Sameness-based equity is a major obstacle to DEIB work. It’s one of our “10 Obstacles to Neurodiversity Affirming Practice”.
Instead, we advocate for needs-based equity and collaborative niche construction.
Fairness and Equity
What’s fair depends on what people need.
Explaining Fairness (LEANS resource 5.3)
Learning About Neurodiversity at School (LEANS) | The University of Edinburgh
- What I need may be different than what other people need, and that is OK. Everyone has things they need to thrive at school and in their life.
- Fairness in school isn’t always about being treated the same or getting the same things.
- Sometimes, it can be fair for people to get or to do different things than their classmates, because they don’t have the same needs. Being treated fairly helps us be able to do our best at school.
- Due to their learning and thinking, some neurodivergent students may do things differently in the classroom. What helps one person may not help another—neurodivergent people are very different from each other too.
Niche Construction
A beaver dam is an example of niche construction.
Niche Construction
In Nature: Helping to ensure the thriving of an organism by directly modifying the environment in such a way that it enhances that organism’s chances for survival.
In Culture: Helping to ensure the thriving of a child by directly modifying the environment in such a way that it enhances that child’s chances for success.
Neurodiversity in the Classroom
The fundamental point here is that changing one’s environment can be just as effective – and often far more effective – in aiding that navigation than simply looking inside the head for solutions, or trying to – often forcibly – alter behaviours.
PsyArXiv Preprints | Smart Environments for Diverse Cognitive Styles: the Case of Autism
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging
DEIAB
Diversity is strength. Difference is a teacher. Fear difference, you learn nothing.
Hannah Gadsby: Nanette
diversity = a range of differences; variety
equity = the process of redistributing access and opportunity to be fair and just; the state of being free of bias, discrimination, and identity-predictable outcomes and experiences
inclusion = the act of extending fellowship, membership, association, and connection—agnostic of rank, status, gender, race, appearance, intelligence, education, beliefs, values, politics, habits, traditions, language, customs, history, or any other defining characteristic
accessibility = accessibility means that people with disabilities can attend and fully participate in a given opportunity
belonging = the extent to which we feel personally accepted, respected, included, and supported by others; the experience of being at home in ourselves as well as the social, environmental, organizational, and cultural contexts of our lives
Diversity is priceless. Inclusion is critical. But diversity and inclusion without equity are hollow. We reach meaningful diversity and inclusion through equity, not vice versa.
Fix Injustice, Not Kids and Other Principles for Transformative Equity Leadership
Human cognitive diversity exists for a reason; our differences are the genius – and the conscience – of our species.
A Thousand Rivers: What The Modern World Has Forgotten About Children And Learning
Diversity is a fact. Inclusion is a choice.
But not just any choice.
The 4 Stages of Psychological Safety
All human beings have the same innate need: We long to belong
.The 4 Stages of Psychological Safety
Basic Principles for Equity Literacy
An important aspect of equity literacy is its insistence on maximizing the integrity of transformative equity practice. We must avoid being lulled by popular “diversity” approaches and frameworks that pose no threat to inequity—that sometimes are popular because they are no real threat to inequity. The basic principles of equity literacy help us ensure we keep a commitment to equity at the center of our equity work and the broader equity conversation.
Basic Principles for Equity Literacy
- The Direct Confrontation Principle: The path to equity requires direct confrontations with inequity—with interpersonal, institutional, cultural and structural racism and other forms of oppression. “Equity” approaches that fail to directly identify and confront inequity play a significant role in sustaining inequity.
- The Equity Ideology Principle: Equity is more than a list of practical strategies. It is a lens and an ideological commitment. There are no practical strategies that will help us develop equitable institutions if we are unwilling to deepen our understandings of equity and inequity and reject ideologies that are not compatible with equity.
- The Prioritization Principle: In order to achieve equity we must prioritize the interests of the students and families whose interests historically have not been prioritized. Every policy, practice, and program decision should be considered through the question, “What impact is this going to have on the most marginalized students and families? How are we prioritizing their interests?”
- The Redistribution Principle: Equity requires the redistribution of material, cultural, and social access and opportunity. We do this by changing inequitable policies, eliminating oppressive aspects of institutional culture, and examining how practices and programs might advantage some students over others. If we cannot explain how our equity initiatives redistribute access and opportunity, we should reconsider them.
- The “Fix Injustice, Not Kids” Principle: Educational outcome disparities are not the result of deficiencies in marginalized communities’ cultures, mindsets, or grittiness, but rather of inequities.Equity initiatives focus, not on “fixing” students and families who are marginalized, but on transforming the conditions that marginalize students and families.
- The One Size Fits Few Principle: No individual identity group shares a single mindset, value system, learning style, or communication style. Identity-specific equity frameworks (like group-level “learning styles”) almost always are based on simplicity and stereotypes, not equity.
- The Evidence-Informed Equity Principle: Equity approaches should be based on evidence for what works rather than trendiness. “Evidence” can mean quantitative research, but it can also mean the stories and experiences of people who are marginalized in your institution.
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