Embracing Individualism, Espousing Equity: How Competing Conceptions of Equity Animate Teacher Licensure Reforms

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Sunday 11:45 am - Gold 4
  In Roundtable Session: Constructing and Contesting Equity in Education Policy

Abstract

Equity has become a central driver of teaching policy; however, the term “equity” itself is deeply contested, frequently employed by different actors to call for policies with divergent aims, values, and theories of change. This paper examines how equity is conceptualized in the context of teacher licensure policymaking in North Carolina, drawing on a qualitative analysis of public policy meetings. While multiple conceptions of equity animated these reforms, a meritocratic conception largely dominated. Conceptions which centered structural inequity and oppression were rare. Together, our findings document how dominant conceptions of equity may constrain reforms and reproduce systemic inequities. We argue that teaching policy must center more anti-oppressive and structural conceptions of equity to meaningfully transform the teaching profession.

Authors

• Maya Kaul, University of Pennsylvania

• Meghan Comstock, University of Maryland