Which approach most effectively promotes both equality and justice in a…

Concept: Equality and justice are two standards for how a classroom distributes what it offers, and equality itself has two senses that must be kept apart. Formal equality is sameness of treatment: every learner receives the identical input, task and measure. Substantive equality is sameness of standing and opportunity: every learner is held to the same expectation and has a real chance of reaching it. Justice, or equity, is the principle that settles what each learner must be given for that chance to be real, namely whatever differing support an unequal starting point requires.

In a diverse classroom these senses come apart. Learners differ in prior knowledge, language, pace and ability, so identical treatment secures formal equality while leaving opportunity unequal; and setting separate, lowered goals for separate children secures neither standard, because the common expectation is surrendered. An approach promotes equality and justice together only when the learning goal and the expectation are held common for everyone, which is substantive equality, while the route to that goal - pace, materials, grouping, scaffolding and the mode of responding - is varied according to need, which is equity. Pedagogy calls this differentiated instruction, and it is the operating principle of inclusive education.

Application: Applying the two standards to the approach of adapting instruction to student needs:

1. The curricular goal and the expectation are kept the same for every child, so every learner holds the same standing and is aimed at the same target. This is the equality condition in its substantive sense.

2. Pace, materials, grouping, scaffolding and the way a child is allowed to show learning vary with that child's present level and requirement, so the same goal stays reachable from unequal starting points. This is the justice, or equity, condition.

3. Because the variation is placed in the support and not in the standard, no learner is handed a lowered goal and no learner is left to fail on a route he or she cannot access, so both conditions hold at the same time. Formal sameness of treatment is given up deliberately, and it is given up in the only direction that keeps the common expectation reachable.

Cross-check: Checking the same two standards against the other approaches:

• Using the same assessments for all students secures formal equality, since one identical instrument is applied to everyone, but it leaves access to demonstrating learning as unequal as the starting points, so the common expectation does not become reachable and the justice condition is not met.

• Measuring progress only by group averages replaces individual attainment with a single aggregate: a class mean can rise while particular learners fall further behind, so neither the common expectation nor the support an individual child needs can be checked at all.

• Following majority cultural norms in lessons is also uniform treatment, so it too secures formal equality, but the uniform reference point is one group's context, which places learners outside that group at an additional distance from the same material; substantive equality and justice are therefore both lost.

The two standards set against each approach:

Hence the approach that most effectively promotes both equality and justice in a diverse classroom is adapting instruction to student needs.