Equity
Show US the mon€y!
65% of people on welfare are unable to read and write well enough to function in Canadian society.
Even before the pandemic began, more than 1.3 million children lived in poverty (Sarangi, 2020).
First Nations, Inuit, Métis, racialized, immigrant children, children with disabilities and children in female-led lone-parent families are overrepresented in rates of poverty (Sarangi, 2020).
In 2018, almost six million people (16.5% of the population) in Canada lived below the Census Family Low Income Measure After Tax, of which 1,337,570 were children (Sarangi, 2020). According to Bryant et al. (2020), workers earning less than $15 an hour experienced a 52% decrease in weekly hours worked during the first three months of the pandemic, compared to a 6.3% drop for those earning $40 or more an hour. As we saw throughout the course of the pandemic as businesses and industries shut down, there was a profound impact on the economic well-being of families.
When in a crisis like the pandemic, the concept of fairness (equity) can be lost. We cannot control who gets sick. We are unable to control the economic impact that a crisis can have on our students but we can understand the three areas where inequity will be transparent in order to support our students as effectively and with as much compassion as possible.
The following breaks down the impact of food, family and technology on a student's ability to learn and mobile apps or online support that we can provide to improve their ability to learn.
TOO HUNGRY TO LEARN
covid's impact on hunger
Food and Grades
Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 2019
FOOD INSECURITY
Canadian households with children are more likely to be food insecure.
39% of Canadian households experience food insecurity due to COVID-19 (Statistics Canada, 2020).
How does hunger impact learning?
Students from families who are not sure where their next meal may come from are more likely to have lower math scores and repeat a grade (Adolphus et al., 2013).
Children experience developmental impairments in areas like language, motor skills, and behaviour (Ke & Ford-Jones, 2015).
Students who are hungry are more apt to have: decreased concentration, lower attendance rates, and exhibit traits such as being cranky, tired, lethargic, moody, or sick (Ke & Ford-Jones, 2015).
Food-insecure college/university students report lower grades and are more likely to reduce their course load or drop out. (Gallegos et al., 2014).
58% of food produced in Canada is never consumed.
(Environment & Climate Change Canada, 2019)
School food programs, food banks, and donations provide ways to ensure that students while at school are getting fed. With the increased focus on food waste, some grocery store chains are stepping up to reduce their waste by developing mobile apps to provide food at deeply discounted prices so that families and students can access fresh, wholesome food.
FLASHFOOD App
A mobile app that allows shoppers to browse food items at Superstore like meat and produce approaching their best before date, buy them at a discount and pick them up in-store.
FoodHero App
A Quebec-based food app that helps you save money by buying surplus food from vendors that is perfectly fresh but nearing its best before date, which retailers have yet to sell. It’s a win-win-win. You save money, they save their bottom line, and together we reduce waste and carbon dioxide.
FAMILY MATTERS
Domestic violence & Child Abuse
"The law of unintended consequences is the only real law of history."
- Niall Ferguson
Balancing public health with known effects of crises:
Resources have been diverted from violence against women to support COVID-19 relief even though historical evidence of an increase in violence, domestic violence and drug use during times of recession, economic crisis and disasters (Bucerius et al., 2021).
Since the outbreak of COVID-19, calls to helplines have increased five-fold as rates of reported intimate partner violence increase because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Restricted movement, social isolation, and economic insecurity are increasing women’s vulnerability to violence in the home around the world (UN Women, 2020).
Globally, almost one in three women have been subjected to intimate partner violence, non-partner sexual violence, or both at least once in their life (WHO, 2021).
Schools often serve as the only safe place children have. School shutdowns mean children lose their safe space and access to adults they trust and perpetrators in homes have continued access to their victims (Bucerius et al., 2021).
Many college students (73%) have experienced intimate partner cyber aggression victimization; such experiences would likely be more common than the stated in-person victimization experiences (Marganski & Melander, 2015)
CHILD AND SPOUSAL ABUSE
COVID-19 and Ending Violence Against Women and Girls (UN Women, 2020).
The statistics about domestic violence and child abuse while heartbreaking, do not reflect on the impact on learning. According to Kanchiputu & Mwale (2016), domestic violence inflicts harm to children such as emotional harm, psychological harm, physical pain, and low self-esteem which impacts learning systems influencing a child to lose interest in education, arrive late at school, absenteeism, dropping out of school and even early marriage. Domestic violence can also adversely impact a child’s adjustment in school, including their ability to learn and academic concentration levels which leads to impairing social and educational development resulting in unsatisfactory intellectual and academic functioning (Kanchiputu & Mwale, 2016).
SUPPORTING VICTIMS
Most cities and provinces have local support networks for victims of abuse. As an educator, if you do not already have a reference list at the ready you may want to create one - and remember, your colleagues could also be in a domestic violence situation. A few additional website resources include Ending Violence Association of Canada, Canadian Child Welfare Research Portal, or DomesticShelters.org. The following provides an overview of three mobile apps that can help educate children or collect information to support a case for abuse.
OnRecord
A mobile app that allows you or someone you know to record an event or gather evidence including photos, screenshots, documents, video or audio recordings.
Stop the Groomer
A mobile app / game that provides information for parents and education for children including a "game" where you answer scenario-based questions to determine if you are being groomed.
ENDOVI
A mobile solution and tool to support domestic abuse survivors. Aside from gathering evidence, Endovi includes options to create a safety plan as well as links to USA-based support resources.
TECHNOLOGY POVERTY & INEQUITIES IN LEARNING
WifI and computer access
Access to the Internet in many rural areas is nonexistent or severely limited, which has been problematic for years; only 51.6% of rural U.S. residents had 250/25 megabits per second internet access in 2018 compared to 94% of urban residents. (Lai & Widmar, 2021)
Some US school districts resorted to placing school buses on rotating schedules to provide temporary wi-fi hotspots to students within 150 to 200 feet of busses in order to support distance learning (Lai & Widmar, 2021).
Households in the lowest income quartile (i.e. the bottom 25% of the income distribution8 ) were more likely to not have home internet access (Statistics Canada, 2020).
Lower-income families are less likely to have personal computers and mobile devices such as smartphones or tablets may encourage independent learning, they are designed for receiving information rather than producing information (Statistics Canada, 2020).
The role of parents’ engagement may be amplified when their children are engaged in online learning, as students are more likely to face difficulties with organization, self-regulation, motivation, and understanding the learning material when the teacher is not physically present. For children of lower-income parents working long hours, working multiple jobs or having less flexibility in their work schedule the inequity in learning may be further widened (Statistics Canada, 2020).
Levelling the playing field
Equity to the internet and devices suitable for learning means that personal or social circumstances such as gender, ethnic origin or family background, or geographical location are not obstacles to accessing education and achieving their educational potential. Schools provide learning experiences that many students from lower-income families may not obtain at home. Investing in programs that provide access to the internet and electronic devices that are suitable for learning to all students will level the playing field and reduce the impact of future pandemics or other crises that impact education. The following resources are geared toward schools and/or personal use to access the internet and computers.
kajeet SmartSpot
WiFi hotspots allow students to access the Internet anytime, anywhere. Designed for schools to help close the digital divide by providing students without Internet at home access to WiFi in order to keep up with their well-connected peers.
https://www.kajeet.net/solutions/distance-learning/smartspots/
CFS+
Serving Canadians for 25 years, CFS+ provides computers and other digital devices to assist libraries, not-for-profit organizations, Indigenous communities and eligible low-income Canadians.
Wifi Finder App
A mobile app that allows the user to find hotspots around them or wherever you are travelling to.
Discussion Question
Before moving on to the next section, tell us what additional thoughts YOU have to address how equity impacts learning in the face of a crisis like COVID. Add your answer to the Padlet board below by clicking the "+" in the bottom right-hand corner.