Inclusionary Research Practices as Related to Exclusionary Findings: An Inside Look at the Deficit Constructs of School Readiness Discourse

• In Event: 51.078 - MTCC Roundtable Session 21
  In Roundtable Session: 51.078-2 - Foregrounding Children's Views and Voices in Critical Times

Abstract

This project focuses on the lives of classified non-school ready children who are low income and Black and are not able to master the tasks assigned by the push for school readiness. They are quickly classified as deficient, based on White middle class normative discourses. This perpetuates racist exclusionary practices that relate to the Theory of cultural deprivation (Bloom, 1964). Ironically, at first I was imposing exclusionary practices during my research, which objectified the children in my study.

As an insider in this study, (a teacher in the school), I encountered ethical dilemmas. At first I utilized traditional observation protocols and did not interact with the children. I found this to be detrimental to my research so I began to participate in my observations. This helped me to stop seeing them as overall examples of ‘marginalized’ and excluded populations, but instead as children with educational needs. The following year one of the children (Jay) was assigned my classroom and since I had already developed a relationship I became more active in our observations. And more importantly, he became more active, as he opened up to me about his likes and dislikes and what he needed as a student. His parents became a part of the process and we met regularly working on Jay’s prior classification of being non-school ready. He became engaged in his own learning and discovering his identity as a learner.

I was aware that even as a critical educator, I held certain values/perceptions related to being a White person. I realized that I couldn’t be, as an insider in this study, completely objective or neutral on this topic. I had to acknowledge this dilemma of being a White educator, with privilege, viewing and researching Black children. I also had to reflect on my own teaching practices, such as participating in higher referrals of Black children to the special education team (Harry & Klingner, 2006).

Objectives: We must disrupt the school readiness deficit discourse as it often results in children feeling disempowered in schools. Furthermore, this discourse diminishes children’s agency, in classrooms, and as a result, their voices are ignored or ‘othered’ in conversations about their educational experiences. Ethical research must be with and for the children in a study. I learned that research must be inclusive of children’s participation, especially when it is about exclusionary practices, otherwise it is counter-productive.

Methods: Utilizing participatory observations of 5 low-income Black children in K/1 classrooms I uncovered exclusionary practices related to school readiness classification.

Theoretical Framework: The larger study on school readiness and the exclusionary practice/classification of low-income non-White children utilizes Anti-deficit theory (Keddie, 1973; Valencia 2010) and critical perspectives of the Theory of cultural deprivation (Bloom, 1964).

Significance of study: This reflection on the process of research is key to uncovering our own research biases that affects how we portray children and their world. Especially in these critical times it is important to reflect and provide key understandings that reconceptualises children as vital social agents in the research process.

Author

• Miriam B. Tager, Westfield State University