Whose Literacy? Discourses of Student Ability as Proxies for Race in Social Studies Teacher Inquiry

• In Event: Moscone Center West Roundtable Session 3
  In Roundtable Session: Discussion, Discourse, and Collaboration in the English Language Arts Classroom

Abstract

Teachers’ perspectives of students can influence their expectations of them (Cole, 1995), and deficit views of students can undermine professional development, even when targeted to teachers of students from nondominant backgrounds (Ball, 2002; Delpit, 2000). This paper foregrounds the impact of deficit ideologies as expressed in a teacher inquiry group focused on social studies literacy, exploring how teacher perspectives of students intersect with views of social studies literacy pedagogy. Although the inquiry group talk never referenced race, it dichotomized generic and disciplinary literacy practices in ways that tied perceived student ability to access to particular practices. Representations of ability stood in as proxies for race, expressing a discourse of color-blindness that overlooked the limits on learning this framing creates.

Author

• Carmela Gustafson, Teachers College, Columbia University/Connetquot CSD of Islip