The pedagogy of equity : fostering equal opportunity

Abstract

At first glance, this quotation seems like it could have been written yesterday. In fact, it dates from 1964. It is a quotation of the foremost aim of college education as envisioned by the authors of the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry on Education in the Province of Quebec (p. 20, freely translated). Some 50 years ago, the democratization of education unquestionably brought about a diversification of the student population, with girls, Francophones, and students from disadvantaged backgrounds enrolling in the first level of the province’s higher-education programs for the first time ever (Eckert, 2010). Since then, the diversity of students in colleges has continued to grow with respect to socio-economic, cultural and linguistic background, as well as characteristics such as neurology, gender, human spirit, and ability. Yet despite this influx of diversity – ushered in by the hope of equal opportunity – social injustices and inequalities persist. According to Ratel and Pilote (2017), efforts to make higher education more accessible have not prevented mechanisms of systematic discrimination, especially targeting minority and marginalized groups in schools, from taking root. “Equal opportunity in education seems to be more theoretical than actual” (CSE, 2016, p. 72, freely translated).