Culture & Poverty

Emtinan AlqurashiElif Gokbel

Overview - Introducing poverty - Key points on poverty - Culture and education - Connections to Social Justice- Empirical studies

Introducing Poverty The extent to which an individual does without resources.

- Financial- Emotional- Mental- Spiritual- Physical - Support systems- Role models- Knowledge of hidden rules

Payne, (2003, 2005)

Key points on poverty ➢ It is relative.➢ It occur in all races and in all countries. ➢ There are cultural differences in poverty. ➢ Generational poverty and situational poverty are different.➢ Schools operate from middle-class norms and values. ➢ Individuals bring with them the hidden rules of the class

in which they were raised.

Payne, (2003, 2005)

Key points on poverty ➢ To move from poverty to middle class, one must give up

(for a period of time) relationships for achievement. ➢ Two things that help one move out of poverty are

education and relationships.➢ Four reasons one leaves poverty are: ➢ It’s painful to stay➢ A vision or goal➢ A key relationship➢ A special talent or skill

Payne, (2003, 2005)

Culture and education Culture: - norms, values, attitudes and

patterns of behavior- spiritual, material, intellectual

and emotional features of society

- lifestyles, ways of living together, value systems, traditions and beliefs

- shapes individual’s worldviews

(Lamont & Small, 2008)

Connections to social justice

Facts from UNESCO-Mother’s schooling / Infant mortality -Secondary education for girls / Wage -Schooling for a country’s population / Civil war -People of voting age with a primary education / support democracy-Well‐nourished children / be in the correct grade at school-Low‐income countries with basic reading skills/ cut in global poverty

https://youtu.be/Ft5sDJG054w

How poverty affects classroom engagement● One in five U.S. children under the age of 18—or 16 million

children—live in poverty.● Students from low-income households are more likely to

struggle with engagement—for seven reasons.o Health and nutritiono Vocabularyo Efforto Hope and the growth of mind-seto Cognitiono Relationshipso Distress

Source: U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved from www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/data/incpovhlth/2011/index.html

1)Health and nutritionChildren from low SES conditions are

● less likely to exercise, get proper diagnoses, receive appropriate and prompt medical attention

● exposed to food with lower nutritional value

What you can do:

● give attention to physical education programs o the use of games,

movement, and drama, etc.

2)VocabularyLow, middle, and upper income families

What you can do:● Include vocabulary building

in engagement activities, such as,

trading card activities, class mixer

● incorporate vocabulary practice into daily rituals

3) EffortResearch suggests, “parents from poor families work as much as parents of middle- or upper-class families do” --inherited laziness

● Lack of hope and optimism● The school and teachers as a primary

factor affecting student motivation

What you can do:● strengthen your

relationships with students by revealing more of yourself and learning more about your students

● make connections between learning and students' worlds

● set high goals and sell students on their chances to reach them

4) Hope and the growth of mind-setlowered expectations about future outcomes What you can do:

Guide students in making smarter strategy choices and cultivating a positive attitude

Don't use comforting phrases that imply that even though a student isn't good at something, he or she has "other" strengths

5) Cognitionlow-SES children show cognitive problems (Jensen, 2013), including -short attention spans, -high levels of distractibility, -difficulty monitoring the quality of their work, and -difficulty generating new solutions to problems

What you can do:Focus on the core academic skills that students need the mostSuch as, how to organize, study, take notes, prioritize, remember key ideas and then problem-solving, processing, and working-memory skills.

6) Relationships● Single parent caregiver,

missing role models● Disruptive home

relationships

What you can do:Need of strong, positive, caring adults

The more you care, the better the foundation for interventions

7) DistressTypical behaviors of distressed children:-angry "in your face" assertiveness or -disconnected "leave me alone" passivity

What you can do:● Reduce stress by embedding

more classroom fun in academics

● Teach students ongoing coping skills so they can better deal with their stressors

A Study about Educational Experiences of Children in the U.S. South The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study Kindergarten Cohort (ECLS-K) (NCES, 2001) ● 3,501 children, in 1,208 classrooms, in 246 schools ● Purpose: exploring the contexts of educational achievement in

the South, considering issues of race and SES● Why South: The large ethnic minority population and the high

levels of child poverty in the South Fram, Miller-Cribbs, &Van Horn (2007)

Findings & ConclusionFindings: Smaller gains in reading:Children who repeated kindergarten, children from single-parent households, and children of teenage mothers

Greater gains in reading:-Girls, longer teacher tenure, reading peers Conclusion: -Potential barriers to these children's educational achievement; less parental time and know-how for supporting children's learning-The significance of school peer group composition

ImplicationsHow social workers might promote greater equality in educational opportunities and outcomes:● Advocating for mixed-ability peer groups may empower

vulnerable children toward greater school success.● Educating teachers and school administrators on building

support for integration among the more privileged families whose children are overrepresented in high-skill groups.

● strengthening the policies and programs that promote economic equality and meaningful choices about family formation and parenting.

References Fram, M. S., Miller-Cribbs, J. E., & Van Horn, L. (2007). Poverty, race, and the contexts of achievement: Examining educational experiences of children in the US South. Social Work, 52(4), 309-319.

Jensen, E. (2010). http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/may13/vol70/num08/How-Poverty-Affects-Classroom-Engagement.aspx

Lamont, M., & Small, M. L. (2008). How culture matters: Enriching our understanding of poverty. In A. Lin & D. Harris (Eds.), The Colors of Poverty: Why Racial and Ethinic Disparities Persist (pp. 76-102). New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

Payne, R. K. (2003).Understanding and Working with Students and Adults from Poverty: Poverty Series. Highlands, TX: aha! Process, Inc.

Payne, R. K. (2005). A framework for understanding poverty. Highlands, TX: aha! Process, Inc.

UNESCO, 2011. EFA Global Monitoring Report – the hidden crisis: armed conflict and education. 3 Gene Sperling and Barbara Herz, 2004. “What Works in Girls’ Education: Evidence and Policies from the Developing World,” Council for Foreign Relation, Center for International education. 4 See above, note 2. 5

UNESCO, 2009. EFA Global Monitoring Report – overcoming inequalities: why governance matters. 6 Save the Children, 2013. Food for Thought – Tackling child malnutrition to unlock potential and boost prosperity. 7 See above, note 2. 8

United Nations, 2012. The Millennium Development Goals Report 2012. 9

UNESCO, 2012. Education for All Global Monitoring Report– Youth and Skills: putting education to work.