WHITLOWE R. GREEN COLLEGE OF EDUCATION
Doctoral Proposal Defense Announcement
ABSTRACT
THE ROLE OF DEFICIT THINKING IN EDUCATIONAL OUTCOMES; DEVELOPING A
SURVEY TO DETERMINE LEVELS OF ADHERENCE TO DEFICIT THINKING.
(November 20, 2015)
Brenda Lea Marfin, B.S., University of Houston;
M.S., Sam Houston State University
Chair of Advisory Committee: Tyrone Tanner, Ed.D.
Deficit thinking is the conceptualization of demographic differences such as race, gender,
or culture as inherent deficiencies within students, families, or communities. As Gorski (2010)
confirmed, “. . . deficit thinking emerges when we mistake difference—particularly difference
from ourselves—for deficit” (p.2). In today’s society, deficit thinking is often used as a means of
negatively defining and explaining certain minority groups.
The effects of deficit thinking create caste systems, racial division, and perpetuate
marginalization. Within the educational environment, this method of thinking is
counterproductive to the principles of effective pedagogy and teacher efficacy. In fact, Gorski,
(2010) warned that “such a perspective deteriorates expectations for students and weakens
educators’ abilities to recognize giftedness in its various forms” (p. 2). In parallel, an educator’s
knowledge of culture relates to the characteristics of temporal changes and pseudoscience. The
characteristics of victim-blaming and educability link with educator attitude toward marginalized
students. Finally, educator behavior toward marginalized students connects with the
characteristics of oppression and heterodoxy (Valencia, 2010). These characteristics construct
the Deficit Thinking Model (DTM) (Valencia, 2010), which is the theoretical framework that
will be used to guide this study. Thus, the purpose of this study is to develop an attitudinal
survey on the DTM that will provide an answer to the following research question: To what
extent do educators adhere to characteristics of the DTM: (1) victim blaming, (2) oppression, (3)
pseudoscience, (4) temporal changes, (5) educability, and (6) heterodoxy.
Describing the level of adherence to specific characteristics of the DTM will provide an
alternative vantage point for future research into the broad, systemic issues faced by
marginalized students. A review of the literature indicated that research in the area of deficit
thinking is limited to qualitative studies focused on observation and discourse (Gorski, 2010).
The lack of quantitative information available to assess levels of deficit thinking inherent within
educators is the impetus for this study. The researcher will develop a cross-sectional survey that
adheres to the rigors of a pilot study, to determine adherence to the DTM among educators.
Construct validity will be established through a rating scale that will be validated by experts in
the field. Question reliability analysis will be performed—including a principal component factor
analysis. Finally, Cronbach’s coefficient alpha will be determined.
Date: November 20, 2015
Department: Educational Leadership and Counseling
Time: 10:00
Location/Room: Delco/240____
Dissertation Chair: Tyrone Tanner, Ed.D.
Dissertation Committee Members:
Patricia A. Smith, Ed.D.
Douglas Hermond, Ph.D.
Terence L. Finley, Ph.D.