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Beyond the ‘Culture of Poverty’ Myth: Creating Equitable Schools

Beyond the ‘Culture of Poverty’ Myth: Creating Equitable Schools. by Paul C. Gorski - gorski@EdChange.org. I. What We (Think We) Know. Class and Poverty Awareness Quiz Humility is key Cognitive dissonance is inevitable . I. Introductory Blabber. Getting the most out of it:

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Beyond the ‘Culture of Poverty’ Myth: Creating Equitable Schools

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  1. Beyond the ‘Culture of Poverty’ Myth: Creating Equitable Schools by Paul C. Gorski - gorski@EdChange.org

  2. I. What We (Think We) Know Class and Poverty Awareness Quiz • Humility is key • Cognitive dissonance is inevitable

  3. I. Introductory Blabber • Getting the most out of it: • Comfortable with discomfort • Respond positively to cognitive dissonance • Willing to be challenged and pushed

  4. Introductory Blabber:Who We Are • Who’s in the room? • My background and lens • The gap (NMH story)

  5. Introductory Blabber:Starting Assumptions • All students deserve equitable access to the best possible education • Gross inequities in society and schools mean that all students don’t have equitable access • Poor people bear the brunt of almost every imaginable social ill in the U.S.

  6. Introductory Blabber:Objectives • Understand class and poverty in the U.S. more complexly - consciousness • Learn what educators can do to ensure we aren’t contributing to the inequities • Learn what educators can do to counter the inequities - pragmatism

  7. Introductory Blabber:The Agenda • Introductory Blabber (in progress) • Stereotypes and the Poor • Key Concepts • The Big Picture: Ten Chairs and a Pyramid • Dimensions of Class Inequity in Schools • Shifts of Consciousness • Being an Anti-Poverty Educator

  8. Part II: Stereotypes of the Poor

  9. II. Stereotypers Are Us • Small groups: List all the stereotypes you know about poor people • And note where they come from

  10. II. Stereotypers Are Us Stereotype: Laziness Ah, but: According to the Economic Policy Institute (2002), poor working adults spend more hours workingper week on average than their wealthier counterparts.

  11. II. Stereotypers Are Us Stereotype: Don’t Value Education Ah, but: Low-income parents hold the exact same attitudes about education as wealthy parents (Compton-Lilly, 2003; Lareau & Horvat, 1999; Leichter, 1978; Varenne & McDermott, 1986).

  12. II. Stereotypers Are Us Stereotype: Substance Abuse Ah, but: Alcohol abuse is far more prevalent among wealthy people than poor people (Galea, Ahern, Tracy, & Vlahov, 2007). And drug use equally distributed across poor, middle class, and wealthy communities (Saxe, Kadushin, Tighe, Rindskopf, & Beveridge, 2001).

  13. II. Stereotypers Are Us Stereotype: Crime and Violence Ah, but: Poor people do not commit more crime than wealthy people—they only commit more visible crime. Furthermore, white collar crime results in much greater economic (and life) losses than so-called “violent” crime.

  14. II. Stereotypers Are Us Where, then, do these stereotypes come from, and what are their implications? …more on this later…

  15. Part III For Cool Key Concepts

  16. III. Key Concepts • The ‘Culture of Poverty’ • Deficit Theory • The “Undeserving” Poor • Neoliberalism

  17. III. Key Concept:The ‘Culture of Poverty’ • What is it? • Who made it up? • What the research says • Why it’s dangerous • Where you’ve seen it in education

  18. III. Key Concept:The ‘Deficit Theory’ • Two Components • Example: Payne’s reflections on Katrina (see handout) • Why it’s dangerous • Where you’ve seen it in education

  19. III. Key Concept:The ‘Undeserving Poor’ • How it’s supported (‘culture of poverty’ myth and deficit theory) • Why it’s problematic • Its implications (“welfare reform”) • How we’ve been duped

  20. III. Key Concept:The ‘Neoliberalism’ • The bottom line?

  21. Part IV The Big Picture: Ten Chairs and a Pyramid

  22. Part V Application: Four Dimensions of Class Inequity in Schools

  23. V. Class Inequities in Schools • See handout • Small groups: • One you’ve observed • One you’ve participated in • One you feel empowered to change • One you feel unempowered to change

  24. Part VI Shifts of Consciousness

  25. VI. Shift of Consciousness #1 • Must be willing to think critically about those things about which I’ve been taught not to think critically • Corporate capitalism • Two-party political system • Consumer culture • And the relationship between these things and racism • Myth of meritocracy

  26. VI. Shift of Consciousness #2 • Must understand the intersectionality of class with race, gender, disability, and other factors. • We cannot fully understand poverty without understanding how it relates to these issues. • Racism as economic exploitation

  27. VI. Shift of Consciousness #3 • Must expose and reject deficit theory and the “culture of poverty” myth • Blame people in oppressed groups for their oppression • Create hostile conditions, then demonize people for being angry or resistant

  28. VI. Shift of Consciousness #4 • Must acknowledge class-related inequities and oppressions—and understand them as systemic and not just individual acts and practices • So changing hearts isn’t enough to create equitable schools—must prepare ourselves and others to change institutions and society

  29. VI. Shift of Consciousness #5 • Must regain a sense or urgency • “Change takes time” • How much time does it take? • An expression of privilege

  30. VI. Shift of Consciousness #6 • Must challenge stereotypes • From students, peers, parents, bosses, whoever… • And if you don’t have the information to challenge the stereotypes, then actively seek it out

  31. VI. Shift of Consciousness #7 • Must refuse to mistake socioeconomic class with “culture” • Class is sociopolitical in nature—it’s largely done to people

  32. VI. Shift of Consciousness #8 • Must be willing to unsettle and discomfort • Institutional likeability • Who am I trying to keep comfortable, and at whose expense?

  33. VI. Shift of Consciousness #9 • Must be careful to avoid “saviour syndrome” or “messiah mentality” • This is an expression of supremacy and privilege • Who, exactly, is being “saved” in anti-poverty work?

  34. VI. Shift of Consciousness #10 • Focus on understanding the cultures and forces of power and privilege, not only on the experiences and cultures of the dispossessed “other” • We cannot understand class and poverty without understanding the influence of the wealthy elite on education

  35. Part VII What We Can Do

  36. VII. What We Can Do:Challenge & Support Each Other • Strengthen “the choir.” • Challenge each other. Be brutally honest. Worst possible case is people committed to class equity contributing to inequity and injustice.

  37. VII. What We Can Do: Fight for Poor Students • Fight to keep poor students from being places unfairly into lower tracks. • And fight to get them into gifted and talented programs. • Or fight tracking altogether.

  38. VII. What We Can Do:Teach About Class and Poverty • Lack of living wage jobs • Dissolution of labor unions • Growing wealth gap • Corporate control of government • Etc.

  39. VII. What We Can Do:Take Back Our Heroes • Resist whitewashing or commercialization of social justice heroes who fought for class equity • MLK • Helen Keller • Mark Twain

  40. VII. What We Can Do:Help Students with Necessities • Keep extra coats, school supplies, and snacks around. • Distribute them quietly.

  41. VII. What We Can Do:Rethink Parent Involvement • Is it equitable? Is it accessible to all parents, such as those who: • Can’t afford childcare or public transportation • Don’t have jobs with paid leave? • Work multiple jobs? • Experienced school as hostile when they were students?

  42. VII. What We Can Do:Be Assessed • Invite a colleague to observe your interactions with students and give you feedback

  43. VII. What We Can Do:Have High Expectations • Give poor students access to high-quality, higher-order thinking curriculum and pedagogy—the kind usually reserved for their wealthier peers

  44. VII. What We Can Do:Be Relevant • Make sure examples and content are relevant to the lives of poor students

  45. VII. What We Can Do:Be Persistent • Continue reaching out to poor families who you experience as unresponsive—and don’t assume you know why they’re being unresponsive • We don’t make up for generations of hostility with one or two phone calls…

  46. VII. What We Can Do:Be Thoughtful • Never assume that all students have easy access to computers and the Internet • Do not assign work requiring these resources without providing in-class time to complete them

  47. VII. What We Can Do:Don’t “Let Them Eat Cake” • Fight to ensure that school lunches offer healthy options • School-served breakfasts are infamous for being unhealthy

  48. VII. What We Can Do:Be Careful with Corporations • Carefully review corporate-school partnerships

  49. VII. What We Can Do:Use Best Practices • Research has shown that there is no set of “best practices” specifically for teaching poor students—but that “best practices” are “best practices” if we can assess where students are

  50. VII. What We Can Do:Evaluate Materials • Make sure your classroom or office materials or decorations do not stereotype—even if subtly—poor people

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