The Future of Education

Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity

EQUALITY

Equality is ensuring everyone has the same opportunity to access services and to reach their full potential in life. It’s about making certain that everyone has an equalchance to participate and succeed.

‘Every individual should have an equal chance to make the most oftheir talents, capabilities and endeavour; and no one should havepoorer life chances because of where, what or to whom they wereborn’. Equality and Human Rights Commission.

Equality is not about treating everyone in the same way. Nor is it about giving certain groups ‘special treatment’ or ‘extra rights’.Equality is about treating everyone as individuals and recognising the impact that prejudice and discrimination has on people. Being positive about equality means actively taking steps to ensure that we do not hold or spread negative attitudes,stereotypes or prejudice about certain communities or individuals.

We can sometimes get bogged down in thinking that equality is about ‘if X gets this, then so must Y’. But perhaps we need to recognise that true equality is about achieving equality of outcome – and that means, at times, treating people differently. Or perhaps we need so see equality as a human rights issue, which leads us

nicely to think about diversity:

DIVERSITY

Diversity literally means ‘difference’. Everyone is unique, and positive diversity encourages people to recognise and celebrate this difference. Diversity is about how we relate to one another, behave towards each other and value one another as unique individuals. Diversity is also about harnessing differences betweenindividuals to drive forward excellence and creativity.Although the terms equalityand diversity have separatemeanings, they are linked.You cannot, for example,fully celebrate diversity ifsome groups areexperiencing discrimination

INCLUSION

Inclusion is about creating an environment where all feel valued and no one feels uncomfortable or made to feel unnecessarily ‘different’. Inclusion involves anticipating barriers, and dismantling these before they have an impact on an individual.