Key Terms

Below are several terms used in the Equity Framework that are used with specific intention and reference. For each word or phrase, there is a definition provided and sources that connect to that definition.

Equity Framework

An equity framework articulates an organization's commitment to specific justice-related principles, so that these principles may be embodied across an organization's structure and practices. These frameworks also invite reflection, assessment, and revision of current practices towards an organization's mission and values.

Resources related to equity frameworks/samples:

Feminist Pedagogy

Feminist Pedagogy is a teaching philosophy that rejects traditionally hierarchical educational practices, and instead centers knowledge co-creation, community-building, diversity, empowerment, student voice, and opportunities for ongoing reflection.


Resources on feminist pedagogy:

Assimilationist

An assimilationist advocates for and participates in cultural integration. In the context of the Equity Framework, we reference assimilation as a practice of ignoring, denying, or erasing students' diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds in curriculum and classroom practice in favor of fitting into "traditional" language, behaviors, and practices of academia which reflect Eurocentric and/or white supremacist values.

Resources on rejecting assimilationist practices:

Community Care & Collectivism

Community care refers to liberatory practices that ensure access for all to basic needs, such as healthcare, food, and safety. The practice of community care necessitates a collective effort to conceptualize wholeness and worth outside of capitalist notions of productivity.

In opposition to individualism, collectivism refers to social practices that recognize the interdependence of all people in alignment with the ecological reality of interconnectedness. Collectivism rejects the ideology of whiteness, which promotes individualism and disregards mutual responsibility for a community's survival and thrivance.*

Resources on community care:

*Thrivance: The word "thrivance" is a direct reference to intersectionality. Thrivance theory asserts that the solutions and responses to interlocking systems of oppression must be interlocking systems which lead to holistic thriving.

Design Justice

The movement of Design Justice is a "call for us to heed the growing critiques of the ways that design (of images, objects, software, algorithms, socio-technical systems, the built environment, indeed, everything we make) too often contributes to the reproduction of systemic oppression" (Costanza-Chock). Design Justice centers those are often marginalized by design and "uses collaborative, creative practices to address the deepest challenges our communities face" (Design Justice Network). It views design as a facilitator of community needs and critically considers the impact of design (rather than its intention).

Resources on design justice:

White/ Whiteness

As defined by the NMAAHC, "Whiteness and white racialized identity refer to the way that white people, their customs, culture, and beliefs operate as the standard by which all other groups of are compared. Whiteness is also at the core of understanding race in America. Whiteness and the normalization of white racial identity throughout America's history have created a culture where nonwhite persons are seen as inferior or abnormal. Persons who identify as white rarely have to think about their racial identity because they live within a culture where whiteness has been normalized."

Resources on understanding whiteness: