EQUITY AND INCLUSION: COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS ACROSS OECD EDUCATION SYSTEMS

Global trends such as demographic changes, migration crises, and growing inequality lead governments to reflect on how to promote equity and inclusion. The OECD Strength through Diversity Project (OECD, 2023) shares definitions of equity and inclusion from 34 different education systems and identifies six dimensions of diversity: migration; ethnic groups, national minorities, and Indigenous peoples; gender; LGBTQI+; special education needs (SEN); giftedness. The project asks participating countries if there is a specific term in their educational jurisdiction to indicate the diversity; the terms differ between countries, which poses a challenge for the comparative analysis. However, the textual analysis of the definitions provided by the countries reveals recurring keywords in many education systems, highlighting examples of "best practices" such as in Portugal, which since 2018 has shifted the focus from identifying student characteristics to identifying student support measures.