Peddling Poverty for Profit: Elements of Oppression in Ruby Payne's Framework

Gorski, Paul C.

doi:10.1080/10665680701761854

Cited by 71 publications

(52 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…Consider, for example, Payne's (2005) ascent as one of the most popular and prosperous school consultants on poverty and education (Ng & Rury, 2006). Payne enjoys wide and profitable access to school districts across the U.S., despite that the content of her work is grossly inaccurate (Bomer, Dworin, May, & Semingson, 2008) and oppressive (Gorski, 2008a;Osei-Kofi, 2005) and that her teacher workshops have been shown to deepen participants' negative stereotypes about poor families (Smiley & Helfenbein, 2011). Unfortunately, these conditions appear to be of little mitigating consequence against what has been another finding of scholarship about Payne's influence on class discourses in education: Her work, steeped in stereotypes about families in poverty, confirms the attitudes and worldviews that many teachers carry into the classroom with them (Redeaux, 2011).…”

mentioning

confidence: 97%

Perceiving the Problem of Poverty and Schooling: Deconstructing the Class Stereotypes that Mis-Shape Education Practice and Policy

Gorski

2012

Equity & Excellence in Education

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111

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A rich history of scholarship has demonstrated the ways in which popular stereotypes of disenfranchised communities, including people living in poverty, affect individual biases and preconceptions. Less attention has been paid to the ways in which such stereotypes help frame policy and practice responses regarding social problems, such as the economic "achievement gap." The purpose of this essay is to examine the nature of poverty-based stereotyping in the context of popular discourses regarding the education of poor and low-income students. In doing so, I analyze stereotypes commonly used to locate the problem of the economic "achievement gap" as existing within, rather than as pressing upon, poor and low-income families. I then discuss how these stereotypes have fed deficit ideology and, as a result, misdirected policy and practice responses to gross class inequities in U.S. schools.A long-time colleague of mine with a penchant for road rage-I'll call him Frederick-is fond of flinging the word "jerk" at drivers whose road skills have offended him in some way. That is, he is fond of directing this term at male drivers, or drivers he assumes to be men, and reserves it for them exclusively. When a driver he assumes to be a woman pulls in front of him, neglects to use a turn signal, or drives a few miles per hour under the speed limit, his response differs markedly. Rather than calling her a jerk, he shakes his head, brow furled, and exclaims with exasperation, "Women drivers!" I have challenged Frederick several times on what appears, to me, to be a clear case of gender stereotyping-of a biased worldview that is symptomatic of sexism. He responds to these challenges firmly: "That's not a stereotype. It's my experience. Women are bad drivers." He tends to append to this defense the common refrain, "Plus, there's a hint of truth in every stereotype; otherwise, why would so many people believe them?"As troubling as his attitude might be, Frederick is not alone in his worldview or in his tendency to see somebody within his gender group who has offended his sensibilities as an outlier, a jerk, while interpreting a female offender as representing all women. A long history of psychosocial research details the human tendency to imagine our own social and cultural identity groups as diverse while we imagine "the other," people belonging to a social or cultural identity group with which we are less familiar, as being, for all intents and purposes, monolithic (e.g., Clark,

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confidence: 97%

Perceiving the Problem of Poverty and Schooling: Deconstructing the Class Stereotypes that Mis-Shape Education Practice and Policy

Gorski

2012

Equity & Excellence in Education

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111

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“…The achievement of nondominant and poor youth relates partly to teacher expectations (Gershenson, Holt, & Papageorge, 2016;Gorski, 2013;Sorhagen, 2013). Thus, teachers need to know youth"s FOK because deficit perspectives on low SES youth abound in some schools (Biles, Mphande-Finn, & Stroud, 2012;Gorski, 2008). We ponder whether engaging in CSL projects like ours could help educators to teach math and science with a strengths-based perspective; this is worth further study.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Likewise, these home experiences must be acknowledged and included in specific curriculum areas for the youth to succeed academically (Moje et al 2004a). In our study, TCs assessed and affirmed the FOK of participating youth to counter a deficit model (Gorski, 2008) and to connect youth"s FOK to disciplinary lessons (Moje et al 2004a). …”

Section: Conceptual Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Latino Youth’s Out-of-School Math and Science Experiences: Impact on Teacher Candidates

Díaz¹,

Bussert-Webb²

2017

International Journal of Research in Education and Science

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Article History Received: 17 August 2016This qualitative study examines the learning and interaction processes between Latino/a teacher candidates (TCs) and youth during a community servicelearning program involving science and math. Knowing and affirming nondominant youth"s strengths are essential from funds of knowledge and Third Space perspectives. Participants were 11 TCs and their tutees, 30 youth in first through tenth grades. The study took place in a Texas border colonia, or unincorporated settlement lacking basic services. Data sources were participant observations, youth"s interviews and TCs" pre-and final reflections, rapportbuilding analyses, a focus group, and lesson plans. We found TCs incorporated the youth"s funds to develop and implement authentic math and science lessons with them. Implications relate to how community service-learning projects can help TCs" future math and science teaching and can create a Third Space to explore math and science in culturally-relevant ways.

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“…Funding in public school districts often reflects social and racial stratification (Biddle & Berliner, 2002;Condron & Roscigno, 2003), and poor and racially diverse students encounter inequities in the schooling experiences themselves (Fram, Miller-Cribbs, & Van Horn, 2007;Giroux & Schmidt, 2004;Kozol, 1991). In EFFECTIVE EDUCATIONAL PRACTICE 13 addition, the standardized tests that are common measures of student learning are often ineffective measures of culturally or racially diverse students' capabilities (Baker, 2005;Garcia & Guerra, 2004;Sternberg, 2007) and subsequently promote misguided responses, especially heavy remediation (Armstrong, 2010;Bomer, Dworin, May, & Semingson, 2008;Boykin, 1985;Gorski, 2007Gorski, & 2008Lundy, 2003;Rogalsky, 2009). …”

Section: Systemic Factors That Contribute To Poor Fitmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Standardized tests often fail to provide opportunities for poor and racially diverse students to demonstrate their advanced potential (Sternberg, 2007), may be culturally biased, often lack in quality, and do not accurately measure how or what minority or disadvantaged students have learned (Baker, 2005;Garcia & Guerra, 2004). Addressing pervasive systemic inequalities, classism, and racism that are perpetuated or reinforced in schools is ultimately more equitable than continuing to respond to test score discrepancies with increased test preparation and focus on basic skills (Armstrong, 2010;Bomer, Dworin, May, & Semingson, 2008;Boykin, 1985;Gorski, 2007Gorski, & 2008Lundy, 2003;Rogalsky, 2009). …”

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confidence: 99%

Effective Educational Practice: A Crucial First Step in Addressing the Needs of Traditionally Overlooked Students

Dimeo¹

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These students regularly encounter challenges that reflect a poor educational fit and their key needs are often overlooked in traditional school settings. These challenges include background factors such as poverty (Arnold & Doctoroff, 2003; Case, Fertigl, & Paxson, 2006;Rouse & Fantuzzo, 2009) and cultural differences (Bourdieu, 2008;Delpit, 2006;Garcia & Guerra, 2004;Jaeger, 2011;Lareau, 2003;Morrison, Robbins, & Rose, 2008;Rothstein-Fisch & Greenfield, 2000;Sternberg, 2004Sternberg, & 2007, as well as greater systemic inequalities such as funding (Biddle & Berliner, 2002;Condron & Roscigno, 2003), inequitable schooling experiences (Fram, Miller-Cribbs, & Van Horn, 2007;Giroux & Schmidt, 2004;Kozol, 1991), low teacher perspectives and expectations (Armstrong, 2010;Delpit, 2006;Garcia & Guerra, 2004), and low-quality curriculum (Baker, 2005;Freire, 2009;Garcia & Guerra, 2004) that lacks cultural relevance & responsiveness (Banks, 2006;.Despite these challenges, classrooms can support equity in access to excellence in education for traditionally overlooked students by (1) holding high expectations of all students while simultaneously providing high levels of support (e.g. Delpit, 2006;Howard, 2001;Ladson-Billings, 1992;Morrison, Robbins, & Rose, 2008;Swartz, 2009), (2) affirming and capitalizing on student culture and strengths, and (3) developing student efficacy and sense of empowerment (e.g. Banks, 2006;Benson, 2003;Ladson-Billings, 1992;Martinez, 2009;Matczynski, Rogus, Lasley, & Joseph, 2000;Morrison, Robbins, & Rose, 2008;Richards, Brown, & Forde, 2007;Rothstein-Fisch & Greenfield, 2000;Seidl, 2007;Sternberg, 2010;Sternberg, Gringorenko, & Bundy, 2001;Swartz, 2009).Such efforts require a foundation of best educational practices (Hattie, 2009), and Tomlinson's model of Differentiation (Sousa & Tomlinson, 2011) is a highly useful frame for considering both best educational practice and the needs of traditionally overlooked students. This is because it is a model that is grounded in research-based approaches in all areas of classroom practice; rather than being a formula or collection of strategies, it is an approach to thinking about teaching and learning where teachers "proactively modify curricula, teaching methods, resources, learning activities, and student products to address the diverse needs of individual students and small groups of students to maximize the learning opportunity for each student in a classroom" (Tomlinson, Brighton, Hertberg, Callahan, Moon, Brimijoin, Conover, & Reynolds, 2003, p 121).The school site I partnered with for this capstone project had a significant population of traditionally overlooked students (i.e. 40% or more of students were considered to be from backgrounds of poverty) and desired support in addressing the needs of both this group of students as well for all students. This capstone project was conducted with a practical action research design overall and an ethnographic approach to data collection and analysis. After spending significant time observing teachers,...

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Peddling Poverty for Profit: Elements of Oppression in Ruby Payne's Framework

Cited by 71 publications

References 36 publications

Perceiving the Problem of Poverty and Schooling: Deconstructing the Class Stereotypes that Mis-Shape Education Practice and Policy

Perceiving the Problem of Poverty and Schooling: Deconstructing the Class Stereotypes that Mis-Shape Education Practice and Policy

Latino Youth’s Out-of-School Math and Science Experiences: Impact on Teacher Candidates

Effective Educational Practice: A Crucial First Step in Addressing the Needs of Traditionally Overlooked Students

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