The Title IX legislation in the United States was recently in the news again as the US Education Department in June announced proposed changes to it and invited the public to share its views. For me, this piece of legislation became one of interest while doing my background reading for Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale where I learnt of the positive changes it envisioned for inclusive education with its enactment in 1972. Title IX is the federal civil rights law that came into being as part of amendments to the Education Act in 1972 in the US, which explicitly banned sex-based discrimination in schools and educational institutions that received federal government funding. The legislation filled a gap in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which addressed discrimination in the workplace but left out education.
This year as the Title IX legislation marks 50 years since its enactment, the US Department of Education called for the public to comment on its suggested changes that sought to reinstate essential safeguards for those who face discrimination and harassment in education on the basis of sex, in addition to those who also face sexual assault. The US Department of Education says that, “The proposed regulations will advance educational equity and opportunity for women and girls across the country to ensure that every student in America, from kindergarten through a doctorate degree, can achieve her dreams.” Under the proposed changes, students of the LGBTQI community will be covered by stronger protection from sex-based discrimination, while also ensuring that schools deal with complaints about sex-based discrimination, harassment and violence in an equitable manner.
The long, hard road …
Globally we have come a long way in incorporating, or at least trying to incorporate inclusivity into our education policies. Indeed, in the US alone, the changes that have taken place in this vein have been vast. Tracing back to the struggles faced by not only girl children in procuring a satisfactory education but also the challenges faced by the African American children of the 1900’s, the progress that has been made is commendable. We cannot forget the injustices of the Jim Crow Laws. These espoused the ‘equal but separate’ premise on the grounds of racial diversity, even in the field of education, that sidelined students of color who grappled with sub-par standards of education and educational facilities on the basis of rampant racism.
Now we fight an equally difficult battle, and the fight is not yet over. There still exists discrimination based on racial diversity and sexual identity all over the world.
Just recently, US President Joe Biden spoke out against the Supreme Court ruling to end race-based college admissions, which was perceived as ‘positive discrimination’, because it laid the groundwork for racial diversity in universities. His concerns about the Supreme Court ruling were seconded by Education Secretary Miguel Cardona who said in a BBC interview that a tool used by university administrations to guarantee diversity amongst its students has now been taken away. However, Biden affirmed that “We cannot let this decision be the last word,” adding that, “Discrimination still exists in America.” While race-based admissions to universities like Harvard aimed to offer those of different ethnicities and races an equal chance at a quality education, many students felt that this was unfair because it makes race the deciding factor over skills and aptitude. This is the other side of the coin and certainly holds some merit, but the question is whether, without such apportioning of places for students of diverse races, they will have as much a chance as the white student majority to secure places in top-notch universities. However, the hope remains that such universities will still choose to maintain student diversity by following White House-approved legal guidelines that will show them the means of doing so.
Making it happen
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) underlines that funding is key to enabling diversity and inclusivity with the education system. It also emphasizes that the policies that govern educational institutions should have inclusivity at its heart, with the instructors and teachers well-versed in providing lessons that deliver this message. It also recommends that courses be tailored to suit student needs so that those with disabilities and different career paths are not left behind or sidelined.
Now, a concept called ‘Culturally Responsive Education’ is aimed at closing the equity gap in schools. This method focuses on students from marginalized backgrounds and communities being given the necessary opportunities to develop their minds by becoming active, rather than passive learners. This means that students are given the opportunity to learn based on how best they receive and respond to information rather than a ‘one-size-fits-all’ model. Funding becomes important here so that students from low-income communities who have access to little resources are given as good a chance as students from mainstream communities in the classroom.
The Girl Child
A perennial problem – the gender issue, although much better now, still persists. Female students are marginalized in certain communities where education is concerned. A study published in 2018 by Joseph Cipian and Sarah Lubienski focused on two cohorts of kindergarten students from 1998-99 and 2010-11 which demonstrated no gender-based discrepancy in average Maths scores but found that these cohorts later developed gaps of almost 0.25 standard deviation as they entered second or third grade. The study also found that teachers’ perceptions of gender also mattered to a great extent in the widening of this gap. They also found that cultural variances between academic disciplines may be dissuading women from STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) and non-STEM fields, adding that females were likely to stay away from fields where they anticipated discrimination.
Making that change
Cimpian and Lubienski advocate a change in societal views and beliefs that undermine the girl child’s abilities if we are to truly see change that focuses on inclusivity in education. And while this is something that we have been discoursing about for a long time, it is slow in its practice, simply because these beliefs are innate and insidious. Educators must first be targeted in the change of mindset so that they can plant the seeds of equity amongst their students, allowing the resulting confidence in ability rather than gender to cascade and have greater effect. This means that whilst policy changes in education are necessary, it should go hand-in-hand with the training of teachers to implement such equity through their teaching methods and their expectations of students regardless of gender or race.
(Anouk De Silva)