Education Commons^™

Prologue To Rethinking Poverty, Muhammad Yunus

Journal of Educational Controversy

My involvement with the poverty issue was neither as a researcher nor a policy maker. I became involved because poverty was everywhere around me and I could not turn away from it. In 1974, I found it very difficult to teach the elegant theories of economics in a university classroom while Bangladesh was facing a terrible famine. Suddenly, I felt the emptiness and futility of those "immaculate" theories in the face of crushing hunger and unimaginable poverty. I wanted to do something immediate to help people around me, even if it meant that just one human being would be helped …

Rethinking Social Justice Issues Within An Eco-Justice Conceptual And Moral Framework, C. A. Bowers

Journal of Educational Controversy

As the social justice issues of class, race, and gender have been the dominant concern of many educational studies faculty over the last decades, it is now time to ask whether the recent evidence of global warming, changes in the chemistry of the world’s oceans, and the increasing shortage of potable water should lead to developing a new strategy for ameliorating these longstanding sources of injustice and poverty. Given the amount of time devoted to discussing class, race, and gender issues, as well as the number of books that focus on these issues, little has actually been achieved in effecting …

The Hidden Dimensions Of Poverty: Rethinking Poverty And Education, Lorraine Kasprisin

Journal of Educational Controversy

This issue on poverty was planned before the recent global economic crisis captured headlines in the world media. In some ways, current conversations about today’s events mask the enduring problems of poverty that have long plagued a nation committed to equality and social justice. This issue of our journal steps back and examines the multifaceted dimensions of poverty and raises questions about the mindset that is too often perpetuated about those who experience it. How do teachers, human service providers, and other educational practitioners conceptualize poverty, and how do those ways of thinking affect their work and the relationships they …

Yee P’Ay Gyah Maw Tame Aim: The Kiowa Clemente Course In The Humanities And Two Perspectives On Poverty, Rachel C. Jackson

Journal of Educational Controversy

In 2007, the state of Oklahoma celebrated its centennial year. In 1907, Oklahoma was admitted as the 46^th state of the union of the United States, an act that simultaneously joined what had previously been two separate territories – Oklahoma Territory and Indian Territory. For a great many people, this highly politicized event marked a joyous passage, the result of much debate and compromise and the culmination of sacrifice and success. Yet both at the time of Oklahoma’s statehood and one hundred years later during the centennial celebrations, not all of the people affected by statehood agreed that Oklahoma’s …

Cross-Cultural Communication: Implications For Social Work Practice And A Departure From Payne, Venus Evanswinter, Bevin Cowie

Journal of Educational Controversy

Ruby Payne, author of the controversial A Framework for Understanding Poverty (2005), outlines the structure of life in poverty through the single variable of economic status. This article highlights the insufficiencies of Payne’s theory, which follows a similar ideology to the heavily disputed “culture of poverty” theory (Lewis, 1966; Wilson & Aponte, 1985), and explores a more ethical and respectful approach service providers can employ using effective cross-cultural communication. As similar theories have been substantially critiqued for pathologizing the language and mores of individuals living in poverty (Dudley-Marling, 2007), this article focuses on Payne’s oversimplification of both the causes and …

Pathologizing Poverty: Structural Forces Versus Personal Deficit Theories In The Feminization Of Poverty, Nandini Gunewardena

Journal of Educational Controversy

Public understandings of the causes and roots of poverty as stemming from a personal deficit are still with us, as evident in the views put forward by popular writers such as Ruby Payne (1998), echoing and lingering in the ideological orientations and practical approaches of key professions that interface with the poor, such as Social Work and Human Services. Critiques of these frameworks are concerned with the blame-the-poor, personal-pathology paradigm embedded in such perspectives, including Payne’s arguments located in culture of poverty theories that date back to the 1960s work of Oscar Lewis (1961), Daniel Moynihan (1965), and Ben …

Poverty's Multiple Dimensions, Kay Ann Taylor

Journal of Educational Controversy

Poverty is examined historically and multi-dimensionally focusing on the gendered nature of racism and capitalism. Multiple intersections are discussed that undergird poverty's structuralization and institutionalization to maintain capitalism's efficacy. The discussion supports Kunjufu's (2006) assertion that Payne's (2001) poverty model represents deficit thinking. Education and its relationship to poverty to attain social transformation and social justice are addressed. Analysis is done through critical race theory and critical race feminism.

Problematizing Payne And Understanding Poverty: An Analysis With Data From The 2000 Census, Jennifer C. Ng, John L. Rury

Journal of Educational Controversy

Of all the preposterous assumptions of humanity over humanity, nothing exceeds most of the criticisms made on the habits of the poor by the well-housed, well- warmed, and well-fed. - Herman Melville, “Poor Man’s Pudding,” 1854

Poverty is a problem with important educational implications. Poor children, for example, often struggle academically in school, pose unique disciplinary problems for teachers and administrators, and may require additional resources to be successful (Byrne, 2008; Jackson, 2008). Given these challenges, school districts have devoted considerable time and money to professional development intended to better prepare educators to work with children from poor backgrounds. Perhaps …

Poverty And Class: Discussing The Undiscussible, John Korsmo

Journal of Educational Controversy

Much like race, religiosity, sex, and a whole host of contrived privilege points in the U.S., poverty and class have remained for the most part don’t-go-there designations; topics that individuals, human service, and educational institutions often avoid openly discussing (Argyris, 1991; Caruthers, Eubanks &Thompson, 2004). By not intentionally thinking, talking, and teaching about socio-economic privilege associated with class, however, we undermine our ability to make significant progress in connecting with and supporting people who may be bearing the brunt of the wealth disparity burden. On the contrary, we serve each other well when we initiate and sustain chains of interdisciplinary …

A Framework For Understanding Poverty By Ruby K. Payne, Michael Reinke

Journal of Educational Controversy

In the summer of 1997, I met Sarah and Jessica Anderson in a very small parking lot serving eight units of transitional housing in Southern Indiana. Sarah was 33 going on 34, had lost all of her teeth, and had been employed for over a year at a local dry cleaner. Jessica, her 14-year-old daughter, was four months pregnant and already starting to show. I met them because of an argument not that dissimilar from any argument a parent might have with a teenager, though the stakes were significantly higher. Sarah and Jessica had been previously living in a homeless …

About The Authors

Journal of Educational Controversy

No abstract provided.

A/Moral Vulnerability For Chet Bowers And Other Ecojustice Educators: A Rejoinder To “Rethinking Social Justice Issues”, Michael P. Mueller

Journal of Educational Controversy

The first part of my rejoinder is a contextual elaboration of Bowers’ ideas in “Rethinking Social Justice Issues,” and then, I question whether Bowers goes far enough to help individuals interpret justice issues. I begin with my experiences teaching science teachers about ecojustice and discuss several problem ideas. I highlight a significant a/moral ecological vulnerability (lack of premises) for Bowers’ ethical imperative, and conclude with the recommendation of why we ought to shift towards better democratizing ecojustice.

Response To Professor Mueller’S Critique’, C. A. Bowers

Journal of Educational Controversy

I find it difficult to respond to Professor Mueller’s critique of the article I wrote on how an eco-justice perspective leads to reframing how educational reformers think about social justice issues. The first third of his critique presents the reader with a summary of his knowledge of the local bird population and the work he is doing with his students. Near the end of this overview of his personal interests, he introduces what seems to be his first criticism with the statement that Bowers “perpetuates an unrecognized vulnerability for the rapid greening of American youth….” The nature of this vulnerability …

Examining Images Of Family In Commercial Reading Programs, Judith Dunkerly, Frank Serafini

Journal of Educational Controversy

In school, as in their daily lives, children are confronted by images, written texts and combinations of these two modes of communication. Fleckenstein (2002) writes, “… a continuous stream of images marks our waking and sleeping lives” (p. 3). The visual images that are presented in the texts we read affect how we understand the world, ourselves, and the experiences of others. However, the images presented are not neutral, objective representations of an external reality; rather, they are politically and culturally constructed representations that often support the hegemony of dominant cultures while, intentionally or not, marginalizing particular disenfranchised ethnicities, genders, …

How Chet Bowers’ Writings Contribute To A/Moral Vulnerability For Ecojustice, Michael P. Mueller

Journal of Educational Controversy

Chet—thank you for responding to my rejoinder. Since you bring it up and lest we leave readers in the dark about the main theme of the conference paper you are referring to (presented in Windsor, Canada at the 2008[a] Provoking Research ProVoking Communities Conference), I provide a brief referent. The main theme of that paper was to discuss why setting up a scarecrow argument around E.O. Wilson, Richard Dawkins, and Carl Sagan as spokesmen for science creates an easy target for those who want to scrutinize science for its shortcomings based on these scientists. For those who are unaware, a …

Rethinking Eco-Justice Within A Biophilic Framework: A Rejoinder, Donald J. Burgess

Journal of Educational Controversy

I commend Professor Bowers for alerting us to the important role that current ecological crisis plays in the social justice issues centered on class, race and gender. Bowers’ persuasive reframing of social justice issues in terms of eco-justice left me wondering if part of the problem lies in our human species’ aloof disregard of nature. Many of us spend far too little time hearing, seeing and building relationships with the birds, plants and animals that share our immediate environment. Mueller’s rejoinder to Bowers’ rethinking of social justice helped me visualize a naturalist’s keen attention to the natural world (i.e., environmental …