Equity

EQUALITY IS NOT THE SAME AS EQUITY

English proficiency is often a barrier to English Language Learners’ access to the mainstream curriculum content. Their ideas and voices are ignored because of their limited productive skills of speaking and/or writing. As a result, ELLs may often be given tasks that are not as complex, or even allowed to be excluded from certain academic tasks. These simplified texts and tasks do not give ELLs the opportunity to work with more complex academic language and content, which are needed for English proficiency. ELLs need access to high-quality instruction and the academic language and sentence structures that are often not available in oral conversations. Students from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds often have to “put their learning on hold to focus on English language development” (Nordmeyer et al., 2021, p. 62). However, research shows that English Language Learners develop English most effectively while learning the knowledge, skills, and literacies of grade level curriculum. English proficiency cannot be a prerequisite to meaningful participation in the curriculum because this limits ELLs’ engagement. At the same time, equality is not the same as equity. Providing students with access to grade level curriculum without providing the appropriate support is not sufficient or effective either. Instead, language must be viewed as something that is developed in the process of learning when students are supported and have access to the richest curriculum.  

To engage English Language Learners with the curriculum, we must create opportunities for these students to use their backgrounds and experiences as meaningful resources for learning. The integration of language and content learning, coupled with collaboration and in-class support, provides opportunities for all students to engage with challenging, grade-level content (Nordmeyer et al.). The aim is for ELLs’ effective participation that builds on their rich linguistic and cultural repertoire, rather than the “correctness” of their English. As a result, ELLs will become more successful in classroom learning. Mastery and fluency will eventually come with “repeated scaffolding and meaningful opportunities for participation with feedback contingent on both content and language growth” (Nordmeyer, 2021, p. 64).

Equity is about scaffolding students’ access to the curriculum, not “watering it down.” The goal is to create a rich learning environment that challenges all students. To engage English Language Learners with challenging curriculum, it is important to scaffold up instead of differentiating down. 

There are two types of scaffolding: macro and micro.
-Macro-Scaffolding – requires purposeful instructional planning before a lesson or unit (such as sequencing activities in a way to bridge familiar concepts with new ideas)
-Micro-Scaffolding – is the interactional scaffolding that happens during a lesson between the teacher and student (such as modeling language, recasting student responses, and having conversations around text)

Scaffolds should be provided based on each student's strengths and needs. There are three types of scaffolds:
1. Materials and Resources
2. Instruction or Instructional Practices
3. Student Grouping

Teaching for social justice requires educators to see ELLs from an asset-based perspective, and provide opportunities for students to demonstrate their knowledge in a variety of ways.

However, social justice goes beyond the recognition of diversity. It involves using ELL students’ diverse backgrounds and home languages as resources for learning. ELLs are typically ignored or looked over because of their lack of English proficiency. Translanguaging provides greater equity in access and achievement because the learning space is relevant and reflective of their life experiences. Connecting learning to students' identities and allowing students to participate using home languages also increases engagement and students are able to see their place in the world, where they would normally be ignored or marginalized.

CULTURALLY SUSTAINING PEDAGOGIES

Teaching for equity and social justice are examples of culturally sustaining practices, in that students' languages, literacies, and cultural practices are viewed as meaningful for learning. However, culturally sustaining practices goes beyond simply being responsive or relevant to cultural experiences and practices, or the acceptance and inclusion of diversity. It goes focusing solely on representation and surface cultural elements. Although representation is important, particularly for students whose cultural backgrounds are typically ignored and marginalized, it is not guaranteed to be culturally relevant, responsive, or sustaining; without deep knowledge of a student's culture, representation can also lead to the perpetuation of stereotypes. Culturally sustaining practices support the sustaining of diverse cultural backgrounds, where the classroom environment reflects the daily lived experiences of students. In culturally sustaining practices, students also have the opportunity to acknowledge multiple perspectives and ask critical questions in a safe space. Every student also has the opportunity to access these high quality learning opportunities, and are provided the tools and resources to have a positive academic mindset. They are simultaneously supported and challenged. This encourages all students to think critically about issues of social justice and equity in order to work for change and advocate for human rights. The goal of culturally sustaining practice is to affirm students' cultural backgrounds while helping them achieve "high academic standards and develop critical consciousness toward social issues" (Kelley and Djonko-Moore). 

Teachers need to self-reflect on their own assumptions and biases about their students, and recognize what they value as knowledge in their classrooms. This is particularly important in relation to literacy, especially when student from "different cultural, ethnic, racial, and generational groups use literacy in a variety of ways. The ways students engage in literacy may differ from teachers' expectations and personal preferences, yet they are still valid and worth of acknowledgment" (Kelly, 2021, p. 570). Simply adding cultural elements is a passive way to add cultural elements into a curriculum that was not created for these diverse students. Culturally sustaining pedagogies instead transform the curriculum so that all students are able to acknowledge the perspectives of themselves and their peers, ask critical questions, and through the access to diverse perspectives begin to take social action.