Equity

Solar energy, including household and community based solar photovoltaic panels, is the fastest growing source of low-carbon electricity worldwide, and it could become the single largest source of renewable energy by midcentury. But what negative equity and justice issues may be associated with its adoption? What risks are being accelerated as solar energy grows exponentially in its deployment? In this study, we rely on a mixed methods research design involving household solar interviews (N = 24), site visits (N = 4 solar neighbourhoods), and a literature review to investigate four types of inequities associated with household solar adoption. We utilize a novel framework looking at demographic inequities (between groups), spatial inequities (across geographic scales), interspecies inequities (between humans and non-humans), and temporal inequities (across present and future generations). This framework enables not only the identification of multiple and often interlinked inequities; it also points the way towards how to make solar energy adoption more sustainable and just, with direct implications for solar business practices (and supply chains) as well as energy and climate policy.

Collective action in agriculture and natural resource management is all too often perceived of in terms of the mere number of participants, with little consideration given to who participates, why, and the outcomes of inequitable participation. The literature is replete with cases of how uncritical approaches to participation structure positions of privilege vis-a-vis project benefits and the natural resource base (Munk Ravnborg and Ashby, 1996; Rocheleau and Edmunds, 1997; Schroeder, 1993). Yet lessons on how to engage with local communities in ways that promote equitable participation of women, the poor and other stakeholders are only now coming to light. This paper focuses on approaches under development under the rubric of the African Highlands Initiative to bring collective action principles to bear on gender-equitable change processes in natural resource management. The paper utilizes a number of case studies to illustrate the relative strengths and weaknesses of different app...

It is a pleasure to be invited to speak today at this conference and seminar on fiduciaries. I have had the great benefit of discussing, usually debating, many issues in this area with Lionel over the last decade and with Matthew, generally in print, over the last few years. And I am enthused by the prospect of reading Scott's recent doctorate on this subject. In the short time I have for the presentation of this paper I will only make a small number of points, leaving the detail of many of the matters in the written version of this paper for discussion this afternoon. The full paper will be available on the website of the Supreme Court of Western Australia.

The authors present a Research Full Paper on the application of critical and liberative theories in understanding the disproportionately low student outcomes of marginalized undergraduate students studying engineering at a large, highly selective public university in the United States. In addition to looking at women students and students of color, we also examine the effects of social class on educational opportunity and performance, hypothesizing that access to financial capital is correlated to student success. In recognition of class-related structural oppression, this study introduces the framework of Freirean critical theory and other anti-oppressive frameworks as lenses through which we observe and analyze student experiences and outcomes.

We pursue a quantitative study in which we investigate engineering student outcomes based on reported gender, ethnicity, and household income level. Dependent variables include degree completion rates, time to graduation, and grade point average after the first four semesters of study. We find that students of color and working class students experience lower rates of graduation , prolonged time to degree, and lower grade point averages than students who do not fall into either of these categories. These results are heavily influenced by the intersectionality of students of color and working class students, as the two groups largely overlap both in the United States population and in the engineering student body at this institution.

The results support liberative theoretical claims that societal structures, such as patriarchalism, racism, and capitalism, have filtering effects that impact the opportunities available to individuals with marginalized identities throughout their lives. As incremental interventions fail to address the roots of these problems, they cannot entirely remove the debilitating obstacles facing students from marginalized identity groups; the only true solution lies in liberation from oppressive social structures. In accordance with critical and liberative theories, engineering educators can and should contribute to liberative efforts by employing pedagogical methods that challenge structural oppression.

This paper analyses equity in health and healthcare utilization in Afghanistan based on a representative national household survey. Equitable access is a cornerstone of the Afghan health policy. We measured socioeconomic-related equity in access to public health care, using disability--because people with disabilities are poorer and more likely to use health care--and a concentration index (CI) and its decomposition. The socioeconomic-related equity in healthcare utilization was measured using a probit model and compared with an OLS model providing the horizontal inequity index (HI). We found a low rate of healthcare facilities utilization (25%). Disabled persons are using more healthcare facilities and have higher medical expenses. Disability is more frequently associated with older age, unemployed heads of household and lower education. The Cl of disability is 0.0221 indicating a pro-rich distribution of health. This pro-rich effect is higher in small households (CI decreases with...

Moving beyond the study of learning as a strictly school-based phenomenon, recent decades have seen a significant rise in research on learning in everyday and out-of-school settings often referred to as out-of-school time (OST). Within this field, there is a growing focus on access and equity. Research animated by an access framework often considers what it takes to make socially and academically supportive OST learning opportunities available for all students, particularly those historically marginalized or inadequately served by schools. This frame emphasizes the ways in which OST settings provide access to distinct forms of academic and professional practice, identity and community development, and connections with mentors and peers.
For equity-oriented researchers, this “access” frame is a necessary but insufficient approach to studying and working to transform educational inequities. Research animated by an equity framework treats all learning as a cultural and sociopolitical process and foregrounds questions of epistemology, power, and justice, such as “Access to what?” “For whom?” “Based on whose values?” “And toward what ends?” These questions build on a history of scholarship that utilizes careful studies of everyday activity to problematize narrow, ethnocentric measures of learning and argue for ecologically valid approaches to research. Equity-oriented research on OST environments therefore seeks to substantively widen our definitions of where and how learning takes place, challenge deficit ideologies, and reimagine education more broadly. This entry further examines the specific issues, current research, and policy questions involving the access and equity frameworks as they are applied to OST. It also discusses the implications of research findings on access and equity for the OST field.

Prior research has not conclusively established how individuals’ social exchange orientation (EO) affects their communication in, and satisfaction with, romantic relationships.
Surveying 466 individuals in romantic relationships, we found that concern about being underbenefitted was more strongly correlated with conflict behaviors than concern about overbenefittedness, and that conflict communication influenced the relationship between exchange orientation and relationship satisfaction. We discuss the need for further research to discover how EO may influence communication patterns as relationships develop.

IPO Underpricing has been an area of interest for many researchers and scholars. This study focuses on the effects that IPO grades and the Qualified Institutional Buyers (QIB) can have on underpricing and performance of IPOs. The periods under consideration are 2009 and 2020. Both these periods have seen a major fall and subsequent recovery in the Indian equity markets. Also, 2009 and 2020 are five years apart from 2014. This is important as in 2014, IPO grades were made non-mandatory by the Securities and Exchange Board (SEBI). We find that the listing day gains/losses do not show any relation with the IPO grades. But in the long-term, precisely after a year, grades do affect the performance of IPOs. This is intuitive as companies take time to show their inherent troubles to the public. This study also shows a negative relationship between QIBs subscription levels and IPO performance in the long term. It could imply that the QIBs are taking advantage of IPO underpricing to book profits and in turn are putting the long-term subscribers of IPOs at a disadvantage.

Keywords: Initial Public Offering (IPO), Qualified Institutional Buyers (QIBs), IPO Underpricing, IPO Grades, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI)

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The Indian tax system suffers from an excessive incidence and pendency of tax disputes before civil courts. A certain degree of disputes are unavoidable since the tax code and policy of any jurisdiction (being the outcome of various competing factors) inevitably contains a certain degree of ambiguity. However, a significant amount of unnecessary tax litigation is caused by the development of inconsistent tax jurisprudence. The author details the permissible scope of litigation expected in a tax system that truly complies with the rule of law. Following this, the author surveys two major areas of disputes – namely, the distinction between a “tax” and “fees”, and the interpretation of exemption notifications. This demonstrates the significant likelihood of judicial activism by appellate courts in tax disputes, which contributes to a tax policy that is doctrinally incoherent. It is submitted that inconsistent tax jurisprudence contributes to a larger number of disputes since both the t...

Rebecca Burton draws on her experience to construct a list of pros and cons with regard to working collaboratively within the realm of theatre as a means to bring about socio-political change. Burton concludes that the pros outweigh the cons, but patience is a necessity, as are clearly defined divisions of labour, while adaptability helps ensure success and sustainability.

This paper aims to evaluate the viability of 'democratizing' eLearning within the global neoliberal economy. 'Democratization' is examined through several focus areas, namely the digital divide, socioeconomic status, gender, and social justice in curricula. These facets of 'democratization' are scrutinized specifically through corporate and university eLearning discourse, focusing principally on adult learners. The central objective is to determine to what extent eLearning can be 'democratized' for 21st century learners. The COVID-19 pandemic has catapulted eLearning to the forefront of education and has been urgently implemented globally across corporations, higher educational institutions, and K-12 schools. eLearning discourse has been imbued with terms such as 'accessibility', 'flexibility', and 'engagement'. The paper explores how these discourses could be reconstituted to live up to the promises of 'democratization&#39...

This research project was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council in Canada. With a focus on examining the impact of COVID-19 on learning loss and extracurricular programs, the research explored how community-based programming can be adapted and mobilized to close the achievement and opportunity gaps for Black, Indigenous, people of colour (BIPOC), and people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. Specifically, the project as a case study examined an afternoon and weekend supplementary academic program called the Community School Initiative (CSI), which was offered from September 2020 to May 2021 to members of the Jane and Finch community in Toronto, Canada. The CSI is a partnership between the non-profit organization Youth Association for Academics, Athletics, and Character Education (YAAACE) and for-profit enterprise Spirit of Math. It delivers a structured math curriculum to students in grades two to eight aged 8 to 14 years old supported by a team of caring adults including parents, coaches, and Ontario certified teachers. The efficacy and outcomes of the CSI was assessed through surveys with parents (n=33), students (n=33), and teachers (n=4), and a focus group with seven teachers delivering the curriculum in the CSI. Data was collected between June to July 2021 and responses were examined using thematic analysis as a methodology from a Critical Race Theory paradigm. The themes identified and discussed are holistic and culturally relevant programming, structured programming, communication and parental engagement, digital divide and inequality, and effective pedagogies.

Author order is crucial; it is the currency of academia. Within STEM disciplines, women and junior researchers--those who are the primary constituents of our lab-- consistently receive less credit for equal work. Our Civic Laboratory for Environmental Action Research (CLEAR) is a feminist marine science laboratory at Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada. Recognizing that the stakes are high for CLEAR members, we have developed an approach to author order that emphasizes process and equity rather than system and equality. Our process is premised on: 1) deciding author order vy consensus; 2) valuing care work and other forms of labour that are usually left out of scientific value systems; and 3) taking intersectional social standing into account.  Although CLEAR’s approach differs from others’, we take author order seriously as a compromised but dominant structure within science we must contend with. That is, rather than attempt to circumvent author order, we stay with the trou...

In Australasia (Australia and New Zealand) the use of health impact assessment (HIA) as a tool for improved policy development is comparatively new. The public health workforce do not routinely assess the potential health and equity impacts of proposed policies or programs. The ...

This brief provides a concise overview of the American Somali population; summarizes these students’ academic and social-emotional challenges along with related school supports; and describes practices to foster family and community engagement.

Medical practitioners, trained to isolate health within and upon the body of the individual, are now challenged to negotiate research and population health theories that link health status to geographic location as evidence suggests a connection between place and health. This paper builds an integrated place-health model and structural competency analytical framework with nine domains and four levels of proficiency that is utilized to assess a community-based photovoice project's ability to shift the practice of medicine by medical students from the surface of the body to the body within a place. Analysis of the medical student's photo-voice data demonstrated that the students achieved structural competency level 1 proficiency and came to understand how health might be connected to place represented by six of the nine domains of the structural competency framework. Results suggest that medical student's engagement with place-health systemic, institutional and structural forces deepens when they co-create narratives of their lived experiences in a place with patients as community members during a community-based photovoice project. Given the importance of place-health theories to explain population health outcomes, a place-health model and structural competency analytical framework utilized during a community-based photovoice project could help medical students merge the image of patients as singular bodies into bodies set within a context.

Se presenta el análisis de las implicaciones que tiene la enseñanza de  habilidades de comprensión lectora en telesecundaria. Se describe la intervención realizada en 16 grupos de segundo grado en escuelas telesecundarias de una zona marginada del estado de Jalisco. Se resalta especialmente el papel del docente en el éxito de la intervención y cómo este tipo de iniciativas pueden contribuir a la promoción de equidad educativa al fortalecer las habilidades de los alumnos menos avanzados.  The text presents an analysis of the implications of teaching reading-comprehension skills in secondary school. We describe the intervention in 16 groups of second grade in telesecundaria schools in a marginalized area of the state of Jalisco. It highlights in particular the role the teacher plays in the success of the intervention and how these initiatives can contribute to promoting educational equity by strengthening the skills of the less advanced students in the subject.Recibido: 21 de noviembr...

This paper presents an overview of New Hampshire’s efforts to implement a pilot accountability system designed to support deeper learning for students and powerful organization change for schools and districts. The accountability pilot, referred to as Performance Assessment of Competency Education or PACE, is grounded in a competency- based educational approach designed to ensure that students have meaningful opportunities to achieve critical knowledge and skills. These opportunities are judged by the outcomes students achieve and not by inputs such as seat time. Therefore, students must achieve these competencies before moving on to the next major learning targets and/or graduating from high school. High quality performance assessments play a crucial role in the PACE system because of the need to have assessments that measure the depths of student understanding of these complex learning targets. Performance assessments are used as both summative and interim measures in the PACE system as a way to document student learning of the competencies and to support remediation or extension interventions. The paper describes the system of assessments being implemented as part of the PACE pilot as well as providing a discussion of the technical quality issues the state is working to address as part of this accountability pilot. For example, being able to produce valid and comparable annual determinations for all students each year is a considerable technical challenge as well as documenting the degree to which all students are held to the same threshold expectations (equity). The paper concludes by relating the PACE initiative to the push for deeper and more meaningful learning for students.

In a time of rapid policy and curriculum change, teachers must be knowledge workers who continue to develop professionally. Professional learning networks (PLNs) offer teachers the opportunity to develop professionally by positioning them as inquirers into their own practice and authors and agents of situated innovation. Six examples of PLNs are introduced in this book to illustrate key attributes of PLNs that build educators’ ownership, practice, and expertise. Also highlighted is the potential of PLNs to address questions of equity, both for educators working in remote and rural communities who have limited access to professional development and other resources, and diverse learners and equity-seeking communities (e.g., Indigenous communities, non-dominant cultural groups). Scholar, practitioner, and policy audiences can benefit greatly from the PLNs described here and draw from these case studies to inform equity-oriented PLNs centering the importance of teachers, students, engagement, collaboration, and rural place in educational transformation efforts.

OECD countries are increasingly relying on immigrants to sustain their economic, cultural, and social vitality. It is thus in the best interests of receiving countries to develop policies and practices to maintain the good health of immigrants and address factors that contribute to adverse changes in health. For example in Canada, the government commitment to humanitarian values, and the need to sustain social and economic bases in light of declining rates of natural population growth, ensure that immigration will continue to play a major role in the creation of a healthy, inclusive and productive society. Yet, available research demonstrates that barriers to integration, such as limited access to health services and failed social or economic integration, can adversely influence health outcomes of immigrants and immigrant women in particular.
Pre-migration experiences such as violence or trauma, and post-migration experiences, such as family separation, social exclusion and status inconsistency, may impede integration and increase immigrant women’s health risks. Refugee women, immigrant women experiencing language barriers, LGBTIQ immigrant women and senior immigrant women are at high risk of experiencing poor health outcomes.
This chapter starts by defining the “healthy immigrant effect” (HIE) and discussing observed differences in the
HIE of immigrant men and women over time (Section 1). It then presents the determinants of immigrant women’s
health (Section 2), and health issues specific to immigrant women (Section 3). Section 4 identifies best practices in
addressing health issues affecting immigrant women, which could offer inspiration for effective policymaking in this
area. The specific effects of Covid-19 on the health of immigrant women (Section 5) are also discussed. Although
much of the focus is on the Canadian experience, data from EU Member States is included where available, and
most of these findings are relevant to the experiences of migrant women in other Western host countries.