Conceptualizing Poverty in the Educational Setting
November 29, 2011
Tracy Kitzman
Abstract: This paper will focus on the devastating effects of chronic poverty both locally and globally. It will argue that teachers must educate their students concerning this national and international humanitarian issue. It will demonstrate that as students and educators become more knowledgeable about poverty and conceptualize what it means, they will build a heightened awareness of it. This heightened awareness will drive them to become active participants in global change and motivate them to find ways to help impoverished children worldwide. The paper is divided into three sections. The first part of this paper will provide educators with research based information concerning poverty. It will differentiate between absolute and relative poverty in America and Somalia. The second part will review Zygmunt Bauman’s analysis of globalization and poverty. The third part will demonstrate how a group of middle school students created a project called “Project Harambee.” This project was created after being exposed to teacher driven content concerning this devastating humanitarian issue. It documents the process that these students went through as they conceptualized what poverty meant to them and found creative ways to eradicate it both locally and globally.
Introduction
Poverty is slowly consuming communities throughout the world. It is a complex human problem with many contributing factors. It has been experienced on every continent, in every time, and by all races. It is directly related to health, education, housing, political opportunities, and other issues (Alters S. M., 2009). The definition of poverty is fluid, making it very difficult to define. The definition differs among governmental and social service agencies at home and abroad. According to recent statistics there were 2.2 billion children living in the world in the year 2010. Out of those 2.2 billion children, 1 billion were living in poverty (Shah, 2010).
This devastating humanitarian issue needs immediate attention.
This paper will focus on the devastating effects of chronic poverty both locally and globally. It will argue that teachers must educate their students concerning this national and international issue. It is arranged in three separate parts. The first part provides teachers with background information regarding poverty in America and Somalia. The next part is a theoretical review of Zygmunt Bauman’s thoughts regarding modernization and poverty. The concluding part of the paper demonstrates how students in my classroom, created an international project to address poverty in our community and abroad. They called their international project, Project
Harambee which means “let’s pull together” in Swahili. The students chose this name because
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November 29, 2011 they felt that if educators and students “pulled together” to fight poverty, there would be less impoverished children living in the world.
Conceptualizing Poverty in a Midwest Middle School Classroom: My Personal Perspective
As an educator for the past eighteen years in Illinois, the poverty level amongst my students continues to rise every year. According to our recent Illinois Interactive Report Card, 46% of the student bodies attending my 6 th
- 8 th
grade middle school are listed as low income (Illinois
Interactive Report Card, 2011) . If I was to conceptualize what poverty looks like in my classroom
I would say this: impoverished students do not externally appear any different from that of their peers. They are dressed appropriately, do not look malnourished, and seem to have most of the supplies that they need on a daily basis. As a result of this, it doesn’t surprise me that poverty is often overlooked in many American schools. However, when I listen to their life stories, I can feel the burdens that they carry with them daily. They frequently comment that their heat has been turned off for the past month, that they are cold every night, or that they have been without electricity for awhile. Statements such as these continually remind me of the impeding challenges that many of my students face every day. Moreover, it breaks my heart to think about the children living in undeveloped areas of the world that lack even the most basic necessities to survive. Over the years, this deepened concern and understanding of poverty has challenged and inspired me to find ways to help eliminate it globally. I believe that one of the most effective ways of eliminating global poverty is by educating our youth concerning this topic. By exposing youth to information pertaining to poverty, they will be able to conceptualize what poverty means and find ways to eradicate it globally. Moreover, as global citizens of the world, I believe it is their responsibility to change our planet for the better (Kitzman, 2011) .
Part I.
Conceptualizing Absolute Poverty in America
American classrooms are descending into poverty at a record pace. The nation’s economic crisis has profoundly affected the lives of millions of Americans. Skyrocketing foreclosures and job layoffs have pulled the rug out from under many families, particularly those living in low-income communities (American Psychological Association, 2011). As of
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November 29, 2011
September 2011, unemployment in Illinois was at a ten percent and still climbing (Bureau of
Labor Statitics, 2011). An unfortunate result of this is that there is the possibility that many of these jobs will never be recovered. Many families have found themselves without a home and hungry for the first time in their lives. Alarmingly, one of the most terrible consequences of the recession is the record number of children spiraling into poverty.
“The government considers a family of four to be impoverished, if they take in less than $22,000 a year. Based on that standard, and government projections of unemployment, it is estimated that the poverty rate for kids in this country will soon hit
25 percent. Those children would be the largest American generation to be raised in
hard times since the Great Depression.” (CBS, 2011)
Because being poor differs considerably from one country to the next, experts have had a difficult time establishing concrete terms to discuss it. Since the publication of the Human
Development Report 1997: Human Development to Eradicate Poverty (Human Development
Report, 1997), the UNDP has maintained that “human poverty is more than income poverty”
(Alters, 2008).
“Poverty is a denial of choices and opportunities for living a tolerable life”.
(Human Development Report, 1997)
Currently, governments divide poverty into two separate categories: absolute and relative poverty. In general, absolute poverty means that a person’s basic subsistence needs (for food, clothing, and shelter) are not being met. By contrast, relative poverty means that a person’s needs are not being met in comparison with the rest of his or her society (Alters, 2008). Sadly, these are the people who will consist of the mass of the 900 million people living in deep poverty in 2015 even if the Millennium Development Goals agreed by the UN members are totally attained. These are the “other half” of the poor, a heterogeneous group who commonly live in remote rural areas or conflict zones, suffer from disabilities, lack social networks, are displaced and/or experience social discrimination in its many and varied forms (Hulme D. , 2003).
When we think of poverty, people are more likely to think of images of starving children from third-world countries rather than thinking of children in America. In his 2005
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Conceptualizing Poverty in the Educational Setting
November 29, 2011 book, One Nation, Underprivileged (M.R., 2005), Rank says that the answer to why poverty exists in a country like the United States amid all its abundance, “lies in the manner in which poverty has typically been viewed and acted on in the United States-that poverty is the result of the individual inadequacies, that poverty lies outside the mainstream American experience, and therefore that poverty is not a national priority” (p.6).
According to recent U.S. Census Bureau statistics, poverty not only exists, but it is increasing at an alarming rate. The information presented below was compiled from a CPS
ASEC sample survey of approximately 100,000 households nationwide in the 2009 calendar year (U.S. Census Bureau, 2010). The 2010 Annual Social and Economic Supplement is a source for official poverty estimates.


Between 2008 and 2009, the poverty rate increased for children under the age of 18 (from 19.0 percent to 20.7 percent) and people age 18 to 64 (from 11.7 percent to 12.9 percent), but decreased for people age 65 and older (from 9.7 percent to 8.9 percent).
The number of people in poverty in 2009 (43.6 million) is the largest number in the 51 years for which poverty estimates have been published.
Currently, these statistics show that the U.S. middle class is dwindling. While some people are gaining affluence, many more are losing ground and slipping downward toward poverty. Rank (Rank, 2005) says,
“Perhaps one of the most serious consequences of poverty, along with disproportionate growth of wealth at the top, is the bifurcation of our society. We are increasingly becoming a society of haves and have nots”
(p. 158).
Conceptualizing Relative Poverty in Somalia, Africa
Poverty seems to thrive in areas that are unstable and in conflict, such as in Somalia.
Presently, survey results specify that the occurrence of acute malnutrition and the rate of crude mortality have surpassed famine thresholds in Bay Region of southern Somalia. Recent reports show that 4.0 million people are in crisis in Somalia, with 750,000 people at risk of death in the coming four months in the absence of adequate response (FSNAU- Somalia, 2011).Tens of thousands of people have already died, over half of whom are children. Assuming that current
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Conceptualizing Poverty in the Educational Setting
November 29, 2011 levels of response continues, famine is expected to spread further over the coming four months
(FSNAU- Somalia, 2011).
In addition to famine and drought, many other factors have contributed to the state of relative poverty in Somalia. 1n 1991, various warring entities began fighting over control of the country. This fighting weakened the government against an Islamic insurgency. In the same year, the Somali dictator, Mohammed Siad Barre fell. Then, in 2004 the Transitional Federal
Government was established. An additional burden that the people faced was the escalation of food prices. It was projected that food prices went up 300% leaving the poor with no way to afford it (Kliger, 2008). Lastly, warlords, conflicts, and clans made it difficult to distribute the resources and food that the country needed to survive.
Several organizations are currently trying to execute plans to help aid Somalia. The
World Bank and IMF have implemented a macroeconomic plan to try to stimulate stability and development in the country. Unfortunately, this monetary plan has been flawed in some cases.
The plan was solely based on the observation that to some extent the food crisis was due to poverty (or aggravated it) because when prices go up then the Somalis can’t afford to buy food anymore (Berrebi).
“In theory it looks fairly reasonable but it reveals as well the neoliberal ideology: currency devaluation for cheap exports (and cheap labor), trade liberalization (i.e. opening the borders to world trade and… global competitors), reducing budget deficits through massive cuts in the public sector and reduction of social services” (Berrebi) .
Likewise, many experts feel that Somalia needs to diversify its economy. They feel that by diversifying the economy, Somalia would have the opportunity to engage in more international trade and develop a stronger infrastructure. Regrettably, Somalis at this time have to depend on western farmers to survive. This dependence is due to the fact that Somalis are unable to develop their own export sector. Although the experts are making good recommendations, Somalia needs to make several changes in its infrastructure. First it has to create a strong government and/or change the entire components of its failing economy.
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Who Protects Children’s Rights Globally? UN Declaration of the Right of the Child
“I believe we should claim certain rights for the children and labour for their universal recognition, so that everybody—not merely the small number of people who are in a position to contribute to relief funds, but everybody who in any way comes into contact with children, that is to say the vast majority of mankind—may be in a position to help forward the movement” Eglantyne Jebb, 1923 (Numitor) .
The Declaration of the Rights of the Child is the name given to a series of related children’s rights proclamations drafted by Save the Children founder Eglantyne Jebb in 1923.
Jebb believed that the rights of a child should be especially protected and enforced, thus drafting the first stipulations for child’s rights (Declaration of the Rights of the Child).
Jebb created an initial draft for what would become the UN Declaration of the Rights of the
Child in 1923. It contained the following five criteria: (Numitor)
1) The child must be given the means requisite for its normal development, both materially and spiritually.
2) The child that is hungry must be fed, the child that is sick must be nursed, the child that is backward must be helped, the delinquent child must be reclaimed, and the orphan and the waif must be sheltered and succoured.
3) The child must be the first to receive relief in times of distress.
4) The child must be put in a position to earn a livelihood, and must be protected against every form of exploitation.
5) The child must be brought up in the consciousness that its talents must be devoted to the service of its fellow men. (Numitor)
These five points were adopted by the League of Nations in 1924 and was thus known as the Declaration of Geneva. This was the first important assertion of the rights of children as separate from adults and began the process that would lead to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child adopted by the UN in 1989. Today, the Convention serves as the basis for all Save the Children’s
work. Interestingly, only two Member States remain which have not yet ratified
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Conceptualizing Poverty in the Educational Setting
November 29, 2011 the Convention: The United States of America and Somalia. The USA signed the convention on
February 16, 1995, and Somalia signed on May 9, 2002 (Sign of Our Times, 2008).
Will Somalia and the United States ratify the Convention in the future? UNICEF recently announced that the Somali Transitional Federal Government intends to become a party to the
CRC. The Transitional Federal Government commits itself to ensuring children’s rights in the country (UNICEF- Press Centre, 2009). As for the United States, it undertakes a broad examination and study of treaties before proceeding to ratify. Moreover, the United States still retains the death penalty for children as well as adults (Convention on the Rights of the Child,
2006).
Part II.
Zygmunt Bauman: A Theoretical Look at Modernization and Poverty
Zygmunt Bauman wrote eloquently about effects of modernization and poverty.
Dismally, he believed that modernization produced a society of poor outcast, which he referred to as ‘human waste.’ He believed that modern societies positioned their people in order placements called social hierarchies. By placing people in categories, a fraction of a population of people became considered ‘undesirable’ or ‘unfit’ casts of society.
In his writing, Bauman made a wonderful analogy to Michelangelo’s artwork and society’s human waste. He described how Michelangelo created his masterpieces through
“cutting out and throwing away the superfluous, the needless and the useless, so that the beautiful, the harmonious, the pleasing and the gratifying were to be divined” (Bauman Z. ,
Wasted Lives; Modernity and Its Outcasts, 2004, p. 21) . In other words, in order for societies to achieve perfection, they needed to dispose of unnecessary human waste first.
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“The planet is full” is a statement in sociology and political science. It refers not to the state of the earth, but to the ways and means of its inhabitants. It signals the disappearance of ‘no man’s lands’, territories fit to be defined and/or treated as void of human habitation as well as devoid of sovereign administration- and thus open to (clamoring for!) colonization and settlement. Such territories, now largely absent, for a greater part of modern history played the crucial role of dumping grounds for the human waste turned out in ever rising volumes in the parts of the globe affected by the process of modernization”
(Bauman Z. , Introduction, 2011, p.
5) .
Bauman believed that long ago, parts of the world were only partially affected by modernization. These lands were able to absorb people they deemed as outcasts and able to create global solutions to temporarily relieve poverty and overpopulation problems. However, as the world became increasingly more globalized, “all localities (including, most notably, the highly modernized ones) had to bear the consequences of modernity’s global triumph” (Bauman
Z. , Wasted Lives; Modernity and Its Outcasts, 2004, p. 6). Bauman suggested that “in fact there are too many rich people. His notion of liquidity described the social and political transformations that took place in the mid and late twentieth century, represented by the disintegration or ‘liquidation’ of the institutions of modernity” (Bauman Z. a.-M., 2010). He blamed neoliberalism for our current nation-state crisis. Additionally, he viewed liquid capitalism as being “the passage from a society of producers into a society of consumers”
(Bauman Z. a.-M., 2010).
Societies around the world are struggling to find local solutions to globally produced problems. They are trying to find spaces for this deprived group of people. Sadly, he stressed that “globalization has become the third and most prolific and least controlled, ‘production line’ of human waste or wasted humans” (Bauman Z. , Wasted Lives; Modernity and Its Outcasts,
2004, p. 6). If this is the case, doesn’t it make sense to educate the youth about this global crisis?
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Conclusion
Part III. Project Harambee: A Teachers/Students Vision of Global Citizenship
“A teacher who establishes rapport with the taught, becomes one with them, learns more from them than he teaches them. He who learns nothing from his disciples is, in my opinion, worthless. Whenever I talk with someone I learn from him. I take from him more than I give him. In this way, a true teacher regards himself as a student of his students. If you will teach
your pupils with this attitude, you will benefit much from them” M. Gandhi (Burke, 2011).
The following is a synopsis of a student created project during the 2010/11 school year in
Dixon, Illinois. The project was created by a group of Midwest students to bring local awareness and funding towards the eradication of global poverty. The students involved in this project were in 7 th
grade, of mixed races, and came from different socio-economic statuses. Additionally, all the students were ranked in the top 5 th
percentile among their peers, qualifying them for placement into the accelerated social studies course.
“This is the process that my students shifted through as they researched, conceptualized, and synthesized the effects of poverty of children in their community and throughout the world. It was through this process, that the youth within my classroom developed solutions to help eliminate world hunger” (Kitzman, 2011).
At the beginning the second semester 2010, each of my students were required to choose a country in Africa that they wanted to research for a final paper. As part of the research they were to include a variety of components for their particular African country: the geography, culture, economy, government, and transnational issues. At the conclusion of the research, each student created a multi-media presentation to share with their peers in the classroom. As the students presented their papers, they noticed that there was a common thread woven between many of their countries: the issue of poverty in Africa.
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November 29, 2011
Following the final presentations, my students asked me the question: “What can we do to help children living in impoverished countries?” I replied, “That is a good question. What do you think we should do to help the children living in impoverished countries?” They responded,
“Let’s figure it out!”
I found it really enlightening that they automatically took a global view of poverty. There was no separation of impoverished children living in America versus children living in Africa. I honestly believe they look at the world around them differently, than my generation did. When I was a child growing up in the 70s, it would have been unusual to raise money to send overseas. Interestingly enough, several of my students’ parents that grew up in my generation questioned why we were raising money for children so far away. They felt that all the money raised should be given to children only living in our community. However, the students didn’t seem to be limited by these same boundaries. They conceptualized that all children living in poverty were children needing immediate attention and support, regardless of where they lived in the world. From that day on, we started brainstorming different ways that we could help eliminate poverty together in our community and in sub-Saharan Africa. We decided to call our project, Project Harambee, which means lets pull together in Swahili.
Project Harambee had a two-fold goal: (1) to build school wide awareness of impoverished children living locally and abroad and (2) to raise money to support organizations sustaining impoverished children at home and abroad. In order to achieve school wide awareness, we decided to divide the students into small groups. The role of each group was to educate the rest of the students throughout our school concerning this issue. As they visited each classroom in the building, they encouraged everyone to get involved in eradicating poverty by joining local/global organizations, such as Heifer International and the American Red Cross. By the end of the day, they were able to educate approximately 600 students about the effects of poverty at home and abroad.
The second part of the project focused on raising money to support local and global organizations fighting poverty. Each student researched and compiled a list of reputable organizations for which they wanted to raise funds. After reviewing everyone’s ideas, the class took a vote and determined that they wanted to support two key organizations, Heifer
International and the American Red Cross. Heifer International’s vision stated that,
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“Heifer International works with communities to end hunger and poverty and care for the earth.
By empowering the lives of self-reliance and hope with livestock and training, we help families improve their nutrition and generate income in sustainable ways” (Heifer International, 2011).
The students seemed to be drawn to the fact that Heifer provided people with self-sustaining livestock, without harming the animals in any way. The second organization of choice was our local American Red Cross Chapter. They hoped to raise money that would support people in our community in times of need.
In order to raise money, the students decided to have a school dance. The day of the dance they decorated the gym with an African theme and displayed posters with facts about poverty throughout it. Additionally, they made and sold African masks, bookmarks, and exotic flowers. They invited the District Superintendent, staff, and parents to attend the dance. Lastly, the Student Council in our building volunteered to open the concession stand for the evening and donated all proceeds earned to our project. By the end of the night, we raised a total of $520.00.
The $520.00 was divided evenly between our two designated organizations. A check was given to our local Red Cross chapter and the other half was used to purchase animals from Heifer
International. The students were thrilled when they were able to purchase a goat for $120.00, a sheep for $120.00 and a share of a pig for $20.00 from Heifer!
As an educator for the past eighteen years, I was extremely proud of my students. The project supported the global lifelong skill of giving. Moreover, they were able to conceptualize what poverty means in their world and act as a responsible “global citizens”. I was touched by their desire to actively change the lives of children throughout the globe. I strongly believe that they will continue to “pay this global knowledge forward” as they become future adults.
I learned that being a teacher doesn’t always mean that I have to be in charge all the time. Educators need to listen and learn from the youth today. Student’s often have the purest hearts, achievable dreams with global solutions. They view their world as being interconnected and seem empowered to change it for the better. This will be increasingly important for educators to keep in mind, as the world in which they teach becomes more globalized.
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Although my students seem to instinctively hold this globalized view, most of the middle schools in the area do not even include global education into their curriculum. Clearly, this needs to change! Global education should be aligned with social studies curriculums at the secondary level nationwide. Therefore, students could be given the opportunities, resources, and support to conceptualize and change their world for the better. Imagine what could be achieved if global citizenship was included into the common core for grades 6-12 in the future!
This is an ongoing battle that educators will have to prioritize as the world becomes more globalized. It is the responsibility of educators, as citizens of the world, to continue to advocate for updated global curriculums. As Nodding states, “Any discussion of how to nurture this sense of global citizenship must, therefore, look at how equipped schools are to play this sustaining role in the lives of young people” (Nodding, 2005).
All facets of society will need to come together to support global education. Currently, nations are trying to develop educational responses to multicultural and multigenerational populations. Therefore, “the globalization of education should be researched from a holistic and complex perspective with a consideration of the dynamic conflicts and intersections of the following major players: intergovernmental organizations; global and local school leaders and citizens; media and popular culture; international nongovernment organizations; multinational learning, publishing, and testing corporations; progressive and radical school agendas; religions; and the mass migration of the world’s peoples” (Spring, 2009).
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