Fantastic Educational Gaps and Where to Find Them: A Review of Research in Educational Equity and Equality

Abstract

In today’s world, education is not being considered as an outcome anymore but a journey. However, as the adventurers, our students are facing more and more complex challenges. Previously, the socio-economic status of a student's family seemed to be one of the biggest factors among inequality causes. However, the chaotic situation of today's VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity) world is generating more and more types of inequity and inequality. Thus, the purpose of the study is to develop LERB - a simple model to classify inequity and inequality, as a stepping-stone to build a gap detection framework in the future. Through a structured literature review, the study found the interconnection between equity and equality, as well as their transition toward student as an individual or as a group(s) and subgroup(s). The study can also be adapted to examine the correlation between different categories of equity, as well as to brainstorm and propose remedies to tackle those gaps.