Deficit model thinking, Atrisk designations, and Evaluation

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Deficit model thinking, At-risk designations,
and Evaluation

• GRS Presentation by Elaine Wood

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Culture entwined within programs, policies and
practices
Cultural dimensions of programs value-laden
Danger Imposing values Misinterpreting
values Misrepresenting values
Dominant cultures interpretation of reality
perpetrates the myth of the deficit
model
SenGupta, S., Hopson, R., Thompson-Robinson, M.
(2004). Cultural competence in evaluation An
overview. New Directions for Evaluation, 102,
5-19.
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Deficit-model thinking
Different than the dominant group?
LESS ADEQUATE
(without exploring the insiders perspective)
At-risk categorizations
Identify a group of children at risk of not
succeeding
DEFICIENCY
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Students labeled at-risk dont match dominant
culture in
appearance
language
values
home communities
family structures
Howard, S., Dryden J., Johnson, B. (1999).
Childhood resilience review and critique of the
literature. Oxford Review of Education. 25(3),
308.
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For Native American or other indigenous
communities
At-risk designations
Overlook history of colonization
And its continuing impact today
Fail to articulate a full perspective of the tribe
Grady Johnson, G. (2003). Resilience, a story
A postcolonial position from which to review
Indian education framed in at-risk ideology.
Ecuational Studies A Journal of the American
Educ. Studies Assoc. 34(2), 182-198
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On risk measurements, Native American tribes are
not faring well however, they are succeeding at
maintaining their tribal identity in spite of
decades of brutal colonization and victimizing
paternalistic governmental policy
Grady Johnson, G. (2003). Resilience, a story
A postcolonial position from which to review
Indian education framed in at-risk ideology.
Ecuational Studies A Journal of the American
Educ. Studies Assoc. 34(2), 186.
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At-risk designations
Wrongly center on the individual student and
family
So policy makers
Allow a system rooted in colonialism to go
uncontested
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See strengths, not pathologies
move away from
ideology of individualism,
the practices of colonialism/imperialism, and
policies of benign paternalism
see through lenses that include
policies of self-determination
and tribal social systems that strive to teach
and maintain group and individual resilience
Grady Johnson, p. 186
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Strength-Based approach
Not in terms of what they do not have,
Rather in terms of what they do have
Draw upon rich socio-cultural imperatives and
traditions
Greenwood, M., Tagalik, S., Joyce, M., deLeeuw,
S. (2004). Beyond deficit Exploring capacity
building in northern indigenous youth communities
through strength-based approaches. Iqaluit
Nunavut Canada Government of Nunavut Task Force
On Mental Health, Centre of Excellence for
Children and Adolescents with Special Needs, p.
5-6.
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EVALUATORS
Uniquely positioned to work for social justice
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• Elaine Wood
• elaine_wood_at_wsu.edu