Realizing the Democratic Aims of Schooling: Adopting an Anti-Oppression Conception of Equity in Policy

• In Event: Democracy and Democratization: Ideals of Change in Education

Abstract

Purpose
Dewey (1916) argued that key to democracy was ensuring all individuals have opportunities for personal educational growth. As long as forms of oppression exist, however, the democratic aims of schooling cannot be achieved (Freire, 1970). Drawing on data from a multiple case study of district-level curriculum and instruction policy, this paper proposes an anti-oppression conception of equity as a means for realizing the democratic aims of schooling and a tool for assessing current education systems.

Framework
Synthesizing education and political philosophy (e.g., Freire, 1970) and Black feminist scholarship, I ground this study in several key assumptions. First, oppression has several forms (Young, 1990) and these are relevant for understanding educational equity—for instance, cultural imperialism manifests in Eurocentric curricula (Gay, 2018), and violence is present in the racialized use of harmful disciplinary practices in schools (Welsh & Little, 2018). Second, despite these universal forms, different types of oppression—e.g., racism, sexism, ableism—derive from unique contextual histories. Third, an anti-oppression conception of equity attends not just to the distribution (or redistribution) of resources within the education system—a common focus in traditional education policy analysis (e.g., Ladd & Loeb, 2012)—but also to the conditions that perpetuate inequality, such as the institutionalized usage of deficit frames to refer to racially/ethnically minoritized students (Author, 2023; Collins, 2009; Young, 1990). Fourth, addressing oppression requires understanding it on both an individual level—i.e., interpersonal acts to oppress—as well as a structural level—i.e., institutionalized policies and systems that uphold oppression (Chubbuck, 2010; Collins, 2009; Young, 1990).

Analytical Approach
For this conceptual piece, I synthesize theory and scholarship about oppression to articulate a framework for understanding an anti-oppression conception of equity. I then draw on interviews (N=81) from a multiple case study of district-level curriculum and instruction policies focused on supporting teachers to enact equitable instruction to illustrate the dimensions of the anti-oppression conception (Yin, 2014).

Findings
Emergent findings suggest that although district-level policy actors may use the language of oppression, their conceptions are narrowly focused on two dimensions: (1) cultural imperialism via calling attention to the Eurocentric nature of curricula; and (2) an individualistic understanding of how oppression—often racism specifically—is perpetuated (i.e., individual bias). Policy actors rarely convey a structural understanding of oppression. Their limited conceptions lead to limited solutions, such as focusing solely on the individualistic solution of remedying implicit bias among educators.

Significance
Without attending to the conditions that perpetuate inequality and oppression, the democratic aims of schooling are unreachable. Education pedagogues have offered a range of approaches to combat oppression in instruction (e.g., Freire, 1970; Gay, 2018; Ladson-Billings, 1995; Paris, 2012) and critical policy scholars draw attention to injustice in policy (Diem et al., 2014). However, the education policy field could benefit from a unifying conception of equity that envisions an anti-oppressive approach to policy. I offer a framework for scholars to critically examine policy and for practitioners to interrogate the role of their internal processes and conditions in perpetuating oppression.

Author

• Meghan Comstock, University of Maryland