What is Equity and Justice in Education?

Interested in learning about equity and justice in education? The community will hear from three local experts and participate in engaging activities to learn about important issues facing the Lancaster community.

The Engage for Change Community Forum is a part of the public series of events focused on equity and justice in education. The Engage for Change event series will take place on March 14 from 4 – 6 p.m. in the Student Memorial Center’s Reighard Multipurpose Room.

The event is organized by Dr. Kerrie Farkas, professor of writing studies, and Tatiana Pashkova-Balkenhol, undergraduate research & instruction librarian.

The forum aims to answer the question, ‘What is equity and justice in education?’ The Community Forum is free and welcomes MU and community members to discuss equity and justice issues affecting the local educational institutions.

“Each featured presentation will be followed by a community engagement activity, which engages participants to grapple and dig deeper together into educational issues,” says Pashkova-Balkenhol.

The event features notable guests such as Stacie Blake, CEO of the YWCA Lancaster; Keith Miles, superintendent of the School District of Lancaster; and Ty Bair, co-founder of Advantage Lancaster, Reynolds Middle School social studies teacher.

“Students will have unique opportunities to share their lived educational experiences and listen to understand others,” says Pashkova-Balkenhol. “By attending the Forum, students will also benefit from identifying root causes of educational issues and creating collaborative writing partnerships to advocate for change to create equitable learning spaces in schools.”

This event was started to generate robust, thought- and action-provoking representation of issues facing PA and Lancaster County education.

“In the upcoming Engage for Change Journal issue, we are organizing a series of public events, including the Community Forum and Writing Workshops, ” says Pashkova-Balkenhol. “The Engage for Change Journal, which we co-edit, is a newly emerging community-based journal that aims to contribute to public knowledge and public engagement by harnessing the collaborative potential and expert knowledge of faculty, students and residents on social, political and economic issues affecting the Lancaster County region.”

The Engage for Change journal writing workshops will focus on how to address equity and justice in education, held on Tuesdays, March 19, March 26 and April 2. The writing workshops will take place from 4 – 5:30 p.m. in McNairy Library, Room 104.

“Motivated to generate discussions around current educational issues that could later be reflected in the upcoming journal issue, Dr. Farkas and I reached out to local experts to envision and plan the public series events,” says Pashkova-Balkenhol. “Our goals were to create an engaging environment that brings together MU and community members from diverse backgrounds to discuss the most pressing issues in equity and justice in education.”

Pashkova-Balkenhol and Farkas initiated the Forum and partnered with the Carter Woodson Lecture coordinator, Dr. Caleb Corkery, to offer the series of public events focused on equity and justice in education to the MU and community audiences.

“The Carter Woodson Lecture on Feb. 27 addressed the question ‘Why is equity in schools so difficult to address?’ says Pashkova-Balkenhol.”

Pashkova-Balkenhol and Farkas created a format for the Forum that provokes thoughts and insights about educational issues through the featured presenters, and then allows attendees to discuss the issues and create partnerships around the community tables.

The Journal is currently seeking collaborative submissions from faculty, students, and community members. For more information regarding journal submissions, click here.

For those interested in registering for the Engage for Change Events, click here.