DEIB in Comparative Education: Policies, Practices, and Political Contradictions in the USA and Türkiye

This chapter analyses how diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) are conceptualized and enacted within educational policies and institutional practices in the United States and Türkiye. Drawing on Nancy Fraser’s multidimensional theory of justice and World Society Theory, it investigates how global equity discourses are interpreted, localized, and sometimes contested in contrasting governance regimes. The analysis integrates evidence from policy documents, teacher education curricula, and civil society initiatives to explore how DEIB principles are mobilized – or constrained – by institutional and political contexts. In the United States, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) frameworks are embedded within higher education and district policies but often encounter ideological and structural resistance. In Türkiye, efforts toward equity center primarily on access and cohesion, with identity-based inclusion remaining peripheral. By comparing these dynamics, this chapter illustrates how DEIB functions simultaneously as a universal moral language and a locally negotiated construct. It concludes by proposing a context-responsive, school-based model that links policy intent with practice through community collaboration, thereby contributing to comparative education and inclusive leadership scholarship.