Exploring Deficit Discourse Among Preservice and In-Service Literacy Educators to Promote Culturally Responsive Pedagogy

• In Event: Preparing Culturally Responsive Teachers for Equity-Oriented Classrooms: How Do We Evaluate Their Effectiveness and Our Own?

Abstract

Purpose
The literacy faculty at a regional, comprehensive university in the southeastern U.S. explored the perceptions of students in their graduate literacy programs—as well as undergraduate and graduate students in contiguous, supported programs—regarding the achievement gaps between Latinx and bi/multilingual students and their English-dominant peers. The purpose of this study was to explore the prevalence of deficit discourse among pre-service and in-service teachers in order to inform discussions about systemic change and improvement in the literacy education courses and programs at the university.

Theoretical Framework
At the core of this study is a realization that culturally competent educators should be aware of the dangers of deficit discourse when interacting with culturally and linguistically diverse students and when involved in systemic decision making. Richard Valencia (1997, 2010) set out to dismantle contemporary notions of deficit discourse that continue to thrive in education. He outlined six characteristics of deficit thinking: victim blaming, educability, oppression, pseudoscience, temporal changes, and heterodoxy.

Data Sources
The researchers developed a short online survey that was adapted from a test score analysis writing activity originally developed by Brooks (2018) in which pre-service teachers were asked why Latinx and African American students scored significantly lower on the State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness (STAAR) in Reading for the years 2013 and 2014. The adapted survey for this study presented student achievement data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in Reading for Georgia for the years 2015 and 2017.

Method
In addition to answering demographic and background questions on the online survey, pre-service and in-service teachers (N = 60) wrote a brief narrative explaining why, in their opinion, the reading scores of Latinx students and bi/multilingual students were significantly lower than their English-dominant peers. Using Valencia’s (1997) six characteristics of deficit thinking, the researchers analyzed participants’ responses to determine if deficit discourse was prevalent among participants. Data were open coded and analyzed using a constant comparative approach (Glaser & Strauss, 1967).

Results
Results were disaggregated by participants’ cultural and professional backgrounds to determine the pervasiveness of deficit discourses among varying subgroups of pre-service and practicing literacy educators concerning their understanding of student diversity. Analysis of qualitative responses revealed that primarily covert deficit thinking involving victim blaming, educability, and oppression was evidenced in all participants’ responses. In addition, overt, explicit biases were more prevalent as age increased.

Significance
Most startling was our discovery that many of participants, in calling out the oppressive and systemic challenges Latinx and bi/multilingual students face, dismissed their own responsibilities to be change agents within their classrooms and districts (Kennedy & Soutullo, 2018). Not only do teachers and leaders need cultural competency training, but students also need exposure to those who are different from them. Comprehensive, ongoing culturally diverse literature and global perspectives should be part of a democratic education (Suleiman, 2014); as such, the researchers have begun to propose concrete changes to the curriculum in their undergraduate and graduate programs.

Authors

• Tamra W. Ogletree, The University of West Georgia

• Robert A. Griffin, University of West Georgia