the pitiable poor: classism and racism in ruby payne’s framework by paul c. gorski at the white...

The Pitiable Poor:Classism and Racism in Ruby Payne’s Frameworkby Paul C. Gorski

at the White Privilege Conference

2006

The Pitiable Poor - WPC 2006

I. Introduction and Agenda

Who is present? Who am I?


A. Agenda

1. Setting the Context

2. Introduction of Ruby Payne’s framework

3. Introduction of the lens for critical reflection

4. Critical Reflection 1: Conservative frame of reference


A. Agenda (cont’d)

5. Critical Reflection 2: Failure to acknowledge systemic classism and racism

6. Critical Reflection 3: Deficit perspective

7. Additional points for reflection

8. An authentic framework for understanding poverty and eradicating classism

9. Discussion

Part II: Setting the Context


II. Setting the Context:My IntentionsA. Focus on Payne’s work and positionality in

relation to that work, not on Payne, the individual person

B. Assume positive intentions in Payne’s work, but don’t assume that positive intentions lead to positive impact

C. Raise sometimes-difficult questions in the pursuit of deeper understanding and the elimination classism and racism from schools and society


II. Setting the Context:Starting with What We KnowA. Decades of documentation on systemic class and

race inequities in and out of schoolsB. Growing concern over Ruby Payne’s work among

activists and educators (many people engaging in this critique)

C. Increasingly conservative education system – high-stakes testing, standards movement, prescribed curricula, NCLB, growing cost of higher education; socioenomically disadvantaged students and students of color are most adversely affected

D. Increasingly conservative public policy, cutting programs for socioeconomically disadvantaged families


II. Setting the Context:Starting with What We Know, Pt. II“Poor children bear the brunt of almost

every imaginable social ill. In disproportionate numbers, they suffer hunger and homelessness; untreated sickness…; lead poisoning and other forms of environmental pollution…


II. Setting the Context:Starting with What We Know, Pt. III“… These same children are assigned, again in

skewed numbers, to the nation’s worst public schools—schools in the worst states of disrepair and with the lowest levels of per-pupil funding. Not surprisingly, therefore, poor children as a group lag far behind others in educational achievement” (Books, 2004).

Part III:Payne’s Framework


III. Introducing Payne’s Framework:The Hidden Rules“Economic realities create ‘hidden rules,’ unspoken

cueing mechanisms that reflect agreed upon tacit understandings, which the group uses to negotiate reality” (Payne, 2002, p. 1).

Payne establishes her understanding of these hidden rules as they pertain to various values and relationships for people in poverty, the middle class, and the upper class.


III. Introducing Payne’s Framework:The Purpose of the Framework(1) to help educators better understand the

culture that students from families in poverty carry into school with them, and

(2) to instruct educators on the importance of and techniques for teaching students in poverty the hidden rules of the middle class—values upon which the public school system is built.

Part IV:Lens for Critical Reflection


IV. Lens for Critical Reflection:Critical Social Theory Situated in historical and political context (as

everything is) Challenges theories and practices that

simplify complexities, ignore systemic oppression, and as a result, fail to uncover the power and privilege dynamics of social conditions

Addresses both content and context of work, including the source’s positionality

Part V:Conservative Frame


V. Conservative Frame:Conceptualizing “Conservative” Aimed at conserving status quo rather

than facilitating substantial shifts in consciousness or policy

Inconsistent with philosophies of education equity, multicultural education, etc.

Consistent with and supportive of a variety of other conservative social and educational policies (NCLB, high-stakes testing, assimilation)


V. Conservative Frame: The Critical Context, Pt. 1Ruby Payne has written in uncritical

support of No Child Left Behind. Four-part series for Instructional Leader

From part 1: “Do We Really Need the Legislation No Child Left Behind? ... The short answer is yes” (2003, p. 3).

This, despite living in Texas, where NCLB’s precursors led were devastating to socioeconomically disadvantaged students and students of color


V. Conservative Frame: The Critical Context, Pt. 2Ruby Payne cites extreme right-wing

sources in her work. Staying with NCLB series, she cites:

Thomas Sowell (who she also identifies as her “hero”), fellow of the right-wing Hoover Institution and a leading conservative critic of any progressive school reform

Hernando de Soto, right-wing economist Hannity and Colmes of Fox News


V. Conservative Frame: The Critical Context, Pt. 3Follow the money. Payne has contributed

thousands of dollars to the Bush/Cheney campaigns.

This, despite the fact that Bush’s policies have been at best negligent toward socioeconomically disadvantaged people

A tool: Federal Election Commission Web site (web)

Note: Not a judgment of intent, but an attempt to understand Payne’s work in context


V. Conservative Frame: The Reframing of Poverty, Pt. 1Conservative Reframing 1: Blaming poverty

on what are outcomes of and not reasons for poverty:

“Poverty is caused by interrelated factors: parental employment status and earnings, family structure, and parental education” (2001, p. 12)

These don’t cause poverty. They reflect the impact of poverty (Rank, 2004).


V. Conservative Frame: The Reframing of Poverty, Pt. 2Conservative Reframing 2: “Culture” or “mindset”

of poverty But, “Research has repeatedly demonstrated that

those who fall below the poverty line…hold the same fundamental aspirations, beliefs, and hopes” (Rank, 2005, p. 48) as wealthy or middle class people.

In other words, research shows that the “mindset” or “culture” of poverty DOES NOT EXIST.

Such a focus diverts attention from classism.

Part VI:

Failure to Address Classism“The principal subject of poverty research…ought to be the forces, processes, agents, and institutions…that decide a proportion of the population will end up poor.” (Gans)


VI. Ignoring Systemic Classism: The DataCompared with low-poverty schools, high-poverty

schools have: More teachers teaching in areas outside their

certification; More serious teacher turnover problems; More teacher vacancies; Larger numbers of substitute teachers; More limited access to computers and the Internet; Inadequate facilities (such as science labs);


VI. Ignoring Systemic Classism: The Data (cont’d)

More dirty or inoperative bathrooms; More evidence of vermin such as cockroaches and

rats; Insufficient classroom materials Less rigorous curricula; Fewer experienced teachers; Lower teacher salaries; Larger class sizes; and Less funding.


VI. Ignoring Systemic Classism: The Data (References)Barton, P.E. (2004). Why does the gap persist? Educational

Leadership 62(3), 8-13.Barton, P.E. (2003). Parsing the achievement gap: Baselines for

tracking progress. Princeton, NJ: Educational Testing Service.Carey, K. (2005). The funding gap 2004: Many states still shortchange

low-income and minority students. Washington, D.C.: The Education Trust.

National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future (2004). Fifty years after Brown v. Board of Education: A two-tiered education system. Washington, D.C.: Author.

Rank, M.R. (2004). One nation, underprivileged: Why American poverty affects us all. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.


VI. Ignoring Systemic Classism: The QuestionRuby Payne doesn’t mention a single one of

these “savage inequalities” in A Framework for Understanding Poverty.

Can we understand the relationship between poverty and education without considering the ways in which the education system contributes to classism and the cycle of poverty?


VI. Ignoring Systemic Classism: The Other QuestionWhat is the problem?:a) That students don’t know the “culture” of the

middle class; orb) That the education system is designed to

privilege middle class and wealthy students at the expense of socioeconomically disadvantaged students?

From the critical social theory perspective, addressing the former without addressing the latter is an expression of privilege.


VI. Ignoring Systemic Classism: No “Power and Privilege” Context Avoids discussion of class power and

privilege as they relate to: High-stakes testing Tracking Re-segregation of schools Curriculum Expectations

All issues that uphold classist power and privilege structure in schools


VI. Ignoring Systemic Classism: Agents of Assimilation?What does it mean that Ruby Payne is asking

teachers, most of whom are white and middle class, to teach socioeconomically disadvantaged students the “culture” of the middle class?

By not addressing systemic classism, is she asking us to assimilate students into the very system that oppresses them?


VI. Ignoring Systemic Classism: Band-Aid Reform?Payne provides a couple useful short-term

strategies and add-ons that help students acculturate to a hostile system (see pp. 94-96).

But the question left unaddressed: How can we transform policies and practices so that these short-term strategies won’t be necessary?


VI. Ignoring Systemic Classism: SummarizingWithout…attention to relations of domination and

subordination as they reside in economic class, the attention to ‘cultural backgrounds’ of students is inadequate on two counts: First, culture is importantly influenced by economic class in contemporary society, and second, school cultures devalue the knowledge and practices of the working and poverty classes while privileging the knowledge and practices of the propertied classes. (Tozer, 2000, p. 156)


VI. Ignoring Systemic Classism: Summarizing Pt. 2Most scholars do not conjecture about the class

structure, recent intensification of social class distinctions, or proliferation of tools designed to solidify and reify distinctions. They do spend time trying to explain the class-correlated differential educational outcomes in ways that are not attributed to their own desires or actions. (Brantlinger, 2003, p. 21)


VI. Ignoring Systemic Classism: The Effect Allows people from middle and upper classes

—people privileged by the education system—to avoid responsibility for classism

Can never effectively serve the needs of socioeconomically disadvantaged without understanding systemic classism The “Taco Night” effect

Part VII:The Deficit Perspective


VII. The Deficit Perspective:What Is It? Explains discrepancies in achievement by

pointing to “deficient” cultures and behaviors in a group of people

Draws on stereotypes—usually those already socially established

So, we address poverty by “fixing” poor people instead of fixing the conditions that maintain poverty

Justifies continued oppression


VII. The Deficit Perspective:Exemplified in Payne’s Framework The root of her framework—that poverty

persists because people in poverty don’t know the rules of the middle class

Drawing on racist and classist stereotypes Invisibility of the “average” socioeconomically

disadvantaged students or families


VII. The Deficit Perspective:Stereotype 1

People in poverty are bad parents:

“The typical pattern in poverty for discipline is to verbally chastise the child, or physically beat the child, then forgive and feed him/her” (p. 37).



People in poverty are criminals:

“Also, individuals in poverty are seldom going to call the police, for two reasons: First, the police may be looking for them…” (pp. 37-38)



People in poverty are disloyal:

“Allegiances may change overnight; favoritism is a way of life” (p. 74).



People in poverty are violent and “on the streets”:

“If students from poverty don’t know how to fight physically, they are going to be in danger on the streets” (p. 100).



People in poverty are unmotivated addicts:

“And for some [people in poverty], alcoholism, laziness, lack of motivation, drug addiction, etc., in effect make the choices for the individual” (p. 148).


VII. The Deficit Perspective:The Invisible RealityMost people in poverty are responsible, hard-working,

drug- and alcohol-free, and not “on the streets.” (Also, a majority live in rural communities and are white.)

Where are these people in A Framework for Understanding Poverty?

Critical consideration: How do we conceptualize “violent”?


VII. The Deficit Perspective:The Scenarios

Most egregious examples of stereotyping and deficit thinking found in Payne’s Scenarios.


VII. The Deficit Perspective:First Scenario

Features John, an 8-year old white boy with an alcoholic single mother.


VII. The Deficit Perspective:Second Scenario

Involves Vangie, an African American woman who dropped out of school, had a kid at 14, three more by the age of 18, and now collects welfare. Her boyfriend has been arrested for assault. Her sister is being beaten by her boyfriend. She just “beat the fool out of” her son, Otis, because he was misbehaving at school.


VII. The Deficit Perspective:Third Scenario

Oprah, another African American woman, leaves her daughter, Opie, in the care of Opie’s “senile” grandmother and unemployed uncle. Oprah is 32 and has 5 children.


VII. The Deficit Perspective:Fourth Scenario

Noemi, a Latina who left school after sixth grade, married at 16, then had five kids in eleven years. Neither she nor her husband, who works sporadically, is familiar with the term “encyclopedia.” She doesn’t speak English.


VII. The Deficit Perspective:Sixth ScenarioRamón, a 25-year-old Latino drug dealer

and gang leader, cares for his nephew, Juan, whose father was killed by a rival gang. Juan’s mother is in jail for gang-related activities. Ramón can’t go to a parent-teacher conference because he’s hiding from police.


VII. The Deficit Perspective:Seventh ScenarioSueAnn has been married and divorced

twice. She’s 33 and a high school drop-out. Her older daughter is pregnant (she had this daughter in high school). Her third husband is unemployed and irresponsible, not wanting to take care of the kids. He was just arrested for driving while intoxicated.


VII. The Deficit Perspective:Summarizing the Scenarios Do these scenarios represent most people in

poverty? Why are 5 out of the 7 scenarios about

families of color when most people in poverty are white?

How do these scenarios play into the stereotypes people already have about people in poverty and People of Color?


VII. The Deficit Perspective:Linguistic Deficit Language of students seen as the reason for

achievement level Mocking “discourse pattern”: “beat[ing]

around the bush”; “circling the mulberry bush”; “meander[ing] almost endlessly through a topic” (pp. 43 & 45)

Underlying assumption of linguistic superiority—racist overtones


VII. The Deficit Perspective:Linguistics: The Reality All language varieties contain formal and

informal registers—Payne connects these to specific classes

Language varieties should be seen in light of resilience—the maintenance of cultural ties despite generations of oppression

Payne’s simplistic analysis of language registers ignores enormous diversity among people of different classes


VII. The Deficit Perspective:Other Examples

Students need “classroom survival skills” (p. 96)

Recommends “training” for parents (p. 95)

“Spiritual” poverty


VII. The Deficit Perspective:Implications Reinforces middle- and upper-class notions

of “undeserving poor” (Rank, 2004)—as morally deficient

Deterioration of public support for effective and systemic anti-poverty social and educational policy

Relieves middle- and upper-class individuals’ of responsibility for dealing with their own classism


VII. The Deficit Perspective:Implications (Cont’d)... American policy will continue to be the

present subsistence level, which seeks to keep the undeserving poor functioning at the subsistence level, although that policy may start deteriorating to a survival mode, in which help to the poor is supplied only at the level that avoids politically embarrassing increases in extreme misery … among them... (Rank, 2004, p. 103)


VII. The Deficit Perspective:Implications (Cont’d)“… it is all too easy to assign the primary onus

of responsibility to parents in [high-poverty] neighborhoods… In a nation in which fairness was respected, children of the poorest and least educated mothers would receive the most extensive and most costly preschool preparation, not the least and cheapest…” (Kozol, 2006, p. 54)

Part VIII:Other Points for Reflection


VIII. Other Points for Reflection

Failure to connect poverty and racism Christian-centrism Shift from Kozol to Payne


VIII. Other Points for Reflection“There is something deeply hypocritical in a

society that holds an inner-city child only eight years old ‘accountable’ for her performance on a high-stakes standardized exam but does not hold the high officials of our government accountable for robbing her of what they gave their own kids six or seven years before” (Kozol, 2006, pp. 53-54)

Part IX:Authentic Framework for Understanding Poverty and Eliminating Classism


IX. Authentic Framework:Key Principles Based on understanding of classism in the context

of a society hostile toward people in poverty Based on understanding of power and privilege Based on understanding of intersections of

oppressions (racism, sexism, etc.) Critical of the “war against the poor” Shift of policy and consciousness as well as practice


IX. Authentic Framework:In Practice Know your classism Never make assumptions about students or

their parents Address invisibility of the poor and working

class and their concerns in the curriculum Make parent involvement affordable and

convenient


IX. Authentic Framework:In “Bigger Picture” Practice Eliminate structural inequities De-track Challenge NCLB Eliminate high-stakes testing Challenge consumer culture Fight vouchers and choice programs that

further privilege the privileged

Part X:Discussion

Paul C. Gorski

[email protected]

http://www.EdChange.org

the pitiable poor: classism and racism in ruby payne’s framework by paul c. gorski at the white...

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