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ÃÛÌÒÊÓƵapp Student Equity Survey Glossary

Purpose: 

This glossary is intended to be used as a resource and learning tool for the purpose of the survey. Developing a shared understanding of these terms will allow us to invest in building meaningful relationships. We acknowledge there are far more complexities to these terms that this glossary cannot fully encompass, which is why this resource will continue to be reviewed, revised, and improved as we further collective knowledge and understanding of each other and our unique needs.  

EQUITY (In Education) 

Definition: 

Student equity is realized when all students have equal access to quality staff, courses, activities, services, and resources based on their individual needs. 

Key Concepts/Considerations: 

• Providing equitable access to opportunities, resources, and support for each and every student by intentionally recognizing and eliminating historical barriers, as well as the ability to predict personal and academic success based on race, background, and/or social identifiers and circumstance. 

Video Resources:  

•  (3.5 mins) | Grades 6-12  

ETHNICITY[1]

Definition:

The cultural characteristics that connect a particular group or groups of people to each other.  

Key Concepts/Considerations/Example: 

• "Ethnicity" is sometimes used as a euphemism for "race", but race is what you see (physical traits), ethnicity is what you learn (cultural practices)." 
• While ethnicity and race are related concepts, the concept of ethnicity is rooted in the idea of social groups, particularly marked by shared nationality, tribal affiliation, religious faith, shared language, or cultural and traditional origins and backgrounds.  
• Example: Someone might have one parent from Peru, and another parent from Mexico, their race might have been socially categorized as white in the U.S., but they more closely identify their ethnicity as a brown Latina with indigenous ancestry. 

Video Resources:  

•  (4.5 mins) | Grades 6-12 
•  (3 mins) | Grades 6-12 

RACE[2]

Definition: 

The word ''race'' is used to describe people based on their physical appearance, often using the color of their skin to identify them.  

Key Concepts/Considerations/Example: 

• As a biological concept, it defines groups of people based on a set of genetically transmitted characteristics, i.e., physical characteristics and including skin color.  
• The concept of race as used socio-politically by the U.S. Census Bureau reflects self-identification by people according to the race or races with which they most closely identify.  
• Example: Someone of Korean heritage might grow up in Italy with a family that doesn’t share that same background. This person eats Italian food, speaks Italian, and knows Italian history and culture. Ethnically, this person feels Italian, but when they come to the United States, they are treated racially as Asian. 

Video Resources:  

•  (11 mins) | Grades 6-12 

CULTURE[3]

Definition:

The similar “ways of life” for a group of people, meaning the way they do things.  

Key Concepts/Considerations/Example: 

• The shared patterns of behavior and interactions, cognitive constructs, and affective understanding that are learned through socialization. 
• Many different things make up a society’s culture. These things include food, language, clothing, tools, music, arts, customs, beliefs, and religion. 
• People within a culture usually interpret the meaning of symbols, artifacts, and behaviors in the same or similar ways. 
• Example: Someone might engage in “ways of life” that were passed down to them from their parents or ancestors.  

Video Resources:  

•  (6 mins) | Grades 6-12 

GENDER IDENTITY[4]

Definition: 

Gender identity is a way to describe how someone feels about their gender.  

Key Concepts/Considerations/Example: 

• An individual’s internal sense of their own gender, whether they identify with the gender they were assigned at birth, another gender, or no gender.  
• While many people identify with the gender they were assigned at birth, for others gender is more of a spectrum, with lots of different possible identities. 
• Example: Some people may identify as a boy or a girl, while others may find neither of these terms feels right for them, and identify as neither or somewhere in the middle. 

Video Resources:  

•  (3 mins) | Grades 6-12 
•  (2 mins) | Grades 6-12 

GENDER: NON-CONFORMING, FLUID, QUEER[5]

Definition: 

A term used by people who identify as not strictly male or female, but instead fall somewhere else on the gender spectrum. Their gender expression may be different from societal expectations related to gender.  

Key Concepts/Considerations/Example: 

• Some may describe themselves as a combination of masculine and feminine, or as in-between these categories and some identify with neither.  
• Genderqueer, gender expansive, gender fluid, and gender non-conforming are some of the other terms used by people who do not consider their gender to be binary. 
• Example: Someone might be identified as female at birth, but their identity does not fit into the binary of being male or female. This person may identify as gender non-conforming and use "they" and "them" pronouns. Another person might also identify as gender-fluid/queer and use multiple pronouns such as they/them, she/her, he/him etc.  

Video Resources:  

•  (7 mins)  | Grades 6-12 

TRANSGENDER[6]

Definition: 

When someone feels their gender is different from the gender they were assigned at birth.  

Key Concepts/Considerations/Example: 

• “Trans” is shorthand for “transgender.”  
• Example: Transgender man is a term for an individual assigned female at birth who identifies as a man; transgender woman is a term for an individual assigned male at birth who identifies as a woman. 

Video Resources:  

•  (8 mins) | Grades 6-12 

SEXUALITY/SEXUAL ORIENTATION/ATTRACTION[7]

Definition: 

Used to describe how a person may feel drawn to or not drawn to other people in a sexual, romantic and/or other ways.   

Key Concepts/Considerations: 

• It is separate from gender identity and thus transgender persons also have a sexual orientation.  
• Like gender, sexuality is on a spectrum, meaning some people may experience fluidity in their sexuality. 

Video Resources:  

•  (3 mins) | Grades 6-12 
•  (3 mins) | Grades 6-12 

1: Glossary of commonly used words and ideas. Fellowship for Race and Equity in Education. &   

2: Wright, J. (2019). The language of inclusion. Retrieved from . &   &   

3: & Diversity and Social Justice Glossary: Multicultural Affairs: Student Affairs & University Events. (n.d.). Retrieved from &

4: Resources for classrooms and groups. UC Berkeley Division of Equity & Inclusion. Retrieved from . &

5: &

6: Resources for classrooms and groups. UC Berkeley Division of Equity & Inclusion. Retrieved from .

7: