The Pedagogy of Poverty Versus Good Teaching
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Kappan Classic KAPPAN digital edition exclusive The Pedagogy of Poverty Versus Good Teaching It will be formidably difficult to institutionalize new forms of pedagogy for the children of poverty, but it is worthwhile to define and describe such alternatives. By Martin Haberman This article Why is a “minor” issue like improving the quality of urban teaching generally overlooked by the popu- was originally lar reform and restructuring strategies? There are several possibilities. First, we assume that we know what published as teaching is, that others know what it is, that we are discussing the same “thing” when we use the word, and “The Pedagogy that we would all know good teaching if we saw it. Second, we believe that, since most teachers cannot be of Poverty Versus Good Teaching” by changed anyway, there must be other, more potent, teacher-proof strategies for change. Third, why bother Martin Haberman. with teaching if research shows that achievement test Phi Delta Kappan scores of poor and minority youngsters are affected 73, no. 4 (December primarily by their socioeconomic class; affected 1991): 290-294. somewhat by Head Start, school integration, and hav- ing a “strong” principal; and affected almost not at all by the quality of their teachers? THE PEDAGOGY OF POVERTY An observer of urban classrooms can find exam- ples of almost every form of pedagogy: direct instruc- tion, cooperative learning, peer tutoring, individual- ized instruction, computer-assisted learning, behav- ior modification, the use of student contracts, media- assisted instruction, scientific inquiry, lecture/discus- sion, tutoring by specialists or volunteers, and even the use of problem-solving units common in progres- Deepen your sive education. In spite of this broad range of options, understanding of however, there is a typical form of teaching that has this article with become accepted as basic. Indeed, this basic urban questions and style, which encompasses a body of specific teacher activities on page acts, seems to have grown stronger each year since I PD 16 of this first noted it in 1958. A teacher in an urban school of month’s Kappan the 1990s who did not engage in these basic acts as Professional Development the primary means of instruction would be regarded Discussion Guide as deviant. In most urban schools, not performing by Lois Brown these acts for most of each day would be considered Easton, free to prima facie evidence of not teaching. members in the Thinkstock/iStockphotos digital edition at kappanmagazine MARTIN HABERMAN is a distinguished professor emeritus of curriculum and instruction at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. .org. kappanmagazine.org V92 N2 Kappan 81 The teaching acts that constitute the core • Record-keeping is the systematic functions of urban teaching are: maintenance of a paper trail to protect • Giving information, the school against any future legal action by its clients. Special classes, • Asking questions, referrals, test scores, disciplinary • Giving directions, actions, and analyses by specialists must • Making assignments, be carefully recorded. This slant is the • Monitoring seatwork, reason that teachers are commonly • Reviewing assignments, prejudiced rather than informed by • Giving tests, reading student records; yet the system regards their upkeep as vital. (In • Reviewing tests, teacher preparation, neophytes are • Assigning homework, actually taught that student records will • Reviewing homework, reveal such valuable information as • Settling disputes, students’ interests!) • Punishing noncompliance, • Parent conferences give parents who • Marking papers, and are perceived as poorly educated or otherwise inadequate a chance to have • Giving grades. Whenever things explained to them. This basic menu of urban teacher func- students are involved • Staff meetings give administrators tions characterizes all levels and subjects. A in planning what they opportunities to explain things to primary teacher might “give information” by will be doing, it is teachers. reading a story to children, while a high likely that good • Assorted school duties are essentially school teacher might read to the class from a teaching is going on. police or monitoring activities that biology text. (Interestingly, both offer simi- would be better performed by hired lar reasons: “The students can’t read for • guards. themselves,” and “They enjoy being read Whenever students The pedagogy of poverty appeals to sev- to.”) Taken separately, there may be nothing are involved with eral constituencies: wrong with these activities. There are occa- explanations of sions when any one of the 14 1. It appeals to those who themselves did human differences, acts might have a beneficial ef- not do well in schools. People who have fect. Taken together and per- good teaching is been brutalized are usually not rich If the pedagogy of formed to the systematic exclu- going on. sources of compassion. And those who poverty will not sion of other acts, they have be- have failed or done poorly in school do force the learning of come the pedagogical coin of not typically take personal responsibility low-level skills, how the realm in urban schools. for that failure. They generally find it can it be used to They constitute the pedagogy easier to believe that they would have compel genuine of poverty — not merely what succeeded if only somebody had forced thinking? teachers do and what young- them to learn. sters expect but, for different 2. It appeals to those who rely on common reasons, what parents, the com- sense rather than on thoughtful analysis. munity, and the general public assume teach- It is easy to criticize humane and ing to be. developmental teaching aimed at Ancillary to this system is a set of out-of- educating a free people as mere class teacher acts that include keeping “permissiveness,” and it is well known records, conducting parent conferences, at- that “permissiveness” is the root cause tending staff meetings, and carrying out as- of our nation’s educational problems. sorted school duties. While these out-of-class functions are not directly instructional, they 3. It appeals to those who fear minorities are performed in ways that support the ped- and the poor. Bigots typically become agogy of poverty. Since this analysis deals obsessed with the need for control. with the direct interactions characteristic of 4. It appeals to those who have low urban teachers and their students, I will limit expectations for minorities and the myself to a brief comment about how each of poor. People with limited vision these out-of-class functions is typically con- frequently see value in limited and ceptualized and performed in urban settings. limiting forms of pedagogy. They 82 Kappan October 2010 kappanmagazine.org Thinkstock/iStockphotos believe that at-risk students are served sources of encouragement transform them- best by a directive, controlling selves into directive authoritarians in order to pedagogy. function in urban schools. But people who 5. It appeals to those who do not know the choose to become teachers do not do so be- full range of pedagogical options cause at some point they decided, “I want to available. This group includes most be able to tell people what to do all day and school administrators, most business then make them do it!” This and political reformers, and many gap between expectations and teachers. reality means that there is a per- vasive, fundamental, irreconcil- Below the façade of There are essentially four syllogisms that able difference between the control by teachers undergird the pedagogy of poverty. Their motivation of those who select is another, more “logic” runs something like this. themselves to become teachers powerful level on and the demands of urban which students 1. Teaching is what teachers do. teaching. actually control, Learning is what students do. For the reformers who manage, and shape Therefore, students and teachers seek higher scores on the behavior of their are engaged in different activities. achievement tests, the teachers. 2. Teachers are in charge and pedagogy of poverty is a responsible. Students are those source of continual frus- who still need to develop tration. The clear-cut appropriate behavior. Therefore, need to “make” students learn is so ob- when students follow teachers’ viously vital to the common good and to directions, appropriate behavior is the students themselves that surely (it is being taught and learned. believed) there must be a way to force students to work hard enough to vindi- 3. Students represent a wide range of cate the methodology. Simply stated, we individual differences. Many act as if it is not the pedagogy that must students have handicapping be fitted to the students but the students who Whenever conditions and lead debilitating home must accept an untouchable method. lives. Therefore, ranking of some sort is teachers involve In reality, the pedagogy of poverty is not inevitable; some students will end up at students with the a professional methodology at all. It is not the bottom of the class while others will technology of supported by research, by theory, or by the finish at the top. information access, best practice of superior urban teachers. It is 4. Basic skills are a prerequisite for good teaching is actually certain ritualistic acts that, much like learning and living. Students are not the ceremonies performed by religious func- going on. necessarily interested in basic skills. tionaries, have come to be conducted for their Therefore, directive pedagogy must be • intrinsic value rather than to foster learning. used to ensure that youngsters are Whenever students There are those who contend that the ped- compelled to learn their basic skills are actively involved agogy of poverty would work if only the youngsters accepted it and worked at it. “Ay, in heterogeneous REFORM AND THE PEDAGOGY OF POVERTY there’s the rub!” Students in urban schools Unfortunately, the pedagogy of poverty groups, it is likely overwhelmingly do accept the pedagogy of does not work.