Promoting Equity in Education: Lessons from Ghanaian Education Policy Texts

Abstract

This paper addresses the issue of equity in education by exploring how Ghanaian education policy texts foregrounds equity and address inequities. We used a critical pedagogy lens and equity theory to highlight how Ghanaian teacher education policy, national teacher standards and assessment policies promote equity and situates it at the centre of curriculum framework, classroom teaching and learning as well as assessment. From our analyses of policy texts, Ghanaian school classrooms are to be equitable and become places where students’ uniqueness is recognised, respected and supported. The pedagogic relations and student-student interactions are to promote equity. However, we highlight gaps in knowledge about equity literacy among teachers; how they understand equity in the classroom; how teachers actually promote equity in classroom and the challenges they face in so doing; as well as how learners experience equity in the classroom. Therefore, we argued that there the need for research into equity literacy among teachers, how they promote equity in the classroom and how students experience it. This necessitates research into how teachers promote equity at the school site in terms of teacher-student and student-student interactions.