Conceptions, Perceptions and Intersections of Equity Gaps in Education

Dear Colleagues,

Equity gaps in education refer to disparities between groups such as social class, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation gender, with respect to educational outcomes that violate notions of equity. They exist:

• between many groups as social class gaps, gender gaps, race gaps, ethnicity gaps, age gaps, sexual orientation gaps;
• at all levels of education, from preschool to tertiary education;
• across all domains and contexts;
• as different types, such as achievement gaps, opportunity gaps, confidence gaps, and excellence gaps.

Closing equity gaps in education is considered one of the key tasks of contemporary pedagogy. However, currently, the research field is diversified and fragmented with only little conceptual unity. There is still a lack of general pedagogical strategies with which to bridge equity gaps. This Special Issue aims to contribute to coherent research on equity gaps through educational sciences. We invite authors to explore equity gaps in education with respect to three broad issues:

1. Perception of equity gaps: Since surprisingly little is known about what is perceived as an equity gap by lay people as well as by educators, teachers, and researchers, we are interested first in a basic understanding of equity gaps. More specifically, we are interested in equity gaps from the perspective of all the actors needed to bridge them through education.
2. Conceptual issues related to equity gaps: We are interested in theoretical contributions that may guide us beyond the exploration of individual equity gaps. The articles we hope for should improve the ability of the scientific community to analyze and understand specifics and commonalities across equity gaps.
3. We encourage researchers to report studies that go beyond exploring individual equity gaps. The intersectionality of equity gaps is of interest in four regards:
   a. Intersectionality of groups: multiple degrees of influence on individuals that are members of more than one disadvantaged group;
   b. Intersectionality of different types of equity gaps: multiple effects on individuals by different types of equity gaps;
   c. Intersectionality of ecological contexts: affectedness of individuals in different ecological contexts such as support gaps at home and at school;
   d. Combinations of the aforementioned three intersections.

Prof. Dr. Peiying Chen
Prof. Dr. Michaela Gläser-Zikuda
Prof. Dr. Albert Ziegler
Prof. Dr. Svenja Bedenlier
Prof. Dr. Susanne Bruckmüller
Prof. Dr. Ya-Ling Wang
Prof. Dr. Tsui-Chun Hu
Prof. Dr. Li-Yu Hung
Prof. Dr. Maria Rentetzi 
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Education Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• equity gap
• inequality
• social justice
• democracy
• minorities
• gender
• race
• ethnicity
• social class
• LGBTQ