Capabilities and Intersectionality: A fruitful theoretical framework for 'inclusive and equitable quality education'

The added value of this paper lies in combining the Capability Approach (Sen 1999, 2009; Nussbaum 2000, 2012; Alkire, 2007) and the theoretical tool of intersectionality (Crenshaw 1991, Phoenix 2009) to analyse the concept of... [ view full abstract ]

The added value of this paper lies in combining the Capability Approach (Sen 1999, 2009; Nussbaum 2000, 2012; Alkire, 2007) and the theoretical tool of intersectionality (Crenshaw 1991, Phoenix 2009) to analyse the concept of 'inclusive and equitable quality education'. By embracing the notion of capability deprivation looking at the compounded effect of age, ethnicity, class, gender, disability, and HIV/AIDS this approach enables a broader but deeper conception of inequality and discrimination which captures the diversity between and within groups, and improves our understanding of the processes in which these differences are transformed into drivers of inequality of capabilities. By focusing on the relation between individual and structural conversion factors, it provides a more informed account, unveiling dynamics of discrimination that not only affect different groups in different ways but also the same groups in different situations. In this fashion, this combined approach moves from focusing mainly on individual characteristics to unearthing the processes and dynamics by which these ascribed characteristics lead to a lower quality and learning outcomes, and therefore lower access to valuable doings and beings.