UC San Diego

While the term equity is widely used as a call to action in education, the research under-documents how notions of equity intersect with teachers’ practices, as well as how the equity orientations within a particular school context shape what teachers do. This qualitative study examined the equity-oriented perspectives and practices of two teachers within a high school with an equity mission. The study analyzed how teacher beliefs, definitions of equity, and the school context shaped their practices. The findings suggest that these teachers practice for equity in ways that align with their beliefs about relationships and the need to break outside what is done in typical high school classrooms. Moreover, the school context, which granted great liberty to teachers to design lessons in accordance with their beliefs, had a large influence on how these teachers practice. Implications include finding a balance between critical and dominant approaches to equity-oriented teaching.