Next Tuesday
Professor Greg Michie
Concordia University
Guest Speaker April 19
BONUS: Special Extra LECTURE WRITE
Author of “Holler If You Hear Me:
The Education of a Teacher
and His Students”
What is the teacher’s
role in understanding
and addressing issues
of poverty and its
impact on students.
What are the causes of poverty?
Is a function of the political economy
– wages, jobs, social supports
LECTURE WRITE #4 Last Thursday
 What ethnic group has the highest number of people living
in poverty?
 What percent of all children live in poverty?
 What percent of children under the age of twelve live in
poverty?
 What percent of children in minority families live in
poverty?
 List conditions that result from poverty that you believe
would impact a child’s ability to learn and participate fully
in school programs.
People Like Us
http://www.pbs.org/peoplelikeus/resources/stats.html
Number of White people living in poverty: 21,922,000
Number of Black people living in poverty: 8,360,000
(U.S. Census Bureau, 1999)
Percentage of men earning poverty level hourly wage:
19.5%
Percentage of women earning poverty level hourly wage:
31.1%
(Economic Policy Institute, 2000)
The US Census declared that in 2008 13.2%
of the general population lived in poverty:
8.6% of all non-Hispanic White
11.8% of all Asian-American
23.2% of all Hispanic (of any nationality)
24.2% of all American Indian and Alaska Native
24.7% of all African-American
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About half of those living in poverty are non-Hispanic white,
but poverty rates are much higher for blacks and other
minorities.
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57% of all poor rural children are non-Hispanic white,
compared with 28% of poor urban children.
Family structure continues to be strongly
related to whether or not children are poor.
In 2007, children living in households headed
by single mothers were more than five times as
likely as children living in households headed
by married parents to be living in poverty—
42.9 percent compared with 8.5 percent.
In all race/ethnicity groups, children in
single-parent families are much more likely
to be poor than children living in households
headed by married parents.
• For non-Hispanic white children, the poverty rate in 2007
was 32.3 percent for children in single mother households
compared with 4.7 percent for children in married
households.
• Similarly for black children, the poverty rate was 50.2
percent compared with 11 percent in married households.
• For Hispanic children, the poverty rate was 51.4 percent
compared with 19.3 percent in married households.
• For Asian children, the poverty rate was 32 percent
compared with 9.7 percent in married households.
The child poverty rate in the
United States surpasses that of
many other industrialized nations
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Analyses comparing child poverty rates across nine
wealthy nations using the U.S. Poverty Standard indicate that the
proportion of children below 125 percent of the poverty line at the
start of the decade was higher in the U.S. than in almost any other
industrialized country, with the exception of the United Kingdom.
4.6 percent in Finland;
5.8 percent in Austria;
7.2 percent in Belgium;
9 percent in Canada;
9.1 percent in Germany;
10.4 percent in the Netherlands;
12.4 percent in the United States; and
17.5 percent in the United Kingdom.
NY Times, 2009
US Census Bureau Report on Poverty
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With the country in its worst economic crisis since the
Great Depression, four million additional Americans
found themselves in poverty in 2009, with the total
reaching 44 million, or one in seven residents. Millions
more were surviving only because of expanded
unemployment insurance and other assistance.
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The rise was steepest for children, with one in five
affected, the bureau said.
For a single adult in 2009, the poverty line
was $10,830 in pretax cash income; for a
family of four, $22,050.
Families 2009
The Census report showed increases in poverty
for whites, blacks and Hispanic Americans, with
historic disparities continuing.
The poverty rate for:
Non-Hispanic whites was 9.4 percent
Blacks 25.8 percent
Hispanics 25.3 percent
Asians was unchanged at 12.5 percent
List conditions that result from
poverty that you believe would
impact a child’s ability to learn and
participate fully in school programs.
How is poverty likely to
impact life chances?
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School Performance: K-12
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School Outcomes: Dropping out, post secondary participation
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Economic Prospects: Jobs
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Family Structures in Adult Life
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Adult Life
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Health: Status
How does poverty affect children’s
economic prospects?
Why are poor children’s economic prospects so
limited? Research shows that, all else being equal:
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Low-income kids start to fall behind in cognitive
development at a young age and have difficulty
catching up.
They fall further behind when they attend lowerquality public schools.
Consequently, they are more likely to drop out of high
school in their teens, and less likely to get a college
degree.
They thus enter adulthood with lower levels of
education as well as achievement.
Why are poor children’s economic
prospects so limited?
Research shows that, all else being equal:
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Their health also suffers—gaps in wellness appear
early in poor children’s lives and only widen over
time.
Lower education and worse health, among other
factors such as discrimination and weaker labormarket contacts result in lower levels of employment
and earnings over their working lives.
At least some of those with the lowest levels of
employment are more likely to become single parents
or engage in crime and become incarcerated.
What are the costs of poverty?
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All this adds up to: lower
productivity, less tax revenues
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and larger health care and criminal
justice costs.
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The grand total: Child poverty costs
us at least $500 billion a year and the
cost is going up due to increased
hardship facing children and young
adults in the Great Recession.
“What Teachers Need to Know About Poverty”
Sue Books
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What ethnic group has the highest number of people
living in poverty? ____white____
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What percent of all children live in poverty?
____13%_________
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What percent of children under the age of twelve live in
poverty? ___30%_______
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What percent of children in minority families live in
poverty? ____40%______
Theories of Social Inequality
Summary of Theories in Chapter 13
Does social inequality necessarily determine
educational outcomes?
What theories have been used to explain group differences in achievement?
Genetic Inferiority Theory (1920s-1960s, now discredited) —individuals are
the problem—groups were bound by inheritance (we now know that
individuals vary, and there are multiple intelligences)
Cultural Deficit Theory (1960s-still operates today, but discredited) --individuals are the problem—the poor and minority groups are limited
by their culture, blames student and family or neighborhood for a
deficient culture (total lack of usable skills, language patterns,
behaviors).
Critical Theory (1980s-today)—examines the uneven POWER
relationships between different groups in society, examines
INSTITUTIONAL STRUCTURES that privilege some students over
others. This category includes Cultural Difference Theory (1990s)-cultures are different, one is not better than another, all cultures
contain skills and behaviors that are assets, recognizes the
multicultural aspect of American culture.
Brown v. Board 1954 improved access to high school, and
minority students achieved higher graduation rates. But,
we did not achieve a quality for all students in schools.
Why? Resistance to desegregation, poverty, and…
Because of the influence of THEORIES OF SOCIAL
INEQUALITY
Early 20th c. schools operated on a theory of GENETIC
INFERIORITY (Tozer, 416-418) for minority and
lower class students. Individuals were the problem,
low IQ. Discredited over time. What is the meaning of
this theory for education?
Genetic Theories of Inequality
19th Century
Photo Credits:
Anti-Immigrant
Cartoon "Where
the Blame Lies."
Courtesy of the
Library of
Congress
Superior Intelligence chart
from Army IQ tests.
Courtesy of Truman State
University
IQ-1986 Stanford Binet IQ Test was revised to
reduce ethnic, class and gender bias.
http://www.mindsparke.com/iq.php?id=1
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Not all IQ tests are made equal -- If you want a reliable test score
by which to determine your IQ and IQ increase, take a reliable test
(one certified and administered by a reliable testing organization).
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Your score does not define you -- A good IQ test measures certain
mental aptitudes; these mental aptitudes correlate quite reliably to
what we generally term intelligence; your score does not define you
any more than how fast you can run.
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Your intelligence is not fixed -- With the appropriate brain
exercise, you can imcrease your IQ.
1960s CULTURAL DEFICIT THEORY (Tozer, 418419), some cultures were not advanced enough to
support higher intellectual performance, again
individuals and their culture were the problem (not
the structure of school or teaching approaches or low
expectations). Aim was to eliminate the home culture,
replace with dominant culture. Lacking middle-class
standards of culture and civility is evidence of
inferiority.
Cultural Deficit Theory
Culture Deprivation of child’s environment
Lack of language, behaviors and skills
Poor academic performance
Must first eliminate deficit
Teach middle class language and behaviors
Remediate basic skills
Who do schools serve the best?
For a class-based view of schools-
Most middle class students have benefits
because there is an easy cultural
match between school culture
and their own cultural experiences.
San Francisco’s Brown Twins
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The curriculum tends not to portray middle class culture in a
negative way.
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In schools, mainstream values and knowledge affirms a higher
status (a failure to value and to know about dominant
mainstream knowledge affirms legitimacy of lower status of
non-dominant groups). Lower status generally affects learning.
Main Problems with
Cultural Deficit Theory
OUTCOME:
NEGATIVE APPROACH TO DIFFERENCES
--Cultural deficit approach was not effective, many students
never “caught up”
--No recognition of cultural differences
--Did not examine school structure or teaching approaches
EDUCATORS KNOW THAT POVERTY does have an
IMPACT on school readiness (lack of preschool, good health
care, stable housing, food, safety in the neighborhood, etc.).
Schools do need to address some of the effects of poverty.
Main Problems with
Cultural Deficit Theory
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Lacking middle-class standards of culture and
civility is evidence of inferiority.
No recognition of the skills the students had
acquired (they do possess specific cultural and
linguistic skills)
Focus on teaching the dominant culture (replace
culture that they have), which contains the
academic skill base needed to succeed in school.
Cultural Deficit Theory Definition
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Ultimately, the Cultural Deficit Theorists viewed cultures
and environments outside of the mainstream EuroAmerican, as inferior. These views catered to highly
ethnocentric perspectives.
In one article Martin Deutsch clearly outlined the middle
class expectations and values existing in the educational
system, while pointing out the deficiencies inherent in other
groups such as "American Indian children, mountain
children and children from other non-industrial groups"
(1961).
The fact that teachers and schools in the 1950s and 1960s
were also failing to teach these children, was rarely
broached and the blame remained conveniently elsewhere.
Cultural Deficit Theory Definition
Took over as main theory in the 1960s to explain school
failure. Blames individual.
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Most cultural deficit studies blamed the child's social, cultural
or economic environment as being "depraved and deprived"
of the elements necessary to "achieve the behavior rules (role
requirements)" needed to academically succeed (Hess &
Shipman, 1965). Engelmann and Bereiter, further
emphasized how "cultural deprivation" theories supported
the idea that social and emotional deficiencies affected student
performance within the academic system. Until dealt with,
these differences, would make it "impossible for" culturally
deprived students "to progress in academic areas" (1966).
Although these same studies did testify that they could modify
the behavior of disadvantaged children, schools made little
progress towards student knowledge acquisition. As the study
states, there were "virtually no inroads against the children's
lack of verbal learning" (1966:41).
Dreamkeepers: Successful Teachers of
African-American Students
Professor Gloria Ladson-Billings
University of Wisconsin
Dreamkeepers: Successful Teachers of
African-American Students
Researchers conclude that
students are less likely to fail in
school if they feel positive about
their culture and majority
culture. (Ladson-Billings, 11)
What do we mean by the word culture?
Individuals vary within all cultural groups.
There is a dominant culture and many subcultures.
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Culture is an integrated set of norms by which human
behaviors, beliefs, and thinking are organized.
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Culture is a set of standards and control mechanisms with
which members assign meanings, values and significance
to things, events and behaviors.
TEACHER’S CULTURAL LENS How do you interpret the
world based on your cultural experiences? What cultural
skills, beliefs, values, and behaviors do you bring to your
interactions with the world? How will you view difference?
Key beliefs and values in mainstream
American culture (Spindler, 1963, 1990)
1. Puritan morality (respectability, thrift, duty)
2. Work-success ethic (hard work defines our worth)
3. Individualism (leads to self-reliance, free to act, and
originality)
4. Achievement orientation (set higher and higher goals)
5. Future-time orientation (sacrifice today for the future)
6. Equality of opportunity (everyone gets a fair chance to
participate)
7. Value of honesty
8. Openness of the American socioeconomic structure —
“upward mobility is possible” based on merit
9. Sociability
If students can’t read, teachers can conclude that
they have limited abilities. But generalizations
about cultural difference in learning styles give
teachers a different explanation for failure.
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Native Hawaiian children have a “talk story”
style of expressing themselves at home.
Traditional reading approaches are not as
effective when teaching young Native Hawaiian
students to read.
Teachers who incorporate the “talk story” in
reading lessons are more successful.
Professor Kathy Au (UIUC graduate in Curriculum
and Instruction) and now teaches at the
University of Hawaii
Cultural Mismatch- (Tozer, 421)
can occur in schools for Native
American students (generalizations
about a culture):
In general, the larger Native American culture is:
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Not a competitive people, but cooperative.
Values tribal life over acquisition of material goods.
Native American Learning styles:
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They learn at home by observation, not trial and error.
 Interpreted by teachers as lack of initiative
They learn respect for elders, limit direct eye contact.
 Eye contact expected.
Cultural Subordination Theory focuses on the
relationships between the child’s cultural group and the
dominant society; the power relations between different
social groups.
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Awareness of cultural subordination of some minority
groups supports a move from a cultural deficit model to a
cultural difference model in schools.
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Cultural Difference Theory—
 Cultures are different
 ASSET THEORY OF DIFFERENCE
 One is not better than another
 All cultures contain skills and behaviors
 Recognizes the multicultural aspect of American culture
 Seeking success in mainstream culture, while retaining
other cultural connections.
Teaching Approaches--culturally relevant or
culturally responsive teaching, multicultural
approaches
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGTVjJuRaZ8&feature=related
Professor Gloria Ladson-Billings
4:40
According to Ladson-Billings what main views do
culturally relevant teachers hold about learning?
(Tozer, 430 and Ladson-Billings, 33):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccEu7r2IwM0 3:40
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Conceptions of themselves and others.
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Conceptions of social relations.
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Recognize that culture impacts everyone’s learning.
Social relations impact motivation, why we learn, interpretations,
how the community views the school.
Conceptions of knowledge.
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Knowledge is constructed, useful, changing, linked to experiences.
RECOGNIZING CULTURE AS PART OF THE PROCESS OF LEARNING
Ladson-Billings suggests that all of us learn and
understand through cultural filters.
Recognize the role that culture plays in how
we see the world.
“The way we read the world is culturally
mediated.”
Know thyself, and understand others.
Multicultural Approaches to Teaching
Enid Lee suggests that Anti-Racist,
Multicultural Education means to
examine the biases of our own
education,
Examine what is considered “normal”
(Is normal excluding some people?).
Ask: Who benefits from the status
quo? How can more people benefit
from social institutions?
No simple recipe Culturally Relevant Teachers
According to Ladson-Billings (E-Reserves)
***Two pages in Chapter 13 See Tozer page 430
and 431 “Education that is multicultural and social reconstructionist”
Emphasis is on WHAT and HOW we teach.
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Believe in the intellectual capacity of all students, all students are
capable of success.
Hold beliefs about minority students that all can learn (and hold them to
high expectations).
See themselves as part of the community in which the students live.
See teaching as giving back to the community.
Maintain fluid, equitable teacher/students relationships.
Demonstrate a connectedness to all students.
Develop a community of leaders among students.
Encourage students to learn collaboratively
Is passionate about learning.
Views the curriculum critically.
Scaffolds or builds bridges that facilitates students’ learning.
Believes that assessment needs to be multifaceted.
Committed to providing readiness and support necessary for learning.
Can cultural background and race/ethnicity
be ignored in the classroom?
Ladson-Billings maintains that:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccEu7r2IwM0 3:40
Cultural background and race/ethnicity are part of a
student’s identity.
Given the significance of race and color in American
society it is impossible to believe that a classroom
teacher does not notice the race and ethnicity of the
students (Ladson-Billings, 33).
Ladson-Billings advocates an awareness of cultural
differences in planning and instruction.
Why is Ladson-Billings concerned about the education of
minority students? African Americans still dream of
quality education for their children.
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Achievement gap of minority students
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Poor outcomes for many minority students--higher dropout rates
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Resegregation of schools since 1980s (de facto separate schools)
means greater isolation for all students
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Low funding in many schools serving minority
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Few teachers of color (less than 10%)
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Lingering effects of cultural deficit theory on teachers (no
attention to structural inequalities, teaching approaches, school
practices and policies)
As a researcher interested in teacher
education, Ladson-Billings asked:
Are schools really attending to the education of minority
students?
Do cultural differences matter in the learning process?
Are teachers being prepared to work with students from different
cultural backgrounds?
She hopes that culturally relevant teaching approaches help all
teachers work more effectively with students from different
cultural backgrounds.