Book chapter
Don’t Throw Out the Baby with the Bathwater: Statistics Can Create Impetus to Address Educational Inequity
Strategies for Supporting Inclusion and Diversity in the Academy: Higher Education, Aspiration and Inequality, 2nd Edition, pp.3-26
Springer International Publishing, 2nd Edition
2022
Abstract
This chapter first presents an argument for using quantitative data to establish structural inequity in higher education. Whilst I acknowledge the limitations of statistics, I propose that at a time of post-truth and ‘numeric nihilism’ (Davies, How statistics lost their power – and why we should fear what comes next. The Guardian, 2017) statistics can determine deeply entrenched de/privilege that are stratified across lines of ethnicity, gender, socio-economic/class status, disability and intersecting social and demographic locations. The snapshot of inequity presented also problematises notions of individualised choice and agency, a focus that is further developed in the final chapter of the collection. This introductory chapter thus lays a foundation for a detailed exploration of some of the interventions that equity practitioners and academics have designed to support in the inclusion of under-represented groups [‘The qualification here is that “under-representation” in and of itself is not a sufficient condition for receiving “special treatment” (e.g. the under-representation of males in teacher education courses is not usually seen to be an equity issue for males). For a group to be designated an equity group, it also needs to be socially, economically and/or educationally disadvantaged in one way or another’ (Gale, Australian Educational Researcher, 42(2), 257–271, 2015).] in the international academy.
Details
- Title
- Don’t Throw Out the Baby with the Bathwater: Statistics Can Create Impetus to Address Educational Inequity
- Authors
- Gail Crimmins (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Business and Creative Industries
- Contributors
- Gail Crimmins (Editor) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Business and Creative Industries
- Publication details
- Strategies for Supporting Inclusion and Diversity in the Academy: Higher Education, Aspiration and Inequality, 2nd Edition, pp.3-26
- Publisher
- Springer International Publishing
- Edition
- 2nd Edition
- DOI
- 10.1007/978-3-031-04174-7_1
- ISBN
- 9783031041747
- Organisation Unit
- University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland; School of Business and Creative Industries
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 99681098002621
- Output Type
- Book chapter
Metrics
49 Record Views