A deficit story in motion: How marginalized youngsters are defined out of the educational game before they enter school

Abstract

This paper offers a case study of the Life History of the Word Gap (WG) Story, the most prominent deficit discourse of the contemporary era. Mindful of mounting critiques of deficit thinking and informed by Bakhtinian theory, we seek to understand the Story's ascendance by interrogating its evolving historical context. Where did the Story begin, what fueled its circulation, what were its consequences, and how does it end? We found that implicit biases of class, race, and method converged with sociopolitical developments to create a thoroughly flawed but remarkably resilient WG Story. Heedless of history, structural inequalities, and contradictory evidence from other disciplines, the Story spread across American research, policy, and media, attaining the status of received wisdom and infiltrating schools. Ethnographic studies revealed that the Story stigmatizes poor youngsters, shapes teachers’ and peers’ perceptions, and creates discriminatory programs and practices. We conclude by addressing obstacles to imagining new stories.