2025: Empowering the Future through Education, Diversity, and Hope
Beyond the Deficit: How Educational Inequality Perpetuates Poverty
Location
Hemmingson Ballroom
Start Date
15-4-2025 11:15 AM
End Date
15-4-2025 12:15 AM
Description
If you spend half or more of your youth in poverty, then the chances of being in poverty as an adult is greater than 40%. Wealth buys educational achievement. Access to quality education plays a vital role in the foundation of systemic poverty. Social classism contributes to diminished opportunities for low-income families dictating where individuals live, the quality of education they have access to, and the support services and enrichment opportunities that are readily available (Walsh, 2017). For instance, American children living in poverty have unequal access to quality learning spaces and opportunities (Walsh, 2017). Factors ranging from the management of chronic stressors (e.g., evictions, hunger, relocation), fewer extracurricular opportunities and a lack of educational tools (e.g., computers, regular internet access, tutoring) impede children living in poverty from flourishing academically like their wealthier counterparts. Educators can play a pivotal role in mitigating some of these disparities by deepening their understanding of poverty and its impact on childhood learning. This poster will discuss transformative educational strategies such as building strong relationships with students and rejecting deficit-based stereotypes that assume impoverished children are inherently less capable (Wrigley, 2012). The deficit ideology assumes that the struggles of marginalized communities are due to their lack of motivation and intelligence, rather than recognizing the systematic, structural barriers that hinder their success. This study challenges deficit-based narratives and highlights the systemic factors that contribute to educational disparities, advocating for a strengths-based approach that empowers students and provides them with equitable resources and opportunities. The poster will conclude with suggestions for school-wide policy implementations that promote awareness of destructive and dominant stereotypes about Americans living in poverty, work toward sustainable support systems for children, and advocate for systemic changes that address economic inequality.
Recommended Citation
Vander Wall, Eleanor, "Beyond the Deficit: How Educational Inequality Perpetuates Poverty" (2025). Diversity & Social Justice in Education Conference. 7.
https://repository.gonzaga.edu/dsjconf/2025/general/7
Publication Date
2025
Beyond the Deficit: How Educational Inequality Perpetuates Poverty
Hemmingson Ballroom
If you spend half or more of your youth in poverty, then the chances of being in poverty as an adult is greater than 40%. Wealth buys educational achievement. Access to quality education plays a vital role in the foundation of systemic poverty. Social classism contributes to diminished opportunities for low-income families dictating where individuals live, the quality of education they have access to, and the support services and enrichment opportunities that are readily available (Walsh, 2017). For instance, American children living in poverty have unequal access to quality learning spaces and opportunities (Walsh, 2017). Factors ranging from the management of chronic stressors (e.g., evictions, hunger, relocation), fewer extracurricular opportunities and a lack of educational tools (e.g., computers, regular internet access, tutoring) impede children living in poverty from flourishing academically like their wealthier counterparts. Educators can play a pivotal role in mitigating some of these disparities by deepening their understanding of poverty and its impact on childhood learning. This poster will discuss transformative educational strategies such as building strong relationships with students and rejecting deficit-based stereotypes that assume impoverished children are inherently less capable (Wrigley, 2012). The deficit ideology assumes that the struggles of marginalized communities are due to their lack of motivation and intelligence, rather than recognizing the systematic, structural barriers that hinder their success. This study challenges deficit-based narratives and highlights the systemic factors that contribute to educational disparities, advocating for a strengths-based approach that empowers students and provides them with equitable resources and opportunities. The poster will conclude with suggestions for school-wide policy implementations that promote awareness of destructive and dominant stereotypes about Americans living in poverty, work toward sustainable support systems for children, and advocate for systemic changes that address economic inequality.
Comments
Poster Session A