The Equity Scan

An Instrument for Reflection and Project Steering

“Our objective is equal access to education. We want to find out how well education systems and education institutions support a respectful and constructive approach to dealing with diversity and difference – as well as what contributions projects can make in this context,” explains Monika Mott, Head of Educational Cooperation at KulturKontakt Austria (KKA), when asked about the purpose of the equity scan.

KKA developed its equity scan as an instrument for reflection and project steering, to determine what contributions KKA projects in partner countries are making to social inclusion and how these contributions can be enhanced. The scan was developed on the basis of KKA’s diversity concept, which in turn is based on the various dimensions of diversity in the individual:
Gender, ethnic background, language, mental/physical challenges and social and regional origin (town-country divide) are among the factors that can impede equal access to education, in Eastern and South Eastern Europe as well as in Austria. There, as here, social inclusion is becoming an increasingly important issue in education reform processes.
There are substantial differences between the national contexts and discourses, however. In the education systems of the partner countries, the term “ethnic background” is defined in a variety of ways, and the approaches to dealing with this dimension of diversity vary just as widely. When implementing projects, a high degree of sensitivity is required in deciding which dimensions to focus on in which ways, so as to properly take into account the specific circumstances of each country. The equity scan, with its multidimensional orientation, makes it possible to question “one-dimensional” imputations.

The Development Process of the Equity Scan

In the autumn of 2010, KKA and the Austrian educational coordinators on site, working in cooperation, determined which dimensions could potentially lead to exclusion or disadvantages in the education sector in the partner countries. “We also wanted a questionnaire that was flexible and easy to use, since we work in a wide variety of countries on a wide variety of projects and the scan was to be applied to all of them,” Monika Mott recapitulates. The development of the scan also involved defining it as a reflection instrument that would help raise the awareness of the persons involved for the issues they were dealing with, because, as Mott says: “In the worse case, a project can inadvertently even exacerbate exclusion.” However, the equity scan is also a project-steering instrument which identifies measures that will enhance a project’s contribution to social inclusion. Now, in the summer of 2011, the scans of all the projects have been completed, including the identification of the measures to be taken. At their meeting this autumn, the educational coordinators will focus on the measures identified in the scanning process – and engage in critical reflection with respect to which measures can be implemented in which context and how this should be done.

New Issues

KKA has twenty years of experience in planning and implementing projects that are classically related to the thematic area of inclusion and dealing with diversity and difference, be it cultural diversity, gender or special educational needs. In this context, KKA has already gathered experience in the mainstreaming of inclusion issues, for example through the gender focus in the project “ALBIZ – Reform of Business Education in Albania”. KKA plans to place increased emphasis on mainstreaming with the help of the equity scan. It is interesting to note that often projects that do not classically fall into the category of promoting equal access to education have a greater effect in this context than one might expect. One example is the agricultural school project in Moldova. The project specifically targeted schools in a rural area with small-scale farming, a region that is particularly threatened by poverty. The children in these schools come primarily from smallholding families in a rural region and are socially disadvantaged. “If these children acquire better chances in the labour market through better education and training,” says Mott, “then the project will have had the effect of promoting access to better education and occupational opportunities – even though this was not its expressed objective.” Now, as a result of the scans, new target-group issues are becoming apparent. The participating schools are attended mainly by boys, since the designated profile is “tractor operator”. If the profile is changed, the target group could change as well. One measure that coul be taken, for example, would be to support the agricultural schools in publicising a new training profile in elementary schools, so as to specifically target girls as well. Generally, it is important to consider the context of the respective country. “If a project is implemented in a country that propagates an inclusive approach to education, but all the school classes participating in the project comprise only children with no disadvantages, then the question arises as to why this is so. Are we looking at special classes, or can it be that only privileged pupils are allowed to participate, for example in training firms? In such cases it is possible to discuss, with the partners, the possibility of steering the project in a particular direction.” All of KKA’s partner countries are declared supporters of the UN initiative “Education for All”. KKA supports them in putting this commitment into practice and promotes the exchange of experience in a field that is of great interest to Austria as well.

KKA, Editorial Staff

(The Equity Scan was developed jointly with the diversity management expert Surur Abdul-Hussain.)