Download - Equality perspectives 1
UNDERSTANDING EQUALITY Shared perspectives
Mole (Laura) Chapman
Welcome• Powerful language.
• Professional purpose.
• Validating experience.
• Not a add-on.
Without certain groups represented in the room, we miss out on the voices we need to hear in order to change.
Ground Rules
Agreed understandings or social contract?
What do you need to participate?
Shared Outcomes:
• Hopes and fears:
From mindscapes to landscapes
We would be foolish to assume that it’s easy to achieve a fairer society.
If it was easy we would have cracked it, and we would all live in an equitable world.
• It is not.• We have not.• We do not.
COMMUNITIES OF BELONGING
Locality
Disabled children
Schools
Toddler groups
Outsiders
Insiders
Hard to reach
Polish
Pockets of deprivation
Perceived Inequality
High InequalityLow social mobility
Deprivation and povertyDeprivation and poverty
Low InequalityHigh social mobility
The wider the perceived inequality - the unhealthier the community
“The first thing to recognise is that we are dealing with the effects of relative rather than absolute deprivation or poverty” Fullan
Equality:• Equal treatment for all: The availability of the same
rights, position, and status to all people, regardless of gender, sexual preference, age, race, ethnicity, ability or religion.
• Agreement of equal value• State of being equal: rights, treatment, quantity, or value
equal to all others in a specific group• All individuals need to have equal choices and opportunities
regardless of their ability.
Diversity:• Understanding that each individual is unique, and
recognizing our differences.
• Acceptance and respect. • It is the exploration of these differences in a safe,
positive, and nurturing environment. • It is about understanding each other and moving
beyond tolerance to embracing and celebrating the dimensions of diversity contained within each individual.
Growth and Capacity building
Protected characteristics:
EquityThe principle of equality has to be reinforced and extended by the practice
of equity. On the basis of the discussion so far three broad principles about the nature of social justice:
• Equality: every human being has an absolute and equal right to common dignity and parity of esteem and entitlement to access the benefits of society on equal terms.
• Equity: every human being has a right to benefit from the outcomes of society on the basis of fairness and according to need.
• Social justice: justice requires deliberate and specific intervention to secure equality and equity.
(West-Burnham & Chapman 2009)
Culture Change
• Tackling inequality is best understood as a practitioner’s ethical commitment to realise every child’s rights in full.
• Cultural change takes both time and innovation: it is neither immediately available nor instantly achievable.
Culture Change
WelcomeToleranceSingle /otherDeficitBarriers Rigid rulesComplianceImprovement
InvitationAcceptanceDiverse Assets BoundariesFlexible ValuesCommitmentTransformation
A Different Perspective on Equality, pg. 26
Principles
• Equality • Equity • Diversity• Balance• Fluidity• Ethical practice
A Different Perspective on Equality pg 20
Culture Change• Tackling inequality is best understood as a
practitioner’s ethical commitment to realise every learner’s rights in full.
• Cultural change takes both time and innovation: it is neither immediately available nor instantly achievable.
(Adapted from Chapman, L. 2010)
Equalities Act• Eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and other conduct prohibited by the Act.
• Advance equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not.
• Foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not.
Co-Production
On a societal level, Co-Production entails a simple but profound shift in relationships... Co-Production may mean the active process of remedying or preventing whatever would violate our sense of social justice. A social justice perspective elevates the principle to an Imperative’
(Cahn, 2000, p 34-35).
Inclusive practice:
EYFS: Enabling environments:
Bradford Play Partnership Inclusion Statement:"Inclusion is a process of identifying and breaking down
barriers which can be environmental, attitudinal and institutional. This process eliminates discrimination thus providing all children and young people with equal access to play.”
(Play Partnership 2007)
“Is an ongoing process of reviewing and developing practice in order to adjust and celebrate diversity. It is the journey not the destination!”
(EQuality Training 2006)
Reflective Practice
Plan
DoReview
What do you know?What can we learn?
What has changed?
Plan
DoReview
New ideas New practice
New outcomes
Reflective Practice
Context of Professional Services
• Pressure from society and education.
• Worth of human contribution.
• Failure to secure employment.
• Negative attitudes towards marginalised groups.
• Need to value the individuals voice
• Appearance of engagement: A divided response.
What’s fair?Inequality is best explained as a powerful social force that generates community divisions and oppression.
Inequality weakens community life, reduces trust and increases violence across populations.
Language & Dialogue
• A bridge between people.
• Words can hinder or empower.
• Links Professional, personal, and private.
• Avoid ‘them’ and ‘us’.
• Validates: active and engaged participants.
Challenging Ideas of Status
• Learning and Development. • Trust and intimacy.• Vulnerable: needs arise from critical stress.• Those whose needs are repeatedly ignored
or whose concerns are trivialised. • Oppression lack of full entitlement due to
wider social divisions and no control over same adult priorities.
Dialogue as community intervention • Personal: inner, reflective, analytical, synthesizing. The way issues are
internalized. A process that makes sense. [Private voice]• Social: family and friends, deep, open, direct, love and unconditional
acceptance. [Personal voice]• Professional dialogue: a closed ‘expert’ language - ‘jargon’ to the
outsider. The writer, the journalist and the professional communicator… the questioning of technique and practice. [Public voice]
• Learning dialogue: process of mentoring, coaching, and tutoring. Enquiry, discovery, questioning, affirming. [Expert voice]
• Community dialogue: process of debate and shared decision taking. Trust, convention, shared understanding and protocol. [Shared voice]
West-Burnham, J. 2009, pg 122
Stereotypes and Prejudice
Myths and assumptions Professional reaction
Behaviour and communication
Feeling Action
A Tool in Practice:
• Between people,practitioners and
community?
• Trust: time and space.
• Growth and thinking.
• Respectful challenge.
Positive & Possible
We can:
Meaningful relationships
Our judgements about almost all social interactions, organisations and communities depend upon our perceptions of the relationships involved.
Professor John West-Burnham
Implications for personal and shared practice?
Personal meaning • What do I understand by
inequality? • How do I promote wellbeing
and health and happiness?• How do I connect to the
whole?• How do I strengthen my own
understanding?• How do I enable others to
grow?• What can I do to take more
responsibility?
Shared understanding • How do we tackle hierarchy?• How do we work together?• How do we value others?• How do we address common
language?• How do we enable our children?• How do we involve parents and
other groups?• How do we share leadership?
Multi-Agency Teams
• Respect for equality and wellbeing though joined up service and shared resources
• Personal meaning - acknowledge different models• Shared understanding - develop shared language• Leadership - identify management and personal
responsibility
Closing Circle Good bye!
See you again
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