Schools in South describes the substantial educational that have place in South Africa since it a in and how and gender have significantly Many have the of reform in South Africa and have its many South Africa is still most country in the The rise of the South African has within the Many school and educational opportunities to are not to who are Many schools that were white have become because of white that racial has by with racial, cultural, and that a for the rich and for the Schools during were in racial and ethnic They are racial and most nations in have by ethnic and religious However, since many of the Western and nations in Europe, such as the United Kingdom, France, and the have experienced from their former and from less nations in and In her essay “The for Educational Equity in describes how the highly and education was and when migrants of from nations in the in the and Migrants from former in South also during this of and policies often resulted in migrant children being into in In a the and the is in the policies, and that educational equity in since also the challenges that such as ethnic and racial in educational migrants who arriving in after a to enable to meet its needs after World War the migrants and the government assumed that the migrants would return home after their in many did These early migrants to were the first of would become a in Germany. In her essay & the Quest for Educational Equity in uses to describe the rich ethnic diversity in a term from of population a foreign in is the number two for after the United States. However, the diversity of the population of is not in the school as most teachers and do not diversity into their or teaching groups are marginalized in schools and society writ large. Students from migrant are poor, which their experience in schools. Schools in are highly through a that groups and students on their educational at an early Students of and students who are and are especially by the early and academic in schools. describes to increase educational equity in schools, as well as the structural and that European of and still a on these and are factors that to educational in both and In his essay “The Quest for Educational Equity in M. describes how the public education has to the high levels of poverty and educational in provides for a and and secondary education for However, there is a gap between the in the and education in students are more likely to finish school than students. Indigenous students finish school at half the of students. for that students in than students in the other for and However, the of students are to those of students in other nations such as Peru, and The of education created to the language and other educational problems experienced by Indigenous students who live in rural that a of and targeted at for a are to educational equity in his essay Education in that most of the problems in in colonial and was to and Although provides a of in maintains that after of must and issues that cause its among and religious groups, and educational details problems in that and by its and educational has the population of youth in the world who are out of it is a because many people migrate to Western and neighboring African and is with and and religious The educational and structural exclusion of people with is also a in argues that because is the most nation in the it has the to as a of and people from across the African to migrate and describes educational reform that can increase educational equity in which education by the major and of multicultural in the essays China and Hong and educational that is in and the of to and refugee In his essay, Jason Cong Lin describes how mainland China and Hong are and different in how they to actualize educational Although both China and Hong have a public to diversity and each Chinese languages, and Schools in China are by a nationalist ideology that its The for nationalism has since who over diversity, in of the education in Hong is Students are into groups at an early which educational especially for minority students. In both China and Hong ethnic are and the languages by are often with poverty and in educational In China, when ethnic groups who live in rural migrate to cities such as Beijing and they are often denied and consequently access to state schools. Cong Lin describes ways in which China and Hong continue to reform their schools to increase educational equity for marginalized in her essay Equity in Schools in & describes how educational policy in is by the of or This policy has led to a of that and and a of the This on nationalism other major groups in such as and to as or nationalism is especially with the linguistic, and of which is the most diverse nation in the world. nationalism was to the of The in is in as well as diversity, and It the of the in the the of that and are not in the and there is a to return to a and essays in this issue of Dædalus in on gender the education of students in nations, and education for students. The across these essays structural in educational and the and these students which is recognized her essay Education to Education: from Erin Murphy-Graham argues that providing girls access to education is a first is not to actualize gender because gender is in the and cultural structures of societies and the gender gap in education structural in societies and has made in the in gender in in nations around the world. girls are in secondary schools than However, major still in both primary and secondary schools. many nations have gender in primary schools, gender in primary schools in many low- and middle-income nations in Africa, the and South as well as and many in nations around the world experience gender In countries, are more likely than girls to primary they are more likely than girls to a secondary education in and in nations in Australia, and the United it is Murphy-Graham to gender equity in ways that educational for both and in his essay for Educational Equity in the of the on the Rights of the that child has a to a primary education and opportunities for a secondary or describes the and and that often children who live in nations and regions such as and from access to schools and an education. Students in in and often experience and structural in schools. that students from an education early and into groups, or of access to schools. by teachers that resulted in school have also the education of youths in These have because have to with the of teachers and to provide them with and The of refugees in nations has their to provide an education for students. The of refugees in has resulted in it the numbers of refugees in the the essay that this Education for Angela M. using the United States and as case studies, why it is essential for nations to provide access to schools and a and education for youth, including migrant Banks education for migrant youth in the United States and because they have problems different policies school Banks maintains that migrant children need access to schools and education because many of them are will of the nations in which they live and because they as of their and education will enable them to become more and of these and the United States, Banks both have immigrant because they rely on immigrant for economic growth foreign as a to their immigrant which have to access to school for immigrant Banks describes why schools in and the United States should a transformative and to education for including immigrant essays in this volume and to the quest for educational equity across will and is one of the most for why many students from marginalized racial, ethnic, and cultural groups do not attain a high-quality education or experience educational equity. Students with such as African Americans in the United States, Indigenous groups in Mexico, students in Germany, and children of in the United Kingdom, are often in at an early This and stereotypes and negative attitudes that teachers may these students. The immigrant that in nations to the negative experience immigrant students have in as Banks as well as Carola Suárez-Orozco and Marcelo Suárez-Orozco describe in their responsive has in schools in some nations, and especially in the United States. This teachers to the and to and teaching with the home and cultures of students from diverse racial, ethnic, cultural, and The developing research on culturally responsive that it can increase the academic achievement and of students who are marginalized in culturally responsive teaching is with teaching, which uses first language in children who come to school not the national language achieve In her essay, Romaine cites research indicating that children can a second language more when they first become in their home They can also content if they are not to learn a second essays also describe how the for and nationalism is influencing the education of diverse racial, ethnic, and refugee groups across In Canada and the United Kingdom, this for nationalism is In the United States, it has resulted in groups teaching and diversity as the teaching of In China, schools are to nationalist ideology and In which has official religious groups and the government schools to become a for The rise of and is in many nations, including in the United States, as by the on the on that sought to the of the are and to across this issue of Dædalus is gender and its and in developing nations in Africa and continue to experience significant However, the academic achievement of girls often those of in high-income nations such as the United States, Australia, and the United most of the essays in this issue of Dædalus describe the and of on the academic achievement of students. The has the education of students more than and students for many different including access for as well as and that many of them to on because their were during the In her essay, argues that the of provide educators an to education and to transformative to have from can provide educators with new ways to and that make schools more and especially for marginalized ethnic, cultural, and this issue of Dædalus will be by and to foster policies and practices around the world to provide educational equity at the elementary and secondary school levels for students from diverse racial, ethnic, cultural, linguistic, gender, and religious and other marginalized groups of students are and the need for an education that them to of their cultures and languages acquiring the knowledge, and to participate in the mainstream of their around the world are for policies, and that will enable them to and to the educational needs of an diverse student is that this a place to to the scholars who to this issue of Dædalus and to of the for providing a that this in including a of the at the of the in from to the for of their essays at the and for them on they from each other, from and from the scholars who as also to the for taking from their to prepare and of the first of the would like to in of for this issue and support from its to its also to her especially and for their support during at the and to who with the to and for their and of the essays in this issue of to former student who is a public school for the and in the to these who gave on an early of this and

Récupéré en direct depuis OpenAlex et désinversé. Les résumés ne sont pas conservés dans cette base de données : les index inversés représentent 8,6 Go des 9,3 Go de texte de la base, et le serveur dispose de 13 Go libres.