Equity in education means ensuring that all students—regardless of their background, identity, or circumstances—have the support and opportunities they need to succeed. Unlike equality, which assumes the same treatment for all, equity recognises that different learners may need different resources and approaches to achieve fair outcomes.

Open education supports equity by challenging traditional power structures in education, promoting inclusive practices, and enabling broader participation in knowledge creation and sharing. It asks educators to consider not just who is in the classroom, but how systems and practices may advantage or disadvantage certain students.

Engaging with equity can feel challenging at first, especially when it involves examining our own practices and assumptions. This discomfort is normal and often signals meaningful learning and growth. The goal isn’t to assign blame or achieve perfection, but to continuously improve our teaching to better serve all students.

Why this matters for you

By creating more equitable learning environments, you tap into the full potential of all your students, leading to richer discussions, more diverse perspectives on course topics, and the professional satisfaction of knowing your teaching truly serves all learners. Equitable practices also help you develop increasingly valuable and culturally responsive teaching skills.

Why this matters for your students

Equitable education helps all students see themselves as capable learners and contributors to knowledge. When students from marginalised backgrounds see their experiences valued and when privileged students engage with diverse perspectives, everyone develops stronger critical thinking skills and better preparation for working in diverse environments.

Understanding Educational Inequity

Canada prides itself for being multi-cultural, valuing diversity, and having educational outcomes that have been identified as both excellent and equitable. Canada consistently ranks among the highest achieving and the most equitable education systems in OECD countries (Open Canada, 2020). However, “Canadian higher education nevertheless has an elitism that often goes unnoticed,” and “educational inequality is most acute when the top 1 percent of income earners is compared to the general population in Canada” (Open Canada, 2020).

When we talk about equity in open education, it’s important to distinguish between two related but different concepts:

Inequality: Unequal treatment or unequal distribution of resources. This focuses on whether everyone gets the same thing.

Inequity: Unfair treatment or unfair distribution of resources that takes into account different starting points and needs. This focuses on whether everyone gets what they need to succeed.

Open education addresses both inequality (by providing free access to materials) and inequity (by allowing adaptation and customisation to meet diverse needs). The goal isn’t just to give everyone the same resources, but to ensure everyone has what they need to participate fully and succeed.

Compounding barriers for students

Systemic and Structural Barriers

Historical and ongoing inequalities that affect access to education, including racism, colonialism, ableism, classism, sexism, and heteronormativity. These systemic issues create unequal opportunities and resources long before students reach your classroom. For example, students from remote communities may have had limited access to advanced courses or specialised resources, while students from families without post-secondary experience may lack knowledge about academic expectations and systems.

Representation and Recognition Gaps

Curricula and materials that fail to reflect the identities, histories, and contributions of marginalised groups. When students see themselves in the posters on the walls, the books they read, or in school curricula, it fosters a sense of belonging within a positive and inclusive school environment. Students with a higher sense of school belonging also showed more favourable academic outcomes (Allen et al., 2018).

When course content primarily represents dominant perspectives, students from marginalised backgrounds may struggle to see themselves as belonging in academic spaces, leading to reduced engagement, lower participation, and decreased academic confidence. They may also internalise messages that their communities’ knowledge isn’t valued, which can undermine their sense of academic capability. Additionally, all students miss opportunities to develop critical thinking skills and cultural competency when they’re only exposed to narrow perspectives rather than learning to analyse multiple viewpoints and ways of understanding the world.

Economic and Resource Inequalities

Differences in access to financial resources, technology, academic support, or mentorship that create unequal opportunities for success. Students without adequate resources may fall behind in coursework, miss assignment deadlines due to work obligations, or struggle to participate fully in learning activities. These barriers can mask students’ actual abilities and potential, leading to lower grades and reduced opportunities for advancement. Examples include inability to afford textbooks (preventing students from completing readings), lack of reliable internet access (limiting participation in online discussions), need to work multiple jobs while studying (reducing time for deep learning), or absence of family members who can provide academic guidance or professional networking opportunities.

Assessment and Instructional Biases

Teaching and evaluation practices that favour dominant cultural norms, learning styles, or forms of knowledge demonstration, which can systematically disadvantage certain students and lead to inaccurate assessments of their abilities. Cultural bias in academic assessment often occurs through the measurement of general knowledge normed based on the knowledge and values of majority groups. Minority groups and persons with different language backgrounds, socioeconomic statuses and cultures are often at a disadvantage in standardised assessments (Kim & Zabelina, 2015).

Linguistic bias can be bias towards speakers of other languages or dialects, or towards bilingual speakers and results in inaccurate assessment of children from linguistic backgrounds other than Standard American English. As a result, minorities are overrepresented in special education programs. Cultural bias occurs in testing materials when test items assess knowledge or experiences that are specific to a certain culture.

When assessment methods assume specific cultural knowledge, students from different backgrounds may perform poorly despite understanding the core concepts. Similarly, teaching approaches that privilege particular communication styles may prevent some students from fully demonstrating their knowledge, leading to lower grades that don’t reflect their actual learning. This can result in capable students being labelled as “struggling” or being tracked into lower-level courses.

Language and Communication Barriers

Challenges faced by students for whom English is an additional language, students from different cultural communication contexts, or students whose home communities use different varieties of English. These barriers can prevent students from fully demonstrating their knowledge and abilities, leading to lower grades that reflect language proficiency rather than content mastery. Students may understand course material deeply but struggle to express their understanding in academic English, or they may hesitate to participate in discussions due to accent anxiety or unfamiliarity with dominant classroom communication norms, reducing their engagement and learning opportunities.

Intersectional and Compounding Effects

The reality is that students often experience multiple forms of marginalisation simultaneously, creating unique challenges that aren’t addressed by focusing on single identity categories. When considering the workings of multiple systems of (dis)advantage, academic participation is intertwined with social and personal aspects of the higher education experience (Nichols & Stahl, 2019). The intersection of different identity markers and the intersection with historically perpetuated inequalities within a stratified society influence the educational outcomes for students (Edvina, 2020).

These compounding effects can significantly impact academic performance and persistence, as students face multiple barriers that interact in complex ways. For example, a first-generation college student who is also a person of colour and working-class may face distinct barriers that differ from those experienced by students who share only one of these identities. The cumulative stress and resource demands can affect their ability to focus on learning, participate in campus activities, or take advantage of academic opportunities

How Open Education Supports Equity

Open education can help address these inequities through several comprehensive approaches:

Diversifying and Decolonising Content

• Inclusive resource creation: Faculty can adapt or create OER that reflect diverse voices, perspectives, and ways of knowing
• Cultural responsiveness: Materials can include examples, case studies, and contexts that represent student demographics and interests
• Multiple knowledge systems: Open resources can incorporate Indigenous knowledge, community-based knowledge, and non-Western academic traditions
• Counter-narrative inclusion: Content can present alternative perspectives on historical events, social issues, and disciplinary knowledge

Reducing Economic and Access Barriers

• Free educational materials: OER eliminate cost barriers that disproportionately affect low-income students
• Technology access: Open platforms and tools reduce dependency on expensive proprietary software
• Flexible formats: Materials can be made available in formats that work with older devices or limited internet access
• Multi-device compatibility: Resources work across different technological contexts

Empowering Student Voice and Agency

• Co-creation opportunities: Open pedagogy invites students to bring their identities, experiences, and knowledge into the learning process
• Collaborative knowledge building: Students can contribute their perspectives to course materials and resources
• Choice and flexibility: Open approaches allow students to connect learning to their own interests, goals, and cultural contexts
• Authentic contribution: Students can create content that serves their communities and addresses issues they care about

Challenging Traditional Power Dynamics

• Distributed authority: Open practices encourage collaboration, transparency, and shared ownership of knowledge
• Student expertise recognition: Students’ lived experiences and community knowledge are valued as legitimate sources of learning
• Transparent processes: Open approaches make teaching methods, expectations, and evaluation criteria visible and discussible
• Democratic participation: Learning becomes more participatory and less hierarchical

Creating Inclusive Assessment and Demonstration

• Multiple ways to show learning: Open practices support varied formats for demonstrating knowledge and skills
• Culturally responsive evaluation: Assessment can account for different communication styles and cultural contexts
• Authentic and relevant tasks: Students can demonstrate learning through projects that connect to their communities and interests
• Flexible deadlines and formats: Accommodations can be built into course design rather than treated as special exceptions

OER allows for inclusion of previously excluded voices, and students can be actively engaged in the learning process. Utilising student voices, experiences, and viewpoints through the use of open pedagogy leads to a more engaging learning environment.

Common Concerns and Clarifications

Engaging with equity in education can feel challenging, especially when it involves examining our own practices and assumptions. Faculty considering more equitable approaches often grapple with concerns about implementation, student response, and the emotional labour involved in this work—alongside some misconceptions about what equity work requires or how students will respond. All of these concerns deserve thoughtful attention:

“If I make accommodations or changes for equity, won’t I be lowering my standards?”
Equity is about removing barriers so all students can meet high standards, not reducing expectations. When you provide multiple ways to demonstrate learning, culturally relevant examples, and inclusive materials, you often enable students to engage more deeply with content and demonstrate higher levels of understanding. Equity enhances rigour by making it accessible to everyone.

“I don’t know enough about diversity issues to address them in my courses.”
You don’t need to be an expert in every aspect of diversity to start making your courses more inclusive. Begin with small changes like reviewing your reading lists for diverse authors, asking students about their experiences and perspectives, or adapting examples to be more culturally inclusive. Open education provides flexibility to make gradual improvements and learn from community feedback.

“Won’t discussing equity create tension or conflict in my classroom?”
While engaging with equity can involve challenging conversations, open approaches actually provide frameworks for productive dialogue. When students co-create knowledge and share diverse perspectives, they develop skills in respectful discussion and critical thinking. You can establish ground rules for engagement and model how to discuss difficult topics constructively.

“What if some students resist or push back against equity-focused approaches?”
Most students benefit from exposure to diverse perspectives and inclusive practices, even if they initially resist. When equity work is framed as enhancing everyone’s learning and preparing students for diverse workplaces and communities, resistance often decreases. Open education’s emphasis on choice and student agency can help all students find entry points for engagement—students can often choose more traditional approaches within the overall framework if that’s what they need to feel comfortable while still being exposed to diverse perspectives.

“I’m worried about making mistakes or facing criticism when trying to make my courses more equitable.”
Equity work involves ongoing learning, and everyone makes mistakes along the way. Students and colleagues generally appreciate genuine efforts to be more inclusive, even when they’re imperfect. The key is approaching this work with humility, being open to feedback, and viewing mistakes as learning opportunities rather than failures. Starting with small, manageable changes can help build confidence and skills over time.

REflective Activity

Moving Forward

Equity is central to the mission of open education and represents a fundamental commitment to justice in teaching and learning. By recognising and addressing systemic barriers, instructors can create more inclusive and empowering learning environments that benefit all students.

Equity work in education is ongoing and requires continuous reflection, learning, and adaptation. This work asks us to examine our own assumptions and practices with curiosity rather than judgment, recognising that we all have more to learn about creating inclusive environments.

Open education provides tools and frameworks that make this work more possible and sustainable by allowing for adaptation, encouraging diverse voices, and supporting collaborative improvement.

The goal isn’t perfection, but rather a commitment to continual growth in creating learning environments where all students can thrive, contribute their knowledge and perspectives, and see themselves as capable scholars and community members.

Next, we’ll bring together the principles of accessibility, effectiveness, and equity to explore how open education can be integrated into your teaching philosophy and practice.

References

Allen, K., Kern, M. L., Vella-Brodrick, D., Hattie, J., & Waters, L. (2018). What schools need to know about fostering school belonging: A meta-analysis. Educational Psychology Review, 30(1), 1-34. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-016-9389-8

Edvina, B. (2020). Intersectionality: A pathway towards inclusive education? Prospects, 49(3), 297-312. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11125-020-09461-6

Kim, K. H., & Zabelina, D. (2015). Cultural bias in assessment: Can creativity assessment help? International Journal of Critical Pedagogy, 6(2), 130-148. https://janeway.uncpress.org/ijcp/article/id/724/

Nichols, S., & Stahl, G. (2019). Intersectionality in higher education research: A systematic literature review. Higher Education Research & Development, 38(6), 1255-1268. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2019.1638348

Open Canada. (2020). Inequality explained: The hidden gaps in Canada’s education system. https://opencanada.org/inequality-explained-hidden-gaps-canadas-education-system/