Towards a school culture of pedagogical fairness: revisiting the academic performance of immigrant children in East Asia

ABSTRACT

Educational scholars have argued for fair pedagogical practices in response to the learning needs of diverse students. While pedagogical fairness has been widely advocated, few studies have systematically assessed its impact on student learning, and even fewer have examined pedagogical fairness from a school organisational perspective. To narrow this gap in research, the current study develops an expansive conceptualisation of pedagogical fairness as an integral part of organisational culture, which varies by school. Our data, gathered from 7,746 immigrant-background students attending 563 schools in six East Asian societies, were analysed based on a hierarchical linear model explaining their academic performance as a function of pedagogical fairness in terms of both teacher practice and school culture. The results suggest that fair pedagogy can effectively help immigrant children succeed in school. It is particularly notable that pedagogical unfairness embedded in school culture is negatively associated with the academic performance of immigrant children, even after controlling for unfair pedagogical practices exercised by individual teachers. These findings suggest that implementing fair pedagogy is not simply the responsibility of individual teachers; it is also the responsibility of school leaders, as they are in the position to substantially influence the school as an organisational whole.

KEYWORDS:

• Pedagogical fairness
• immigrant pupils
• educational equity
• school culture
• school leadership

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 This idea has been echoed repeatedly by many influential educational theorists, including John Dewey, as evidenced by his emphasis on the experiential growth of every student, calling for educators’ attentiveness to individual learners’ unique situations and experiences (Dewey, 1938/1997).

2 At the time this study was conducted, the latest PISA dataset available was from the 2018 cycle. We used the 2015 version (i.e., one cycle earlier) instead because this version collected data related to pedagogical (un)fairness, unlike the 2018 version. See Table 2 for the PISA 2015 questionnaire items measuring student-perceived unfairness in teaching.

3 Only four mainland Chinese cities/provinces participated in the PISA 2015 project: Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu, and Guangdong. Therefore, the analysis of the mainland Chinese data herein should be interpreted with caution.

4 The total sample of 7,746 immigrant-background children was comprised of the following sub-samples: China ML (83). Hong Kong (3,220), Japan (130), Macao (3,674), South Korea (56), and Taiwan (583). For detailed information about each country’s data, see OECD (2016).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Seung-Hwan Ham

Seung-Hwan Ham is an associate professor of education at Hanyang University, Seoul, South Korea. His current research aims to identify the characteristics of effective policies and leadership practices for educational and social inclusion of diverse students. His papers have appeared in many journals not only in education but also in the social sciences broadly, including American Journal of Education, Journal of Teacher Education, International Journal of Intercultural Relations, Policy Studies, and Social Policy & Administration. He is currently serving on the editorial boards of several renowned journals, including Journal of Educational Administration, Frontiers in Education, and Multicultural Education Review.

Wei Liao

Wei Liao received a dual-major Ph.D. degree in Teacher Education and Educational Policy from Michigan State University. He is currently an assistant professor at Beijing Normal University’s Center for Teacher Education Research. His research focuses on defining, designing, and using high-leveraging practices within and beyond teacher education programmes to enhance students’ equal access to high-quality educators. His work has appeared in a range of peer-reviewed journals, including Teachers and Teaching, School Effectiveness and School Improvement, and International Journal of Qualitative Methods. He is currently an associate editor of Beijing International Review of Education, an official international journal of Beijing Normal University.

Yisu Zhou

Yisu Zhou is an associate professor at the University of Macau’s Faculty of Education. He obtained his doctoral degree from Michigan State University’s College of Education. His doctoral work examined the teaching profession using a large-scale OECD survey. His research interests span across several areas, including educational finance, sociology and economics of education, and teacher education. He has published in various journals, including American Journal of Education, Journal of Contemporary China, Journal of School Health, and Sociological Methods and Research. He is currently serving on the editorial board of Multicultural Education Review.