Merit, Fit, and Diversity Unpacked: How Academic Gatekeeping in Social Sciences Reproduces Inequality

• In Event: Evaluation Research on Teachers, Students, Schools, and Programs

Abstract

This study drew on interview data with 50 sociology and business search committee members across 7 U.S. institutions, and proposed a ‘Merit-Fit-Diversity (M-F-D)’ framework to investigate how merit, fit and diversity emerge in evaluation, and how they enact the reproduction of inequality. Throughout evaluation, merit, fit, and diversity are negotiated to reflect the departmental priority, and might manifest inequality because: merit penalizes candidates with less access to resources and opportunities due to structural constraints; fit might perpetuate social closure and impede diversity; diversity lacks guidance for implementation and follow-up on inclusion. This study contributes to the gatekeeping scholarship by bridging the literature on capital, credential and closure, and can be informative towards policy proposals to enhance fairness in evaluation.

Author

• Leping Wang, Boston University