Week 5 deficit vs asset-based PDF

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Professor Nevarez - EDUC 124 Lectures Notes...

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DEFICIT-BASED APPROACHES TO TEACHING Deficit Thinking: “a pseudoscience founded on racial and class bias. It ‘blame the victim’ for school failure instead of examining how schools are structured to prevent poor students and students of color from learning” Educators, administrators, researchers, community members who view marginalized students (and our families) through a deficit lens are unable to see the rich knowledge and the resources we bring to the classroom. They mistakenly believe that we don’t have knowledge because our knowledge(s), traditions, and experiences, are not the dominant ones. Deficit Thinking manifest in 3 ways: 1. “Genetic Pathology” Model a. Stems from the common belief among scientific racists taht genetics has a powerfully permanent influence in shaping behavior, particularly in intelligence” b. Ex: racist scientists trying to prove that people who are low-income/of color are genetically inferior, have lower IQ 2. “Culture of Poverty” Model a. Asserts that the values of people who are in poverty play a significant role in perpetuating their impoverished condition, (sustaining a cycle of poverty across generations). b. Ex: the idea that people of low-income are to blame for their economic conditions. It’s their own fault i. And how we are shamed for ways in which we spend our $ 3. “At-Risk” Model a. Typically used in reference to low-income students of color living in urban areas b. Encourages educators to stereotype children c. Most “at-risk” literature focuses primarily on familial characteristics and personal characteristics of students d. Ex: idea that students of color don’t achieve in education because parents/fam don’t place a high value in education Reflect Do you have any examples of low income communities being blame for their economic conditions? Have you ever been shamed for not having material wealth and/or shamed for how you spend your money? Deficit-based language blames the victims of inequality for inequality instead of seeing the bigger picture: inequality has been built into our institutions Deficit-based approach → When researchers or educators focus on what children are lacking they are taking a “deficit-based approach” “ELD”

Asset-based approach →When researchers or educators use asset-based approaches they are highlighting the strengths and knowledge(s) that students bring to the classroom “Emergent bilingual” A history of framing nondominant parents as problems and hindrances to educational success - Civilization Fund Act of 1819 - Americanization Programs - Moynihan Report of 1954

ASSET-BASED APPROACHES How can we best serve minoritized students? How can we shift deficit-based narratives to values and sustain diverse knowledge? Pedagogy: the art or science of teaching; teaching method (can also involve your philosophy and theory of teaching) Theory: helps us to explain how the world works Theories and Pedagogies that inform my teaching - Sociocultural Theory of Learning (Vygotsky) - Learning is a social process - We acquire new knowledge when educators draw from and build on what we already know - Critical Pedagogy (Feire) - We are all teachers and learners. We all come to the classroom with knowledge - Education requires that we reflect, dialogue, and take action - Critical Race Theory (Bell, Matsuda, Delgado, Solorzano) - Racism has been built into our schools, laws, social institutions - Our experiential knowledge (as POC) is valid and valuable Asset-based/Strengths-based approaches to teaching An asset-based approach focuses on strength. It views diversity in thought, culture, and traits as positive assets. Teachers and students alike are valued for what they bring to the classroom.

Asset-Based Theories - Funds of Knowledge Theory - Theory of Community Cultural Wealth Asset-Based Pedagogies - Critical Pedagogy - Culturally Relevant Pedagogy - Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy Multiculturalism - 60-70’s Black Civil Rights Movement; Chicanca/o Civil Rights, Asian Civil Rights, Women’s Rights Resistance and Struggle at UCI Multicultural Education - Seeks to create equal educational opportunities for all students, including those from different racial, ethnic, and social-class groups - Aims to change the total school environment so that it will reflect the diverse cultures and groups within a society and within the nation’s classrooms Culturally Relevant Pedagogy 1. Students must experience academic success 2. Students must develop/maintain cultural competence 3. Students must develop a critical consciousness through which they challenge the statu quo of the current social order Funds of knowledge - Research focused on household and classroom practices within working class, Meixcan communities - Purpose: to develop innovations in teaching that draw upon knowledge and skills found in local households - Teachers as ethnographers/researchers who recognize paret/community “funds of knowledge” - Drawing from these “funds” to support lessons, learning, and to reframe parents/community members as sources of intellectual knowledge = bridges between home, school, and community Theory of Community Cultural Wealth Community Cultural Wealth - “Focuses on and learns from the array of cultural knowledge, skills, abilities, and contacts possessed by socially marginalized groups that often go unrecognized and unacknowledged - These forms of capital draw on the knowledges Students of Color bring with them from

their homes and communities into the classroom Linguistic Capital: having to translate for parents Resistant Capital: challenge authorities, stand up for yourself Navigational Capital: overcoming educational challenges Social Capital: communities and groups that have helped you get through Familial Capital: how family support you and educational aspirations Aspirational Capital: why is it important to get a college degree? Spiritual Capital: religion/church; developing spirituality/faith/leadership How can we best serve, support, sustain minoritized students? - Learn about your students. This will help you connect curriculum to lives - Share the power. Give students opportunities to make choice - Be an advocate, an activist. Stay informed about social justice/racial justice issues...