Conceptualizing Equity and Justice in Education Policy Research: A Unifying Framework and Systematic Review of the Literature

• In Event: Shifting Paradigms: Understanding Critical Policy Analysis as a Lens for Equity-Focused Education Policy Research

Abstract

Purpose

Although many education policies espouse “equity,” those same policies can marginalize students, entrench cultural hierarchies, and elevate certain voices while silencing others (e.g., Carey, 2014; Mackey, 2017). While scholars acknowledge the system’s failure to achieve equity, the field has devoted relatively little attention to interrogating how we conceptualize equity. This systematic review articulates a framework for equity and justice and applies it to education policy literature from January 2014 to June 2024 to analyze how the scholarship engages these concepts.

Framework: An Anti-Oppressive Conception of Justice

We see equity/justice as ecological thriving—a collective view centering the relationship between individual characteristics and systemic conditions (e.g., Mirra & Garcia, 2023). Expanding Fraser (1997; 2009), ecological thriving sits at the intersection of redistributional, recognitional, representational, and corporal justice (Figure 1). Redistributional justice centers concerns about maldistribution of resources. Recognitional justice centers disruption of cultural hierarchies. Representational justice centers equitable voice in decision-making processes. Corporal justice centers bodily autonomy and liberation from physical and psychological violence (Pugh, 2023; Young, 1990). Finally, ecological thriving demands more than understanding the nature of injustice: it demands radical imagination for what could be in spite of injustice (Kelley, 2022).

Analytical Approach

Following PRISMA guidelines (Page et al., 2021) (Figure 2), we focused our search on education policy and equity/justice across three databases: Academic Search Ultimate, Education Source, and ERIC—generating 7,866 articles. Inclusion criteria were: (1) empirical, peer-reviewed research studies, with a focus on (2) K-12 US education policy; and (3) equity or justice. Screening yielded 705 eligible articles, which we coded by policy area. We then narrowed to 408 studies representing the three most common areas: (1) teacher/teaching policy, (2) school choice policy, and (3) discipline policy. We coded each article, identifying focal justice dimension(s) and how equity was characterized.

Findings

Most studies sit at the intersection of multiple justice dimensions (Table 1). (Re)distributional- recognitional justice studies are common—e.g., examining disparities in students’ access to specialized curriculum [distributional], based on race, language status, or dis/ability [recognitional]. Within our focal policy areas, representational and corporal justice receive significantly less attention.

We also disentangle how studies take up equity. Thick studies (n=170 studies) center the structural nature of oppression, privilege asset-based characterizations of students and families, and embrace normative stances on injustice. Thin studies (n=240) illuminate important patterns of inequities but do not situate them within structural contexts and do not take a clear normative stance on injustice. At-odds studies (n=15) uphold individualism, hierarchies of difference, and meritocracy, reifying cultural hierarchies in ways that perpetuate injustice.

Finally, amid robust documentation of injustice, few studies envision justice. Those that do depict resistance to oppressive policy. Throughout, we offer examples to illustrate these patterns.

Significance

Embracing Young and colleagues’ (2024) notion that “what is left unsaid in journal articles can be just as powerful as what is said” (p. 400), this piece aims to highlight how scholarship characterizes equity/justice and offers direction for future critical scholarship.

Authors

• Meghan Comstock, University of Maryland

• Nora Reikosky, University of Houston

• Cody Norton, University of Maryland