This OER provides an opportunity for further self-directed learning related to the STEAMified Transversal Skills Development teacher training programme.
Good STEM education should create meaningful opportunities for every pupil to participate, contribute and develop their potential. However, providing the same activity or resources to everyone does not necessarily mean that every child has the same opportunities to engage, contribute and succeed.
The Equity Compass, developed through research involving University College London (UCL), provides a practical framework for looking at learning through the lens of equity and social justice. It can help teachers think more carefully about who participates, whose knowledge and experiences are valued, who may face barriers, and how learning opportunities could become more inclusive.
About UCL and FutureLearn
University College London (UCL) is one of the UK’s major research universities. The Equity Compass was originally developed through the Youth Equity + STEM (YESTEM) project, an international research-practice partnership involving researchers and practitioners in the UK and United States. The project explored inequalities in young people’s participation in STEM and developed practical tools for supporting more equitable educational experiences. The UCL researchers involved in this work include specialists in STEM participation, educational inequalities, science engagement and social justice.
FutureLearn is an online learning platform that works with universities and other organisations to provide flexible online courses. Learning takes place through a combination of videos, articles, activities, reflection and discussion.
UCL and FutureLearn bring these elements together in the online course: Equity in Informal STEM Learning: Using the Equity Compass
The course is 100% online, takes approximately three weeks, with around two hours of study per week, and introduces participants to the Equity Compass and its practical application.
Explore the course: Equity in Informal STEM Learning: Using the Equity Compass – UCL / FutureLearn
https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/equity-informal-stem-learning-using-the-equity-compass
1. Explore: Equity in STEM Learning
The FutureLearn course begins with an important question: Why do some young people have greater opportunities to participate in and identify with STEM than others?
It encourages educators to look beyond the idea that participation in STEM depends simply on an individual child’s interest or ability. Instead, it explores the different factors and practices that can influence opportunities to participate. The course also introduces an important distinction between:
- Equality – treating everyone the same and providing the same opportunities.
- Equity – recognising differences between people and providing support and opportunities according to need.
- Social justice – looking beyond individual opportunities to consider and change the structures and practices that create and maintain inequalities.
For primary teachers, this provides a useful starting point for considering whether STEM and STEAM learning experiences genuinely create opportunities for all pupils to participate, contribute and feel that their ideas and experiences matter.
2. Discover the Equity Compass
At the centre of the course is the Equity Compass – a practical, evidence-based tool for reflecting on and developing more equitable educational practice. The original Equity Compass was developed and tested in informal STEM learning environments. It was subsequently developed further with primary and secondary teachers, resulting in the Teacher Edition.
The Equity Compass – Teacher Edition
Figure: The Equity Compass. Source: YESTEM Project Team (2021). The Equity Compass: A Tool for Supporting Socially Just Practice – Teacher Edition. Youth Equity + STEM (YESTEM). Figure reproduced subject to permission from the rights holder.
The Compass brings together eight dimensions of equity within four broader areas:
1. Challenging the status quo
- Transforming power relations
- Prioritising minoritised communities
- Redistributing resources
2. Working with and valuing minoritised communities
- Participatory working – with
- Asset-based approach
3. Embedding equity
- Equity is mainstreamed
4. Extending equity
- Long term
- Community/society orientation
The Compass is a formative reflection tool that helps teachers examine their practice from different perspectives, identify areas they would like to develop, and consider possible changes.
Compare this method with the description provided for the ‘Equity in Cooperative Learning Groups’ tool in the ‘Learning Activities’ toolkit.
Read and use the Teacher Edition.
The Teacher Edition explains the Compass in detail and provides guiding questions that teachers can use to examine their own practice. It can be used to reflect on anything from a school-wide programme or curriculum to an individual lesson or specific classroom activity.
Read / Download: The Equity Compass: A Tool for Supporting Socially Just Practice – Teacher Edition
3. Apply the Equity Compass to Your Primary Classroom
Although the FutureLearn course focuses primarily on informal STEM learning, the Teacher Edition of the Equity Compass is specifically designed for use by primary and secondary teachers. Take one STEM or STEAM activity that you already use and consider:
PARTICIPATION:
- Who participates most actively?
- Who tends to remain in the background?
VOICE
- Who makes decisions during the activity?
- Do pupils have meaningful opportunities to contribute their own ideas?
EXPERIENCE
- Can pupils connect the activity with their own experiences, interests, families or communities?
STRENGTHS
- Does the activity recognise different kinds of knowledge, experience and abilities?
- Or does it favour only one way of being “good at STEM”?
ACCESS
- Could any aspect of the activity create unnecessary barriers for some pupils?
REPRESENTATION
- What messages does the activity communicate about who can be a scientist, engineer, mathematician, designer or inventor?
These questions shift the focus from:
“Can every pupil complete this activity?”
towards a broader question:
“Does every pupil have a meaningful opportunity to participate, contribute and develop through this learning experience?”
4. Equity and Transversal Skills Development
Equity is also relevant to transversal skills development. If pupils are to develop skills through STEM and STEAM learning, they need genuine opportunities to use those skills.
For example:
- Asking questions and exploring their own interests → Curiosity, sense of wonder and openness
- Contributing original ideas → Creativity
- Participating in decisions and solving meaningful problems → Problem-solving + Critical thinking
- Listening to and understanding different perspectives → Empathy, Valuing the people
- Adapting ideas and approaches → Flexibility
- Communicating experiences, feelings and ideas → Emotional awareness, regulation, and communication
- Experiencing that they belong and that their contribution matters → Connectedness, Valuing the people
This leads to an important question for skills development: Who actually gets the opportunity to ask, speak, decide, investigate, create, solve, collaborate and lead?
Equity is therefore not separate from skills development. The opportunities pupils receive to participate in learning also influence the opportunities they receive to practise and develop transversal skills.
Reflection
Think about the pupils in your classroom. Are there pupils who participate less often in STEM or STEAM activities, and could changing the activity – rather than focusing on changing the pupil – create better opportunities for them to participate, contribute and develop their skills?
5. Explore Further Complete the FutureLearn Course
If you would like to explore the Equity Compass in greater depth, complete the Equity in Informal STEM Learning: Using the Equity Compass course developed by specialists at UCL.
Across three weeks, the course moves from understanding inequalities in STEM participation to exploring the dimensions of the Equity Compass and applying the framework to develop more equitable practice.
Course:
Equity in Informal STEM Learning: Using the Equity Compass – UCL / FutureLearn
https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/equity-informal-stem-learning-using-the-equity-compass