The Culture of Poverty and Other Myths that Harm LowIncome Students

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The Culture of Poverty and Other Myths that
Harm Low-Income Students

• by Paul C. Gorski - gorski_at_EdChange.org

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I. What We (Think We) Know

• Class and Poverty Awareness Quiz
• Humility is key
• Cognitive dissonance is inevitable

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Introductory BlabberWho We Are

• Whos in the room?
• My background and lens

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Introductory BlabberStarting Assumptions

• All students deserve equitable access to the best
  possible education
• Gross inequities in society and schools mean that
  all students dont have equitable access (See
  handout.)
• Low-income people bear the brunt of almost every
  imaginable social ill in the U.S.

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Introductory BlabberObjectives

• Understand class and poverty in the U.S. more
  complexly - consciousness
• Learn what educators can do to ensure we arent
  contributing to the inequities
• Learn what educators can do to counter the
  inequities - pragmatism

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Introductory BlabberThe Agenda

• Introductory Blabber (in progress)
• Stereotypes of Economically Disadvantaged
• Key Concepts
• The Big Picture Ten Chairs and a Pyramid
• Dimensions of Class Inequity in Schools
• Shifts of Consciousness
• Being an Anti-Poverty Educator

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Part II

• Stereotypes of the Economically Disadvantaged

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II. Stereotypers Are Us

• Pairs Name all the stereotypes you know about
  low-income people
• And note where they come from

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II. Stereotypers Are Us

• Stereotype Laziness
• Ah, but According to the Economic Policy
  Institute (2002), poor working adults spend more
  hours working per week on average than their
  wealthier counterparts.

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II. Stereotypers Are Us

• Stereotype Dont 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).

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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).

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II. Stereotypers Are Us

• Stereotype Crime and Violence
• Ah, but Poor people do not commit more crime
  than wealthy peoplethey only commit more visible
  crime. Furthermore, white collar crime results
  in much greater economic (and life) losses than
  so-called violent crime.

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II. Stereotypers Are Us

• Where, then, do these stereotypes come from, and
  what are their implications?
• more on this later

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Part III

• Three Cool Key Concepts

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III. Key Concepts

• The Culture of Poverty
• Deficit Theory
• The Undeserving Poor

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III. Key ConceptThe Culture of Poverty

• What is it?
• Who made it up?
• What the research says
• Why its dangerous
• Where youve seen it in education

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III. Key ConceptThe Deficit Theory

• Two Components
• Example Paynes reflections on Katrina (see
  handout)
• Why its dangerous
• Where youve seen it in education

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III. Key ConceptThe Undeserving Poor

• Herbert Gans, The War Against the Poor
• Deterioration of support for policy
• Welfare Reform

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Part IV

• The Big Picture
• Ten Chairs and a Pyramid

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Part VI

• Shifts of Consciousness

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VI. Shift of Consciousness 1

• Must be willing to think critically about those
  things about which Ive 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

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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

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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

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VI. Shift of Consciousness 4

• Must acknowledge class-related inequities and
  oppressionsand understand them as systemic and
  not just individual acts and practices
• So changing hearts isnt enough to create
  equitable schoolsmust prepare ourselves and
  others to change institutions and society

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VI. Shift of Consciousness 6

• Must challenge stereotypes
• From students, peers, parents, bosses, whoever
• And if you dont have the information to
  challenge the stereotypes, then actively seek it
  out

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VI. Shift of Consciousness 7

• Must refuse to mistake socioeconomic class with
  culture
• Class is sociopolitical in natureits largely
  done to people

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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?

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Part VII

• What We Can Do

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VII. What We Can Do Fight for Poor Students

• Fight to keep low-income students from being
  placed unfairly into lower tracks.
• And fight to get them into gifted and talented
  programs.
• Or fight tracking altogether.

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VII. What We Can DoTeach About Class and Poverty

• Lack of living wage jobs
• Dissolution of labor unions
• Growing wealth gap
• Corporate control of government and schools
• Etc.

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VII. What We Can DoTake Back Our Heroes

• Resist whitewashing or commercialization of
  social justice heroes who fought for class equity
• MLK
• Helen Keller
• Mark Twain

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VII. What We Can DoHelp Students with
Necessities

• Keep extra coats, school supplies, and snacks
  around.
• Distribute them quietly.

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VII. What We Can DoRethink Parent Involvement

• Is it equitable? Is it accessible to all parents,
  such as those who
• Cant afford childcare or public transportation
• Dont have jobs with paid leave?
• Work multiple jobs?
• Experienced school as hostile when they were
  students?

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VII. What We Can DoBe Assessed

• Invite a colleague to observe your interactions
  with students and give you feedback

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VII. What We Can DoHave High Expectations

• Give low-income students access to high-quality,
  higher-order thinking curriculum and pedagogythe
  kind usually reserved for their wealthier peers

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VII. What We Can DoBe Relevant

• Make sure examples and content are relevant to
  the lives of low-income students

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VII. What We Can DoBe Persistent

• Continue reaching out to low-income families who
  you experience as unresponsiveand dont assume
  you know why theyre being unresponsive
• We dont make up for generations of hostility
  with one or two phone calls

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VII. What We Can DoBe 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

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VII. What We Can DoDont Let Them Eat Cake

• Fight to ensure that school lunches offer healthy
  options
• School-served breakfasts are infamous for being
  unhealthy

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VII. What We Can DoBe Careful with Corporations

• Carefully review corporate-school partnerships

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VII. What We Can DoUse Best Practices

• Research has shown that there is no set of best
  practices specifically for teaching low-income
  studentsbut that best practices are best
  practices if we can assess where students are

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VII. What We Can DoEvaluate Materials

• FINALLY
• Make sure your classroom or office materials or
  decorations do not stereotypeeven if
  subtlyeconomically disadvantaged people

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• Paul C. Gorski
• gorski_at_edchange.org
• http//www.EdChange.org