Republic of the Philippines

SURIGAO STATE COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY

Del Carmen Campus
Del Carmen, Siargao Island, Surigao del Norte
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NAME: MARY GRACE M. ORABA DATE: APRIL 22, 2019

COURSE: BSED 1 SUBJECT: EDUC 4

ACTIVITY # 5
EQUITY AND EXCELLENCE

It is a privilege to lead Equity and Excellence in Education (EEE). The journal is now
celebrating its 50th volume of scholarly works, stemming from earlier efforts through
integration and social justice education to participatory research in teaching and learning. It is
important to acknowledge past editorships for the light they have shined on the journal. In
particular, I thank the most recent editor, Jason Irizarry, for passing the torch and setting the
premise for a tradition of both continuity and change.

Because knowledge-making is a dynamic process, my hope is that the journal's

updated aims and scope demonstrate a strong commitment to represent varied perspectives
and approaches in addressing issues of equity and social justice in education. People are
confronted, day to day, with different notions of equity and social justice across possible areas
of study that may, or may not, yield direct answers to pressing problems of our time. For that,
and for reasons of transparency, the journal asks authors to be clear about what is at stake in
their work, for whom, and for what purposes.

There is an emphasis on scholarship that is “theoretically rich and/or empirically

grounded” to advance “our understanding of school systems, individual schools, classrooms,
homes, communities, organizations, technologies, media cultures, social spaces, processes,
and practices” (EEE, para 1). It is imperative for scholarship to be attentive to the braided
complexities in people's lives so as to not re-inscribe essentialist notions or pathologizing
meta-narratives of becoming. The journal takes seriously post-structuralist and post-humanist
ideas and assumes knowing to be entangled with being, within a system of relations, making
reflexive and diffractive practices of inquiry all the more important.

The material in the journal is meant to serve as a conduit to spark conversations and
challenge existing ideas and actions. For researchers, practitioners, students, and advocates
of critical education, this presents a unique opportunity for exchange in light of labor
sometimes discernable and sometimes hidden from plain sight. In addition to analyses of what
equity and justice may look like or do for historically marginalized populations, the journal
maintains its longstanding position to examine “systemic oppression and systematic forms of
violence and mistreatment of people” (EEE, para 2).

There is a growing consideration for inter-, cross-, and transdisciplinary studies and
the “utilization of intersectionalities to explain the forces influencing social events, situations,
and identities in relation to learning, schooling, and education” (EEE, para 2). In keeping with
continuity and change, the journal has opened up its pages to feature “cultural studies work
that makes educational equity and justice discourses the objects of critical analysis”.