Deficit paradigm: minority underachievement explained by deficits the child brings to school¶

Theory · All theories
Evidence · 3 claims (3 against) · 2 studies (1 review, 1 qualitative), q1–q2 · 0 of 2 report an effect size · 3 claims rest on one study

Description¶

The Deficit paradigm, as the review describes it via Pianta and Walsh, locates minority underachievement in the child, who "comes to school with a deficit, whether biological, genetic, or cultural". The review credits it with enabling special education programs and Head Start-style interventions that provided learning environments, parent involvement, and health services, but judges it inadequate because it presents an "inaccurate and invidious view of non-dominant groups and their cultures".

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• A research program that treats the child or home as the locus of the learning problem, with procedures for detecting children's difficulties

Constraints¶

• The review reports it does not acknowledge the richness and complexity of children's own cultures

Target Learners¶

• minority and low-income elementary and secondary students in the US

Target Learning Objectives¶

• mathematics achievement

Claims¶

• The perception that language minority students bring language disadvantages and knowledge deficiencies from home has too often led to lowered academic expectations for them. [-W]
• Some SSWs hold deficit-based racial attitudes, conflating structural constraints with immigrant cultural values and misreading trauma responses [-W]
• Teachers who took part in funds of knowledge household research came to view their minority students as competent and raised their expectations of them. [-W]

Related Theories¶

• Contextual Systems Model (CSM): child/family and school/schooling as interrelated systems
• Cultural Difference paradigm: underachievement explained by mismatch between school and students' cultures
• Holistic paradigm: underachievement as a multi-factor, multi-level phenomenon
• Reyes and Stanic's five-aspect model of differences in mathematics achievement

Examples¶

• Build mathematics instruction on children's funds of knowledge uncovered through home visits and teacher study groups
• Strengths-Based Teaching

Key Sources¶

• Vilma Mesa. (1998). A Review of Literature on Under Achievement of Minorities in Mathematics. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Diego, CA. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED428113