Cultural Deficit vs. Cultural
Discontinuity
• Cultural Deprivation measures culturally distinct
methods of communicating against “standard
English” thus incorporating a value system that
ranks anything other than standard English as
“deficient” or “inappropriate”
• Cultural Discontinuity argues that we cannot
assign value judgments nor measure different
modes of communication against an Anglo,
middle class norm. Rather, we should look at
different modes of communication as culturally
relative.
Cultural Discontinuity
• Race and Ethnicity:
– culturally based differences in the communication styles between
many students of color and the Anglo culture of the school lead
to conflicts, misunderstandings, and, ultimately, failure for those
students
• Class:
– culturally based differences in the communication styles between
lower class students’ home and the middle to upper class culture
of the school lead to conflicts, misunderstandings, and,
ultimately, failure for those students
• Recommendation:
– The research focuses on the process, rather than the structure of
education and concludes that making the classroom more
culturally appropriate will mean a higher rate of achievement
Class and Cultural Discontinuity
•
Pierre Bourdieu: the most well-known conflict
constructivist within the sociology of education,
characterizes education as an institution that
reproduces the social order
–
•
emphasis on the cultural, interactive, and conflictual
nature of education
Bourdieu’s concepts of forms of capital and habitus
describe his general theory of reproduction which is
acclaimed for its emphasis on culture and critique of
cultural deficit models, and support for more culturally
relevant pedagogy
Bourdieu’s Concept of Habitus
•
Habitus: consists of a set of historical
relations ‘deposited’ within individual bodies in
the form of mental and physical schemata of
perception, appreciation, and action.
–
•
Schema: frameworks we use to understand
interactions and events.
Habitus is our beliefs, values, cultural
understandings, and ways of behaving
–
everything in our histories that we physically
and mentally embody
Habitus and Social Reproduction
•
Habitus is a self-perpetuating mechanism
that reproduces social relationships
–
As long as an individual is a product of the same
habitus in which they continue to function, the individual
will reproduce their habitus
–
product of habitus + functioning within that habitus=
reproduction of habitus
–
Example: As long as I am product of the upper-middle
class and continue to live and function within the uppermiddle class, I will reproduce my habitus- enact it and
hand it down to my children
Three Forms of Capital
–
Economic capital- that which can be “directly
convertible into money” as well as institutionalized
in the form of property
–
Social capital: resources derived from networks of
people and groups. Social capital is essentially
social networking as an “investment strategy”
–
Cultural Capital: forms of knowledge; skill;
education; any advantages a person has which give
them a higher status in society, including high
expectations.
•
Exists in three forms: embodied state, objectified state,
institutionalized state
Cultural Capital: Embodied State
•
The internalization of certain “dispositions of
the mind and body”- what an individual knows
and utilizes from within
– Includes normative behaviors such as language use,
manner of dress, and the “proper” guidelines for
conducting oneself
***The embodied state of cultural capital can be
learned, and if learned, cultural capital can alter
one’s habitus
•
the embodied state of cultural capital is a process not
easily transmitted as with money.
Cultural Capital: Objectified State
• The “objectified state” of cultural capital refers to
cultural objects such as books.
• The objectified state of cultural capital may be
consumed through money and/or embodied
through the appreciation of a fine painting
– Cultural objects can be consumed materially which
presupposes economic capital
– Cultural objects can be consumed symbolically which
presupposes cultural capital
Cultural Capital: Institutionalized State
• Institutionalized state of cultural capital:
the objectification of cultural capital in the
form of academic qualification
– This presupposes academic success and is
therefore dependent on the embodiment of
cultural capital
Conclusions
•
The differential accumulation of capital through material gains and
embodied features drives and reproduces social inequalities
•
Students from backgrounds rich in the three forms of capital have the
preferred cultural capital that enables them to function in school
–
•
Covert function of cultural capital within the school system: students that
possess the appropriate cultural capital will be recognized as “advanced”
leaving those that do not possess the same cultural capital left to
reproduce their habitus.
–
•
These students have a particular knowledge that allows them to navigate
through the school system by displaying desired behavior and/or conforming
to unspoken norms
Impacts the possibilities of being funneled into college prep vs. vocational
courses
Masked through the ideology of meritocracy: individuals who do not
have the desired cultural capital are labeled as lacking in intelligence and
the drive to succeed
Bourdieu and Cultural Discontinuity
• Bourdieu pinpoints the conflict between cultures
as they play out in power dynamics of the
classroom
• Though his work focuses on class, it can also be
used as a springboard to talk about ethnicity
• The problem according to cultural discontinuity
is not about cultures being deficient but rather
different.
– The role of power in these situations translates
difference into forms of oppression and social
inequalities