Addressing the Causes and Effects of Global Educational Inequality: A Multi-Faceted Common-Values Approach

1. Addressing the
Causes and Effects
of Global
Educational
Inequality:
A Multi-Faceted Common-ValuesApproach
By Daniel Duvalle

2. The circumstances outside an individual’s control that
provide or prevent the opportunities to obtain a quality
education are not to be taken lightly.
• The value of an education to the individual receiving may be apparent to other
people – It may be less apparent that providing an education to an individual
can also be a benefit to others and larger society
• Corollary: When an individual does not receive a quality education, it is not
only a loss experienced by them, but to others around them and the larger
society they live in.
• Goal: Equal access to quality education regardless of original individual
circumstances – make investment in individual people and a common garden
of humanity.
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3. Why address educational inequality?
• Equality of education opportunity should be treated independently from other
theories of equal opportunity.Why?
• Shields, Newman, and Satz (2017): because of the
• “central place of education in modern societies and the myriad opportunities it affords;
• the scarcity of high-quality educational opportunities for many children;
• and the critical role of the state in providing educational opportunities”
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4. Extent of Educational
Inequality Around
the Globe
Facts, Figures, and Effects

5. A CommonThread of Global Educational Inequality:
The “Race to the Bottom”
• The same places with the least access to quality education are the same
developing regions disproportionately affected by exploitative globalized
Neoliberal capitalism industrial/economic practices
• Local resources extracted but balanced reinvestment of benefits are not made
into local societies to ensure practices are sustainable
• Periphery and semi-periphery nations (Wallerstein’s World-SystemsTheory)
most affected:
• Nations in Africa, Asia, and Central/South America
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6. UNESCO
Sustainable
DevelopmentGoal
4 - Education
Most apparent hurdle to education
is poverty or low socioeconomic
status. Disproportionately affects
Africa and South Asia.
6 5/3/2019 Target 4.1 Universal Primary School Completion – Hurdle: Poverty

7. UNESCO
Sustainable
DevelopmentGoal
4 - Education
Most apparent hurdle to education
is poverty or low socioeconomic
status. Disproportionately affects
Africa, South Asia, and
Central/South America
7 5/3/2019 Target 4.1 Universal Secondary School Completion – Hurdle: Poverty

8. UNESCO
Sustainable
DevelopmentGoal
4 - Education
Apparent hurdle to education to
many is geographic:Access to local
educational opportunities are
limited by remote location and
rural obligations.
Disproportionately affects Africa,
South Asia, and Central/South
America
8 5/3/2019 Target 4.2 Early Childhood Care and Education – Hurdle: Remote Locations and Requirements of Rural Obligations

9. UNESCO
Sustainable
DevelopmentGoal
4 - Education
Apparent hurdle to educational
access is cultural perception of
gender roles, disproportionate
restriction of access to females in
Africa, South Asia, and
Central/South America
9 5/3/2019 Target 4.5 Equity by Gender – Hurdle: Cultural Restrictions due to Perceptions of Gender and Gender Roles

10. UNESCO
Sustainable
DevelopmentGoal
4 - Education
Apparent hurdle to educational
access is cultural perception of
gender roles, disproportionate
restriction of access to females in
Africa, South Asia, and
Central/South America
10 5/3/2019 Target 4.6 Youth Literacy – Hurdle: Cultural Restrictions due to Perceptions of Gender and Gender Roles

11. UNESCO
Sustainable
DevelopmentGoal
4 - Education
Apparent hurdle to educational
access is cultural perception of
gender roles, disproportionate
restriction of access to students in
Central/South America,
Australia/New Zealand,
Europe/Middle East, some parts of
Africa (refugees, war zones, and
isolated people)
11 5/3/2019 Target 4.5 Equity by Language – Hurdle: Cultural Restrictions due to Student Language Accessibility

12. Bottlenecks Impeding Educational Access
• Economics (and politics affecting economic distribution and redistribution)
• Geographic distances and language barriers
• Cultural and individual perceptions surrounding education
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13. According to Garcia &Weiss (2017), from the very
beginning of a person’s life, their family’s
socioeconomic status is likely to make the biggest
difference in their chances at successful educational
attainment:
• “Extensive research has conclusively demonstrated that children’s social class
is one of the most significant predictors—if not the single most significant
predictor—of their educational success. Moreover, it is increasingly apparent
that performance gaps by social class take root in the earliest years of
children’s lives and fail to narrow in the years that follow.That is, children who
start behind stay behind—they are rarely able to make up the lost ground.”
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14. … And that being behind in school is not only a
disadvantage to them individually through their
own life, but a loss to society and a loss to their
children and future generations of their family:
• “These performance gaps reflect extensive unmet needs and thus untapped
talents among low-SES children.The development of strong cognitive and
noncognitive skills is essential for success in school and beyond. Low
educational achievement leads to lowered economic prospects later in life,
perpetuating a lack of social mobility across generations. It is also a loss to
society when children’s talents are allowed to go fallow for lack of sufficient
supports.The undeniable relationship between economic inequalities and
education inequalities represents a societal failure that betrays the ideal of the
‘American dream.’”
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15. Economic Governance
• “If we are to make our global economic system work better, we have to have better
systems of global economic governance.” (Stiglitz 2009)
• Continuum of ideas
• Conservatism is defined by insistence on maintaining of the status quo.
• Progressivism, which is defined by recognition of problems in society and need for development of solutions
• The research of Okulicz-Kozaryn, Holmes, & Avery (2014) on subjective well-being (SWB)
indicates a political paradox that :
“When measures capture what a country does (enacted political orientation),
greater liberalism corresponds with higher SWB, but when measures tap what citizens
believe (espoused political orientation), the pattern is the opposite.” Enacted left-wing, or
progressive-humanist politics, entail provision of greater social safety nets that provide a
better economic foundation for the improving social outcomes like education, while
personally espoused conservative political positions tend to stem from the beliefs that
“individuals are responsible for their outcomes and, ultimately, get what they deserve (i.e.,
rationalize the status quo).”
• So aside from differences in beliefs concerning education itself, the differences of beliefs
on a political continuum that lead to enacted policies directly affect the type and budgets
for education as well as affecting the economic context of those obtaining education.
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16. 16 5/3/2019 Unable to find source of infographic creator, but sources listed on graphic areverified

17. Geographic Distance and Language Barriers
• Physical accessibility to a school is not an option for children and adults.
• Physical barriers or distances causing inaccessibility to isolated or rural areas
also serve as economic barriers
• Languages can serve as barriers to quality education if the language of
instruction at school is not a language spoken at home (World Inequality
Database on Education).
• War, poverty, famine, and crises drive people from their homes to new places,
adding challenges to education
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18. Cultural and Individual Perspectives Surrounding
Education
• Notions of what an education entails and the purpose it serves vary from person to person
and over time
• Storytelling and oral histories, shamanic magic and wisdom traditions
• Trades:Craftspeople and apprentices
• Aristotle’s Lycaeum
• Medieval Christian Cathedrals
• Now, in the US:
• “A majority of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents (58%) now say that colleges and universities
have a negative effect on the country, up from 45% last year. By contrast, most Democrats and Democratic
leaners (72%) say colleges and universities have a positive effect, which is little changed from recent years.”
(Pew Research 2017)
• Religious and secular world-views and educational systems: Differences in functional
definition of “truth” and truth. (Subjectivity and Objectivity)
• Synthesizing “truth” and truth:
• Pico’s “Oration on the Dignity of Man” (1486)
• Unitarian Universalism
• “the free and responsible search for truth and meaning.”
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19. Efforts to Alleviate
Educational Inequality
Around the Globe
Multiple Approaches toTend the Garden

20. In San Diego: San Diego Public Library System
• Interview with Marisa, Clerk at Branch Library, previously Central Library
• Told me about array of services offered through the library system that are in place to help
alleviate educational inequality
• “Computers to SD Kids” provides technology to children in lower income families
• “Do your homework at the library” program offers free homework assistance to K-8 children
• Online live tutoring program provides remote help to kids who need help and have internet access
• “Career Online High School” allows adults to earn a high school diploma along with a vocational tech
certificate
• “Read San Diego” provides help to those seeking to improve their literacy and programs to help non-
English speakers to learn English as a second language and with resources to help them through the
process to obtain citizenship
• “Innovation/Idea Lab” at the library provides access to high-tech equipment like 3d printers and laser-
cutters and the Adobe Software Suite
• Among Marisa’s favorite recurring experiences are seeing familiar patrons stop showing up
for a while then return for a visit to inform her that she’s helped them find a job as well as
seeing the children at the branch grow in excitement, curiosity, and ability over time.

21. Globally: One Laptop Per Child (OLPC)
• OLPC provides devices to remote locations to increase opportunities for few other
options, if any, for educating themselves to basic literacy.
• Working with the ZamoraTeran Foundation,
• “OLPC’s multidisciplinary teams work to identify and analyze the social, economic and
educational context to create a program tailored to address the specific needs and desired
outcomes of each community.With such knowledge and local context, OLPC identifies the key
items required for a successful program that includes both social and educational transformation.
Our goal is to support the processes of program design and implementation.With more than ten
years of experience in the field, OLPC is uniquely positioned as an expert in the integration of
technology into the learning environment. OLPC now seeks to share the knowledge that leads to a
transformation in schools and communities and to a stronger and more unified future for all.” (One
Laptop Per Child n.d.)
• Kids are smarter than you think they are!What happened in Ethiopia:
• “Earlier this year, OLPC workers dropped off closed boxes containing the tablets, taped shut, with
no instruction. ‘I thought the kids would play with the boxes.Within four minutes, one kid not only
opened the box, found the on-off switch … powered it up.Within five days, they were using 47
apps per child, per day.Within two weeks, they were singing ABC songs in the village, and within
five months, they had hackedAndroid,” Negroponte said. “Some idiot in our organization or in the
Media Lab had disabled the camera, and they figured out the camera, and had hacked Android.’”
(Talbot 2012)

22. BlinkNow: Glocalization
• Built a school for 350 children (and a home for 40 of them) in the foothills of
the Himalayan Mountains
• Global support through social media and internet
• “a program to prepare our graduates for their futures”

23. Thoughts on
Approaching the
Factors Limiting Access
to Quality Education
Social Engineering Solutions to Educational Inequality

24. PerennialWisdom, Science, and Dialectic:
Synthesis of “Truth” andTruth to Map Meaning
24 5/3/2019 Dialectic: thesis – antithesis/negative – synthesis/resolution

25. Clarifying Perception of Our OwnValuesThrough
Metaphors
• What stories did you learn when you were very young?
• Of those stories, which “connect” with you on a personal level?
• Which parts of those stories really resonate with you?
• What stories did you learn as you got a little older and your world started to
become bigger?
• What stories capture your attention today?
• What kinds of characters capture your attention?
• What stories remind you of yourself?
• When you perceive the “story of the world around you”, what role(s) do you
play in it?
• If you could reimagine the “story of the world around you” and were able to shape the world
as you saw fit, what would you change or do differently?What would you keep the same or
continue doing?

26. Applied Anthropology: Modes of Acculturation
• Contact of cultures merges cultural systems:
• A + B + C = D
• Diffusion of knowledge between cultures
• A to B to C to D
• Assimilation of cultures by another, whether coerced or voluntary
• A + B + C = A
• Pluralism – For the Win!
• A + B + C = AD + BD + CD
• For the problem of global educational inequality at hand, the common D culture would entail
adding education as a common value to the cultures in contact while preserving appreciation
for one’s cultural heritage
• How?
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27. Social Engineering and Psychological Operations:
Ethics
• Social engineering is old and has a long history
• TheTrojan Horse – Homer’s Odyssey
• “Be extremely subtle, even to the point of formlessness. Be extremely mysterious, even to the point of soundlessness.Thereby
you can be the director of the opponent's fate.” (SunTzu, Art ofWar)
• Slave Bibles – Bibles made for captive slaves with all concepts of liberation and freedom removed.
• Edward Bernays – Public Relations, Propaganda,The Engineering of Consent. Use of crowd psychology and psychoanalysis
• ColdWar: KGB “Active Measures”,
• Different forms – Personal and Political – Both rely on subtlety and deception
• Phishing
• “A lie travels farther than the truth.” (Irish Proverb)
• Counterpropaganda to overcome propaganda
• Counterpropaganda relies on precise delivery of factually true information
• To avoid compromising personal integrity and accomplishment of objective, truth cannot be compromised.
• Markets are not rational (flaws in rational market hypothesis)
• Goal:To persuade all people, using complete, truthful, and accurate information, that a lifetime of free education
access to all people by some means would benefit each of them personally.
• Impossible for a single person to know all information: Luckily, it’s the first time in history that pocket-sized computers make
accessing a vast portion of the sum of human knowledge accessible nearly instantaneously!
• Ethics – Prioritize highest standards through ethical and responsible search for truth. Pluralize codes of ethics through dialectic
comparison from various sources, from various international anthropological associations and their coalitions to various
organizations that standardize building codes to
• Prevent moral overload from being forced to choose between providing/obtaining education and other values or as economic
opportunity cost. (Van den Hoven, Lokhorst,Van de Poel 2011)
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28. Social Engineering asTechnological Development
• “Ethics can be the source of technological development rather than just a
constraint and technological progress can create moral progress rather than
just moral problems.” (Van den Hoven, Lokhorst,Van de Poel 2011)
• Collaboration is preferable to competition, coercion or conquest
• Tale of Elephant and Blind Men
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29. Socially Engineering a Sustainable Pluralistic Society:
Addressing Economic Inequalities that Drive Education
Inequality
• Truth is priority, the inordinately wealthy are the “targets” to resolve
• Use of dialectic for rational conversation
• Prioritize understanding of deepest values and build bridges to them through
metaphor to bypass the backfire effect.
• What stories do we tell ourselves about who we are and roles we play?
• What stories do others tell themselves about who they are and their place in the world?
• Appeal to individual’s self-perception of capability in Meritocracy. Issue challenge to their actual acumen and
abilities. Insert a wedge between the trappings of success and ability to obtain success. Demand proof with
high-goal posts. Induce humility by challenging competence like !Kung Bushmen (Lee, Christmas in the
Kalahari )
• “Nothing wilts faster than laurels that have been rested upon.” Percy Bysshe Shelley
• Value bridging:Andrew Carnegie - (Gospel of )“Wealth”
• “The man who dies thus rich dies disgraced.”
• Argument for social prioritization of capital wealth redistribution through top marginal tax rates
(“New Deal” Economics) as well as through personally established public trusts and foundations.
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30. Socially Engineering a Sustainable Pluralistic Society:
Addressing Cultural Differences that Drive Education
Inequality
• Conservatism and Progressivism exist as a continuum in all cultures.
• Two basic types of conservative with different sets of values:
• Wealthy: Beneficiaries of status quo. Perceive change as threat to wealth rather than opportunity.
• Poor: Destitute and afraid of change. Likely morally overloaded, unaware of benefits of change.
• Prioritize understanding of deepest values and build bridges to them through
metaphor to bypass the backfire effect and confirmation bias.
• What stories do we tell ourselves about who we are?
• What stories do others tell themselves about who they are and their place in the world?
• Demonstrate value and appreciation for culture and cultural history
• Emphasize values
• Culturally specific stories and ways to attribute honor or shame
• Divergence of cultural literature provides a diverse array of resources, even within one
culture
• E.g. Christian Bible and apocrypha, Slave Bibles and maps to freedom
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31. “The best way to predict your future is to create it.” – Abraham Lincoln
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32. References:
• References:
• Shields, L., Newman, A., & Satz, D. 2017. Equality of Educational Opportunity. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved from https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/equal-ed-opportunity/
• World Inequality Database on Education. UNESCO Global Education Monitoring Report. Retrieved from https://www.education-inequalities.org/
• Eitzen, D. S., & Baca Zinn, M. (2012). Chapter 1 - Globalization: An Introduction. Globalization: The Transformation of Social Worlds (pages 1-9). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning
• Brecher, J., Costello, T., & Smith, B. (2000). Chapter 2, Reading 4 – Globalization and Its Specter. Globalization: The Transformation of Social Worlds (pages 30-37).
• Garcia, E. & Weiss, E. (2017). Education Inequalities at the School Starting Gate. Economic Policy Institute. Retrieved from https://www.epi.org/publication/education-inequalities-at-the-
school-starting-gate/
• Stiglitz, J. (2009). Chapter 4, Reading 14 – A Real Cure for the Global Economic Crackup. Globalization: The Transformation of Social Worlds (pages 104-109).
• Okulicz-Kozaryn, A., Holmes, O., & Avery, D. (2014). The Subjective Well-Being Political Paradox: Happy Welfare States and Unhappy Liberals. Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 99, No. 6, p.
1300 –1308. doi:10.1037/a0037654 . Retrieved from https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/apl-a0037654.pdf
• Pew Research Center. (2017). Sharp Partisan Divisions in Views of National Institutions. Retrieved from: http://www.people-press.org/2017/07/10/sharp-partisan-divisions-in-views-of-national-
institutions/
• Pico della Mirandola, G. (2014). Oration on the Dignity of Man. (University of Adelaide Library, Trans.) Public Domain. (Original work published 1486) Retrieved from:
https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/p/pico_della_mirandola/giovanni/dignity/
• Unitarian Universalist Association. (n.d.). Beliefs & Principles. Retrieved from: https://www.uua.org/beliefs/what-we-believe
• One Laptop Per Child. (n.d.). Support Strategy. Retrieved from: http://one.laptop.org/content/support-strategy
• Talbot, D. (2012). Given Tablets but No Teachers, Ethiopian Children Teach Themselves. MIT Technology Review. Retrieved from: https://www.technologyreview.com/s/506466/given-tablets-
but-no-teachers-ethiopian-children-teach-themselves/
• BlinkNow. (n.d.). Our Work. Retrieved from: https://blinknow.org/our-work
• Van den Hoven, J., Lokhorst, G., & Van de Poel, I. (2011). Engineering and the Problem of Moral Overload. Sci Eng Ethics. 2012 Mar; 18(1): p. 143–155. doi: 10.1007/s11948-011-9277-z .
Retrieved from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3275721/?fbclid=IwAR1KYzUk9YRGWtFa0XDICLHOxvBBOGnyAoyaan6pr2jgIg8b725WbtNCFwI#
• Unable to find source for original “New Deal vs Trickle Down Economics” Infographic. Retrieved from facebook.com
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