Equality in SDP
Cathal Kelly
Presentation to SDPI Summer School
NUI Galway, 20 June 2007
Legislation
Employment Equality
Act 1998
Equal Status Act
2000
Equality Act 2004
Education Act
1998
Education (Welfare) Act
2000
Education for Persons with
Special Educational Needs
Act 2004
Purpose
The equality legislation
– Prohibits discrimination and harassment
– Provides redress if it does occur
– Promotes equality
The Nine Grounds
Gender
Marital status
Family status
Age
Disability
Sexual orientation
Race
Membership of the Traveller community
Religion
Educational Establishments
The four aspects of education named in the
Equal Status Acts:
– Admission
– Access to any course, facility or benefit
– Any other term or condition of participation
– Expulsion or any other sanction
(Also, specific responsibilities for schools &
staff concerning harassment of or by students)
Inclusive School
Seeks positive experiences and outcomes
across all nine grounds
Seeks a sense of ownership and belonging
for all, both students and teachers
Accommodates, celebrates and values
diverse identities across all nine grounds
Equality Framework
Four dimensions of equality
1 Redistribution
2 Socio-cultural domain
3 Power and decision-making
4 Affective domain
Equality Framework (1)
1 Redistribution:
– Who participates in education? And in this
school?
– Who participates in different courses, subjects,
activities and different levels of subjects?
– Who participates in class?
– Who gets what out of education?
Equality Framework (2)
2 Socio-cultural: what messages are
conveyed about different groups
– in the content of what is taught?
– in the messages conveyed by school
practices?
Equality Framework (3 + 4)
3 Political domain:
– Who makes decisions?
– Who is consulted on decisions and reviews?
– Is the full diversity of stakeholders involved?
4 Affective domain:
Concerns relations between people of love,
care and solidarity
A “Cube”
Aspects of school
Nine grounds
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Gender
Marital status
Family status
Age
Disability
Race
Sexual orientation
Membership of the
Traveller community
• Religion
•Experiences and outcomes
•Ownership and belonging
•Accommodate, celebrate, value diversity
Equality
• Redistribution
• Socio-cultural
domain
• Decision making
• Solidarity
Development Planning
• What equality challenges do we know
exist?
• What equality challenges do we not know
about?
• What constraints or barriers arise? For
each equality situation?
• What actions can we take?
An approach
What happens to my mind-set if the
language I use changes
from: “they”
to: “those of us who”?
The Equality Authority
2 Clonmel Street
Dublin 2
Tel:
Lo Call:
Text Phone:
Fax:
Email:
Website:
Birchgrove House
Roscrea
Co Tipperary
(01) 417 3333
1890 245 545
(01) 417 3385
(01) 417 3366
[email protected]
http://www.equality.ie
Some resources
Schools and the Equal Status Acts – Second Edition has been jointly
published by the Equality Authority and the Department of Education
and Science.
Equality and Education is the proceedings of a joint ASTI – Equality
Authority conference in 2001 can be downloaded from the Equality
Authority’s web site.
The Inclusive School – Proceedings of the Joint Conference of the Irish
National Teachers’ Organisation and the Equality Authority can be
downloaded from the Equality Authority’s web site.
Diversity at School, edited by Anne Lodge and Kathleen Lynch (141
pp.) was published by the IPA for the Equality Authority in December
2004. Copies are available through book shops (€9.00); it can also be
downloaded from the Equality Authority’s web site
(http://www.equality.ie).